safety concerning refugees.

Being concerned about your safety and having read about "refugees arriving .... via Piraeus port on a weekly basis" why have you chosen to stay in Piraeus for your visit to Athens? If those scary refugees are a concern, why not book a hotel in Athens? You say you have seen " pictures of tent cities with displaced refugees". How will this affect you unless you visit the tent cities to render humanitarian assistance?

Yeah, Rob, this is your first post since registering on the board. Can you please tell us more about your trip to Greece?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that the OP is going to do a cruise and/or ferry to the islands and felt that being in Piraeus would be convenient.

On the other hand they may just want to stir the hornet's nest by bringing up fear of the refugees.

I personally think the only place you'll actually see any tent camps of refugees is in pics on the media outlets.

We picked a hotel in the area as we are leaving on a cruise from Piraeus. We planned on spending a couple days prior to the cruise poking around and sightseeing.

Are these your only two nights in Athens? If so, I would stay in Athens proper so you can wander around freely. This is what we did and then we took a cab to Piraeus for our ferry. There's also an express bus and subway. None of the options are very expensive. It's easy and you'll enjoy staying in Athens if you haven't been there before.

It's not as if Piraeus is in another county, or province. When you stand at the wall of the Acropolis and LOOK east, you can see Pireaus, the ferries, the sea. A taxi can get you there from a hotel near the acropolis in about 25 minutes unless in heart of rush hour, daytime fare about 20Euros, maybe 30 max, going to the cruise piers. Please, please, cancel the Pireaus hotel and get one right by the Acropolis (and dont worry that you cannot cancel; 90% of Greek hotels readily will cancel with adequate notice, and this is 2.5 months ahead).

I can suggest 3 hotels you will like a lot, on the South Side of the Acropolis, within eyesight of the Acropolis Museum, and just off the lovely no-cars promenade that skirts the Acropolis grounds & Ancient Agora. Here's a map to orient you (click and it gets huge) -- http://www.orangesmile.com/destinations/img/athens-map-big.jpg use the edge-slider to move around; find Acropolis first. Look for the red-box #24 on walkway below Acropolis that's the Acropolis Museum. One street to the left is the Herodion Hotel, just behind it is sister Hotel Phillipos. Hotel Airotel Parthenon is a bit to the right of Acropolis, just off that walkway, on Makri Street. All are nice, quiet, moderate price and walks on the promenade at sundown are just lovely.

PLEASE don't stay in Piraeus. You wouldn't stay right by the docks in a major city in the US ... Traffic, crowds, grimy, Constant coming & going of trucks to load up ferries ... you have to get waaay far from the piers to find any quiet ... Please take our advice, we've been to Athens many times, we know what works.

I would not stay in Piraeuas, its not a nice area really, and you will commute into athens each day to sightsee anyways, why do that...?

Oh want to clarify, its never been a nice area ,,,i am not even touching the refugee angle.