It was around the time that the ferry
eased itself into the port of Ios, an island in the Greek Cyclades, that I
began to wonder if we had come to the right place. We — my husband and I, elder
millennials on the cusp of middle age — were shoulder to shoulder with
teenagers, hordes of them, youthful energy bounding off their dewy skin.
اضافة اعلان
In the thick of summer, the ferry’s windowless
boarding area felt like a furnace. I felt a wave of claustrophobia. These kids
had come to party. We had … not. We sought good food and local wine, to somehow
come home healthier than when we left, like the people who go to
Paris and
return like 5kg lighter, “because of all the walking” and the unprocessed
bread.
To paraphrase a popular meme: Could the island do
both?
The sun sets on Oia, a village in Santorini, Greece, where resort operators invite tourists to put up their feet and lean into a version of wellness that hinges on slowing down, August 9, 2022.
For sure, there’s plenty of respite to be found
within Ios’ 108sq.km. Goats still roam the island’s craggy hills and cliffs. It
lacks an airport. But, since the 1970s, Ios has been known, primarily, for one
thing.
“It’s a place to party,” said Katerina
Katopis-Lykiardopulo, a photographer who collaborated with author Chrysanthos
Panas on “Greek Islands,” a coffee-table book published in May. “Back in the
day, there were hippies, there were drugs, there were people sleeping on the
beach. Is it still a party island? Do teenagers still come? Yes, of course. But
the island is making an effort to be more than that.”
Aware that not every visitor wants to rage until
dawn or cross off points of interest with their fellow cruise ship passengers,
intrepid operators on Ios, as well as its world famous Cycladic neighbors to
the north and south, Mykonos and Santorini, are inviting tourists to put up
their feet and lean into a version of wellness that hinges on slowing down.
The Calilo resort on the Greek island of Ios, where the owners built on 1 percent of the property they bought from 2,137 landowners and left the rest untouched, August 12, 2022.
Case in point: Calilo, a three-year-old resort on
the east coast of Ios, enough hairpin turns over the hills and away from the
port to (almost) banish the memory of a billboard advertising a nightclub named
Scorpion (“Don’t leave until you get stung”). A Disneyland for the spiritually
optimistic, Calilo pushes motivational mantras instead of five-for-one shot
specials.
“When we enter this place, we leave everything
negative behind,” said Sandy Parisi, a Calilo concierge with a disposition to
rival the midafternoon sun, leading us through a breezeway with shapes
strategically cut out of its roof: When the light hits right, hearts spray out
across the path.
A crowded street in Mykonos, Greece, August 7, 2022.
“The purpose of this experiment, if I can call it
that, is to bring as much positivity, love, and freedom to people as we can,”
said Angelos Michalopoulos, who owns and operates Calilo, as well as six other
restaurants and hotels on the island, with his wife, Vassiliki Petridou, and
four of their five children.
Motivational messaging is part of Calilo’s holistic
approach to wellness. An on-site farm grows much of the produce served at the
resort’s restaurants, including tomatoes flavorful enough to make you wonder if
you had ever really tasted one before. The decor endeavors to surprise and
delight. The sunken dining tables by the main pool look like something out of
“Alice in Wonderland,” and all over the property, swings sway in the breeze. We
swayed while drinking coffee. We swayed while reading books (or scrolling
Instagram).

Goats roam freely on the Greek island of Ios, August 12, 2022.
Over the course of three days, Calilo’s whimsy
overtook me to the degree that I almost got over the grammatical idiosyncrasy
of the neon mantra blinking above its bar (“Create a life you can fall in love
with”). When I found myself fixating on that dangling preposition, I reminded
myself of the countless liberties I have taken with grammar, and the fact that
I was supposed to throw my cynicism in the pit upon arrival.
“A lot of our guests say that when they come here,
they’re entering a fairy tale,” said Petridou. “They can be kids again. Most
people come to Greece for the pools, the party, and the nightlife. We want to
break that cycle.”
