Latest news with #Paros
Hospitality Net
21-05-2025
- Business
- Hospitality Net
Ennismore to Debut in Greece with the Addition of Luura to the Morgans Originals Collection
Ennismore, the fastest-growing lifestyle and leisure hospitality company, in partnership with Vivium, a single-family office specialising in luxury residential and hospitality investments, announces the signing of a strategic, long-term partnership that will welcome Luura to Morgans Originals , a collection of one-of-a-kind, independent hotels with an iconic cultural story. On the picturesque island of Paros, two new boutique hotels by Luura will introduce the brand's extraordinary, luxury hospitality to the beautiful destination. Luura Cliff, with 39 keys, will open in April on the western side of Paros for the 2026 season, while Luura Sand, with its 45+ keys, will open on the eastern side of the island in 2027. For Luura Cliff, award-winning Elastic Architects are responsible for the exterior, withinterior design by the renowned Lambs and Lions studio , creating a serene hideaway inspired by the timeless purity of Cycladic architecture. The interior concept, Cycladic Sanctuary with a Lambs and Lions sensibility, will embrace the iconic white cubic buildings, arranged in a harmonious, village-like constellation. Each room will be designed to evoke a sense of privacy, calm, and cosiness, while gently opening into shared spaces that foster organic social encounters. Materiality will also play a central role, and the overall experience will be one of layered tranquillity — a modern-day sanctuary that balances the intimacy of retreat with the warmth of connection, where every element is intentional, tactile, and deeply human. Luura is rooted in family values and fuelled by their passions, including a profound appreciation for art. Luura will work with curators to build a curatorial narrative embedded in the location's culture and story. The first two destinations, Luura Cliff and Luura Sand, will each offer distinct experiences, featuring elements such as a sunset cliff bar, a private chapel, spa and fitness facilities, direct beach access, and event spaces. The two properties will celebrate the originality and beauty of their location while introducing Morgans Originals' signature social energy to the island through four restaurants and bars curated by Ennismore's F&B Platform, with brands from the Rikas Hospitality Group and Paris Society , as well as a new concept created especially for Luura by PSC Hospitality, the group's F&B consultancy studio. Ushering in a new era of hospitality, Morgans Originals first entered the scene in 1984, introducing the world to boutique lifestyle hotels celebrating the originality of one-of-a-kind locations, guests, and communities. Since then, the storied legacy of the brand has continued to shape the industry. Today, Morgans Originals hotels are beacons of style, possibility, and connection — destinations where originality thrives, and meaningful experiences unfold. Every space is created in collaboration with leading creative minds to offer something original, featuring beautiful interiors, a vibrant social scene, and an energy that draws you in. Founded in 2025 by Vivium, Luura is a curated collection of artful hotels rooted in curiosity and guided by a culture of generosity. Each property reflects the family's values and distinctive taste, where every space carries a personal touch and unique character. Combining the intimacy and local expertise of a boutique hotel with the service and amenities of a refined escape, Luura introduces a new kind of stay for the modern voyager. The visionary brand is the result of a unique partnership between Ennismore and Vivium. Further Luura properties are set to open around the Mediterranean in the coming years. The addition of Luura to Morgans Originals will follow Balfour in Miami Beach joining the collection this year, along with the announcement of a Morgans Originals in Trojena, the mountain region of Neom, Saudi Arabia. Hotel website
Telegraph
18-05-2025
- Telegraph
Mykonos was ruined by the party set – now they've set their sights on another Greek island
