Mykonos Grand Hotel & Resort stands on the sand at Ayios Yiannis, on the west side of the island, facing the sacred island of Delos across the water. The house still calls its beach by the name the 1989 film Shirley Valentine gave it. The beach is kept for guests, and there are no water sports on it.
Five acres at Ayios Yiannis carry 94 rooms and suites over three floors, laid out as whitewashed cubes along cobbled paths. Rooms and suites are decorated in bright white, with splashes of blue, orange or beige, and white drapes hang as a canopy above the beds and in front of the windows, most of which face the sea. The furniture and the decorative lighting are streamlined, recalling mid-twentieth-century styling.
The house is independently owned, by Panayiotis Dactilidis, and most of its staff have been with it between six and ten years. Closed November to April, it trades from spring to autumn. A complimentary shuttle runs guests into Mykonos Town from 7pm to midnight, where the shops and the restaurants are.
The ground
The main pool is a 500 sqm heated outdoor pool. The house has added an adults-only pool with sea views, and a restaurant on the beach. Sport is laid out across the five acres: an outdoor tennis court, a Technogym fitness centre and jogging paths designed by the hotel’s own training team. The oddest piece of it is a stone-built outdoor amphitheatre, which the house uses for pilates sessions.
The rooms and the suites
The schedule runs in three tiers: rooms, suites and one villa. Rooms are finished in Greek marble, which the house names as the island’s own white and blue, and each has a private terrace and a wet-experience bathroom. They run from garden view, one category of which shares a pool, up to sea view, one category of which carries a premium jet tub.
The open plan suite is 43 sqm and the junior suite 45 sqm, the latter with a separate living room, and both look at the Aegean and Delos. The premium suite is 55 sqm. The executive suite is 85 sqm with a 50 sqm rooftop terrace and an open-air jet tub. Four categories carry a pool of their own: the suite with private pool at 75 sqm with a 20 sqm pool, the deluxe at 100 sqm and the signature at 105 sqm, both with a 25 sqm infinity pool, and above them the Grand Suite with Private Pool, 110 sqm, whose terrace runs to 95 sqm around a 25 sqm infinity pool.
Above the suites is the Mykonos Grand Villa, four bedrooms, sleeps 11, with a private rooftop terrace and a 45 sqm heated outdoor pool of its own.
Althea Spa Retreat
Althea Spa Retreat, over 8,000 sq ft at ground level, is named after Althea, the Greek goddess of healing, and was designed with the practice MKV. The plan keeps the treatment rooms in the daylight: each has a private shaded courtyard with a jet tub, and there are indoor and outdoor relaxation areas, a steam room and a sauna. The set piece is a semi-caved thalasso pool open to the Aegean. The treatment lines are Valmont of Switzerland and Phytomer of France, and the menu runs from facials and massages to healing stones, lava shells and Greek cupping.
Nama and the cellar
Nama, 60 covers indoors and 100 outside, serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is named after nama, the sweet wine of the Greek Orthodox tradition, which the house translates as a gift from God. The kitchen takes classic Greek dishes and works them up, with herbs from the hotel garden and locally caught seafood. Behind the room a double-height wine cellar rises as its backdrop, holding Greek and international labels and taking tastings, classes and private dining for up to ten. Breakfast runs from 8am to 11am, lunch from noon to 6pm and dinner from 7pm to 11pm, and the outdoor tables face the sunset.
Who is this for
This suits couples and families who want a quiet stretch of sand at the door and space between one terrace and the next. The airport is 4.5 kilometres away, about ten minutes by taxi. A chapel on the beach takes weddings, and the marble and mirrored Bolla Bar takes the hour before dinner. Dinner can be laid on the sand in front of a fire, or packed into a picnic basket for a drive across the island.
