The 23 Best Hotels on the Greek Islands to Book This Summer

Reported by Vogue.

Greece has never needed a rebrand. The country's 200-plus inhabited islands have been quietly doing the work — dramatic coastlines, ancient craft traditions, food cultures that predate most European capitals — while the rest of the world slowly caught up. The problem was never the destination. It was the assumption that Greece meant Mykonos, and Mykonos meant that crowd. According to Vogue, the archipelago's real range is split across six island groups, each with its own architectural DNA: the Cyclades own the iconic whitewashed-and-blue-dome aesthetic, while the Dodecanese lean Venetian — colorful, layered, unexpectedly cinematic.

The hotels tracking this moment understand that the best luxury play right now isn't another infinity pool overlooking a crowded port. It's specificity. On Milos, Skinopi Lodge offers seven stone villas perched on clifftops above the Aegean — reach them by four-wheel drive, descend to your own private swim spot via winding stairs, and let owner Nausika build you a beach itinerary calibrated to that day's winds. On Serifos — barely three hours from Athens and still refreshingly under the radar — Perma delivers breakfast as a curated spread of local delicacies hand-delivered to your pool. Vogue Shopping Director Talia Abbas, who stayed shortly after it opened, called the east-facing sunrise views from her suite "magical." Adults-only, private pools, no breakfast room — just the Aegean and a rotating menu of Cycladic produce.

The Properties Worth Rerouting For

For the food-obsessed, Verina Astra on Sifnos — the Cyclades' most serious gastronomic island — decorates with local pottery (a craft tradition dating back to 3000 BC) and sources most of its restaurant menu from its own orchard. Pottery classes with the island's master craftsman are bookable through the hotel. On Hydra, car-free and still carrying decades of artistic credibility, Bratsera Boutique Hotel occupies a sponge factory built in 1860 — exposed beams, whitewashed walls, and a two-level Virani suite with hand-painted friezes that earns every euro of the splurge. And on the far-eastern edge of the Dodecanese, the candy-colored island of Kastellorizo hosts Casa Mediterraneo, a six-suite villa with a watermelon exterior, technicolor stained glass, and a pergola terrace that transitions from breakfast spot to bar as the afternoon light shifts.

Then there's Kefalonia, where F Zeen skips the cubist minimalism entirely for 10 acres of garden-dense, pine-forest-adjacent terrain — 69 rooms, seven villas, an outdoor cinema, and a spa menu featuring an Ionian salt-and-citrus scrub that sounds like something a dermatologist would prescribe. Its dining is strictly seasonal, built around what the on-site gardens are producing. On newly luxury-certified Folegandros, Gundari Resort opened in 2024 as the island's first five-star property, positioned inside a bird wildlife reserve on the southeastern coast — the kind of address that signals an island is about to become very difficult to book.

The Greek islands have always rewarded the traveler willing to look past the obvious — and this summer's best hotels make that argument with style.

Read the original at Vogue.