Your Perfect Greek Escape, Decoded by Personality

Greece, long typecast as a postcard fantasy, has arguably stepped into a more dimensional role. The most compelling new stays no longer trade solely on ruins or romance. Rather, they channel biophilic compounds, zero-waste villas, and heritage structures reprogrammed into culinary labs and artist studios. Beyond the usual island stalwarts, a new wave of properties is being shaped by evolving guest expectations and an ethos that honors the landscape itself. “The turning point,” Michalis Manassakis, the visionary behind newcomer Perma Serifos, says of his project, “was learning to integrate awareness into ambition.” That sensibility now underpins Greece’s most design-driven addresses. Some grace islands like Sifnos, Hydra, and Mykonos; others stake a foothold in Athens or Thessaloniki, making them intuitive soft landings before the ferry sets sail.

Another option for seamlessly floating through multiple islands is the new Milos at Sea. Estiatorio Milos restaurant empire’s 113-foot yacht traces volcanic coastlines while serving up seafood plucked straight from the water—no itinerary-wrangling required.

With thousands of islands scattered across the Med, jetsetters should begin the journey at home with Greek Island Sketches, Philippos Avramides’ spare, transportive journal that distills the archipelago into elemental forms—shadowed rooftops, lone donkeys, flaked-paint walls. Then, let the travel fantasy unfold, whether that’s savoring a rooftop supper in Athens, retreating to a breezy hillside suite in Serifos, or slipping into a wine cave tucked beneath Santorini’s oldest monastery.

Here, Galerie distills nine destinations—one for every stripe on the Greek flag—each built around its own archetype, designed with that spirit in mind.

For the Chic Agrarian: Crete

Crete’s expanse—mythic, mountainous, and resolutely agricultural—sees a wave of new hotels rooting their luxury in soil, stone, and seasonality. On the island’s eastern flank near Agios Nikolaos—a former sleepy port that now hums as a cultural node—Minos Beach Art Hotel, a Design Hotels member, takes its cues from the coast. Architect Eleni Soufli reinterprets Cretan vernacular into a string of low-slung villas that melt into the shoreline, while the G. & A. Mamidakis Foundation activates the grounds with a rotating residency of sculptors and artists in a nod to local craft traditions. This summer, the hotel unveiled five new large-scale installations as part of its 2025 Art Prize program, deepening its role as an evolving cultural landmark.

Farther west, outside Chania, Tella Thera is among the newest members of Design Hotels. Less constructed atop than excavated from within, Athens-based Pierris Architects carved the 20-suite retreat into the hillsides with amphitheater-like terraces, the entire property powered by solar and guided by a strict zero-waste ethos. The effect is elemental: rooms and terraces seem to float above the landscape, allowing olive groves and thyme-covered hills to take center stage.

And then there’s JW Marriott Crete, a 160-key eco-estate by Block722 Architects that sprawls across 100 acres of olive and carob trees. Its design is intentionally recessive, allowing the natural contours to dictate its rhythm, and its Linovrochi cave spa and JW Garden supply the kitchen’s nightly harvest. Consider it Crete reimagined as a modern estate—where luxury yields to landscape, and every detail, from architecture to agronomy, reinforces the island’s agricultural soul.

For the Wild Minimalist: Serifos

Remote but never reductive, Serifos has long defied Cycladic stereotypes. Here, there are no megayachts idling offshore, no velvet-rope beach clubs to speak of—just wind-scoured hillsides, unmarked trails, and a quiet gravity that draws designers and contemplatives alike. Perma Serifos distills this spirit into form. Conceived by shipping executive and coach Michalis Manassakis, the eight-suite retreat feels less like a hotel and more like a calibrated reset. “We built Perma as a sanctuary,” Manassakis explains, “not simply as a place to sleep, but as a landscape that invites guests to reconnect—with themselves, each other, and this elemental island.” Every design decision follows suit. Organized around psychologist Martin Seligman’s PERMA framework—which outlines five key elements of well-being as Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment—the property rejects superfluous gestures in favor of a biophilic vocabulary: earthen tones, raw textures, framed views that fold seamlessly into the hills.

A short drive down the ridge, Pénde Natura Residences reinterprets the same principles on an even more intimate scale. Two former shepherd dwellings, reimagined in reclaimed stone and timber, lean into pared-back materiality and tactile detail. Raw plaster walls catch the light; breezes thread easily through modest courtyards; nothing interrupts the dialogue between shelter and landscape but the hush of the wind.

