Estates

Villas, architecture, and private retreats

Aerial view of Acro Suites stepping along the Mononaftis Bay cliff, each terrace holding a private green-water pool and sun loungers above the rocks and turquoise sea

EstatesHeraklion

On the edge at Mononaftis Bay, a house carved by Cretan sculptors

A Cretan family turned 20 clifftop acres above Mononaftis Bay into 49 villas and suites, with cave rooms cut by sculptors, a hammam bath house and three restaurants on the coast north-west of Heraklion.

A long rectangular pool at an adults-only beach hotel on the east coast of Rhodes, with slatted timber cabanas and day beds along one side, palms and parasols beyond, and the sea on the horizon

Ammades: 45 suites, adults only, 50 metres from the sand

The main building and curved infinity pool at Angsana Corfu, stepped down a wooded hillside above the Ionian, with a headland and the mainland mountains beyond

Angsana Corfu: 37 pool villas on Akra Punta Bay

The white tiered resort building stepping down above curved blue pools, with rows of sun umbrellas on the sand and the open sea running out to the horizon beyond

Atrium Prestige, built in tiers above its own Blue Flag beach

Aerial view of the wooded Kommeno Peninsula running into the Ionian past a sheltered sandy bay, with resort buildings and pool terraces along the shore and a yacht at anchor

Corfu Imperial, and the houses at the end of the Kommeno Peninsula

A rectangular infinity pool meeting the deep blue water of a rocky Cretan cove, a swimmer crossing it, a scrub-covered headland closing the bay beyond

EstatesAgios Nikolaos

Daios Cove, the house that holds a whole Cretan cove

Aerial view across calm turquoise water to a long white resort of tall arched windows on a hillside, with lawns, palms and a low glass-fronted restaurant at the shore, a black speedboat in the foreground

Domes Miramare, the Onassis house in a 38-acre olive grove on Corfu

The main pool set between the guestroom wings and raised to the level of the rooms, loungers ranged along its far edge and a row of concrete arches carrying the wing behind

A raised pool between the wings and a spa dug below the ground

A stone-paved terrace under an old pine, two white sling chairs against a rubble wall, and the fortified island of Spinalonga low across the water beyond an olive-planted edge

The stone village at the edge of Domes of Elounda

A long dark reflecting pool mirrors rows of thatched parasols, sun loungers and palm trees, with low scrub and open sea beyond

A village of 106 rooms stepping down to a Chania beach

The estate on Mirabello Bay at low sun, rows of parasols on the beach, the jetty bar on its stone spit with boats at anchor off it, and the hills of the bay beyond

The house that started the Elounda coast

A white villa stepped above an infinity pool, the pool's edge meeting the Gulf of Mirabello, with bare headlands across the water and loungers on a pale stone terrace

Elounda Gulf Villas, a hillside of 18 villas above Spinalonga

Low white buildings set in gardens along a rocky shore, most of them with a small blue pool of their own, a curve of sand at one end and a yacht anchored in the clear water

Elounda Mare, the house that gave every bungalow a pool

Elounda Mare opened at Elounda in 1982 as a village of low buildings in the olive groves above Mirabello Bay, and its owners say it was the first hotel in the Mediterranean to put a pool at every bungalow.

Aerial view of a low white resort along a rocky headland, terraced suites with small blue pools set above three sheltered sand coves, jetties and moored boats on turquoise water

Elounda Peninsula, the all-suite house cut out of its neighbour

An all-suites house on the coast of Elounda, cut out of its neighbour in 2002, where the larger suites open onto their own seawater pool and the Six Senses spa belongs to the hotel next door

A wide calm bay on the Ionian seen from the air, a long pale beach lined with rows of white umbrellas running below wooded slopes to a green headland

Ikos Dassia, the first Ikos house on Corfu

Pools and shaded loungers on terraces below low pale buildings, framed by cypress and olive trees, with the Gulf of Toroneos stretching flat and silver beyond

EstatesHalkidiki

Ikos Oceania will redraw all 290 rooms and suites for 2027

An aerial view of a sheltered bay, a crescent of pale sand set with white umbrellas and canopied daybeds below a flat-roofed white pavilion, cypresses and pines behind it and wooded hills across the water

Ikos Odisia, the second Ikos house on Corfu

Pale sand running along a clear turquoise gulf, with white umbrellas and loungers set out below low stone-faced bungalows standing among trees and lawn

EstatesHalkidiki

Ikos Olivia, refurbished in two phases

The King George and the Hotel Grande Bretagne lit at dusk on Syntagma Square, with the Greek Parliament across the square and light trails on the road between.

The King George stands on ground that was built on twice

The main infinity pool set into the hillside above Vlicha Bay, with stone terraces stepping down the slope towards the headland and the open sea

Lindos Blu, cut into the hillside above Vlicha Bay

Aerial view of low white and black stone buildings with grass-planted roofs, each fronted by its own narrow blue pool, arranged in rows that step down a slope to a sandy beach and the sea

EstatesHeraklion

Nana Princess, the black stone house outside Hersonissos

Aerial view of flat-roofed plaster and stone bungalows with private pools stepping down a green hillside above the Mirabello Gulf in late afternoon light

The house Costantza Sbokou drew at Plaka

A long open walkway under a slatted timber pergola, round black pillars down its right side casting striped shadows across pale stone paving, with a dark fire bowl in the middle and planting and palms beyond

EstatesHeraklion

At Karteros Beach, a 1968 bungalow hotel kept its modernist pillars

An aerial view of Sani Club on a wooded headland, its terraced suites and pools stepping down through pine forest to a sand beach and turquoise shallows.

EstatesHalkidiki

Sani Club: the quiet end of the estate