Less than an hour’s flight from Athens, sequestered on the volcanic island of Milos, Eréma is offering intrepid travellers the perfect antidote — or alternative — to the raucous party towns of Mykonos and Paros.
Following the formal signing of a memorandum of understanding intended to bring the US-Iran conflict to an end inside the next 60 days, Australian travellers can more confidently resume making travel plans — especially among those still committed to summering in Europe.
Connecting flights through states in the Persian Gulf (intermittently affected by the conflict) remain the quickest, most expedient way to achieve this. But assuming time permits, and you’re open to the prospect of laying over in more than one place — en route to London, Paris, and the usual assortment of tourism magnets — a pitstop in Athens can widen the aperture of possibility for one’s Euro-summer holiday.
Travellers engrossed in the intersection between hospitality and design will find Erema — the latest opening from Greek hotel firm Empiria — to be of interest. This marks Empiria’s fifth hotel in Greece, and its third among the Cyclades: a chain of 220 islands southeast of the Hellenic mainland, which have been inhabited since the Neolithic era.
Contemporary travellers probably already know the Cyclades as the repository of Greece’s most raucous resort towns — embodied in destinations like Mykonos and Paros, both notorious for their nightlife and bustling beach club scene. On Milos, where Erema is located, the Empiria team sought to contrast this cacophony with the island’s calm, elemental landscape.
Shaped by sun-bleached stone and volcanic terrain, it proved to be the ideal setting for a stay that is “a natural counterpart to the livelier energy” of those aforementioned Cycladic destinations, as Kalia Konstantinidou, Empiria’s co-founder, explains.
“In a world that feels increasingly fast and uncertain, people are seeking places that allow them to recalibrate. Milos offers something deeply restorative. Its minerals, its light, and its geological layers create a sense of grounding that feels especially relevant today.”
The Empiria team’s pursuit of all the big Rs — restoration, recalibration, relaxation (?) — is clearly the lodestone for their latest opening. At Erema, there are a very manageable total of four room categories to navigate.
All 41 rooms on the premises are technically suites, accompanied by their own private pool and cinematic vistas of the surrounding Aegean sea. Overnight rates for the entry-level ‘Element’ suite start at ~$1,146 (€700).
Konstantinidou and her collaborators turned to ID Labratorium (also behind Empiria’s award-winning property on Paros, Cosme) for their interior styling needs. The Athens-based practice settled on a built and furnished concept that responded, “rather than competing with” Milos’s spartan, mineral-rich topography.
Mineralic stone, bleached marble, and textiles steeped in the colours of the island’s (now-defunct) sulfur mines tether Erema to the surrounding terrain, while the hotel’s communal spaces remain largely open and fluid in their connectivity. Ostensibly, so that guests navigating the property — to access Elios spa or its fitness facilities — get the sense they’re walking the horizon.
In the realm of all things marginally more consumable, Erema’s F&B programme carries forth the torch Yiannis Kioroglou first lofted at Cosme — for what the acclaimed chef describes as “Medite-Grecian” cookery.
Kioroglou is, to put the case bluntly, an assured choice for this brief: having worked extensively with La Petite Maison, including stints with the Med-inspired restaurant group’s Marbella and Cannes outposts.
At Erema, he’ll preside over the hotel’s daytime and ‘sunset’ eateries, the latter of which (Akiton) is accompanied by a full-service bar — ideal for soaking up golden hour light and vistas of the island’s bone-white coastal peaks.
Erema Milos, a member of Design Hotels opens on June 22. It is located 7km from Milos Airport, or 11km from the island’s high-speed ferry terminal at Adamas Port.
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