If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR1,167.39), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
An all-frills resort riffing on mid-century glamour, One&Only Aesthesis is breathing an air-kiss of life back into the Athenian Riviera. This pine-shrouded spot on the edge of the Aegean was an A-list haunt back in the Sixties, and still offers starlet-worthy R’n’R. This means outrageously long stints in the Guerlain spa, making certain you’re seen sipping pisco sours at the beach club, and leaving all the admin (supper reservations, which Cycladic isle to yacht out to first) to your personal host. Stuffiness is firmly out, though – there are family-friendly larks aplenty, plus roll-your-sleeves-up fare from a pair of Michelin-starred chefs.
Please note Don’t let our enticing gallery deceive you, these images for One&Only Aesthesis are in fact computer generated. Apologies, real-life photographs will be with us soon…
127, including 90 bungalows, 12 suites, 11 residences and two villas.
Check–Out
Noon. Check-in is at 3pm, but both are flexible, subject to availability.
Prices
Double rooms from £1134.91 (€1,325), including tax at 13.5 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional government tax of €10.00 per room per night on check-out.
More details
Rates at One&Only Aesthesis include a nourishing breakfast buffet, plus decadent Greek à la carte options such as feta-crumbled eggs and caramelised tsoureki brioche.
Also
One&Only Aesthesis has six Aesthesis Rooms and Aesthesis Bungalows which have been specially adapted accessible rooms for wheelchair users. There is a lift in the Aesthesis building, and the restaurants, pools, spa and beach are all wheelchair accessible.
At the hotel
Private beach, fitness centre, kids’ club, gardens with running and cycling trails, and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: TV, minibar, Nespresso coffee machine, tea-making kit, free bottled water, hairdryer, and bespoke Montroi bath products.
Our favourite rooms
Swing for a seafront bungalow to slip straight into the Aegean from your private deck.
Poolside
Aphrodite may have had a hand in designing the olive tree-lined adults-only pool – canoodling spots include discreetly curtained cabanas and dinky sofas à deux. There’s also a family-friendly social pool, plus a 30cm-deep splash pool just for the littlest of Smiths.
Spa
Many spas may claim to help you channel your inner goddess, but we’d wager few come as close as Aesthesis’s Guerlain spa. Bespoke rituals, drawing inspiration from the local landscape, do deifying work with flower-strewn footbaths, rose quartz massages and blossomy signature scents. Rare orchid- and honey-infused facials are another speciality; or ask your therapist to dream you up a tailored treatment. There are experiences specially designed for children, too, plus a beauty salon and a Bastien Gonzales nail studio. And before you slip completely into that blissed-out stupor, there’s also a sports club with tennis and padel courts, plus a fitness centre with Technogym equipment, yoga and Pilates classes, and personal trainers.
Packing tips
We’d say pack a beach-to-bar pair of classic Greek sandals, but better yet, save the suitcase space and sign up to craft your own.
Also
Your personal host can unpack for you, so post-check-in you can skip straight to sussing out the pool club.
Pet‐friendly
Furry pals weighing up to 60 pounds are welcome, so long as they’re kept on a lead and never left unattended, plus Fido can join you for dinner in the restaurants’ alfresco areas. There’s a daily pet fee of €50. See more pet-friendly hotels in Athens Riviera.
Children
All ages are welcome, and there’s an action-packed kids’ club to occupy adventurers aged four to 11.
Best for
Over-fours.
Recommended rooms
The two- and three-bedroom residences will give the whole gang their own space.
Crèche
At the garden-based kids’ club, children aged four to 11 can get stuck in with cooking classes, traditional Greek arts and crafts, and archaeology games. There are also sports tournaments and yoga, treehouses, and an insectarium where budding Attenboroughs can learn about bugs and butterflies. Under-fours can hang out, too, as long as they have a grown-up with them.
Activities
There’s a raft of activities tailored specially to kids, including spa treatments and stargazing nights complete with hot cocoa and toasted marshmallows. They can also join in with yacht jaunts, museum tours and all sorts of non-motorised watersports.
Swimming pool
Little Smiths are welcome at the social pool, and there’s also a dedicated 30cm-deep splash pool.
Babysitting
Babysitting can be arranged for €155 for three hours, and €40 for each hour after that. You’ll need to book at least 12 hours in advance.
Ask for a spot out on Ora’s terrace, so you make eyes at the Aegean across the pool.
Dress Code
Summon the spirit of your favourite Sixties style icon – Jackie O and Brigitte Bardot both hung out round here back in the day, if you’re stuck for inspo.
