{"title":"Spas in Greece","description":"\u003cp\u003eGreece brings sun warmed marble, olive groves and the clear light of the Aegean to the spa day, with wellness woven through its own long history of healing waters and sea bathing.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"amanzoe","title":"Amanzoe","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn Aman resort · Porto Heli, Peloponnese, Greece\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOur assessment: \u003cstrong\u003eGold\u003c\/strong\u003e · 89%\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe one thing\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eAmanzoe sits on a hilltop above Porto Heli as a deliberate piece of contemporary Greek architecture, not simply a resort that happens to be in Greece. Ed Tuttle, the architect behind two of Aman's earlier Mediterranean properties, spent his last major project here building low, clean lined pavilions from beige Sinai Pearl marble and dark green Guatemalan marble, with the classical columns and cornices that travel writers have called a modern day Acropolis. The whole hilltop estate, eight hectares of it, is planted through with centuries old olive groves, so the building and the land it stands on were clearly imagined together rather than one dropped onto the other.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe verdict\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThirty eight pavilions and suites make up the main resort, each with its own terrace and private pool, and the largest private villas run to nine bedrooms, with a separately run six pool residence for parties who want still more space of their own. Every room looks out over some combination of the Aegean Sea, the surrounding hills and the neighbouring vineyards, the kind of view a hilltop site this size can offer from almost any angle. A private Beach Club sits down the hill from the main pavilions, with its own pools and direct access to the water, so a day can move between the hilltop and the shore without ever feeling like two separate trips.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMichelin has awarded Amanzoe two Keys, its own description for an exceptional stay, which puts it among a small number of Greek properties recognised at that level. The resort takes families properly rather than politely, with a children's host running daily activities, a splash pool for toddlers, a games room and a children's menu throughout, so this isn't a retreat that quietly discourages anyone travelling with children. It reads instead as a serious, architecturally ambitious resort that happens to welcome every age of guest rather than screening them out.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe water\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe spa itself runs to two thousand eight hundred and fifty square metres, light filled by Aman's own description, and the resort frames the whole programme as inspired by the holistic healing methods of Hippocrates, the physician born on the island of Kos some way to the east, who combined diet, movement, massage and sea bathing into one treatment of the whole person rather than any single remedy. It is Aman's own framing rather than a settled piece of local history, but it gives the spa's structure a genuine logic, with movement and diagnostics sitting alongside water and heat rather than being bolted on as an afterthought.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe wet journey runs through a wooden sauna, a steam room, a traditional hammam using black soap and rock clay with proper kessa glove exfoliation, and a cold plunge pool tucked into the changing area, so the full range from heat to cold is genuinely there rather than one or two gestures toward it. Two heated pools are set aside for Watsu, an aquatic form of bodywork in which a therapist moves and stretches a floating body through warm water, held and supported rather than worked on at a table, and it is offered here as a named signature rather than a one line add on to the massage menu.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eTreatments\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe treatment menu splits cleanly by what brought someone to Amanzoe in the first place. Couples and anyone after the resort's own story come for the Amanzoe Signature Journey and Kalopsia, named rituals built specifically for this address rather than lifted from Aman's wider global menu, and expectant mothers are looked after with a dedicated prenatal body polish and wrap of their own. Anyone after something more clinical can move into the Beauty Science and Advanced Technology sections, which cover MesoJet treatments, jet facials and radio frequency body work, using Aman's own skincare line alongside gold algae hydrogel masks developed with 111Skin. Movement gets its own serious attention too, through a Mobility and Recovery programme built with the tennis player Novak Djokovic as Aman's Global Wellness Ambassador, alongside sunrise yoga, Pilates and personal training, and new for the 2026 summer season, guided hikes out to historic villages, monasteries and a local farm that Aman says suit all abilities and ages. Children aren't an afterthought either, since the Aman Juniors menu includes a natural olive oil massage built specifically for younger guests, a genuine local touch on a menu that otherwise runs on Aman's own global product lines.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eGetting in\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eAmanzoe is bookable directly through aman.com or through a specialist travel agent such as Mr and Mrs Smith, Healing Holidays or Scott Dunn, and the resort's own reservations team can be reached by phone for anyone who would rather speak to someone. Athens International Airport is the usual gateway, a drive the resort's own pages put at somewhere between two hours thirty minutes and two hours forty five minutes depending on traffic and the exact route, and a twenty five minute helicopter transfer is available through Aman's partner iFLY for anyone who would rather skip the road entirely. Kalamata International Airport works as a secondary option, around three hours away.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhat to know before you fall in love\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eAmanzoe's own pages disagree with each other on the exact number of treatment suites, stated as seven in one place and implied as closer to eight in another, with an older independent review once putting it at five, so the scale of the spa itself is only approximate. The hilltop setting that makes the architecture so striking also makes it a genuine journey to reach, somewhere between two and a half and three hours by road from Athens unless flying forms part of the plan. Amanzoe closes for the winter every year, this year on 14 November 2026, reopening on 24 March 2027, so there is a real window each year when it simply isn't open at all, worth building into any plan made well ahead of a visit. And whether someone not staying at the resort could book a standalone spa day isn't published anywhere, so anyone hoping to drop in without staying the night should check directly before making a plan around it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eBest for\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis suits a couple or a family who want a hilltop Greek base with real architectural ambition behind it, rather than a resort that simply happens to sit in a nice part of the Peloponnese, and anyone drawn to Watsu or to a properly built movement and recovery programme rather than a conventional massage menu alone. It is a strong match for a longer summer stay planned well in advance, since the resort closes through the winter and books up for its own peak season, and it suits a family travelling together just as well as a couple, since children are genuinely welcomed rather than tolerated. It suits less well anyone wanting a quick, unplanned day visit, since day guest access for non residents isn't published anywhere.