"Do you like bizarre?" This might be the strangest hotel outside of Las Vegas
London and Paris have their share of quirky hotels too, but on a small Greek island...
“Do you like bizarre?” asked Christopher Lloyd in his role as the iconic spaced-out cab driver Jim "Iggy" Ignatowski in an episode of the landmark TV series Taxi. He said it without taking himself too seriously, which is one way to approach the hotel called Calilo on the island of Ios, which is near Santorini.
We visited the Erego beach club a few years ago and thought that was pretty cool. Calilo is part of the same group, in a more remote part of the island. The decor is unusual and the scale is large. The beach is nice. Overall it might be for some people, but not for everyone. There are articles about it, in Greek, here as well as here.
Here is the lobby, or part of it anyway:
Before that, there is an entrance area with a big water feature. Interesting, but surfaces were slippery.
See the video.
Beyond the lobby and next to a large swimming pool there is a large bar.
After descending a long road, you come to the entrance.
As seen from the beach (Santorini is a few miles to the south)
Though the hotel has transfer vans, getting around Ios is not like getting around Hydra or even Santorini — unless you’ve got yourself a yacht, a car is essential.
The Erego Beach Club and Restaurant, by the way, is located in Koumbara, on the other side of the island.
An eclectic design element we saw at a beach club at Mylopotas beach, below, was reminiscent of some of that swanky Erego decor.
Ios, of course, is an island full of little surprises, like this statue we spotted along the roadside on the way to Homer’s tomb (yes, Homer hailed from here.) Reminded us of that old Michael Jackson number, “You’re Just Another Part of Me”…or something.
