For the table
W Costa Navarino
Navarino Bay · Messinia
Opened in 2022, it is the relaxed end of the Costa Navarino destination: an adults-friendly "Escape" tuned to couples, friends and families with guests aged twelve and up. The 226 rooms, suites and villas run along the bay in a low, contemporary palette, many of them with swim-up or private pools and the water a few steps away. Condé Nast Traveler readers named it the only European resort in their 2023 Top 50 in the world, a vote less for grandeur than for the ease of the place.
The real reason to come is the food, and it is in serious hands. Executive chef Nikos Billis, who trained through Noma, De Librije and Botrini's before coming home, cooks Messinia rather than imports a style to it: local, seasonal, modern Mediterranean without the ceremony. His remit runs across the beachfront Parelia and its sharing plates, the street-food souvlaki of Tsikna, the open-fire grill at Piqantro Iberica and the all-day W Lounge. In summer the kitchen opens the sand to visiting Michelin chefs for a run of open-fire dinners.
Plenty of resorts this polished take themselves too seriously. This one doesn't, and then quietly out-cooks most of them. It earns its place on the plate, not the pose.
