Nostos Serifos

Style

Seraphic Serifian siren

Setting

Medusa’s Cyclades charmer

Legend has it that Serifos is where Perseus brought the head of the slain gorgon Medusa, but Nostos Serifos is more liable to deliver a pure endorphin rush than turn you to stone. Here, warm meltemi breezes rustle great tendrils of Cycladian shrubs in the whitewashed hotel courtyard, stirring up heavenly scents of lavender and thyme, and tantalising glimpses of the Aegean’s sapphire shimmer are the stuff of which Greek myths are made. Snake your way down to the charming shores of nearby Livadakia Beach, where cascading tamarisk trees provide sultry, siesta-friendly shade and balmy shallow waters invite dipped toes.

Facilities

Rooms

15, of which two are suites with balcony spa tubs.

Checkout

11am. Check-in is at 3pm. Both are flexible when availability allows. Otherwise, guests arriving early can store luggage until their room is ready and late departures can make free use of the shower in the gym.

More Details

Rates include a breakfast of local dishes served with coffee and fruit juice at the communal breakfast bar, or out on the patio.

Also

Unfortunately, due to the layout of Nostos Serifos, it isn’t suitable for wheelchair users or those with reduced mobility.

Hotel Closed

The hotel is closed during low season, from 1 October to 30 April inclusive.

Fitness Center

Free Internet Access

Pet Friendly

At the Hotel

Free WiFi and gym. In rooms: beach towels, tote bag, TV, small fridge, and bathroom products from Born Majesty’s organic Olive Era range.

Our Favourite Rooms

Rooms follow a cool, clean Cycladic aesthetic with white walls and warm woods, and most have balconies or terraces with full or partial sea views. But it's the Maxi suite’s balcony that rules this particular roost, thanks to an alfresco spa tub and uninterrupted Aegean vistas that would charm the serpents right off Medusa‘s head.

Poolside

No pool but hey, with over 70 beaches on the island (two of them within a 10-minute walk of the hotel) who needs one?

Spa

The hotel partners with massage therapists who provide on-site treatments on request.

Packing Tips

Whaddya mean you’ve never read the story of Perseus and Medusa? If there’s a better location in which to remedy this frankly appalling oversight, we’ve yet to discover it. Avoid lugging brick-sized scholarly tomes through airport security and travel light instead – with a download of the Mythos audiobook, Stephen Fry’s light-hearted retelling of hundreds of classic Greek myths.

Also

The gym comes fully equipped with a Nohrd water rower, Technogym bench and treadmill, and training mats and weights.

Children

Baby chairs, cots and kettles for boiling water are available on request, but there are no other facilities to speak of for little Smiths.

Gallery

Food & Drink

Top Table

Breakfast out on the sunny patio for the win.

Dress Code

Cool, floaty linens are the smartest pairing for sultry summer days on Serifos beaches. Just be careful you don’t turn into a human sail when those stiff meltemi breezes blow into town.

Hotel Restaurant

Nostos Serifos only serves breakfast, but don’t let that stop you asking staff for bar and restaurant recommendations in nearby Livadi and Chora.

Hotel Bar

There are plenty of bars-with-views to be found around lively Livadi harbour and on Chora’s heavenly hilltop – ask staff to share their top picks.

Last Orders

The bars and restaurants down in Livadi harbour tend to stay open until around midnight.

Room Service

None, but a mini fridge in your room means you can stay stocked up on drinks and midnight munchies from the supermarket in the harbour.

Planes

The nearest airports to Serifos are on Mykonos, around 60 kilometres to the south, and in Athens, 150 kilometres north. Remote much? Fear not: regular ferries connect both to the island.

Automobiles

Nearby Livadi is connected to Chora, the island’s capital, by semi-regular bus services. But if you want to set your own timetable, the port town also has a few car-rental options, far and away your best bet for reaching the island’s more remote village tavernas, whitewashed Cycladic churches and beaches. There’s public street parking a short walk from the hotel.

Worth Getting Out of Bed For

As photogenic in places as its Cyclades sibling Santorini, secluded Serifos remains largely the preserve of in-the-know Athenian weekenders and curious island-hoppers from nearby Milos and Paros. For now, at least. Such off-grid isolation practically begs you to do…nothing. And that’s certainly an option here, with somewhere north of 70 distinct beaches wrapped around 80 kilometres of rugged coastline, all within your grasp. The soft golden sands of Livadakia and Avlomonas beaches are among the nearest to the hotel, as well as being some of the best-equipped for day-long lounging. There are bars and tavernas here to help keep your ouzito cocktail topped up; a handful even offer sunloungers and parasols for rent – more of a rarity on this unpolished Cycladean gem of an island than you might imagine. Seek out seclusion, surf and relative solitude slightly further afield along the wide, sweeping curve of Ganema Beach, or head north to Sikamia, where the general absence of fellow beach bods might just make you believe you’ve just stepped into your very own private picture postcard.

Serifos’s wild, gorse-carpeted landscapes are manna for photographers, all sugarcube houses, cerulean-blue chapel domes, balconies festooned with pink and purple bougainvillaea, and sleepy village plazas dotted with traditional tavernas. You’ll find all this and more in the island’s hillside-clinging capital of Chora. While away an hour or two watching the world go slowly by from an ouzeria on Pano Piazza, the almost ethereal beauty of which is liable to bring a tear to a glass eye. From there, it’s just a short but sweaty uphill shamble to confess your sins at the Church of Agios Konstantinos, the highest and arguably most beautiful spot in town, with views that stretch all the way to the neighbouring islands of Sifnos and Kythnos on a clear day. Don’t forget to don your darkest glasses against the dazzling glare of Chora’s tumbledown whitewashed houses below.

Earn or Redeem Points with World of Hyatt

This Mr & Mrs Smith hotel participates in the World of Hyatt loyalty program. As a member, you can earn and redeem points and enjoy exclusive benefits for qualifying nights. .