The Best Hotels and Resorts in Europe and the UK: The Gold List 2025

"Celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2024, the GB (as locals fondly call it) is almost as much of an Athenian landmark as the Parthenon. The 5th-century-BC monument itself floats like a mirage just beyond the hotel’s lofty rooftop bar and restaurant, which overlooks the Parliament piazza where statuesque Evzones, members of the Presidential Guard, strut their stuff. If the location feels “only in Athens,” the interiors have all the glitzy trappings of a grand European hotel: gleaming marble inlay floors, flamboyant flower arrangements, giant gilded mirrors. Liveried doormen usher you through the revolving doors into what feels like a parallel universe, where the hubbub of downtown Athens gives way to the tinkling piano in the stained-glass-ceilinged winter garden, where afternoon tea is served by slinky waitresses who glide between the fluted columns. The lesser-known draw is not the fine dining or even the secret seventh-floor swimming pool but the subterranean spa. A profoundly therapeutic massage and plumping 111 Skin facial with one of the brilliantly intuitive therapists will leave you feeling at least 150 years younger. From $525. —Rachel Howard" - CNT Editors