Around the time the ferry was entering the port of Ios, an island in the Cyclades, Greece, I began to wonder if we had come to the right place. We – my husband and I, elders on the cusp of middle age – stand shoulder to shoulder with teenagers, who among them, the youthful energy of their dewy skin. In the dense summer, the ferry’s windowless boarding area resembles an oven. I felt a wave of suffocating fear. These kids came to the party. We were… no. We’re looking for good food, local wine, to somehow come home healthier than when we left, like those who come to Paris and come back 10 pounds lighter, “because of the walk” and cake unprocessed noodles.
To paraphrase a popular meme: Maybe the island do all?
Sure, there’s plenty of respite within the 42 square miles of Ios. Goats still roam the island’s steep hills and cliffs. It lacks an airport. However, since the 1970s, Ios has been mainly known for one thing.
“It’s a place to party,” says Katerina Katopis-Lykiardopulo, a photographer collaborating with author Chrysanthos Panas.Greek Islands“A book on the coffee table was published in May.
“Back in the day, there were hippies, there were drugs, there were people sleeping on the beach.” Ms. Katopis-Lykiardopulo said. “Is it still a party island? Are teenagers still coming? Yes, of course. But the island is striving to be more than that.”
Aware that not every traveler wants to rage until dawn or cross points of interest with cruise ship passengers, intrepid operators on Ios, as well as neighboring countries The world-famous Cycladic north and south, Mykonos and Santorini, are inviting tourists to put their feet up and lean into a version of health with the ability to slow down.
Case in point: Calilo, a three-year-old resort on the east coast of Ios, all sorts of hairpins that spin through the hills and away from the port to (almost) banish the memory of a billboard advertising a nightclub called Scorpion (“” Don’t leave until you get stinging”). A Disneyland for spiritual optimists, Calilo offers motivational spells instead of special five-for-one shoots.
Calilo guide Sandy Parisi said: “When we entered this place, we left everything negative behind, with a capacity comparable to midday sunlight, leading us through a lane. The wind has a shape that is strategically cut out of its roof: when the light hits the right, hearts gush out into the path.
In the white stone hallway, Ms. Parisi paused by a rotating marble and metal sculpture. It looked like a man pierced by an arrow, falling into a pit.
“Here, we let go of the darkness, the anger, all the negative stuff,” Ms. Parisi said. Words, sculpted in metal, floated in the pit: “malicious”, “negative”, “lie”. She explains that the man did not fall but was, in fact, lifted by the words protruding from the arrows on the heart-shaped earrings: “love, hope, … means passion, in Greek.” I was so engrossed in making a video of this carousel of good feelings that I almost hit an arrow in the heart that read “laugh”.
Angelos Michalopoulos, who owns and operates Calilo, as well as six other restaurants and hotels on the island, with his wife, Vassiliki Petridou, and four of their five children.
Motivational messages are part of Calilo’s holistic approach to health. An on-site farm grows a variety of produce served at the resort’s restaurants, including tomatoes that are flavorful enough to make you wonder if you’ve actually tasted it. The decor tries to surprise and delight. The sunken dining tables by the main pool look like something out of “Alice in Wonderland” and are swaying everywhere in the wind. We swayed while drinking coffee. We wobble while reading (or scrolling Instagram).
Over the course of three days, Calilo’s fickleness overtook me to the point where I almost overcame the grammatical character of its flashing neon incantation (“Make a life you can live.” love”). When I find myself trying to get into that dangling preposition, I remind myself of the countless freedoms I have taken with grammar, and the fact that I had to throw my skepticism into the pit when arrive.
“A lot of our guests say that when they come here, they are stepping into a fairy tale,” Ms. Petridou said. “They can be kids again. Most people come to Greece for the pools, parties and nightlife. We want to break that cycle.”
A native of Athens, the couple first came to Ios in 2003 for a family vacation. They were amazed at the extent to which it was still intact – save for chora, the Greek term for the island’s main town, where bars and nightclubs reign.
“After seeing some of these beaches, I was completely stunned,” said Michalopoulos. “I said to myself, either I have a heat stroke or somewhere around here there is a Russian nuclear dump, because this place has two completely opposite things: unbelievably beautiful and virgin. This, you do not have in Europe. Located between two long-developed islands, Mykonos and Santorini, and somehow still unspoiled – what a paradox. “
Mr. Michalopoulos has a financial firm in New York, where he and Petridou attended college. They do not intend to enter the hotel industry, but said they see an opportunity to preserve the beauty of the island while developing it in a sustainable way. Within 5 years, they purchased 182 parcels of land from 2,137 landowners. They were approved by the local government to build on 1% of the land and leave the rest as is. They planted 70,000 trees, including several centuries-old olive trees that were marked for firewood. They hire 400 workers.
