Athens,a great place to visit in 2014 according to the NYTimes

Each January, the editors of the NYTimesTravel section publish the Places to Go issue. Athens was one of the top picks for this year. Out of an economic crisis, a city surges back.

Vibrancy and innovation can bloom even in hard times. Athens  is Greece’s ancient capital, which was hit hard by the global economic crisis and yet is seeing change at sites old and new.
First the old: At the Acropolis, the famous Caryatids statues continue to get a restoration in 2014; the process will be on view in the Acropolis Museum through the end of the year.
And the new: The National Museum of Contemporary Art opens this spring in a former brewery complex.
Neighborhoods have also seen a resurgence, including the quickly gentrifying Monastiraki and the still gritty Kerameikos-Metaxourgeio;
the latter will get a cultural lift in 2015 from the biannual ReMap art event.

Travelers will have a new lodging option by summer, when a revived Emporikon Hotel opens on Aiolou, a street that is also home to a host of new dining spots.