I visited Paros for the first time in the late 1980s. Stepping off the rusted ferry into bright sunshine in Paroikia's (then) tiny port felt like arriving in paradise – albeit a backpacker's paradise – and my days there were filled with long lazy meals outside bougainvillea-shaded, family-run fish tavernas in the tiny village of Naoussa, and afternoons at Piso Livadi's traditional kafenions (cafés) and golden beaches, where I'd often have the sands almost entirely to myself. Forty years later, around half a million people flock to Paros every summer, which – on an island the size of Liverpool, a city with half a million residents (to Paros' 12,000) – means today's visitors are unlikely to have more than a scrap of sand to themselves, let alone a whole beach. It was, until recently, still the 'the chilled alternative to Mykonos ' – as it was dubbed in a Vogue article – and the preserve of a handful of celebrities (amongst them Tom Hanks and his Greek wife, Rita Wilson, who have a house on the satellite island of Antiparos), drawn by hyper-exclusive hideaways like The Moonhouse, and a lack of prying eyes. But as is so often the way, the masses soon followed. Once renowned for its fine white marble, the island is now increasingly associated with glitzy beach clubs, gourmet restaurants and hip hotels, and resources are under strain. 'Rising costs for locals are a huge concern,' ceramic artist and long-time island resident Christiane Smit told me, while a recent LinkedIn post from former MEP and environmentalist Kriton Arsenis reported that, in the past five years alone, Paros has topped the demand for new building permits in the Cyclades, surpassing even Mykonos and Santorini, and 'been overbuilt at a dramatic pace'. 'You see it in the crowded streets, the traffic jams, the way people seem stressed,' explained Nikos Botsinis of Santorini Walking Tours, who moved to the island several years ago seeking a more authentic way of life. 'Both locals and the environment can feel the immense pressure of the tourism 'development'. But those in power are celebrating the 'success' of their decisions, turning a blind eye to the tsunami of issues that is approaching rapidly.' Increasingly frustrated with seemingly out-of-control development on the island, residents of Naoussa sent a petition to government representatives in 2022 asking them to put a halt to rampant building in the tiny resort, describing it as 'a severe test of all the fragile infrastructure of a small place'. In 2023, locals came together to create the Paros Citizens' Movement for Free Beaches – dubbed the 'Greek beach-towel movement' by foreign press – to protest what they describe as the 'illegal privatisation' of beaches in Greece. 'The law says no beach is private, yet there were huge swathes of beach covered by sunloungers and parasols rented for up to €100 per day, and we couldn't afford to use those areas,' one protester fumed. Despite government promises to clamp down, however, locals say that little has changed. 'Many hotels just removed the sunbeds when there was going to be an inspection and returned them once the inspectors had gone,' said one hotel barman. Nicolas Stephanou, who has lived on the island for 40 years, is also a member of the beach movement. 'The situation on the beaches likely acted as the final catalyst,' he said. 'The problem is that locals have started to feel like outsiders in their own community due to increasing frustration [caused by] invasive investors and a decline in their quality of life due to overtourism.' As the island still reels from the impact of last month's dramatic flash floods – which turned the streets of Naoussa into muddy rivers, flooded houses and businesses, and swept vehicles into the sea – officials claim that a combination of typhoon-strength gales and the heaviest rainfall in 20 years were responsible for the natural disaster. Critics, however, have been quick to point out the vital role played by the uncontrolled building of roads and hotels to cope with increased tourist traffic. 'When you cover a natural watercourse with asphalt and ignore it, the day will come when it pays you back – with interest,' commented journalist Thrixos Drakotidis, who reported on the floods for Greek newspaper Protothema. 'What turned it into a disaster wasn't just nature – it was the result of decades of unsustainable construction,' agreed Kriton Arsenis in another damning post. 'Villas, hotels, roads and swimming pools have replaced the dry-stone terraces that once held water, slowed down runoff and kept the soil alive.' There is some light on the horizon, however. Dimosthenis Leontis, who owns Paros Agnanti Resort & Spa (which became the island's first five-star hotel when it opened in 2016) and whose family has long-standing ties to the island and its hospitality industry, argues that Paros' burgeoning popularity doesn't have to lead to overtourism. 'We are proactively managing this by developing more towns around the island to better distribute visitors,' he explained, 'and we're mindful of keeping pricing accessible, so Paros remains welcoming rather than exclusive.' But they'll have to move fast. Visiting now, the island is a far cry from the unassuming, undeveloped outpost I fell in love with all those years ago, and if things continue in this vein, it will soon be too late to reverse the damage. On Mykonos, there is now little trace of the once charming traditional culture which gave the island so much heart – and if Paros doesn't act soon, choosing to prioritise the easy-spending party set over its own culture, I fear it's doomed to follow suit.
