Not even the Acropolis can escape the buzz that has been happening in Athens before, during and since the Olympics. When I was there last week, the Acropolis Museum closed while they started to move its exhibits to the new museum down the road. When will the new one be open?

“On the last day of December this year,” said the man on the gate confidently. Inside, in a temporary exhibition being held in an annexe, they were less sure. “Perhaps by the middle of 2008,” they told me. “Who knows?” said a journalist. “The architects and the archaeologists are still arguing.”

Museums are still being opened, closed and refurbished, three years after the Olympics. There are now three Michelin-starred restaurants in Athens. Hotels are being renamed and rebranded. The rather nondescript old Athenian Grand now hits you in the eye as the snazzy new Classical Baby Grand. The Omonia Grand recently changed its name to the Grand O, and is being turned into Athens’ first “fashion hotel”, with the rooms being handed over to Greece’s best fashion designers and editors to do with it what they will.

All of this change is bad news for guidebook writers like me, whose task is to keep up to date. Some cope better than others, though, so which of the increasing number of guides to Athens has kept up to speed with the new Greek chic? Ten years ago all you needed was the venerable Rough Guide to Greece. Athens is no longer just rough, though, and there are now smooth style guides such as the Wallpaper* Guide and the StyleCity Guide. I lugged these and more around the ruins and into the latest bars and hotels, to see who’s got what’s hot and who’s not.

The results were interesting. Take our first hotel, the very funky Classical Baby Grand, with its graffiti rooms (we had Spiderman on the wall) and the first champagne bar in Athens, the Moët & Chandon Bar. The hotel changed its name from the Athenian Grand in March 2006, after a major overhaul, and the Moët & Chandon Bar opened at the same time. Only the Wallpaper* Guide listed it.

My first drink on arriving in Athens has always been either ouzo or retsina, to get me in the mood. The new, chic Athens sees me sipping Moët & Chandon champagne as I draw up a test list of seven stylish hotels, some of which had been around since well before the Olympics. Wallpaper* listed six which, given that it includes only 14 hotels, showed who’s in touch with where Athens is at right now. The Rough Guide’s 2007 edition of its Directions Guide to Athens, with 43 hotel listings, had only one of my sample seven. Time Out, despite being the oldest guide, from 2005 (a new edition is out in November), listed six.

I can’t claim my own Essential Athensguide – which I last published in 2004 – is perfect, either. In checking one of my walks a few days later, I discovered that some traffic lights referred to in the text had disappeared. The area around the foot of the Acropolis has been pedestrianised. I trudged on, checking walks, opening hours, ancient sights and museums, all in 35C (95F) in the shade.

To escape the heat on the street I lugged my backpack into the T-Palace, adjoining the King George Palace Hotel on Syntagma Square, one of the coolest (in more ways than one) new bars in Athens. “Are you chic enough?” is its slogan, daubed on the walls by a Los Angeles tattoo artist. How hip is that? Too new for any of the guidebooks, so an unfair test, but what about restaurants? To Athens’s Michelin-starred restaurants, I added three more exciting eating places: Edodi, 48 The Restaurant and Vardis. Lonely Planet had five out of my six, as did Dorling Kindersley’s Top Ten Athens Guide – though points were deducted for misspelling Pil Poul as Pil Poule in three different places.

When it came to the attractions, I checked out the newer arts centres such as Technopolis and Athinais, as well as the fabulous Benaki Museum of Islamic Art. Just for fun, I also checked out who said what about the new Acropolis Museum. Rough Guide, Lonely Planet and the DK Top Ten Guide all scored 100 per cent, with Lonely Planet having the edge for its comprehensive guide to the new Acropolis Museum without the place being open yet.

Overall, the Lonely Planet’s Best of Athens proved itself to be the most current and accurate guide by a long way. Combine this with the slim Wallpaper* guide, and you can tackle the new Athens with confidence. The StyleCity Athens guide was also thorough and up to date, and impressive on shopping and entertainment, but it was light on practical information (yes, we do need to know when the Acropolis is open) and heavy to carry.

Then there’s the new edition of the Time Out guide coming out in November. And, of course, my own Essential Spiral Athens in March 2008. As for the renovation of the Parthenon on the Acropolis, which was begun in the 5th century BC, they say that it will be finished by 2020. Mike Gerrard travelled with easyJet (www.easyJet.com), which flies to Athens from Gatwick and Luton from £67.15 return.

Simply the best: three newcomers to watch

Hotel
I’m biased because we stayed there, but the Classical Baby Grand Hotel, with its Moët & Chandon Bar, inexpensive but excellent Meat Me restaurant, fun reception desks made out of two old Mini Coopers, and Graffiti Rooms with their Maxi Bars and free internet, was everything a modern hotel should be. B&B from 135 euros (about £90) a night, or special offer of room only at about £68 a night until August 31. Baby Grand Hotel, 65 Athinas and Lycourgou Street, Athens (00 30 210 325 0900, www.classicalhotels.com).

Restaurant
The newly revamped Tudor Hall restaurant gazes at the floodlit Acropolis from the seventh floor of the King George Palace on Syntagma Square. Chef Athanasios Tzanetos trains four times a year with Alain Ducasse, who works with him on the menus. Open Mon-Sat breakfast, lunch and dinner, Sunday breakfast only. Booking essential (322 2210, www.classicalhotels.com).

Museum
The new wing of the Byzantine Museum, opened only a few months ago, is outstanding, and the new Acropolis Museum looks set to take the breath away. But the Benaki Museum of Islamic Art, opened in 2004, displays 8,000 works over several floors and shows that the founder, Antonis Benakis, had a true eye for items of exceptional beauty. Agion Asomaton 22, behind the Keramikos Cemetery (325 1311, www.benaki.gr); open Tues, Thur-Sun 9am-3pm, Wed 9am-9pm.

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