10 Greek Island Hotels to Bookmark for Next Summer
Sometimes you choose the island first. Sometimes you find a hotel and work backwards.
This list is for the second kind of trip.
No Athens, no city breaks, no hotels where the main selling point is that you can leave them quickly and go sightseeing. These are places for swimming before breakfast, lunches that stretch well into the afternoon and that dangerous moment around day two when you start checking how much it would cost to stay another night.
From Mykonos and Paros to Serifos, Symi, Rhodes and Crete, these are ten Greek island hotels we'd happily build an entire holiday around.
Uzenie, Crete
Uzenie sits right on the shoreline at Adelianos Kampos, just outside Rethymno, and feels much more intimate than the word "resort" usually suggests.
Water seems to find its way into almost every part of the hotel. Pools run alongside suites, the sea sits just beyond the grounds, and natural stone, greenery and huge boulders break up the architecture. The whole thing has been designed to feel earthy and slightly wild rather than glossy and overworked. It is also adults-only, which tells you quite a lot about the intended pace.
There is a beach club beside the water, a spa built around Cretan herbs and plenty of reasons to spend the day horizontally. Sustainability is unusually integrated too: the hotel uses solar power, saltwater pools and smart-room systems rather than simply asking you to reuse your towel and calling it a day.
Rethymno is close enough when you want a little more action. We suspect the harder part will be deciding when you actually want to leave.
Why we like it: It gives you everything you want from a seaside resort without ever really feeling like one.
The Wild, Mykonos
If your mental image of Mykonos involves enormous beach clubs, champagne bottles and somebody dancing on a table before sunset, The Wild is a very good reminder that the island has another side.
The hotel sits above a secluded cove on Mykonos's quieter eastern coast. Local fishermen once kept their boats down here, and the hotel's name comes from the "Wild Ones" who used the cove. Today, a stone staircase leads down to a private beach with startlingly clear water, while an infinity pool clings to the rocks above.
The mood is barefoot rather than flashy. Rough stone, timber, clay and whitewashed walls do most of the work, and dinner now happens at MEZÉ, where the focus is on shared Mediterranean dishes and ingredients from the Aegean. The more casual Taverna handles poolside food during the day.
You can still be in Mykonos Town when the mood strikes. The nice thing is knowing you don't have to stay there.
Why we like it: A private cove, a beautiful pool and a version of Mykonos that knows how to lower its voice.
Bard de Sol, Mykonos
Bard de Sol is Mykonos with its shirt tucked in.
Perched above Agios Stefanos, it looks across the bay towards the Aegean and feels sharper than the island's usual whitewashed-bohemian formula. There are darker details, clean lines and a slightly more polished mood, while some of its 13 rooms and suites come with private pools or outdoor hot tubs. Michelin describes the hotel as thoroughly modern and glamorous, which is pretty much the idea.
This is also the Mykonos option on our list for people who still want to be close to the action. Agios Stefanos beach is nearby, Mykonos Town is a short drive away, and the hotel is compact enough that it never feels like you're walking around a resort complex.
Bard de Sol translates its name as "poet of the sun", which sounds slightly dramatic until you are sitting above the bay at sunset with a drink in your hand. Then you sort of understand it.
Why we like it: If The Wild is Mykonos for switching off, Bard de Sol is Mykonos for getting dressed for dinner afterwards.
Perma Serifos
Serifos already feels like an excellent place to disappear.
It has the white villages and absurdly blue water you came to the Cyclades for, but with less of the choreography surrounding them. Old mining landscapes, rocky hillsides and quiet stretches of coastline give the island a wonderfully unpolished quality.
Perma fits into that landscape almost suspiciously well. It sits in a secluded glen overlooking the Aegean, with low stone buildings, pools and terraces disappearing into the hillside. The hotel describes itself as a wellbeing sanctuary, but thankfully that doesn't mean somebody appears at breakfast with a clipboard containing your mandatory breathing schedule.
The whole idea is to follow your own rhythm. Swim. Walk. Read. Have a treatment. Stare at the sea for an unreasonable amount of time. Perma accepts guests aged 12 and over, so this is very much geared towards quiet rather than children's-club energy.
Why we like it: Serifos already feels removed from the rest of the Cyclades. Perma takes you another few steps away.
Tella Thera, Crete
Tella Thera almost disappears into the hills of western Crete.
Built into the landscape near Kissamos, low terraces follow the slope between olive and citrus trees with the sea in the distance. Green roofs, local materials and bioclimatic architecture make the hotel feel like it belongs here rather than arriving with a mood board from somewhere else.
The sustainability side is serious. The property is powered by solar panels, its architecture is designed to make better use of natural light and airflow, and native planting reduces the need for heavy irrigation. But the reason we are interested is not because Tella Thera ticks a very long list of eco credentials. It is because all of those decisions have resulted in a hotel that is genuinely beautiful.
Condé Nast Traveler included it on its 2026 Hot List, where it was the only Greek hotel selected. Fair enough.
Why we like it: Sustainability is not the side story here. It is what made the hotel look and feel the way it does.
Amyth of Mykonos Agios Stefanos, Mykonos
Our third Mykonos hotel occupies a different space again.