In 2019, they opened Calilo to attract a new type of tourists to Ios. Calilo’s nightly rates start at 660 euros, or the equivalent in dollars – significantly higher than modest hotels with a chora population. The pair hope the income generated will keep their growing company, which Mr. Michalopoulos calls “a prototype”, afloat.
“This is primarily a land conservation project rather than a profit maximization project,” said Erica Michalopoulos, one of the couple’s daughters who is Calilo’s director of business development and partnerships. profit. “But the bottom line is that we need to be financially stable to be able to preserve the land.”
Mr Michalopoulos added: “This is not just a hotel. “Hopefully, it’s much more than that. It is a proposal for a new way of looking at the hospitality business. “
Tourism accounts for about a fifth of Greece’s economy, according to Consul General of Greece. If left unchecked, for instance, the push to increase profits could lead to the global phenomenon of Mykonos: stunning beaches and legendary sunsets, yes, but also streets packed with trucks Mercedes Sprinter, Starbucks and day clubs. may charge up to 150 euros for a sunbed. After Ios, we planned to continue relaxing in Mykonos for two days. Mykonos has other plans.
Tasos Pavlidis, a local concierge who managed to get me and my husband on time for Mykonian standard time: breakfast at 4pm, lunch at 6:30pm, dinner at 11pm. Sleep? “You don’t go to Mykonos to sleep,” said Mr. Pavlidis.
“Mykonos is a planet of its own,” said Katopis-Lykiardopulo, “Greek Islands” photographer. “We used to have people like Jackie O,” whose arrival on the island in 1961 propelled it into the global jet-setting scene, “now we have Elon Musk,” she added.
Beach clubs like Alemagou (which Mr. Pavlidis describes as “bohemian”, though it also attracts people who wear Cartier watches and hats marked EBITA) and Scorpios (affiliated with Soho House, a members-only club) attracts a lot of people hoping to jostle for the chance to pay 20 euros for an espresso martini. For those who like dancing, drinking and people watching after dark, choir of Mykonos creates a magnetic pull. Even so, in July, a new resort opened with the goal of helping visitors relax: Cali Mykonosa combination of clean lines and sumptuous curves powered by solar panels, a rooftop herb garden and an on-site water purification plant.
“Last night we had a couple go to the local beach club and were planning to go into town for the evening and party,” said Eric Mourkakos, managing partner of Cali Mykonos. “They come back here to shower, go to their room and say, ‘We realized, we have no reason to leave.’ I found them later, sitting by their pool under the canopy, looking up at the sky. “
One does not need to be self-conscious about Herculean proportions to avoid the bustle of the disco in Santorini: compared to Mykonos and Ios, there are not many clubs. The crazed crowds operate differently on this volcanic island, with its picturesque setting, frequented by social media influencers and brides and grooms, along with photographers. Attention flight attendant photo.
Last year, the Greek hotel company Andronis opened a resort – Andronis Health Concept – invites visitors to Santorini to stay for a while and indulge in a number of atypical offerings, including a lantern-lit spa, hammam-like, and a health assessment using a strand of hair epigenetic test. Carla Sage, Andronis’ health director, said: “It’s growing in popularity. We will do one or two reviews every few days. “
Strolling through Andronis’ outdoor lobbies at sunset feels transformative (a friend we met in Santorini compared the resort’s high undulating walls to the curvaceous curves of the island). abstract by sculptor Richard Serra). The restaurants on the island also make an argument for slowing down: dine at Botrin’sin the Santorini village of Oia, which spans more than 11 courses of two or three bites, is best enjoyed as the sun sets over the Aegean and the skies pass over Rothko.
An epigenetic test is like a chore: an opportunity to get scolded, maybe in the house. Hidden bad vibes, negative energy. Not the way to end a trip. We decided that the healthiest thing we could do, on our last day in Greece, was to take a wine tour. At least healthy for the mind and soul, if not for the physical body.
Under the tutelage of Santorini Winetopia’s Marissa Diamanti, a bubbly tour guide with an encyclopedic knowledge of Hellenic wines, we got our hands on the crumbs beneath the family-owned vineyard Hatzidakis . Winery and marvel at how the vines are lowered to the ground and shaped into baskets to protect the grapes from harsh sun and wind. Then at Artemis Karamolegos, a winery 10 minutes away, we swooned with a bite of squid and fennel high risotto Py Vien, a white wine made from Santorini’s indigenous Assyrtiko grape variety. We enjoy one of the most holistic forms of wellness: a great meal with great companionship, outdoors, on a summer afternoon.
After lunch, the 76-year-old owner of Art Space WineryAn art gallery, history museum, and winery across from Artemis Karamolegos, unearthed an unlabelled bottle of wine from beneath his bar and posed the question to us.
“This is my moon. You know moonshine? Will you try moonshine? “
Given my understanding of Cycladic health, there is only one correct answer.