Tourism accounts for approximately one-fifth of
Greece’s economy, according to the consulate general of Greece. Unchecked, the
compulsion to drive up profits can lead to, for instance, the global phenomenon
that is Mykonos: beautiful beaches and legendary sunsets, yes, but also streets
jammed with
Mercedes Sprinter vans, Starbucks, and day clubs that can charge
upward of 150 euros for a sun bed. After Ios, we had planned to continue
unwinding in Mykonos for two days. Mykonos had other plans.
The Cali Mykonos resort, which opened in July, on the Greek island of Mykonos, on August 7, 2022.
“Mykonos is the party island,” said Tasos Pavlidis,
a local concierge who attempted to get my husband and me on Mykonian standard
time: breakfast at 4pm, lunch at 6:30pm, dinner at 11pm Sleep? “You don’t come
to Mykonos to sleep,” said Pavlidis.
“Mykonos is a planet of its own,” said Katopis-Lykiardopulo,
the “Greek Islands” photographer. “We used to have people like Jackie O,” whose
1961 arrival on the island thrust it into the global jet-setting scene, “now we
have Elon Musk,” she added.
Beach clubs such as Alemagou (which Pavlidis describes
as “bohemian,” although it also attracts people who wear Cartier watches and
hats that say EBITA) and Scorpios (affiliated with Soho House, a members’ only
club) attract swarms of hopefuls jostling for the chance to pay 20 euros for an
espresso martini. For those who like to dance, drink, and people-watch after
dark, the chora of Mykonos exerts a magnetic pull. Despite this, in July, a new
resort opened with the goal of getting guests to chill out: Cali Mykonos, an
amalgamation of clean lines and sumptuous curves fueled by solar panels, a
rooftop herb garden, and an on-site water-purification plant.
The Calilo resort on the Greek island of Ios, August 12, 2022.
“Last night, we
had a couple who went to a local beach club in the afternoon and planned to go
into town in the evening and party,” said
Eric Mourkakos, Cali Mykonos’ managing partner. “They came back here to shower,
got to their room and said, ‘We realized, we have no reason to leave.’ I found
them later, sitting by their pool under the pergola, looking up at the sky.”
One need not possess self-control of herculean
proportions to avoid the thrum of the dance floor in Santorini: Compared with
Mykonos and Ios, there are not a lot of clubs. The madding crowd functions
differently on this volcanic island, with vistas so jaw-droppingly picturesque,
they are frequently punctuated by social media influencers and soon-to-be
brides and grooms, along with their attendant photographers.
In 2017, Greek hospitality company Andronis opened
Andronis Wellness Concept Resort, inviting Santorini visitors to stay awhile
and sink into some atypical offerings, which include a lantern-lit, hammamlike
spa and a health assessment that uses a strand of hair for epigenetic testing.
The test claims to offer insights into your habits, “and how you might change
them to lead a healthier life,” said Carla Sage, Andronis’ director of
wellness. “It’s growing in popularity. We’re doing one or two assessments every
few days.”
We decided that the healthiest thing we could
possibly do, on our last full day in Greece, was take a wine tour. Healthy for
the mind and soul, at least, if not for the corporeal body.
Under the tutelage of Santorini Winetopia’s Marissa
Diamanti, an effervescent tour guide with an encyclopedic knowledge of Hellenic
wine, we dug our hands into the crumbly soil beneath the vineyard of the
family-owned Hatzidakis Winery and marveled at the way the vines had been kept
low to the ground and shaped into baskets to protect the grapes from harsh sun
and wind.
At Artemis Karamolegos, a winery 10 minutes down the
road, we swooned at the way a bite of squid ink and fennel risotto elevated
Pyritis, a white wine made from Santorini’s indigenous Assyrtiko grape. We
indulged in one of the most holistic forms of wellness: an excellent meal with
great company, outdoors, on a summer afternoon.
After lunch, the 76-year-old proprietor of Art Space
Winery, an art gallery, history museum and winery across the street from
Artemis Karamolegos, unearthed an unlabeled bottle from below his bar and
proffered it to us with a question.
“This is my moonshine. You know moonshine? You’ll
try moonshine?”
Given my Cycladic understanding of wellness, there was only
one right answer.
Read more Travel
Jordan News