Amyth sits above Agios Stefanos, close enough to Mykonos Town that dinner and drinks require very little planning, but far enough away that coming home feels like an escape. The hotel's daily shuttle also runs between the property, Chora and Agios Stefanos beach, so you don't need to make every outing a logistical exercise.
The interiors are softer than Bard de Sol and more bohemian: white walls, woven details, warm natural tones and terraces made for watching the light disappear over the Aegean. Some suites add private pools or jetted tubs. It is also adults-only, welcoming guests from 16 years old.
This is the one we'd pick for a couple who wants Mykonos to still feel like Mykonos. You can go into town, stay out late, spend a day at the beach and then come back somewhere that feels pleasantly removed from all of it.
Why we like it: You get easy access to the fun bits of Mykonos without having to sleep in the middle of them.
SeeSoo, Paros
SeeSoo is the sort of place where wearing shoes starts to feel strangely unnecessary.
It sits beside the water in Pounta on the western side of Paros, looking towards Antiparos. The formula is reassuringly simple: white buildings, gardens, a pool, the sea and lots of places to lie down between them.
Design-wise, there is very little shouting. Wicker, wood, white walls and natural materials keep things easy, and the hotel's identity has been built around a deliberately low-impact approach. The property is committed to being plastic-free, while even its unusual name traces back to James Joyce's interpretation of the sound of waves in Ulysses.
And that is probably enough mythology for one afternoon. Grab a book, find some shade and look across the water towards Antiparos.
Why we like it: SeeSoo doesn't try to reinvent island life. It just makes the simple version of it look extremely appealing.
1900 Hotel, Symi
1900 Hotel is cheating slightly.
There is no private beach and no infinity pool. Instead, it occupies a restored 19th-century neoclassical mansion directly on Symi harbour. Considering Symi has one of the prettiest ports in Greece, we are comfortable bending our own rules.
Architect and owner Dimitris Zographos has kept the original house almost entirely intact. Painted ceilings, tall windows and historic details remain, but the result doesn't feel like sleeping in a museum. One of the rooms occupies the mansion's former kitchen, and downstairs a courtyard smells of wild fig before opening towards the harbour outside.
There is also a self-service honesty bar and a roof terrace looking across Symi's jumble of pastel-coloured neoclassical houses. This is where we'd want to be when the day-trippers leave and the harbour settles into the evening.
Spend the day taking a boat to one of the island's coves, then come back for a drink above the port.
Why we like it: It reminds us that an island hotel doesn't actually need to own the beach when the entire island is outside the door.
Casa Cook Rhodes, Rhodes
Casa Cook Rhodes helped turn a very particular kind of barefoot hotel into an aesthetic of its own.
You probably know the ingredients by now: earthy plaster, woven baskets, linen, timber, ceramics, low furniture and colours that appear to have been selected from an especially attractive piece of driftwood.
The reason Casa Cook still works is that there is more to it than the Pinterest board.
Set in Kolymbia with a rocky hillside rising behind it, the adults-only hotel is arranged around pools, wooden decks, gardens and low white buildings. Rooms open onto verandas and many connect directly with the water. The beach is a short walk away, but there is a serious risk of making it only as far as the hammock.
Yoga, long breakfasts and dinner at Kitchen Club establish the general rhythm, while Rhodes Old Town and Lindos are there when you eventually want something more ambitious than moving from one sunbed to another.
Why we like it: Casa Cook has been copied a lot. The original idea still works very well.
Minos Beach Art Hotel, Crete
Minos Beach has been here much longer than most of the hotels on this list, and it has become more interesting with age.
The hotel first opened beside Mirabello Bay more than sixty years ago. Today, whitewashed bungalows and villas are scattered through gardens along two kilometres of coastline, with two private sandy beaches and little platforms and patios tucked beside the water. It feels more like a seaside village than a conventional resort.
Then you start noticing the art.
More than 55 works from the G. & A. Mamidakis Foundation are spread through the grounds and sculpture garden, with pieces by Greek and international artists sitting between plants, pathways and the sea. You don't need to decide to "go and see the art". You simply keep encountering it while walking to breakfast or heading for a swim.
That is really what makes Minos Beach interesting. It has all the things a proper Cretan resort should have, but there is enough history, architecture and art layered through it that the place has developed a personality of its own.
Why we like it: A beach resort where wandering around the hotel is genuinely part of the holiday.
So, Which One Would We Choose?
This is where things become difficult.
For proper escape-from-everything energy, Perma Serifos wins. For a private beach and a quieter version of Mykonos, we'd choose The Wild. Bard de Sol is the sharper, more polished Mykonos option, while Amyth makes the most sense when you want easy access to town but somewhere peaceful to come back to.
SeeSoo is our barefoot Paros pick. Casa Cook Rhodes is very good at turning an entire day beside the pool into a plan. Uzenie gives you the pleasures of a full seaside resort in a much more intimate package.
On Crete, Tella Thera is probably the most interesting choice for architecture and sustainability, while Minos Beach Art Hotel is for people who want a proper waterfront resort with a little more character and history behind it.
And then there is 1900 Hotel, which has almost none of the classic resort ingredients and still earns its place here simply because waking up above Symi harbour sounds like a very good way to spend a few days.
Maybe the better question isn't which hotel we'd choose.
It's how many ferries we can reasonably fit into one summer.
Eliza
Curator, A Good Stay
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