Onar is a settlement of 18 traditional island cottages on Andros, low stone buildings set apart from one another in the greenery. The name means dream in Greek. A protected wetland of about 50 acres in the Achla valley, inside Natura 2000, is the ground it stands on, bordered by the river that falls from the hills around Vourkoti and ends at Ahla beach. Achla is the biggest river on Andros, and the wetland at its mouth is recognised as important.
Mateo Pantzopoulos first reached Achla in the 1980s, when the only way in was by sea. He has family roots on the island and spent childhood summers there in an old stone house belonging to his family. What became Onar began as a piece of land and a stone house with no electricity. There were tents at first, then a few stone houses, and the village accumulated from there, built only from natural local materials. Eighteen cottages is the whole of it, with no resort infrastructure behind them, and the owners are on site through the season.
The season runs from 22 May to 10 October. About 40 km from Gavrio port, the final 10 km unpaved, the drive takes around an hour in a 4x4.
The valley
The valley sits inside Natura 2000, the European network set up to protect habitats and species at risk across the continent. Andros holds the only alluvial alder forests in the central Aegean, the southernmost of their range in the Balkans, so the greenery the road drops into is rarer than it looks. Onar states that Ahla is among the few beaches in Greece designated an “Untouched Beach”, a protection status for coastal areas of exceptional natural and ecological value, and describes itself as a steward of the coastline rather than its owner.
The cottages
Local stone walls, wood and reed ceilings, and spare earthy décor run through every unit. The stone houses stand nearer the beach and suit couples or small groups, each with a pergola-shaded courtyard and a garden. Above and behind them are two Family Villas for up to five guests, a Superior Villa, two Sunrise Villas and a Privilege Villa, several with pools of their own, along with two hillside suites and two hillside houses built for couples. Every unit has air conditioning and ceiling fans. Wi-Fi is available on request only, and the retreat is deliberately off-grid in spirit. Hot water comes from solar panels and the lighting is LED throughout. No plastic bottles are used, only filtered water, and the restaurant’s organic waste goes to animals on farms nearby.
The table
Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served on a stone-paved terrace under the old plane trees. The kitchen cooks Andrian and wider Mediterranean dishes from vegetables and herbs out of the garden, fish landed daily by the fishermen of Andros, dairy from island farms and fruit picked that morning. Breakfast is included and runs to seasonal fruit, local honey, fresh eggs and homemade pies and cakes. There are vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free plates, and a children’s menu. The wines change each year, chosen from Greek local varieties to go with the food.
The farm
The farm beside the cottages is DIO-certified organic for more than fifteen years. DIO is the Greek organisation that controls and certifies organic produce. The beds supply the kitchen, and they are worked partly to keep rare seed varieties in cultivation. Guests can walk down and pick vegetables and fruit themselves.
Private retreats
A retreat can be shaped around a group’s own purpose: wellbeing, creative residencies, leadership gatherings, culinary escapes and private group stays. Sheltered work happens in a 100 m2 hexadome and a 90 m2 covered pergola, the tent pitched under the plane trees, with the riverside, the poolside and the beach for the rest. The shared table is the fixed point of each day, and the menu is written for the group.
Who is this for
Onar suits couples, families and small groups who would rather have their days decided by the water than by a timetable. Achla beach is 350 metres away, a crescent of fine pebbles and sand reached by a riverside path, and no cars come into the valley, so children move about freely. There is a communal pool looking over the landscape, herons to watch at dusk, and Trail 6 arrives on foot from Vourkoti by way of the monastery of Agios Nikolaos. Peak summer weeks usually ask for five nights.
