The new Olympian standard

Island-hopping in Greece has never been easier, or more desirable, owing to a boom in new hotel and villa openings in the Cyclades and beyond. Rosie Paterson rounds up the best

- Rosie Paterson

Gundari, Folegandros, Cyclades

The words ‘Gundari’ and ‘Folegandros’ mean similar things—variations of ‘stony place’, ‘rocky place’ and ‘big rock’. Indeed, from afar, the island of Folegandros, in the Greek Cyclades, looks like a place full of rocks and not much more. The arid soil is scarred by sharp stone terrace walls and brittle shrubs that look like half-domes of spiny coral plants.

It is, however, not deserted. Admittedly small, but far from down on its luck or lacking in charm. For years, it’s been the holiday preserve of Greek families and in-the-know Europeans; tourists from the UK and US are more likely to stick it out on better-known Santorini (less than an hour away by ferry or small boat), which gets 2.6 million visitors a year to Folegandros’s 50,000.

According to owner Ricardo Larriera, the island ‘deserved something like Gundari’— the first hotel of its kind on Folegandros. It’s a near-to-the-ground, design-led building that melts into the landscape. Its imperceptibility was a deliberate design decision—as is the low-level exterior lighting. Mr Larriera is worried about light pollution and claims that the starry night sky is as spectacular here as in the Outback, in his native Australia. It means that, come nightfall, the hotel’s façade glows a colour similar to expensive honey.