Exclusive Greece journey – Four Seasons Athens and Amanzoe Porto Heli

The Four Seasons Astir Palace occupies its own densely pine-covered peninsula on the Athens Riviera in the suburb of Vouliagmeni. The estate of some 30 hectares has three private sandy beaches on the Aegean. Historic Athens and the Acropolis are around 30 minutes away by car, as is Athens airport.

Built in the 1960s in modernist style, the hotel was once a meeting place for the likes of Aristotle Onassis and Frank Sinatra. After a comprehensive renovation it reopened in 2019 as the first Four Seasons hotel in Greece. Clean lines, an abundance of natural stone and an elegant retro chic still define the whole today.

There are 303 accommodations in all: rooms, suites, villas and free-standing bungalows, spread across the Arion and Nafsika buildings and the bungalows. Every room has a private balcony or terrace, a marble bathroom and views of the pine grove or the Aegean; suites add separate living areas, and some categories their own pool. Rooms start at around 44 m².

Eight restaurants, lounges and bars provide the variety, from the Greek fish and seafood restaurant Pelagos to the Italian Trattoria Mercato and the traditional taverna, through to the pool grill and the beach bar. Breakfast is served as a buffet.

The spa has ten treatment rooms, with rituals inspired by the teachings of Hippocrates and ancient healing methods. There are two outdoor pools and one indoor pool, a fitness centre, a steam bath, five outdoor tennis courts and a complimentary children's club with playground. The beach offers windsurfing, kayaking and snorkelling, the fitness area yoga and pilates classes. The adjacent Astir Marina has 59 berths for yachts and megayachts.

The Amanzoe Resort sits on a hill near Agios Panteleimonas above Porto Heli on the east coast of the Peloponnese, surrounded by olive groves with views over a rugged coastline and the Argolic Gulf. The tavernas and harbour of Porto Heli are around ten minutes away by car, and the fashionable island of Spetses is a short boat ride. Athens airport is about 3 hours by road or 15 minutes by helicopter. The resort's own beach club lies on Korakia Beach, a few minutes below.

Opened in 2012, it was one of the first internationally styled ultra-luxury resorts in Greece and is considered the first villa-integrated Aman resort in Europe. Architect Ed Tuttle's design reinterprets classical antiquity: natural stone, marble accents, concrete columns and cornices define the picture, complemented by an open-air amphitheatre for private dinners. The result is a modern acropolis with 360-degree views over olive groves and the Aegean.

The resort comprises 38 pavilions, three beach pavilions and twelve villas. Each pavilion stands alone and is entered through a stone-walled courtyard; beyond it opens a high living space with a king-size bed set in a marble alcove, a generous bathroom with a sunken tub, and a terrace with a private pool (6 or 12 metres depending on category). The beach pavilions have private gardens, a 9.5-metre pool and direct access to the sea and beach club. The villas among the olive groves offer their own pool plus a private chef and host, up to the multi-storey Villa 20 with nine bedrooms, eleven pools and its own spa.

The main restaurant serves contemporary Greek and Mediterranean cuisine, the pool restaurant light midday dishes with vegetables from the resort's organic gardens, and the Japanese restaurant by the main pool offers washoku cuisine with almost 360-degree sea views. At the beach club, the Mediterranean Nura serves wood-fired dishes, grills and the catch of the day, alongside the farm-to-table Bostani Taverna. For special occasions there is a tasting menu in the open-air amphitheatre and private candlelit dinners in the library, plus the expansive indoor and outdoor bar.

The Aman Spa covers some 2,850 square metres, with treatments inspired by the healing arts of Hippocrates, such as the Zoe Treatment with a eucalyptus steam bath, olive oil and sea salt scrub and an olive oil massage. There is a yoga pavilion with landscape views, a fitness centre with personal training and two floodlit tennis courts. Four swimming pools line the bay at the beach, two of them for children, alongside a spa outpost with two treatment rooms and a gym. Day charters depart the beach club with the resort's own boat fleet, and in summer a children's host runs a daily programme of tennis lessons, excursions and dedicated children's pools. Excursions include Spetses as well as the archaeological sites of Epidaurus and the Mycenaean tombs.