Katikies Mykonos, the Agios Ioannis house where Botrini’s cooks

Katikies Mykonos stands above Agios Ioannis, 4km from Mykonos town, on the side of the island that looks across to Delos. It opened in 2018, in a white monochrome scheme broken by blue, and it holds 35 rooms and suites. Every one of them faces the water and has a terrace of its own.

Katikies began in Oia on Santorini, where Katikies Santorini was the first house the group launched, and the Mykonos property was its move off its home island. The arithmetic here is almost all suite, at three rooms to 32 suites, and most of them carry a private pool or an open-air jetted tub on the terrace.

Botrini’s Mykonos, in the house since 2023, and the two Katikies deck lounges are the whole of the table: two restaurants and a bar at the pool. Beside them are a fitness room, a concierge and wedding planning.

The table

Botrini’s holds a room in the house, the Athens restaurant’s first on Mykonos. The kitchen is that of Ettore Botrini, the Greek-Italian chef, and it works from an all-white patio above the infinity pool. The set piece is the Peripatos degustation menu, whose name is the Greek for a leisurely walk taken for pleasure, and it runs through dishes the restaurant has given names to: the Herring (A Journey Through Time) and the Gastro-Esperanto. The wine list beside it carries Greek and international labels and is curated by Yiannis Karakasis MW, a Master of Wine. Service runs from 7pm to 12.30am, with last orders at 10.30pm.

The rooms and the suites

The schedule starts at 25 sqm with the superior double rooms, which take a sea view and, in one of the two categories, an open-air jetted tub on the terrace. Above them are the junior suite at 35 sqm and the senior suite at 40 sqm, both with a jetted tub. Then come four categories with a pool of their own, each for up to three guests: the superior suite at 40 sqm, the honeymoon suite at 50 sqm, the Katikies suite at 55 sqm and the master suite at 65 sqm. The two largest are the Delos Suite at 130 sqm for two, and the Kynthos Suite, 194 sqm, two private pools, one of them a dip pool, and room for four.

The spa

Katikies Spa, Ligne St Barth in the cabins, gives massages, therapeutic treatments, facials and hot stone rituals, for one or two people at a time. Ligne St Barth is a Caribbean house, and its oils, lotions and creams are drawn from tropical flora. The spa is open to people who are not staying at the hotel, and the fitness room beside it is complimentary for guests.

The decks

The two communal pools sit on separate decks, the lower open from 11am to 7pm and the upper from 11am to 5pm. Neither is heated, and nor are the private pools and jetted tubs on the terraces. The Katikies Lower Deck Lounge and the Katikies Upper Deck Lounge serve beside them through the day.

The place

Agios Ioannis is a peninsula on the west of the island, and it has white-sand beaches, restaurants of its own and a view across to Delos. Every room and suite looks at Agios Ioannis beach, and most of them see Delos as well. The house takes guests 13 and over, and Katikies Villas Mykonos, the annex that takes families with younger children, is at Elia beach about 15km away.

Who is this for

This suits a traveller who wants the west of Mykonos and the water in front of it: the quiet side of an island better known for its beach clubs. The house stands on a headland of white cubic terraces above Agios Ioannis beach, five minutes away on foot, with the town ten minutes off by road. Every veranda is private, and breakfast runs to 11.15am. April to mid-May and October to mid-November hold about 22°C, and mid-May to the end of September about 28°C.