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Piraeus Theoxenia is officialy a 4* hotel in Piraeus, unofficialy most people would say it is a 3+*. If you are looking for facilities such as a restaurant, I think this is your best option. If you are after just a decent bed and a breakfast, then I think Piraeus dream might be your best option. Both hotels have a web-site.
Of course you can take in some of the sites in a day, but not all . If you plan to fit in a lot in a day and move fast, most sites in Athens are on a walking distance. Acropolis booths sell a 14 euro ticket that covers entrance on Acropolis but also on 5-6 surrounding other sites. Note that Acropolis museum is on a separate (5 euro) ticket.
Piraeus is connected to Athens city center on an easy 20-30 minutes metro ride so it is a personal call if you want to be located on Piraeus or Athens. I guess Athens is a better option if you have an extra night at the end of your trip. Anyway, there is a bus running from Piraeus to Athens airport every 20-40 minutes depending exactly time of day or night. It runs always, day and night, week days and weekends, bank holidays, summer and winter. So no problems unless in case of a strike. It is called bus X96 and costs 5 euro. Ditto there is bus X95 connecting Athens center to the airport. Metro is an option too, but doesn't run at night time.

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thanks!

Ideally i would want to be by the Acropolis and other tourist sites but sadly I am the WORST morning person and need to catch a ferry at 6:30am so thank you for the suggestions in Piraeus. I remember hearing about a strike a month or so ago and I know that the situation in greece isnt favourable. I wonder if maybe Greece is too risky to go to?

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Greece was never a place for people who want to have everything planned down to last detail far in advance. Although media make demonstrations and strikes to look like a recent occurrence, those have been happening since 25+ years ago every now and then. Strikes are announced some days in advance, and of course those that affect a visitor are those that have to do with transportation and sites. Visitors using common sense always have been and still are absolutely safe in Greece. So safety is not an issue. Convenience is. It is a personal call if it's too risky or not...

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Hi there

We were on holiday in Athens 2 weeks ago. We stayed at the 3* Plaka Hotel in the Plaka/Monastiraki area.

This hotel is within walking distance from the Acropolis. In fact, it has a lovely view of the Acropolis as well. We did not need to make use of any transport while there as everything was within walking distance.
If you only have a day in Athens, my suggestion would be a visit to the Acropolis and then the New Acropolis Museum at the bottom of the hill (highly recommendable!).

The Plaka Hotel is within walking distance of Monastiraki train station which is on the Piraeus and airport route. The train takes about 25 minutes to Piraeus. Keep an eye on your luggage and belongings as that line is notorious for pickpockets, although we had no problems. We also had to be at the harbour just after 6 in the morning.

During our stay there, there was a transport strike. There was a notice up in our hotel the day before (as strikes are normally announced the day before), and the strike lasted from 11am to 3pm, then everything returned back to normal, so there is nothing to worry about.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Athens. Enjoy your trip.

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Another option for Pireaus is to stay in Hotel Elektra. This is a basic hotel but clean and adequate for an overnight stay, and not expensive. It is about 5 minutes walk from the Metro and close to the Blue Star terminals, or at least those used most often. Reception is half way up the stairs and I am pretty certain there is no lift. It is on a road parallel to the main waterfront road which is accessed by a side street.

The terminals for different ferries are quite spread out along the waterfront and so I suggest you check the location of your terminal and make sure that you allow enough time to get there. I took a ferry to Sifnos and it was quite a walk from the Metro. If your ferry is quite far from the Metro you may prefer to stay closer to it than Hotel Elektra.

A couple of other points:
You should buy your ferry ticket the evening before at one of the many ticket offices along the waterfront as you need to have it before you board and it would be stressful looking for a ticket agency at 6 in the morning.

And it's worth spending the night before your flight in Athens, unless it's in the evening, in case there is a ferry problem, as sometimes weather can lead to delays. Again the chance of this happening rather depends on which island you are going to, but often the ferries are on fairly long trips out to several islands and back so delays do occur.