Espera Suites

Kimolos sits in the lee of Milos, a short crossing away, and it has stayed quiet because reaching it takes a change of boat and some intent. Until recently there was almost nowhere to stay. Espera Suites, at Kalamitsi above the water, is the island's answer: a low white cluster of suites around a pool, five-star but built for slowness rather than show. The suites all face the sea, some have a pool of their own, and the design is the pared-back Cycladic that lets the light and the bare rock do the work. Nothing here raises its voice. That is the whole point of Kimolos, and the hotel has the sense to follow it.

The table

The reason to book a table even if you are sleeping elsewhere is amoni, the hotel's restaurant, laid under a timber pergola on a terrace facing Milos, the sun going down somewhere around the second course. The menu is signed by Dimitris Dimitriadis, who runs the kitchen at FITA in Athens. On Kimolos he cooks the Cyclades with a light modern hand: the island's sour xino cheese in a tomato salad, orzo with red Koilada shrimp, wild fennel and bottarga, slow sourdough and a good oil to open. There is even oxymel on the list, the honey and vinegar the Greeks have used since Hippocrates. Ambitious cooking for so small an island, and it lands.

Why it's in VANE

Islands this far off the track rarely get a hotel that takes itself seriously without losing the plot. Espera stays low and quiet, turns every suite to the water, and puts a real kitchen on the terrace instead of a view and a menu. It is not cheap, and Kimolos asks for a ferry and a plan. But for anyone who wants the Cyclades without the crush, and a table worth the trip, it earns its place here.

Read the Folio →