Category: Luxury travel (page 3 of 3)

More high-end clubs, shops, hotels & restaurants planning to open on Mykonos

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Bill & Coo Coast Suites image from the hotel's Facebook page

The owners of the award-winning Bill & Coo Suites & Lounge will be opening another 5-star hotel on Mykonos in May — the Bill & Coo Coast Suites, seen in this image from its Facebook page

 

Boom times: It looks like the great Mykonos gold rush is going to continue again this year, with numerous top-flight international  nightclubs, restaurants, shops and hotels hoping to gain a toehold in the island’s booming market for luxury travel services.

2015 was a banner year for Mykonos, which witnessed the arrival of more than 100 new businesses, many of which were aimed at affluent travellers with insatiable tastes for 5-star accommodations, fine dining, upscale bars and nightclubs, and exclusive retail boutiques.

Their success has attracted the attention of more international luxury brands, which have been scouring the island for available real estate or partnership opportunities with established local entrepreneurs and landowners.

According to a February 21 2016 article by the Greek news and media website Ethnos, the operators of such elite nightclubs and restaurants as Bagatelle, Hyde Beach, Maddox, Novikov, Okku and Vip Room have been scoping out space for possible new summer locations in Mykonos Town. They undoubtedly have been encouraged by the huge popularity of some of last year’s high-profile newcomers, which included Ling Ling by Hakkasan, Inyama Surf and Turf, Buddha Bar Beach, Toy Room Club, and Bonbonniere Mykonos.

 

Vassili Tsili Christos Made in Mykonos event at Maddox Club London

A promotional image for DJ Vassili TsiliChristos’ Made in Mykonos party taking place March 6 at Maddox Club in London.  

 

Maddox is an exclusive nightclub that is “strictly members only. Membership is only accepted on a referral basis,” says the club’s website. There’s no word on when it might be opening a Mykonos location — nor have any announcements been made about launch dates for any of the other swish clubs that are reportedly vying for space on the island. Coincidentally, Maddox Club is hosting a Made in Mykonos party on March 5. It’s a popular event that Greek DJ, music producer and social event organizer Vassili TsiliChristos hosts at the upscale Nammos restaurant and beach bar on Mykonos every summer. (He’ll be taking his show to Washington D.C. and New York City in March, and will be headlining at Nammos again on July 23).

 

Kalo Livadi beach Mykonos photo by MykonosGuide.co

The golden sand beach and turquoise waters at Kalo Livadi, seen in an image from Mykonos Guide.  The Four Seasons hotel and resort group reportedly plans to build a hotel in this area, while the W chain of hotels is looking to open a boutique property at nearby Agia Anna beach.

 

Meanwhile, the Four Seasons hotel group is reportedly seeking land for a large luxury resort at Kalo Livadi, and the W chain is exploring plans to build a 70-room specialty hotel at the Agia Anna beach near Kalafatis. 

Although those projects won’t be opening this season, a new 5-star luxury hotel at Agios Ioannis (the “Shirley Valentine beach”) will be launching this spring — a project by the owners of the 5-star Bill & Coo Suites & Lounge in Mykonos Town, which recently was fêted as Best Luxury Boutique Hotel at the World Tourism Awards 2016.

According to its website and Facebook page, the 15-room Bill & Coo Coast Suites will feature “barefoot luxury” design and ambience on a “10 acre oasis by the sea” at Agios Ioannis beach.

“The startling view to the sea and access to the beach ensure travellers a premium holiday experience beyond comparison in the alluring island of Mykonos,” says a February 23 2016 post on the Bill & Coo Coast Suites Facebook page

The hotel is scheduled to open in early May, but its online booking system shows that it’s already fully booked from May 9 to 15.  Rooms are available from May 16 onward, at nightly rates ranging from as low as €420 for a Sea View Coast Suite to  €1,390 for a Bill & Coo Coast Suite.

On the luxury retail shopping front, this year’s big news is that mining magnate Nikos Lascaris and his wife, Georgia, are investing millions of Euros to open a posh “super boutique” Tserkov store that will feature creations by many of the world’s top fashion designers.

According to a January 19 2016 article on the Cyclades24 news website, the boutique is being referred to as “paradise couture” because it will spotlight so many leading designers, and even couture lines.  According to the Facebook page for the first Tserkov store, which opened December 18 2015 in Zurich, the shop “is a destination for individualists looking for something rare and incomparable.”

