An Odyssey on the Greek Riviera, Part I – Amanzoe

Our Greek season continues as Nick Price packs his family into a hire car and clatters out of the Athens crush into the hills and away, for a spot of coastal calm on the little-known Greek ‘Riviera’…

The road to Amanzoe from Athens takes two and a half hours along roads that snake through the mountains. A day time drive is a stunning feast of vistas, a night time one is an adventure peppered by local drivers that can only be described as bandits. When I told the manager of Amanzoe of my opting for the latter she looked at me in a way that would have been familiar to Hannibal as he emerged from the Alps on an elephant.  Admittedly, an Audi is a little safer than an elephant, but you get my point; do the drive during the day, it’s both more beautiful and relaxing.

It was after 1am when we finally pulled up at the hotel – lit up like an ancient Greek beacon sitting atop its hill overlooking the Aegean. Now, it should be noted at this point that the Amanzoe at Porto Heli was a labour of love from its inception. The owners spent years buying up plots of land both on the hilltop and on the beachfront, patiently acquiring the land to build the perfect resort. The result is a luxury complex with a 360 degree view over the Greek hills and its legendary blue sea.  It is both a perfect spot and an unusual spot, as the Greek Riviera is not what you’d think it is.

When you hear the word ‘Riviera’ your mind tends to spring to an image of highly-developed resorts with hotels sitting cheek-by-jowl, littered with gorgeous swimming pools, tavernas, luxury shops sharing space with cheap tat, crowds of lobster-red tourists, bikinis and man boobs. The Greek version is none of these things. The Greek Riviera is simply the area where Greeks go on holiday – it is an authentic picture of today’s Greece – at once modern, in areas run down and in other places peppered with billionaires’ yachts and villas. It is an area that will reward the inquisitive tourist with absolute gems of discoveries – incredible islands, secluded beaches, cute towns, grand ancient ruins, and the most amazing local wines for a mere 3 euros a carafe.

However, were you not a latter day Marco Polo and were just to visit the town of Porto Heli you would find a slightly neglected place that clearly used to have a vibrant past when the this was the epicentre of Greek tourism. What Amanzoe and their backers – also the people behind Nikki Beach at Porto Heli – believe is that the area has huge potential. And I have to agree, the potential is there, but a lot of development is needed before the massed ranks of North European or American tourists will choose this area over the more famous islands where, frankly, the set up is already close to perfect.

But none of this will bother the visitors to Amanzoe. Since for the most part they arrive by helicopter. So, thus commended for the daring of our arrival, we were touched to be greeted by a welcoming party. Our room- nay, ‘room’ being more of a private bungalow the size of a small family home surrounded by its own garden overflowing with vegetation and flowers – as you’d expect, has a sumptuous bed (and automatic black-out blinds that just have to be played with), a living area, two bathrooms, a rain shower, a huge deck with sea view and a private plunge pool.

Intriguingly it also has a sunken bath in the middle of the floor – a lovely romantic touch if you want to bathe whilst looking at the ocean, but also a potential act of suicide in the middle of the night when you need to pop to the loo and decide not to turn on the light. Given that this is my only criticism of the resort – and I am being harsh; the bath would be a great feature to those without children in tow – should give you a sense of just how right they have got everything. It is fair to say that everything is considered at Amanzoe, right down to the heated toilet seats, which – should you so desire – also have a spray clean function to douche the ‘sitter’. Surely this is the invention to bankrupt the bidet business – it certainly provided hours of entertainment for my four year old daughter.

The grounds of Amanzoe are beautiful. Arid yet overflowing with rosemary bushes the size of hedges, old olive trees and a thousand other herbs and flowers. Being on top of a hill, it not only benefits from spectacular views but also has a welcoming breeze which envelopes the whole place with an essence of rosemary, thyme, jasmine and lavender. It would be impossible to be stressed in this environment,  and this should remind us that Amanzoe is, in fact, a famous spa.

As the name suggests – Amanzoe means ‘peaceful life’ – everything about the place is designed for relaxation. Even when it is full there is such an abundance of choice about where to relax that the resort always feels serene, and at the heart of the resort is the spa where you will discover a fusion of just about every type of massage and beauty treatment that you could imagine. I opted for a holistic full body massage, with the use of aromatherapy during the experience was particularly memorable. All of the aromas felt very local, and essentially amplified the gentle fragrance of the whole resort. What I couldn’t work out was how the masseuse was seemingly massaging me and deploying aromatic oils beneath my nose at the same time. There were either two of them or he had three arms. In reality, I didn’t care, it was all just too good.

Thus the service at Amanzoe is impeccable and swift – no surprise when you consider that there are five staff to every guest (which might account for the extra arm in the massage) – and it never failed to surprise me that having written down at check-in that one of my family had an allergy to sesame, they checked every meal from thereon in without ever mentioning it. I even noticed that our breadbaskets were conspicuously devoid of the seeds that festooned the other tables.

It’s worth mentioning at this point the food. Breakfast, for me, was the special meal of the day. With a vast array of choice it was all somehow simple, healthy and local – and, as we know, Amanzoe only does local. All of their produce comes from the immediate surrounding area, and being Greece that produce is rather good. Somewhat surprisingly, and at the risk of sounding like a fictional bear, I have to bring attention to their marmalade. Made entirely using local oranges and with no added sugar it is astounding; and they should be selling it. But it’s not just marmalade at Amanzoe, we tucked into Asian next to the pool, fish and traditional European in the main restaurant, and a mix of pizzas, burgers, fish and salads down at the beach club. Itself, incidentally, worth a mention alone. The restaurant here top the list – the setting next to the sea and the whole relaxed vibe mixing wonderfully with the impetus for long lazy lunches.

It may be a shuttle bus down the road but the beach club has its own special touches. It has its own private beach. And, ironically, an array of pools. Presumably, there’s not enough water in the sea. There’s one that adults only, one mixed, one for bigger children and one for toddlers – the whole design is meant to enable maximum fun whilst also protecting the solitude of the resort. And, if more pools are your thing, each of the private cabanas have their own. Personally, I can’t have enough pools.

It was also from here that I began exploring the wider area. Going out to sea and around the bay on a speedboat suddenly gave me a sense of what makes up the Greek Riviera: to the east are the famous Islands of Speteses and Hydra which I was later to visit; whilst to the west lay the mountains of the Peleponnese, where so much Greek mythology was played out. In between, and dotted around the coast were enormous estates owned mainly, but not exclusively, by wealthy Athenians. The scale and opulence of them made me think of the world of antiquity and how to some degree so little has changed. The houses may be more modern, and the boats made of fiberglass, but the tradition for the wealthy to live on large estates surrounded by clear seas, cypresses and olive groves, with private beaches, pools and boats in a timeless environment remains a constant. Amanzoe had been so all encompassing in its ability to enchant and relax, that this was my very first glimpse of what else the area genuinely had to offer.

I couldn’t help but regret leaving Amanzoe, but I was about to embark on a voyage of discovery of the area filled with an interesting mix of uncovered gems and curious disappointments…