THIS JUST IN: One&Only Aesthesis Resort is Actually Now Open, and We Have the Scoop on Secret Holiday Deals
Missed the ribbon-cutting? Don't worry, the hottest new hotel in Greece is still primed for its close-up
Did you know that the huge urban renewal project has started at Ellinikon, home until 2001 of Athens’ international airport and for many years an operations base for the United States Air Force? Ellinikon borders on Glyfada, where there was once a NATO officer’s club and where even now locals know how to find hidden coves that were it not for the distant roar of traffic could be mistaken for obscure Greek islands. The project will be years in the making, but one that has just been completed is a luxury seafront resort called One&Only Aesthesis.
It is situated on a sprawling parcel of land on a peninsula that juts into the Saronic Gulf — you can see the island of Aegina, long ago a rival to ancient Athens, across the water. The resort quietly opened this month, following a ribbon-cutting ceremony where Prime Minister Mitsotakis spoke in faultless English about benefits to the economy of bringing more high-end tourism developments into Greece, of which Aesthesis — think aesthetics, etymology aficionados — is a prime example.
The thing to do here is to book one of the bright and airy seaside bungalows, which channel the vibe of the 1960s when these kinds of hideaways shielded the likes of Maria Callas and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis from the paparazzi. From the terraces of many of them you can jump right into the sea — after an unusually hot summer still warm enough in November to do so.
There’s nothing like a quick dip to alleviate jet lag or work up an appetite. A recent site inspection sadly left no time for either unwinding at the Guerlain spa or to dine, but Chef Ettore Botrini’s “playful, inventive twist on Greek cuisine through an Italian lens” at the Ora restaurant looked promising. Feasting on forkfuls of beef battuta — Piedmontese beef with Toscana pecorino cream, Greek truffle, and spinach — over a bottle of red wine from the ancient Nemea vineyards near Corinth, one could almost forget about things like war in the Middle East or blanket coverage of Taylor Swift’s coded messages to her new Kansas City flame.
More to come…