Where to stay on the Athens Riviera

The choice on this coast is energy against calm, and both answers are correct. What it is not is a quality question — no suburb here is the compromise option.

Glyfada is the practical default and the one to pick if you are only staying a night or two. It has the most restaurants, the most shops and by some distance the widest range of places to stay, and enough of it is within walking distance that an evening does not require the car. If you are arriving off a long flight and want dinner to be a decision you make on foot, this is the one.

Vouliagmeni is the quieter, greener, more resort-shaped end. It is built around its bay rather than around a high street, and the pace is slower in a way that suits a stay at the end of a trip better than one at the beginning. Choose it if the point of these nights is to stop moving.

Voula sits between the two, geographically and in character, and it is a reasonable landing spot if Glyfada is full or priced past where you want to be for what is often a single night.

Two practical notes that apply wherever you land. July is peak season on this coast exactly as it is on the islands, and the assumption that the mainland is the easier booking does not hold — reserve as far ahead as you would for an island.

And if Lake Vouliagmeni is on your list, book it in advance, because same-day entry is not something you can rely on. It is also worth knowing before you arrive that the lake is deep straight off the edge rather than shelving gradually, which changes how you plan it with young children — the flotation devices available on site are the difference between a good hour and a tense one.