Tserkov Store Mykonos

Tserkov, the fashion boutique for “individualists,” will open this spring on Mykonos. This image is from Tserkov website.

Champagne season gets back into full swing on Mykonos

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Champagne photo from the Rock N Roll Mykonos nightclub Facebook page

Rock N Roll Mykonos nightclub shared this image, by @michalisleventogiannis, on its Facebook page

 

Corks keep popping: Much like the bunny in the television commercials for the Energizer® brand of batteries, the Mykonos party scene just keeps going and going, fuelled in large part by a seemingly unquenchable thirst for champagne by travellers who have money to burn. 

Last summer, I published a post describing how champagne was the summer’s top drink on Mykonos. Fast forward to this month, and Mykonos visitors still have an insatiable demand for the fine bubbly beverage — and that has been making headlines in international media.

This week, newspapers and websites around the world reported on a June 23 Bloomberg Business article entitled: As Athens boils and banks teeter, the party goes on in Mykonos.

 

 This video, “Mykonos: The ‘Crisis-Free Island,” was posted online this week by Bloomberg Business. It explains why the champagne keeps flowing in Mykonos while the rest of Greece reels from its ongoing economic woes.

 

“Mykonos is not about austerity”

The Bloomberg piece was written by Tom Mackenzie, who travelled to Mykonos earlier this month after spending six days in Athens. Noting that the island’s bars, clubs and restaurants were busy, Mackenzie said Mykonos “could be another country, divorced from the nation’s economic woes. Mykonos is not about austerity. The hotels are among the most expensive in Europe, and a good night is measured in empty champagne bottles, stacked in piles. One three-liter bottle of Armand De Brignac champagne can set you back 12,000 euros (U.S. $13,500).”

Some of those bottles are practically flying off the shelves at Nammos, the premier beach bar and restaurant on Mykonos. Mackenzie interviewed the Nammos manager, who said “he sells 300 to 400 bottles of champagne” on an average night, “much of it shipped out to the yachts that line the harbor.”

 

champagne at Nammos

Just some of the hundreds of bottles of champagne that Nammos restaurant and beach bar sells on an average night. Nammos shared this picture on its Facebook page with the caption: “Any time is the right time for champagne!”

 

Armand de Brignac champagne photo 02 from the Pinky Beach Mykonos Facebook page

Two golden bottles of Armand de Brignac champagne chill in a bucket of ice in this photo posted on Facebook by the Pinky Beach Mykonos restaurant and club at Super Paradise beach

 

Pinky Beach Mykonos champagne special offers

Pinky Beach posted this image on Facebook on August 7 to promote two of its champagne and sunbeds special offers

 

 

 Dozens of new businesses in 2015

Although the Bloomberg article got wide attention when it was picked up and shared by news services around the globe, it was basically paraphrasing an observation that I made at the beginning of May  when I reported on dozens of new businesses that have opened on Mykonos this year. Mackenzie’s comment that “Mykonos “could be another country, divorced from the nation’s economic woes,” seems to be simply an abbreviated version of my statement that “While Greece shudders through its sixth straight year of devastating economic turbulence,  Mykonos appears to be in a different world altogether, virtually unscathed from the recession that has ravaged the rest of the country.”  Indeed, as I pointed out in my what’s new on Mykonos post, many regular visitors to the island will probably be asking themselves “Crisis? What Crisis?” when they arrive this summer to see all the new and freshly-renovated bars, clubs, hotels, restaurants and shops.

 

champagne at Project Mykonos nightclub seen in a Facebook photo by mykonooos.com

Project Mykonos is one of the newest nightclubs on Mykonos this year — a sister to the Project Club in London. This bottle of Moet & Chandon at Project Mykonos was photographed by mykonooos.com.

 

champagne bottles at Toy Room Club Mykonos in a Facebook photo 2 by mykonooos.com

Sparklers herald the delivery of champagne at Toy Room Club Mykonos, another nightclub new to Mykonos this year (an island version of the Toy Room Club in London). This photo was shared on Facebook by mykonooos.com.

 

Top international brands flocking to Mykonos

Internationally-renowned retail chains, restaurants and nightclubs — most of which cater to an affluent clientele — have been scooping up all available rental space on the island in a bid to cash in on the big-spending jet-set travellers who have been vacationing on Mykonos during the last several years. The top-flight brands opening on Mykonos this season include Victoria’s Secret, Lapin House, Le Concept Avant-Garde, Six Senses Spa, Buddha-Bar, Hakkasan, and the chic London nightspots Bonbonniere, Project and Toy Room. They have been joined by four new hotels, two new upscale beach clubs, plus at least a dozen new restaurants and wine bars, with more reportedly on the way.

