Passion For Luxury : Katikies Mykonos Is an Elegant Summer Heaven

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Katikies Mykonos Is an Elegant Summer Heaven

With a clifftop beach club, indulgent dining, and sweeping sea views, the new 35-suite hotel has us dreaming of heading back to Mykonos.

The whitewashed suites of the new Katikies Mykonos cascade down a cliffside on the sun-drenched Agios Ioannis peninsula on the southwest coast of the perennially popular Greek Isle. Looking around, it’s easy to see why the hotel’s designers eschewed Mykonos’s quintessential bohemian flair in lieu of a simple, clean palette where large swaths of white are only sporadically broken up by Aegean blue. The sea views don’t get much better than this.

Opened in June 2018, the hotel’s 35 suites—most with private plunge pools—are decorated in the same fresh blue-and-white palette as the hotel’s sweeping public spaces and feature minimalist contemporary furnishings, all designed to draw you out toward the ocean. And while all the accommodations are more than comfortable, the largest two Master Suites are the property’s crown jewels, spanning 645 square feet and boasting expansive terraces and pools with spellbinding views of the island and surrounding sea.

If they do manage to tear themselves away from their private sanctuaries, guests will find a nod to Mykonos’s famous nightlife at the poolside Seltz Champagne Bar & Restaurant. There, a deejay spins tunes alfresco—playing cool jazz at breakfast and beach beats in the afternoon. Guests sun on the loungers and cool off in the pool’s turquoise water, perhaps nursing the aftereffects of a late night in the nearby Old Town.

Like many of the island’s best hotels, Katikies’s chill, barefoot vibe offers a haven from the bustling tourist and party scene that put the island on the map. Every aspect has been designed to allow guests to slow down, unwind, and recover from the island’s many indulgences. To give their minds and bodies a boost, they can book a spa treatment in the subterranean A.Spa or while away the afternoon sunning at the hotel’s beach club (though not actually, on the Aegean, the hilltop club is complete with a sand-edged an infinity-edge pool that seems to spill into the sea).

Come dinnertime, the Mikrasia gourmet dining venue makes the most of the property’s unique setting for a toes-in-the-sand culinary experience. As with all of Katikies’s other properties in Mykonos and Santorini—all of which recently joined the Leading Hotels of the World portfolio—high-concept wining and dining is a major draw. And the Mykonos hotel’s 30-year-old, hot-shot executive chef Angelos Bakopoulos does not disappoint, showing off his skills with dishes that bring a modern twist to Greek Anatolian gastronomy. Recent tasting menu highlights included lobster à la polita, with a sauce of lemon juice and dill, and seafood dolma with a kakavia fisherman’s stew topped with preserved fish roe. With food like this and views like none other, we wouldn’t blame guests if they never left the property.