For the Arts-Obsessed: Hydra

Hydra has long been the art crowd’s favorite misdirection. Just 90 minutes from Athens, this car-free pocket of the Saronic Gulf slows to a rhythm set by donkeys and ferry horns, where creativity feels less scheduled and more serendipitous. In summer, the island buzzes with the see-and-be-seen: Dakis Joannou’s Deste Foundation hosts its annual art-world extravaganza inside a repurposed slaughterhouse; Wilhelmina’s, a 19th-century manor newly reborn as a contemporary gallery, draws a smart crowd for its rotating roster of Greek and international talent—and its after-hours scene crackles like an Art Basel Miami Beach vernissage. For something more under-the-radar, the Old Carpet Factory offers a salon-style mix of sound studios and exhibitions in a preserved neoclassical house, while Hydrogios Arts & Culture supports resident curators from its historic stone manse framed by an herb garden and cistern bar. Book a suite at Mandraki Beach Resort, the island’s only sandy-shore retreat and a former naval post turned chic aerie with plunge pools.

For the Cultured Oenophile: Santorini and Thirassia

The cruise ships may still drop anchor and the selfie sticks may still swing, but Santorini is refocusing its lens, spotlighting soil over sunset, fermentation over facade, with wine—not whitewashed domes—as its original draw. At Selene, an award-winning restaurant set inside a former Dominican monastery in Fira, the island’s agrarian past is dug into every stone. Its vaulted cellars host the annual Vedema Festival (September 26 and 27), a two-day summit of taste and terroir led by Master of Wine Yiannis Karakasis, where vertical tastings of Estate Argyros’ cult cuvées share the stage with blind competitions and a guest chef roster spanning Michelin darlings like Ettore Botrini and George Papazacharias. 

Launching this summer at the caldera’s highest point, Katikies Chromata’s Cycladic House—Santorini’s most expansive villa—spans 7,500 square feet across three elevator-connected levels, with five en-suite bedrooms, two pools, and full access to the hotel’s amenities. For travelers looking to slip entirely off the tourist trail, Thirassia reveals Santorini’s wilder sibling. Newcomer The Duchess, carved into its cliffs, offers 12 adults-only suites tuned to sunset and built around a cellar of volcanic varietals, while Perivolas Hideaway keeps things simple at sea level: a four-bedroom compound tucked into a former pumice mine with its own sliver of beach, a kitchen built for private feasts, and a near-monastic hush.

For the Culinary Purist: Sifnos

Some islands trade on scenery; Sifnos traffics in flavor. Long before “slow travel” became shorthand for island life, Sifnos was already celebrated as the birthplace of Nikolaos Tselementes, Greece’s first cookbook author—and that gastronomic lineage still infuses every corner of its food scene. Today it surfaces in rainwater-simmered chickpeas, sun-dried mackerel on breezy taverna terraces, and barefoot sashimi service at Omega 3, the cult spot that anchors Platis Gialos. New hotel Stamna Sifnos channels Cycladic minimalism with a subtle Deco edge—think olive-wood furnishings, ribbed glass, marble from nearby quarries, and its restaurant spins seasonal Greek plates around sweeping Aegean views. 

Meanwhile, Sifnos’ breeziest new arrival is Paralia, a casual, self-service beach bar housed in a restored pottery factory on Kamares Beach by the Verina Group team. Striped deck chairs channel the French Riviera, 80s surf culture comes through in the background, and an open-air dining room blurs into a sun-dappled lounge where nobody’s in a rush. Chef Nikos Thomas (also the force behind Bostani Bar and Restaurant at Verina Astra) keeps the street-food menu easygoing and hyper-local: crisp chickpea falafel, tiny fried atherina fish in paper cones, and skewers of vegetables and meat on handmade earthenware.

For the Design Devotee (with a Social Agenda): Mykonos

Mykonos’s bottle-service din is giving way to a more considered vernacular, one that prizes materiality, craft, and a deliberate point of view. Perched on a hill above Mykonos Town, the newly debuted Anandes Hotel, designed by Studio Bonarchi, boasts custom lighting by Philippe Anthonioz, original works by Richard Serra and Thomas Houseago, and a tactile mix of local stone, pine, and linen. (Bonarchi also crafted the spectacular spaces at Kalesma, which is set to debut a expansion featuring more waterfront villas.) The hotel’s Riviera–inspired restaurant, La Petite Maison, lends a subtle swagger with “tomatinis” at sunset and salt-baked sea bass framed by unobstructed views of the island’s famous windmills. Nearby, Soulmates, the island’s new terrazzo-clad aperitivo bar by Studio Kisko founder Fragkiskos Sarris, turns a former utility lot into a laid-back ritual space, capped with Christina Mandilari’s ceiling mural—a swirling homage to the island’s marine life and refracted light.