And it isn’t even high season for tourism yet — the peak months for travel to Mykonos are July and August, when the island will be awash with champagne. With so much bubbly flowing already, the heaps of empty bottles collecting behind some of the Mykonos beach clubs could be enormous by summer’s end.

Click on the link below to continue reading page 2 of this post.

 

champagne photo from Toy Room Club Mykonos

A bevy of beauties with bubbly at Toy Room Club

 

champagne bottles on the bar at Monarch restaurant & beach club Mykonos

Champagne on the bar at Monarch Restaurant & Beach Club, a new dining and party venue at Kalo Livadi beach

 

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Private seaside cinema: the new Greek island luxury villa perk

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Private beach cinema at Casa del Mar Mykonos photo 01 from SLH Facebook page

This summer, guests at Casa del Mar Mykonos Seaside Resort can go to the movies at a private seaside “cinema” on the beach below their villas

 

Coming soon to a beach near your Greek Island luxury villa — a private seaside cinema?

That’s actually what guests at the Casa del Mar Mykonos Seaside Resort will get to enjoy after dark this summer should they prefer to stay “home” one night rather than travel two miles (4 km) into Mykonos Town to shop, dine, party or people-watch. Merely by walking down a few steps to the resort’s private beach, they’ll be able to curl up on a comfy lounge chair with a glass of wine or bowl of popcorn and watch a film displayed on a wide-screen high-definition panel positioned right on the water’s edge.

A member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World group of independent hotels, Casa del Mar is an exclusive villa and spa resort at Glyfadi beach, a quiet off-the-beaten-path cove in the Aleomandra area at the southwest tip of Mykonos. The resort website describes Casa del Mar as “an eclectic collection” of nine “luxury sea view suites … grandly appointed with deluxe amenities, quality furnishings and modern conveniences.” 

The newest of those “conveniences” was unveiled this week when the Small Luxury Hotels Facebook page posted the two photographs that I have republished in this article. A photo caption read: “There’s nothing wrong with a night in! We think the brand new private beach cinema at SLH’s Casa Del Mar Mykonos might be just the ticket!”

If you’re not able to stay at Casa del Mar while visiting Mykonos this summer, don’t dismay — you can watch a movie outdoors at Cine Manto in Mykonos Town instead (starting May 22). It won’t be the same as watching a film from the comfort of a luxurious sunbed on a sandy beach, of course, but at least it’s in the fresh, open air in a lovely garden setting.

And if you’re travelling somewhere in Greece other than Mykonos, you might be able to attend an outdoor cinema near your destination, too, since there are more than 100 outdoor movie theatres in the country.

I couldn’t find an online directory listing all outdoor cinemas in Greece, but the Athens Info Guide website has a directory of summer cinemas in the city, which you can view by clicking here.

You can read more about the Athens outdoor cinemas on the Greeka.com blog, and on the Visit Greece tourism website.

And for an interesting read about how digital technology is impacting on Greece’s outdoor cinemas, see this August 2014 article from The Guardian newspaper in the U.K.

 

Private beach cinema at Casa del Mar Mykonos photo 02 from SLH Facebook page

Another view of the private beach cinema at Casa del Mar Mykonos

 

Mykonos set for 2015 season with over 100 new places to eat, drink, shop, sleep and party

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Cayenne Mykonos restaurant logo

Located at Tourlos, just a short walk from the New Port, Cayenne is among dozens of brand-new businesses on Mykonos this year. 

 

[Updated October 30 2015]

 “Crisis? What crisis?” That’s a question many regular visitors to Mykonos will probably ask when they see the more than 100 new and completely-renovated businesses that have opened on the island this year.

While Greece shudders through its sixth straight year of devastating economic turbulence,  Mykonos appears to be in a different world altogether, virtually unscathed from the recession that has ravaged the rest of the country.

Last year, the island enjoyed a record year for tourism — receiving more than 2 million visitors — and some longtime local residents told me they could not recall ever seeing the island as crowded and busy as it was during July and August. Hotels were filled to capacity, flotillas of luxury yachts were common sights at many beaches, and champagne flowed by the caseload at bars and restaurants across the island. As I reported in a July 16 2014 post, hotel rates reached higher levels, too, with the international online travel firm Trivago noting that prices had soared as much as 61% over the previous year.

