Mykonos Theoxenia Hotel

Mykonos Theoxenia Hotel

At the edge of Mykonos Town, on the rise known as Kato Mili, within sight of the island's row of windmills and a short walk from the crowded lanes of Little Venice, stands the hotel that was, in 1960, the first five-star property Mykonos ever had. It was designed by Aris Konstantinidis, the architect whose stripped-back, stone-and-concrete modernism ran against everything the Cyclades were supposed to look like, and the building he produced, low-slung, angular, built from the same stone as the sea walls it faces, was declared a protected national monument by the Greek Ministry of Culture decades before the current owners, the Cyprus-based Louis Hotels group, took it on. It closed for a full renovation in October 2021 and reopened in July 2022 with 49 keys across seven buildings: 37 rooms, eight deluxe suites, and four signature suites with their own pools and terraces, the addition that finally allows the property to compete with Mykonos's newer five-star arrivals on private outdoor space, if nothing else. The renovation, led by Vois Architects, resisted the urge to whitewash Konstantinidis into something more conventionally Cycladic, keeping his original stone and marble and adding beech furniture, linen, and ceramic vessels in a palette pulled from the surrounding hillside rather than from a Mediterranean mood board. The restaurant, Apanemi, has been run since reopening by the French and Greek pairing of Jerome Serres and Yiannis Baxevanis, both with Michelin backgrounds, working from a kitchen team that has also included Antonia Konomi, whose octopus carpaccio and tableside presentations have drawn as much attention as the setting itself. There is a seafront pool with a bar, a spa, and public rooms that lean on the original low ceilings and clean lines rather than fighting them with glitzy additions. To stay here is to notice that this was Jackie Onassis and Brigitte Bardot's Mykonos before Mykonos had a scene to speak of, and that the hotel has not tried to erase that history in favour of something more Instagram-ready. The rooms are spacious in a practical, unfussy way, more mid-century hotel than boutique fantasy, and the effect is closer to visiting a well-preserved piece of architecture than checking into a resort. It suits travellers who find the current run of Cycladic clone hotels, all whitewash and driftwood, a little exhausting, and who would rather sit with low-slung 1960s furniture and a genuine sense of place than a fresher, glossier alternative. You should not come if you want the polished, all-white, infinity-pool version of Mykonos luxury, or if bare, minimal rooms without heavy styling read to you as underdone rather than considered. You should come for the architecture, for a location that puts the windmills and Little Venice within walking distance without the party-strip noise, and for a hotel that treats its own history as the main event rather than the decor. The short version: A landmarked 1960 Aris Konstantinidis hotel above Mykonos Town, 49 rooms and suites across seven stone buildings, restored in 2022 by Vois Architects, with Apanemi restaurant and a mid-century modernist calm that most of the island abandoned.