We spent four nights in By The Hill. It was more than we expected and based on the great pictures we expected a lot. The place is actually bigger than it appears in the pictures. Everything worked well, and was clean and well-equipped. The apartment is as described.

The location is fantastic. It is in a safe and quiet spot, which is nice after a long day of being in the tourist sections, but yet it is still very close to all the monuments and the Metro. It was a perfect location for us. No matter what your interest, you're close to it all.

A couple words of advice: Ask Ilias for his recommendations and just as importantly, listen to his advice. He knows Athens! His restaurant recommendations were fantastic. We told him we didn't want tourist places and he pointed us to fantastic spots where we were the only people who weren't locals and the food was phenomenal.

Lastly, I just have to comment on what kind of people Ilias and his father (who we also interacted with quite a bit) are. Ilias brought for our daughter a pastry dessert on our last day that his grandmother made. She still talks about it! Every question I had during our stay was responded to within minutes. We needed a few things printed, and Ilias offered the use of his printer and told us if we needed more ink for the printer that he would buy more! His father greeted us upon our arrival and was an extremely kind and charming man, and was so sweet to our young daughter. In a sincerely authentic way, we were treated like family.

When planning a vacation you always worry what kind of a host you're going to deal with and whether the apartment will live up to expectations. Rest assured that Ilias' apartment is as described and definitely know that he will do anything he can to make your stay enjoyable and memorable. We travel full time as a family and this was the best AirBnB host we have had. I hope we get to Athens again and are able to go to By The Hill again, both for the apartment itself and so we can hang out with Ilias and Nikos.