Mandarin Oriental, Costa Navarino review

If you were ever in need of a breather from it all, you could do plenty worse than book in a week or two at the Costa Navarino branch of the Mandarin Oriental. From the point you land in Athens to the easy three-hour cruise through the Greek countryside full of empty, open road to the moment you see the unbroken horizon of sea and sun when you’re handed the room key at reception, you know you’re in a bubble that’s worlds apart from the work desk.

The Mandarin Oriental universe has been adored for decades for its city-slick stays – the original London outpost is famous for being caught between the southern stretch of Hyde Park and Knightsbridge’s high-end retail hub; in Hong Kong, the view of the skyline and Victoria Harbour appears like a screensaver timelapse on constant loop – but Costa Navarino’s draw card is its complete removal from reality.

It is situated directly on the middle point of the bay’s crescent, and its footprint is a horizontal expanse of land positioned into a hillside outcrop. The form of the buildings take influence from mandria – animal shelters constructed by farmers who make use of local stone and build according to how the landscape flows – and the result is a series of open spaces, connected overhead by plates of cast concrete. From the central hub, a network of suites and villas scatter downwards in tiers, each connected to the next by winding, wild paths that are thick with olive and cypress trees, lavender and thyme. The neighbouring golf course that encroaches into the grounds makes you regret not brushing up on the driving range back home, and the beach below has you wondering why you didn’t book in just another few days. Limonana – local lemonade fragranced with mint – seems to be on tap everywhere, and that moment the sun hits your face for the first time does wonders for the endorphins.

You can spend a good amount of time in the area, practising for your retiree years – there are the 18 holes to tick off, of course, and a collection of tennis courts set up by Patrick Mouratoglou, coach to Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka, is within driving distance – and for those whose ambitions are to minimise their step count, you can remain within the property itself and want for nothing. You may want to eat your way through the place, starting with the slow-cooked lamb shanks at the beachside Tahir (Levantine), moving next door to the counter at Pizza Sapienza by Daniele Cason (a native of Rome who’s not dogmatic to his homeland’s slices), all the way up to Oliviera (Greek), where there’s stuffed ravioli with rooster ballotine and anthotyros. If the task of eating meal after meal, morning to night, seems like a touch too much, you can always dial things down at Ormos Beach Club, where the lobster roll is both light and no bigger than a smartphone. When building up to dinner, we’d also suggest you visit the chef’s garden, where you may find aubergines that fit neatly in your palm, or tomatoes that ripen in the Greek heat.

Pinned to the top of the hotel is the spa, perhaps one of the finest in the world, where you’re encouraged to scrub away life’s debris with a treatment and then rotate between the olive sauna, mineral steam room and floral steam room, plunge pool and hydrotherapy tub.

When all’s done with the day and the sun is setting fast, the golf tan is setting even faster and your pores feel like a sheeny supercar after it’s been jet-washed, take a few lengths of the open infinity pool and let the cool, stiff breeze blast some new life into you. It’ll be meal time soon – and there’s limonana and rooster waiting for you downstairs.