Elsewhere on the island, design is moving the needle in equally compelling directions. In Agios Stefanos, Bard de Sol is designer Maria Skiada’s interpretation of Cycladic architecture as a sculptural study in marble, its 13 suites each fitted with a plunge pool and clever light-play that emphasizes shape and shadow. And then there’s the year’s most awaited reveal: Four Seasons Resort Mykonos, a 60-acre reinvention of the traditional village by architect Stavros Valsamakis. Soft-opening in late summer 2025, the resort embraces a micro-village approach that feels like a micro-village tucked into Kalo Livadi’s hillsides.

For the Solitude Seeker: Folegandros

If Mykonos is engineered for spectacle, Folegandros is built to vanish. In its second summer season, Gundari—a 27-suite resort by Athens-based Block722—dissolves into its surroundings with unpolished local limestone, sunken rooftops, and expansive sightlines that frame the landscape rather than compete with it. Every design move is bioclimatic: suites sink into hillsides for natural cooling, pools draw heat from the sun, and even lighting is carefully subdued to protect the nesting cliffs of Folegandros’ resident Eleonora’s falcons. At its heart, the experience feels thoughtfully bespoke. The cocktail program, helmed by award-winning Line Athens, bypasses easy clichés in favor of unexpected pairings—try the Tanqueray highball with ripe tomato and white chocolate for a taste as surprising as the views. 

Up the hill toward the Chora (town), Themonies Luxury Suites, under new management, is set within five restored agricultural dwellings—historically used for grain threshing, wine-making, and sheltering livestock—the interiors leave plaster and timber bare, the architecture thick-walled and passive-cooled. From outside, the property merges into the surrounding hillsides like a series of simple stone outcrops; inside, rural modernism features stripped-down materials and thoughtful proportions. 

For the Culture-Forward Family: Thessaloniki and Halkidiki

Underneath Thessaloniki’s neoclassical shell, you’ll find espresso bars doubling as galleries and bookshops that pour natural wine—all the trappings of a city that flexes its family-friendly cultural IQ in a much more approachable package than in the capital, Athens. In summer, the city hits its stride: the inaugural Folkway Festival (July 18–21) reframes traditional dance and craft with a modern eye, while Reworks (Sept. 24–28) takes over derelict factories and wharf spaces for an audiovisual series calibrated for design-savvy teens and equally switched-on parents. Check into Hipsters Hotel, where a 1925 facade belies interiors framed in galvanized steel, Jean Prouvé chairs, and a Tom Dixon–designed suite—a century after its bones were first laid, this landmark finally opens as a hotel in 2025.

An hour south in Halkidiki, the rhythm softens. Cora Hotel & Spa, freshly renovated in Afitos, mixes grown-up tranquility with plunge pools and low-key kids’ programming that feels considered rather than cookie-cutter. But the evergreen draw is The Danai, a privately owned estate that’s eased into its next chapter with subtle but meaningful tweaks. Its newer spa leans minimalist and light-filled, its restaurant terraces angle toward the sea, and its multigenerational team still knows guests by name, drink of choice, and bedtime routine. 

The Cultural Synthesizer: Athens

Athens is mid-pivot, fueled by marquee projects like Ellinikon—Europe’s largest urban redevelopment, soon to host Greece’s first skyscraper and a Mandarin Oriental—and a rising tide of small-scale cultural experiments. In Thissio, Not Hotel converts a former bordello and film studio into a slow-luxury hideaway with just ten keys, where curved Deco forms, marble baths, and a wine-centric restaurant. Over in Psirri, Mona blurs the hotel-gallery divide. Presented by creative studio House of Shila, the 20-room property hosts Space Reimagined throughout the summer, an artist residency that’s also bookable, with Elise Wouters’ sculptural lighting and Angeliki Stamatakou’s surreal clay pieces doubling as everyday design.

The ritzy Kolonaki district welcomed concept-store-cum-materials-lab Totimo, from the team behind Carwan Gallery. The showroom itself is lined with rare stone, oxidized metal, and experimental pigments that Greece’s most daring architects browse like a reference library. Eating and drinking continue to embrace Athens’ new, less-scripted scene: Asotos in Pangrati riffs on the meze bar with natural wines and vinyl DJ sets; Voulkanizater in Koukaki brings garage chic to craft cocktails under strobed black terrazzo; and Anther at Perianth Hotel plates oxtail giouvetsi and tomato salads on Valinia Svoronou ceramics beneath a mural that splices Minoan myth with moody surrealism. And this fall, all eyes turn to The Ilisian: the former Hilton reborn with a Conrad Athens, Waldorf Astoria residences, a reimagined Galaxy Bar, and a members-only Supper Club.