Times
10-05-2025
- Times
The eight truths you need to know about off-season travel
Greece? It's always been a summer thing for me — across the many eras of my travel life. From the first time I set foot on its sun-baked paths on an end-of-August trip in my twenties to see friends with Bergasol tans who were working in island bars, when sunbathing, snogging and shots were the order of the day; to school holiday stays with my young children, who became gorgeously sunkissed with beach hair and sandy feet. But in the face of soaring Mediterranean peak-season temperatures, a growing distaste for mass tourism and the need for an actual, calming rest, this year we — myself, my husband and 13-year-old-son, our two friends and their two teenagers — decided to go to Greece when it was still green, in the springtime freshness of April. We chose the island of Paros, one of the Cyclades, and escaped for Easter, when temperatures ranged between 16C and 23C and days were sparkling bright, the sea properly cold, the villages just quietly living their lives, preparing for the four-day festivities (Easter is a bigger deal than Christmas in Greece), with no tourists around. It was a revelation. Paros at this time of year felt like the Cornish peninsula, but with far fewer people. A fairly wild wind; cheerily resilient wildflowers, their yellow, red and blue faces bending and bobbing with every gust; craggy coastal walking paths alongside cornflower blue seas … it was a setting ripe for exploring in hoodies with shorts and sandals, for taking bracing dips in an ever-changing ocean and was very like the West Country — with one big difference. There were no other tourists. We met no one on our hikes other than local dog walkers, and the only other early morning swimmers were a pair of sun-weathered expats who gave me a jolly thumbs-up every day as they high-kneed into the sea. Maybe we were lucky, but the sun shone every day of the mid-April week we were there, with enough warmth to gently bake our skin but not burn it, and bright blue skies above. In August, the weather can be a force to be reckoned with. We have had weeks when it was too hot to go outside after breakfast, where eating alfresco was plagued with wasps, and we spent our days smothering the children in layer after layer of factor 50. The land can seem like a series of dust craters too, burnt and desolate; but in spring, the landscapes were green with the phrygana that grows across hillsides and along the coastal paths. Yellow and white chrysanthemums pop up wherever they can, and so busy is the insect activity that even a short stroll can feel like a visit to a botanical garden. With online searches for 'off season Mediterranean' up 25 per cent, many travel companies and destinations are looking to extend their seasons. The travel trade organisation,Abta, for example, says its members have been working to meet the demand by prolonging the seasons for destinations such as Turkey, Greece and Spain and adding capacity in the so-called shoulder seasons of May, June and September. This can mean in some places that the off-season is almost as in demand as peak season. Are you keeping up at the back? This year, the combination of a late Easter — which fell in the third weekend of April — and my own discovery of The Thinking Traveller, a B Corp luxury accommodation company that is committed to bolstering the communities in the regions it serves, with many properties opening in April, made finding a list of suitable villas much easier than usual. We pored over average temperatures around the Greek islands and villa floor plans and settled on one called Santhia, at the north end of Golden beach, a glorious arch of gently shelving sand on the south side of Paros. In August, the villa — which sleeps 14 — would cost up to £38,000 a week. In April, it is £13,500. And what a villa. With a stunning infinity pool, expansive sea-view terraces and beach access through a garden gate and down a meandering path bordered by a fragrant RHS Chelsea-worthy planting scheme, plus a magnificent circular seating area and fire pit, the outdoor areas were those you'd want to make the most of, which was arguably easier to do in a slightly fresh breeze than the burning heat of summer. Though whatever time of year you choose to stay here, you'd have no sense of the crowds of high season from within its perimeter walls. (Not sure when you'd use the fire pit, though, since the annual fire ban had already started before our arrival.) We love to self-cater on holiday, and could cook freely in the large outdoor kitchen and dining space, without the predictable summer sweats. And the shaded seating areas made cosy evening shelters from the April winds. It wasn't too hot to use the outdoor gym area, with free weights and space for yoga mats between the olive trees. The Thinking Traveller is focused on even earlier bookings, such as ours. 'Earlier season bookings have become more popular and autumn increases every year,' says the co-founder Rossella Beaugié. 'In Greece there are still a lot of islands which are great for biking, hiking and water sports that you can do in the milder months.' Without an adrenaline-fuelled itinerary or the panicky need to prebook activities as you would in the busy summer period, the holiday took on a slow pace. Our villa hosts, who were charged with ensuring our stay ran smoothly from booking to departure, filled the WhatsApp chat with ideas — horse riding, hikes, snorkelling, scuba diving, a wine tour and tasting — but we instead leant into making impromptu plans according to weather and whim. We hired a car — an essential on the islands whenever you visit — and found the quiet roads a pleasure to potter around on (car hire is about £11 a day in early May). There was a sense of rising anticipation across the island, for the Easter festivities and for the season to come. We dropped in on an Easter bazaar in the empty streets of Prodromos, where we bought hand-decorated candles and drank zingy homemade lemonade surrounded by idly curious cats. We tiptoed over freshly painted pathways in Naoussa as shopkeepers decorated their shopfronts with flowers for Easter weekend, and ate colourful Greek salads outside the one open restaurant on the town square. We indulged in ice cream and browsed souvenir shops on their first day of opening in lovely Lefkes, and lingered in the best sundowner seats in its hilltop bar. Paros's beaches are one of the island's main draws — a combination of soft sand, like ours, and stony coves. Many gradually shelve into the sea which, combined with the prevailing north winds, makes them perfect for surfing and windsurfing. No water sports were open during our stay. After relaxing and playing football on the deserted beach, we would often wander to the Golden beach shop, a bouji boutique full of designer beachwear and knick-knacks; the owner Angie told us the beach is a very different place in summer. Only the sheltered top end, where from late May Santhia's guests can enjoy private cabanas (early in the season the tide is too high) is quiet. Usually, she said, 'everywhere is covered with people'. • 28 of the best holiday villas in Greece This trend for travelling where other people are not, says Beaugié, is also one The Thinking Traveller is focused on. 