Elite Traveler HRS 2025

elite traveler HOTELS, RESORTS &SPAS2025 74

Eliamos' main pool area

RELAX Fitness is a big focus here — there’s an open-to-all Pilates class every morning at 8.30am sharp, as well as the option for private sessions (there are two grueling Reformer beds for the more hardcore guests). The gym is decked out with chic wooden equipment and the open-air set up grants views out across the ocean. Eliamos’ petite spa has two treatment rooms and a menu of relaxation-focused facials and massages. However, the real sense of relaxation here is the slow way of life that descends the minute you arrive. Hours melt seamlessly, with zero external pressures to do anything but lounge by the pool or, if you’re feeling especially crazy, make the 15-minute stroll down to the beach. It’s blissful. By Kim Ayling From $695 per night. Contact reservations@ eliamos.com, +30 267 117 1100, eliamos.com, mrandmrssmith.co.uk

Mediterranean gardens. It genuinely gets a bit hard to drag yourself away to the resort’s main pool area. DINE All meals at Eliamos are served at its chic, open-air restaurant (unless you’re making use of the round-the-clock room service, of course). Breakfasts were a real highlight in my eyes, with page after page of delicious (and surprisingly healthy) treats to choose from. Start with a plate of pita (a rotating savory pie wrapped up in buttery layers of fi lo pastry), before digging into a big plate of wholewheat pancakes with fruit. Evenings are a re fi neda ff air with an a la carte o ff ering representing the best of local ingredients and fl avors — the enormous bowls of pasta laden with fresh seafood are especially delicious. There’s a great list of wines to go with, too. Consider a Kefalonian bottle — the island is known for its characterful citrussy whites.

ELIAMOS VILLAS HOTEL & SPA KEFALONIA, GREECE

Nestled away in a secluded corner of Kefalonia’s hilly southwest coast (just a 15-minute drive from the dinky airport), Eliamos Villas Hotel & Spa is the ideal spot to bask in those last few rays of sun. The hotel opened in the summer of 2023 and, as the only Relais & Châteaux property in the Ionian and a member of Mr & Mrs Smith, it proudly brought a new level of high-end but deliberately understated luxury to an island more typically known for its cheap and undeniably cheerful package vacations. STAY Eliamos has 12 villas dotted about its grounds. While they are relatively close together (the resort sweetly describes itself as a village), there’s no sense of prying eyes, with smart placement of trees, shrubbery and material throws ensuring utmost discretion. Co-owner and international designer Maike Gruna (who launched the property alongside her husband Spyro, whose family originate from Kefalonia) took responsibility for the resort’s interiors, and has created an earthy, natural look with a contemporary edge: think poured concrete, ra ffi a details and bleached wooden furnishings. Each villa has its own saltwater pool (some large enough to swim, others more of a dunking pool) and a sublime outdoor terrace. Most have views right down to the ocean below, but if not, you get to overlook ancient olive groves and lush

Eliamos has just 12villas

Each villa has its own saltwater pool

Photo Pikon Photography