Hotel restaurant
At Ora, starred chef Ettore Botrini deftly fuses traditional Greek cuisine with flavours from his Italian family recipes. The parilla grill takes pride of place here – try the charcoal-fired catch of the day – but don’t sleep on the small plates: dolmades are stuffed with locally caught langoustine, and smashed fava from Syros are scooped up with fresh, fluffy pita. And if you’re hungry for more Michelin cred, hurry while you can to El Bar de Paco Morales. This six-month popup is a more casual affair than Morales’ three-Michelin-starred Noor, but the Andalusian tapas menu packs the same ‘I’ll take three more’ punch. Try the tomato salmorejo, topped with fresh cheese foam, and the chicken croquettes best dunked liberally in ras el hanout mayo.
Hotel bar
Lavender and olive-bark perfume the air at Alelia, where mixologists take Attica’s herb gardens and groves as their pantry. Our eye’s on the Riviera Sour, made with olive oil-infused pisco, sage, apple and mint, but there’s sweet-tooth temptation, too, in the Turkish Delight-infused Loukoumi Martini. Either way, a bowl of Naxos potato wedges with a snowfall of freshly shaved truffle is a no-brainer. Toast the day at Thimisi, the hotel’s alfresco sunset bar with panoramic coastal views. Come golden hour, gather round the sleekly curved bar or grab a spritz and a sea-facing sofa for two. Chilled, DJ-spun beats set the rhythm at the Minima Pool Bar, where lazy laps are best rounded off with dry sparkling wine and plenty of locally caught carpaccio. And stay tuned for Manko, a beach club with a Peruvian restaurant and bar, right by the water’s edge, that’s due to open in the spring.
Room service
There’s a round-the-clock room service menu, so you’re covered when midnight hunger pangs strike.
One&Only Aesthesis sits on a private stretch of sand and pine groves in Glyfada, a well-heeled coastal suburb dubbed the gateway to the Athenian Riviera.
Planes
It’s a half-hour drive from Athens International Airport. The hotel can provide luxury airport transfers from €125 one-way.
Automobiles
No need to take on the Athenian traffic – the hotel can sort all transport, including airport transfers and sightseeing tours. If you do bring your own wheels, there’s free outdoor parking at the resort.
Other
Sea-dogs, take note: the hotel has a private dock, should you wish to yacht in.
Worth getting out of bed for
Your days of scrabbling about with guidebooks are ancient history – just ask your personal host to arrange an Athenian outing. A tour of the Acropolis and Plaka, Athens’ old town, is a worthy jumping-off point. Charter the hotel’s yacht for a sunset cruise, or to sail out to Cycladic islands Aegina and Kea. Trace the history of bling with a private tour of the Benaki Museum, followed by a jewellery-making workshop with an Athenian designer. Or put your best foot forward with a Greek sandal-making masterclass in a local atelier. Scope out Athens’ most stylish neighbourhood – and sort your souvenir shopping – with a fashion-focused walking tour. Come nightfall, cosy up with a constellation map, a telescope and your tipple of choice for a spot of stargazing.
Local restaurants
For a date night in Athens, moody bistro Vezené sends local foodies’ hearts aflutter with its hearty carnivorous dishes, wood-fired and with a focus on sustainable, seasonal sourcing.
Local cafés
It’s thirsty work, archaeology – after a hard morning roaming the Acropolis, head across to Little Tree Books and Cafe on nearby Kavalloti to top up on espresso and search the stacks for esoteric English-language editions.
Local bars
At the Clumsies, two award-winning bartenders have taken up residence in a central Athenian townhouse. The ever-changing menu mixes well-loved spirits with non-traditional local flavours – the signature gimlet pairs gin with a Greek salad cordial – and there’s a warren of cosy nooks to hole up in.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this Aegean-gazing hotel in Glyfada and unpacked their Guerlain goodies and handmade Greek sandals, a full account of their sandy-soled break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside One&Only Aesthesis in Athens…
If there are echoes of Eero Saarinen about One&Only Aesthesis’s swooping, space-agey central hub, it’s no coincidence. The Athenian Riviera was a favourite see-and-be-seen spot in the Sixties, when socialites and Hollywood stars swept through the old Saarinen-designed Ellinikos Airport on their way to this stretch of coast just south of the city.
The Hollywood-siren lifestyle is entirely possible here – you’ve a private beach, a personal host to arrange yacht charters and private museum tours, and good luck emerging from the Guerlain spa anything less than Bardot-radiant and ready for your close-up. But really, it’s the Riviera’s natural star power that steals the spotlight. In sun-flooded residences, scattered between ancient pines and the Aegean, olive wood and milky local marble set the tone. Michelin-starred chefs spin seasonal Attican produce into Greek-with-a-twist cuisine; mixologists muddle cocktails with fresh herbs, honey and olive oil; and even the kids’ club has an Elysian setting – camped out in the gardens. Like all the great pin-ups, this resort knows how to work what Mother Earth gave it.