'For our travellers looking for a more cultural trip, Italy tends to have a longer season in general, with many museums, archaeological sites and experiences such as Mount Etna often preferable to visit in the quieter months. We also increasingly see large multigenerational trips from the US for Thanksgiving, and some families that rent our villas at Christmas.' 'We're seeing a decisive move away from the obvious, both in timing and destination,' says Peter Chipchase, the chief marketing officer at Abercrombie & Kent. 'Travellers are choosing to explore the Mediterranean outside the summer peak, when iconic places are quieter and lesser-known corners come into their own. Think Puglia's hill towns in early spring or the Peloponnese in late autumn, still sun-soaked, rich in culture, and blissfully under the radar.' Eleni Skarveli from the Greek National Tourism Organisation says that bookings from the UK were up 88.5 per cent in November. 'There are more accommodation options due to lower demand, often at better prices. Many travellers are also seeking more relaxed islands such as Karpathos or Kythnos, which remain quiet even in July. 'For the ideal summer escape, we recommend visiting Epirus and the Zagori villages in August — where air conditioning isn't needed, and nature is truly one of a kind.' In line with the season's lazy pace, we would rise late and pootle to the Oasis bakery just five minutes' drive away rather than order a more formal breakfast service from the villa chef Irini. By day two we were greeted by name, with our daily order of crusty bread waiting for us, along with fresh spanakopita and a surprising need to replenish our stocks of an excellent £10 local red wine. This warm welcome was reflected across the island, with a sense that its people were all delighted to see us. A week earlier, and many of the restaurants would still have been shut — but many were opening for the first with time to indulge in conversation. There was, however, not a boat trip to be booked anywhere on the island. • The chic Greek island that's easy to fall for At Kima, a stylish waterfront restaurant about a 20-minute walk north along the coast, we happened upon opening night, our fellow diners all locals, the staff excited to be back in business. As the night went on, the cross-table conversations became more jolly and shots were shared. The conviviality spilt onto WhatsApp (where else), a group was created, plans to watch a big football match together later in the week were made, before a moonlit stroll back to Santhia. For our final night — Good Friday — the draw of returning to Kima over a pilgrimage to the nearby town of Marpissa, to watch its famous Epitafios procession (a religious ceremony during which a cloth symbolising the body of Christ is placed on a special ceremonial table, covered with flowers and rosewater, and in some cases paraded through the town or village) was too great. Imagine our joy when a smaller, but equally moving, local procession passed by, covered in beautiful pink roses, directly in front of our restaurant table. To most Greek islands, off-season flights aren't as regular as those between May and September. For us that was no big deal, we went via Athens and spent a night at the newly refurbished Roc Club hotel on the Athens Riviera, a 40-minute drive from the airport and 30-minute drive to the ferry port the following morning. We could have enjoyed some more time exploring the city, but it's something to bear in mind. We then took a four-hour ferry from Piraeus, Athens's main port, to Paros. It was about half the price of the equivalent domestic flights but also felt like more of adventure. However, our hippy-hued memories of easy ferry hopping between islands long ago were quickly replaced by the reality: a grumpily crewed, diesel fume-saturated shlep — a mistake we won't repeat. Our return flight from the Lilliputian domestic airport in Paros was much more fun. • 14 of the best hotels in Paros The only big disappointment was that the pool was so cold. Santhia's 20m infinity pool, with plunge whirlpool, is a showstopper. But along with all the other pools on Paros and Antiparos, it is also unheated. The three teenagers were not happy about this. Reader, we tried. Repeatedly, with theatrical entries providing a lot of laughs, as well as early onset hypothermia. I'm partial to a wintry lake swim, but this water was bone-chillingly unbearable. Admittedly, it did warm up (a bit) over the week, and by comparison, the sea felt positively bath-like. But it felt a shame to not use this gorgeous facility to its full potential. Off season, there is simply no point paying extra for somewhere with a pool unless you are happy to (freezing) cold swim. It did look pretty though. So with a week of true escapism and cultural immersion under our belt, we are all agreed — we'll never go to Greece high season again : our low season era is well and truly under way. A recent road trip in Sicily in October was similarly crowd-free. I have always loved the Alps more in summer than winter — soft, fragrant air, and empty mountains (give or take the odd cow). And we might try the southern hemisphere in our summer — southeast Asia, maybe or even Australia. It's their winter, but temperatures can still hit the high 20s. Low season, here we Irvin was a guest of The Thinking Traveller, which has seven nights' self-catering for 14 from £12,376 ( of the Roc Club, which has B&B doubles from £466 ( Holiday Extras, which has nine days' parking at Heathrow from £167, and lounge entry at Athens International Airport's Goldair Handling CIP Lounge (Terminal B) from £35pp ( and Sixt, which has seven days' car hire from £92 ( Fly to Paros via Athens Where else is at its best in the off-season? Let us know in the comments