 

 

International brands flocking to Mykonos

In anticipation that even more tourists with thick wallets will arrive in 2015, local and international companies have been pouring millions of Euros into the construction of new hotels, shops, bars, clubs and restaurants, as well as the renovation or upgrading of existing properties. Indeed, since late last autumn, Mykonos has been experiencing an unprecedented building boom as small armies of contractors swarmed around the island in a rush to finish dozens of projects. Global business brands flocked to the island in droves, scooping up any available real estate for their new Mykonos outlets.

With many of the new enterprises aimed at affluent travellers, Mykonos mayor Konstantinos Koukas has told local media he’s confident that the island is now well-poised to compete for a bigger share of the the world’s luxury travel market, and will successfully lure big spenders who usually flock to other Mediterranean hotspots like St Tropez, Monaco and Ibiza.

To see what’s new on Mykonos this year, please click on the convenient quick links below:

Click here for page 2 to read about new and newly-renovated restaurants in Mykonos Town,  Tourlos, and the Ano Mera area.

Click here for page 3, which describes  new and renovated beach restaurants, as well as the island’s two big new beach clubs, Monarch and Scorpios.

Click here for page 4, which highlights new and renovated nightlife venues in Mykonos Town, including bars, nightclubs, and shisha lounges; and

Click here for page 5, which introduces you to the island’s new spas, retail shopping establishments, and hotels.

 

Food Mall Mykonos image from the restaurants' Facebook page

More than two dozen new restaurants opened on Mykonos for 2015, and five of them can be found under one roof at the Food Mall Mykonos on the highway between Mykonos Town and Ano Mera.

 

Aerial view of Scorpios Mykonos

Widely recognized as the hippest new beach club on Mykonos for 2015, the Scorpios Beach Restaurant and Bar became one of the most popular places on the island within weeks of its opening in an “idyllic haven” on a peninsula between Paraga and Platis Gialos. 

 

Monarch Restaurant & Beach Club at Kalo Livadi Mykonos photo from its website

Another new beach club and restaurant is Monarch at Kalo Livadi, which boasts cuisine designed by a Michelin-starred chef, comfy beachfront lounge chairs, and occasional special events and big parties. 

 

Buddha-Bar Beach restaurant and bar at Santa Marina Resort Mykonos photo from the resort Facebook page

The world’s first Buddha-Bar Beach restaurant, bar and beach club opened on May 20 at the Santa Marina Resort at Ornos. 

 

Ling Ling Mykonos entrance

One of the most eagerly awaited new arrivals on Mykonos was Ling Ling, a Hakkasan-branded Cantonese fine dining restaurant and  uber-chic nightspot.  It opened in July in the premises that had been occupied for decades by the famous Philippi Garden Restaurant, which closed a few years ago after its owner died. 

 

Bonbonniere Mykonos nightclub

June 27 saw the launch of yet another new nightclub when Bonbonniere Mykonos threw its opening party in the ODE Mykonos club in the Tria Pigadia area of Mykonos Town. It’s a summer “pop up” version of the world-famous Bonbonniere club in London whose owner, Joe Fournier (wearing the white polo shirt) is pictured after signing a contract to bring Bonbonniere to the ODE space for the season.

 

Caprice Bar Mykonos photo from inmykonos dot com website

Mykonos residents and visitors weren’t just buzzing about new business openings this spring — people were also chatting about the abrupt closure of the enormously popular Caprice Bar (pictured above) and its surprise reopening a few weeks later as Caprice, a restaurant-bar located just a few doors down from its old place at Little Venice. 

 

Mykonos No 5 Villas luxury apartments photo from the hotel website

Mykonos No.5 Villas is one of the island’s newest hotels, offering a selection of seaview apartment residences, lofts and maisonettes in the Kanalia district 3.5 kilometers from Mykonos Town.

 

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New luxury design hotel to open in historic center of Athens

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AthensWas Hotel

An image from the AthensWas Hotel Facebook page. The hotel is expecting to open its doors in early April.

 

New digs: A new “luxury design” hotel is preparing to open its doors next month on one of the top tourist thoroughfares in the historic center of Athens — the Dionysiou Areopagitou pedestrian walkway below the Acropolis.

The AthensWas Hotel is scheduled to open April 2. It’s the newest hospitality venture of the Anemi Hotels Group, which operates the luxury Anemi Hotel near Karavostassi port on Folegandros island.

