One&Only Kéa Island opened its second season on 11 April 2025, and opened it with two villas it did not have in its first. The larger is the Four-Bedroom Grand Seafront Villa, set at the heart of the resort above Vroskopos Bay — 466 sqm indoors, 485 sqm out, a 110 sqm infinity pool on the seafront terrace, and room for 8. It is the first house on the estate built for a whole party rather than a couple, and on an island reached from Athens in an hour by sea, that is a change worth noting.

The setting

The resort stands on a 65-hectare coastal estate on Kéa’s rugged west coast, perched above a protected cove, its villas stepped down the cliff so that each looks out and none looks in. Kéa is the closest of the Cyclades to Athens and has long been the Athenians’ own weekend island rather than anyone else’s discovery. The crossing is an hour by ferry or 45 minutes by speedboat, and 15 minutes by helicopter from Athens International Airport for those who would rather not touch the water at all.

The provenance

It is the second Greek address for One&Only, the ultra-luxury brand of Kerzner International, following One&Only Aesthesis on the Athenian Riviera, which opened in November 2023. Kéa Island first received guests in 2024; to open it, the brand appointed Jerome Colson as general manager, a hotelier with more than 20 years in hospitality, more than 10 of them with One&Only. Across the bay from the resort sits a separate community of 40 One&Only Private Homes, freehold and offered from one to six bedrooms, with layouts running from 180 to 3,020 sqm on plots of up to 7,130 sqm — a house rather than a villa, for those who intend to return.

The design

The estate is the work of the architect John Heah, whose 63 cliffside villas were arranged to hold their privacy while keeping the Aegean in full view. The vocabulary is consistent and quiet: locally sourced white marble, curved atriums, floor-to-ceiling windows, interiors that open onto terraces with private infinity pools and fireplaces. Both of the 2025 villas were drawn in the same manner, working natural and local materials, open-air plans and water into the same restrained whole.

The rooms

The Four-Bedroom Grand Seafront Villa runs over two levels. Three of its bedrooms are master suites with king beds and ensuite bathrooms, two of them with dressing rooms and deep tubs set to the bay; the fourth, with two queen beds, sits on the lower floor beside a playroom, an office and further living space, which is the arrangement a family with young children actually needs. There is a gourmet kitchen for extended stays, an outdoor bar, sunken daybeds at the pool’s edge, and separate staff quarters.

Beside it, the Family Bay View Villa is the largest of the resort’s one-bedroom villas at 107 sqm indoors: a king bedroom with a marble ensuite, a kitchenette, a private outdoor area with its own infinity pool and an L-shaped lounge, and a light-filled living room that converts to sleep two children. Between the two, the house now answers a brief it could not answer in 2024.

The spa

The One&Only Spa flows over three storeys above the water, built on the ancient Greek idea of sophrosyne — the balance of mind and body. There is an indoor-outdoor pool framing the bay, a sea-view yoga pavilion, an indoor-outdoor fitness centre and aquatic therapy in a Watsu pool. Treatments were composed for this house alone with Subtle Energies, and the ReSet and ReEnergise programmes run over three or five days, which is the right length for a stay that is not otherwise being spent on a boat.

The address

Kéa keeps a permanent population of around 2,300 and rewards the guest who leaves the estate. Four historic wrecks lie just offshore, making the island one of the Mediterranean’s more serious diving destinations; the resort’s dive centre takes beginners through PADI certification and experienced divers down to the wrecks and the protected marine parks around them. Further coves are reachable only by boat. On land, the trails climb to Karthea, where the temples of Athena and Apollo and a grand amphitheatre stand above the sea, and to Ioulida, the hillside town, for its galleries and its jewellers.

The house makes the introduction, for those who ask.