Myconian Avaton stands at Elia Beach, Mykonos, 11km from Mykonos Town, on a rocky hillside above one of the longest stretches of sand on the island. The building rises from bare rock, and it is Cycladic in its materials and plain in its outlines: local stone low down, white walls above, wood at the windows.
The name comes from the avaton, the part of an ancient sanctuary that no uninitiated person could enter. The brief was to reset the aesthetics of Mykonos across 85 rooms, suites and villas, and it went to two sets of hands. The architect is Giannis Dalezios. The interiors are the work of the Mykonos designers Antonis Kalogridis and Vangelis Takos.
Of the six houses the Myconian Collection holds on the Elia hillside, Avaton is the one in Design Hotels. Below it lies a stretch of Elia Beach kept for the house, and inside it a spa built on heated seawater, a restaurant called Panorama and a bar called Kokkino, which takes its name from the Greek for red.
The building
Kalogridis and Takos worked over poured concrete floors, mixing modern furniture with vintage pieces, and ran red, black and white against the stone and the wood. Red is the signature colour of the house. At Kokkino an amber-toned bar and red parasols stand beside an infinity pool.
The table
Panorama is the restaurant, set above Elia Beach, and it cooks across Greece and Italy with a list of Greek and international vintages beside it. Lunch runs from 11am to 7.30pm and dinner from 8pm to 11.30pm. All the local produce served at the house is grown for the house alone, and a fisherman works the waters around Delos for his own family and this kitchen.
The spa
Thalassotherapy pools are the centre of the spa. They are heated, and they draw on the properties of seawater that Greek antiquity already valued. Massages, hydromassages and skincare treatments are arranged around them.
The rooms and the villas
The schedule starts with the Pure rooms at 27 m² and the Temptation rooms at 30 m², both for two, then the Mystique Junior Suites at 35 to 40 m² and the Grand Mystique Suites at 75 to 100 m², which take three. Above those are the in-house villas, Pure at 83 m² and Temptation at 90 m², each with two bedrooms and five places. The largest accommodation is the four-bedroom Apocalypsis Villa: 200 m² indoors, a 150 m² terrace with its own pool, and room for ten.
The beach and the town
Elia is among the longest beaches on Mykonos, and water sports, bars and restaurants run along it. Avaton keeps a dedicated area of the sand for its guests, arranged through reception shortly before arrival. Mykonos Town is about 25 minutes away by road, and the house runs a shuttle to and from it through the day. The town is also where the buses, taxis and water taxis to the other beaches start.
The family
Avaton belongs to Vangelis Daktylides and his three brothers. Their father, George Daktylides, opened the Ambassador, the hotel that took the first five-star rating on Mykonos in 1992, and the four sons hold Avaton between them. They run it on local sourcing, recycling and support for the island communities around them, which is the practice the vegetable beds and the fisherman belong to.
Who is this for
Anyone who wants the south coast and the water more than the town, and who would rather look down on a beach than sit on one. The suites and villas come with private pools, hot tubs or open terraces. Delos, the mythical birthplace of Apollo, is about 30 minutes away by ferry. Summer brings direct flights from London, Milan, Munich and Zurich, and July and August average 27°C, held relatively cool by the meltemia, the seasonal northern winds of the Aegean.
