Why go?
Because this is the kind of place you picture when someone says “Athenian Riviera” and actually means it. Where the pine trees smell of heat and salt, the sea stays silk-flat until twilight, and a private boat waits quietly at the dock to take you island-hopping before breakfast. It is not just a hotel. It is a sensation.
Honeymoon style
Aesthesis is for the louche, the well-read, the well-tanned. The sort who travel with books and SPF50, who want their mythology with a side of martinis, who think best on water.
Set the scene
The approach winds through coastal trees and gates swing open almost silently, revealing not a grand reception desk but a sequence of sun-bleached courtyards and terrazzo walkways lined with fragrant rosemary and polished olive trees. The check-in ritual is deliciously understated – iced herbal tea with a curl of citrus, lemon-scented towels, and a sense that nothing is ever rushed here. The hotel’s design draws from mid-century Hellenic glamour, but with a hand so light it’s barely a whisper. Long breezeways, fluted timber walls, travertine floors cool beneath bare feet, and a gentle hush that encourages you to exhale for the first time in weeks.
Guests drift by in white linen and gold jewellery, shoulders sunk low into the comfort of the place. The soundtrack is discreet and just right – a faint ribbon of jazz, the occasional rustle of palms, cicadas chirring in the background. It’s all so gracefully handled. Guests can shop at the NEO boutique which is home to a curated fashion edit, plus there’s an on-site gallery showing Greek contemporary artists and an open-air cinema tucked within the pine grove playing restored classics after dark. Even the scent in the air is distinctive – a custom blend of cedar, cypress, and saltwater created for the hotel by a Greek perfumery.
Rooms
Each room feels like a carefully composed still life. The colours are all sand and sea glass, with organic textures throughout – slatted oak, rattan headboards, handmade ceramics, stone basins cut from local marble. Light floods in through glass sliding doors that open onto private terraces or lush gardens, with gauzy curtains catching the sea breeze. There is a tactile pleasure in everything, from the smooth coolness of the tiled floors to the brushed cotton of the robes.
The minibar is thoughtfully stocked: Greek Assyrtiko, botanical vermouth, dried figs from Kalamata, hand-rolled sesame bars. The bathroom, separated by timber panels, feels more like a private spa, with walk-in rainfall showers, freestanding tubs deep enough for two, and a full vanity laid with Le Labo toiletries and wooden brushes.
For honeymooners, the Riviera Seafront Bungalow with Private Pool is the one to book. Positioned at the quietest end of the resort, it offers a wraparound view of the Saronic Gulf, uninterrupted morning light, and direct access to your own swimming pool. Slip in before breakfast, robe up, and order coffee and warm bougatsa to the terrace. You may not leave all day.
Food and drink
ORA by Ettore Botrini, the hotel’s signature restaurant, is a polished affair. The room glows in the evening light, with mirror-panelled walls that catch the colours of the sunset and interiors that blend mid-century elegance with Greek minimalism – cane chairs, cool marble, gentle lighting. The kitchen is helmed by chef Luca Piscazzi, formerly of La Dame de Pic London, and the menu draws heavily on Aegean ingredients with an eye to precision and restraint.
Start with the shrimp carpaccio dressed in yuzu and wild fennel, followed by the langoustine giouvetsi served in a smoked tomato consommé. A highlight is the courgette flowers stuffed with anise-scented mizithra cheese, served with the lightest basil oil foam. Wines are expertly sourced – small-producer Greek bottles dominate the list – and staff are refreshingly enthusiastic when recommending a Malagousia or Xinomavro you’ve never heard of.
Manko Athens, the beach taverna, is laid-back but no less considered. Think charcoal-grilled catch of the day, heirloom tomatoes with creamy kopanisti, and just-baked sourdough. Frozen ouzo cocktails come with lime salt rims, and the loukoumades are so good you’ll order them twice. Food is available all day, and you can have it delivered to your lounger, to your suite, or to the deck of the hotel’s private boat as you coast through the Gulf. There’s a romance to eating seafood as you drift past the nearby islets of Fleves and Hydra, with a chilled bottle of rosé and a linen napkin flapping in the breeze.
The story
Originally a glittering 1960s escape for Greece’s cultural elite, the site had all the makings of a forgotten icon. The team at One&Only chose to honour the memory rather than erase it, working closely with Greek artisans and landscape designers to bring it quietly back to life. Many of the original architectural lines remain, softened by biophilic design and layered planting – a true garden resort, where even the most minimalist spaces feel anchored by nature.
There’s a soul to the property. Not nostalgia for the sake of it, but a genuine love for the golden age of Greek Riviera living. You can almost hear the clink of ouzo glasses from decades past, feel the lingering heat of a 1970s summer pressed into the walls.
Family-friendly
Yes, and better handled than most. The hotel offers a dedicated kids’ club in a separate zone shaded by pines and stocked with bilingual staff, organic snacks, and creative programming – think Greek mythology storytelling, natural dye workshops, beach foraging and pastry-making. There’s also a family pool, babysitting on request, and thoughtful touches like mini flip-flops and robes in the rooms.
But this is the key: you’d never know it. The atmosphere across the resort remains calm, romantic, and grown-up. Families are present, but not disruptive. It’s the rare spot where honeymooners and young families coexist without compromise.
Spa
The Guerlain Spa at One&Only Aesthesis feels like it was poured into the landscape. Perched quietly between pine and olive, it opens up to the sea in a series of calm, fragrant rooms where the air smells of rose tea and warm stone. It’s the first of its kind in Greece – a full Guerlain takeover – and it shows. There’s a softness to the light, a reverence in the way therapists move, a rhythm that slows you down completely. Treatments begin with whispered consultations and floral footbaths, and build to full-bodied ceremonies layered with scent, sound and healing hands.
The Nymph of the Athenian Riviera ritual is a favourite: a sensual sequence of body brushing, hot-stone massage and rose-quartz headwork that leaves you walking lighter, skin glazed like marble. There are two private couples’ suites with their own hammams and soaking tubs, and a Bastien Gonzalez mani–pedi lounge for those who take their soles and cuticles as seriously as their cocktails. Hair and makeup can be arranged at the Glamour Studio, with Guerlain’s signature lip and brow touches on hand. You could quite happily disappear into the spa for the day and many do.
Eco-friendly
The environmental integrity here runs deeper than a reusable water bottle or a whisper of “organic”. The hotel is built like it belongs to the coastline, not in spite of it. Rooms rise low and linear from the ground, designed to keep the ancient soil intact. Most of the resort is powered through energy-efficient systems, with solar panels hidden from view and clever grey-water loops feeding the riot of native plants that now flourish underfoot.
There’s no plastic anywhere – not in the bar, not in the bathrooms – and the entire resort is filtered through an in-house bottling system using reusable glass. But more than that, the landscape has been returned to something close to its wild state. Over 200,000 Mediterranean plants were hand-planted by a team of ecologists, and the forest reserve on-site is protected, not pruned. It hums with dragonflies, birdsong, and the unmistakable feeling that someone has looked after this place properly.
Location
You are half an hour from the airport and twenty minutes from Athens, but it feels like another planet entirely. The hotel sits at the far end of Glyfada, a polished stretch of the Athenian coastline where boutiques sell linen kaftans and stylish Greeks spill out of beach bars at sunset. One&Only’s private boat can have you skimming across the Gulf to uninhabited islets or tiny fish tavernas in under an hour. And then you’re back, towel-dried, drink in hand, wondering why you ever thought Mykonos was necessary.
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