Almost like a film set, the tiny harbour of Assos on the west coast of Kefalonia, is improbably picturesque, with pastel coloured houses encrusting the small isthmus from which sprouts a pine-covered headland, crowned with a Venetian fortress. The village enfolds in its plump and pretty arms a small beach and a perfectly limpid … Read More
Paros beaches are fun, plentiful, sandy, safe, clean and get rather full in summer. Here are some ideas for getting away from them for a day or two. THE BYZANTINE ROAD Through Paros’ green and flowery June meadows, along hillsides and down into cool valleys, a path of weathered, grey marble flagstones meanders from … Read More
We are thrilled to introduce a new island to our portfolio of destinations with lovely villas – and Kythnos is a particularly low-key and charming island, with very few villas and not much to do. Just what we like. In fact, the glamorous Athenian owner of our new villa shook her head in … Read More
Women, as all Greek men know, cannot drive. When they therefore have to reverse onto the little ferry deck of the Paros-Antiparos ferry, the shortest ride in Greece, and the one that affords the deepest insights into the gender war, any good Greek sailor knows he has to shout “Left, left, LEFT, right RICHT RIGHTRIGHTRIGHTISAID, … Read More
The Five Star Greece Inspection tour hits Paros. accompanied by our new Parian colleague Dimitris, whose enormous family seems to run Paros, and is clearly the key to the island. People wave and smile as we pass by. “I am beginning to feel like the Queen” I say. Dimitris gently puts me in my place “The … Read More
Like a young girl who misbehaved when she was 17 and has been given funny looks and avoided ever since, Ios sits, largely avoided by “those who know”, half way between Mykonos and Santorini, connected to both, but unvisited and resigned to an unjust fate – The party scene on Milopotas beach which was … Read More
Karpenissi is one of Greece’s last undiscovered corners; tranquilly enfolded in the arms of its pine-clad mountain slopes and snowy peaks, it hangs in the azure air in a world that hovers, all on its own, above the hubbub of the coasts. To the the East lies the sparkling Aegean and … Read More
Dedicated to Billie Cohen of Condé Nast Traveler. The real joy of travelling is not in seeing things – the world is so overrun with images already – but in experiencing things, the magic moments are when we become someone different from our usual selves. I was in slow, gracious Charleston, South Carolina … Read More
The car rental man will never understand how we managed to clock up 250 kilometres on an island that measures 8 by 3km. I don’t think we will tell him either… Paxos only really needs one road, so the figure of 8 arrangement that they have put in the middle of the island for some … Read More
Fiscardo on the northern tip of Kefalonia or Cephalonia is a real contender – critics complain that it shuts down in winter, but really, when something is this lovely the rest of the time, does it matter? The corniche drive from the airport up to here is breathtaking – the road snakes vertiginously along the … Read More