AthensWas will occupy a completely refurbished neoclassical building at 5 Dionysiou Areopagitou, a pedestrian street that passes such iconic attractions as the Acropolis, the Parthenon,  and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in the heart of the city’s monument-rich Ancient Athens district. The walkway — which is a hugely popular strolling route for Athenians as well as tourists — starts near Hadrian’s Arch and continues past the entrance to the Acropolis, where it becomes Apostolou Pavlou Street. From there it winds over to Ermou Street in the Monastiraki neighbourhood. (Click here to read a Visit Greece tourism article that provides more information about the pedestrian walkway and the attractions nearby.)

 

Launch date announced by sister hotel in Folegandros

AthensWas Hotel quietly launched its Facebook page in February, but that contains only the hotel address, telephone number, and the image I posted above, which appears to be the reception lobby. Two days ago, the Anemi Hotel Facebook page announced that AthensWas will be opening April 2, and provided a link to the new AthensWas website, which includes photos and details of the features for its various rooms, suites, and facilities.

According to the website, the hotel’s lobby lounge restaurant will feature “traditional flavours from Greece, the rest of the Mediterranean, and Asia, but all of them remastered to chime with the concept of ‘all-day modern comfort food.'” Guests will enjoy “truly astounding” views from the rooftop bar and restaurant terrace, which will be open from May through October, weather permitting. “The Acropolis looks more magnificent from up here than from anywhere else, because it looks like it might through a magnifying glass,” the website says. The hotel will have a fitness room, meeting room and business center as well.

 

Contact hotel for special opening offers

A banner on the website says “special launch rates” are now being offered; however, no further details are provided, and clicking on a “book now” button simply opens a contact form through which requests for further details may be sent directly to the hotel.

I emailed the hotel to request more information plus any available media photos of the hotel exterior, but I have not yet heard back. I will update this post when and if AthensWas does respond to my message.

Click here to visit the AthensWas website.

 

AthensWas Hotel

This image, from the AthensWas website, shows one of the suite interiors

 

AthensWas Hotel

The AthensWas Hotel location is marked with the red symbol on this map from Google. The Acropolis, one of the world’s top historic and archaeological attractions, is shown in the upper left quarter of the map.

 

Summer’s top drink on Mykonos: champagne

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Bubblesgallery Champagne-Cocktail bar

Just as this photo from the Bubblesgallery Champagne-Cocktail Bar Facebook page suggests, champagne is the top beverage choice for Mykonos visitors celebrating important occasions or special holiday moments …

 

 Super Paradise beach Mykonos

… but at some of the island’s notorious party beaches, champagne is meant to be shaken and sprayed, not drunk, as this photo from the Super Paradise Beach Facebook page illustrates

 

 Sip it or spray it: Seems like only yesterday that mojitos were all the rage on Mykonos.  Everywhere I went a couple of summers ago, whether in Mykonos Town or at one of the island’s world-famous beaches, I saw people sipping mojitos.  Dozens of different drinks are more in favour now, but social media postings show that the most popular alcoholic beverage on the island this summer isn’t a cocktail — it’s champagne.

I regularly follow Mykonos events on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and elsewhere, and have been astounded by the vast number of photos and videos of champagne that have been published so far this summer.

The images confirm that Mykonos tourists will drink thousands of cases of bubbly this travel season, but also suggest it’s possible that much of the sparkling French wine sold on the island won’t even touch people’s lips.

Many visitors will order bottles of bubbly to toast an important occasion or mark a special holiday moment, of course, but countless more will purchase champagne with absolutely no intention of ever taking a taste. For them, it’s only meant to be shaken and sprayed — at other people, especially sexy bikini-clad young ladies.

 

Bars at two of the island’s top party beaches — Paradise and Super Paradise — have been stocking champagne by the truckload this summer to supply revellers who want to shake things up and get wet, wild and sticky after spending their afternoon frolicking in the sun and sea.

While dowsing people with drinks sounds like something one might expect to see only at beaches where 18- to 35-year-old partygoers gather to get totally trashed, champagne showers have been recorded even at classy high-end Mykonos dining and drinking establishments, like Nammos Restaurant by the Sea at upscale Psarou beach.

If you’re travelling to Mykonos this season, turn to page 2 of this post to discover some of the best places to enjoy champagne — whether you prefer to sip it or spray it.

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