Four Seasons Mykonos is laid out like a village above Kalo Livadi

Four Seasons opened above Kalo Livadi Bay on Mykonos in summer 2026, with 94 rooms, suites and villas across 6 hectares. Nicos Valsamakis, the architect, laid them out as a small village. He broke a large resort into whitewashed buildings, lanes and courtyards that step down towards the water. The real test of the plan is the long walk down from the arrival point to the beach.

The setting

The hotel is at Karapetis, on the south-eastern side of Mykonos. The airport and Chora, the island’s main town, are each about 20 minutes away by road. That keeps the hotel close to where guests arrive and away from the town’s evening traffic. The distance matters here, because the hotel is designed to keep you on its own grounds for most of the day. Two infinity pools sit between the upper rooms and the bay below.

On a sloping site, paths and stairs are part of every day. A room near the upper entrance and a villa near the shore give you different routes across the same hotel. If slopes matter to you, choose where your room sits on the site as carefully as the type of room.

The design

Valsamakis uses cube-shaped buildings, whitewashed walls of rough stone and small courtyards, so you take in the 6 hectares a piece at a time. Brightly painted gates break up the white. Low walls divide the terraces and stop the slope from becoming a single hotel block. The hotel’s photographs show a village with a chapel, outside stairs and paths running between the buildings. The sea appears at the end of those routes, and no grand frontage claims the whole view.

This makes the size of the hotel less obvious at first, although the distance between the entrance and the shore keeps it real. The plan depends on how easily guests find their way and move around as much as on its likeness to an island village, and only use will show whether it works. The buildings set a sequence from road to beach, and the shore is where the route ends.

The rooms

Sea-view rooms on the ground and upper levels lead on to suites and villas. Several suites add a pool on the terrace. The one-bedroom sea-view suite is on two levels, with the living room below and the bedroom above. A higher room may have the better view, but it adds to the climb. A lower room can shorten the walk to the water. Where a room sits is part of its category, because every walk down means a walk back up.

Inside, white walls and pale floors meet blue upholstery, woven headboards and timber. The rooms are calm after the bold gates and stone walls outside. A few details recall the Cyclades, and the rooms stay free of the clutter that a village theme often brings.

The table

Four dining rooms serve a hotel designed to keep guests on site all day. Where they sit matters as much as what they serve. A table near the water saves the climb at lunch, and a higher room fits the evening walk back towards the rooms. Spread across the site, the restaurants give each level a use beyond its rooms.

The wellness

The spa uses the slope in the same way, with indoor treatment rooms and an outdoor pavilion. A sauna, a steam room and a vitality pool sit beside them. Different parts of the day happen at different levels, and you move between them.

The hotel and the island

Chora is a separate trip of about 20 minutes. The hotel’s programme of outings looks out to sea, to the southern coast and the islands of Delos and Rhenia. A guest who wants to go back and forth between town and hotel several times a day will notice the distance. A guest who plans to spend most of the time by the beach may welcome it. The site, with direct beach access, runs from the road above Karapetis, through Valsamakis’s white buildings, to Kalo Livadi Bay.

Who is this for

Four Seasons Mykonos suits travellers who want the sea to be the centre of the day, and the town for an evening out. On the stone terrace above the beach, sun loungers stand under cream parasols with scalloped edges. Private terraces have plunge pools under bamboo pergolas, with teak armchairs and a marble table. The bathrooms are marble, with twin basins and a freestanding tub. At dusk the whitewashed bell tower of the hotel’s chapel stands against the evening sky.