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Luxury Spa Escapes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55749165711701,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0864\/5217\/5189\/files\/pexels-photo-15736998.jpg?v=1794469896"},{"product_id":"euphoria-retreat","title":"Euphoria Retreat","description":"\u003cp\u003eA destination wellness retreat · Mystras, Peloponnese, Greece\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOur assessment: \u003cstrong\u003eGold\u003c\/strong\u003e · 88%\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe one thing\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eEuphoria Retreat exists because Marina Efraimoglou needed it to. A former investment banker, she came through cancer twice in her twenties, then spent years visiting healing centres and fasting retreats around the world trying to understand recovery beyond conventional medicine, a search that led her eventually to study Traditional Chinese Medicine and its Five Elements system in depth after a second crisis, burnout, taught her the same lesson from another direction. Euphoria is the retreat she built from that journey, set into a hillside at the foot of Mount Taygetus and folded four levels down into the ground itself, directly beneath the Byzantine ruins of Mystras, the last capital of the Byzantine Empire and now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Every garden, every treatment and the architecture itself are organised around Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal, so the Five Elements are not a tagline laid over a standard spa menu but the actual structure of a stay.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe verdict\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe retreat's public face is the Leoncini Mansion, a restored 1830s house whose refurbishment was led by Natalia Efraimoglou and Partners, who also oversaw the wider architectural design of the retreat alongside decaARCHITECTURE, the practice responsible for the spa building itself. That spa descends through elliptical, catacomb like stone passages across four underground levels, a spatial journey that mirrors the inner one the retreat talks about throughout its own material. Forty five rooms and suites sit above and around it, from Classic Rooms through to a hundred square metre Byzantium Grand Suite, and the whole property holds one MICHELIN Key, awarded in the inaugural Greek selection and confirmed as retained in Michelin's most recent update.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat sets Euphoria apart from a hotel that happens to have added a wellness wing is how completely the Five Elements framework runs through it. Guests moving between the gardens dedicated to each element, the treatments built around them and the architecture itself are meant to feel one continuous idea rather than five separate amenities, and that coherence is Efraimoglou's own design brief carried all the way through. The setting does real work here too. People who have written about a stay often single out the early morning walk up to the Byzantine ruins above the retreat as one of the most memorable parts of their time there, a genuinely site specific pleasure that has nothing to do with the spa menu at all and everything to do with where this particular retreat happens to sit.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe water\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe wet journey centres on the Sphere Pool, a spherical indoor pool inspired by the dome of the Hagia Sophia, with sound and light therapy working above and below the surface and hydrotherapy jets built into its structure, deep enough for a diver to reach four metres. An outdoor infinity pool and a forest facing hot tub on the top floor give the retreat its daylight water, while a dedicated Watsu pool is kept warm for one to one aquatic bodywork, a therapist moving and stretching a floating body through still water rather than working at a table. At the centre of the whole building stands the Waterwell, a twenty five metre well reached by a spiral staircase that links all four spa levels, with a cleansing foot bath at its base used for a traditional Kneipp style cold water therapy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHeat comes from a Finnish sauna, a steam room and the Byzantine Hammam, a named signature ritual that can be booked alone or as a couple, while a marble tepidarium keeps a gentler warmth for guests who want to ease into the circuit rather than start hot. A speleotherapy salt room lined in translucent, amber lit salt blocks sits alongside an ice fountain, where flakes of ice fall into an ancient style marble bowl, and temperature varying experience showers move a body quickly between the two. Outside the spa building itself, a candlelit labyrinth winds through the retreat's own pine forest, used for guided walking meditation and inspired, Euphoria says, by the ancient labyrinth at Epidaurus not far away.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eTreatments\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe spa menu runs on Biologique Recherche, the French skincare house, and on Gharieni treatment beds, and its signature pieces are built specifically for this address rather than lifted wholesale from elsewhere: the Byzantine Hammam Ritual, the Royal Euphoria Bodywork, a Five Element Balancing treatment that draws directly on the retreat's own framework, and an Inspiring Facial that uses gua sha alongside more conventional technique. Traditional Chinese Medicine runs underneath much of the menu too, with acupuncture and homeopathic consultation offered alongside Reiki and Thai massage, so a guest can move between genuinely different traditions without leaving the building.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe deeper offer sits in Euphoria's own multi day programmes, themed and structured day by day around diagnostics, movement, nutrition and spa treatment, with names like Feel Alive Again, Balance and Recover, and the Sakti Mandala Awakening Journey. The retreat's own diagnostic tool, 3GL PLUS, developed with the Greek health science partner Eucrasia, uses a simple blood and urine test to build a personalised nutrition and exercise plan aimed at longevity and metabolic regulation, and it sits at the centre of the more clinically framed programmes. Newer programme content leans further into energy work and sound, through Chakra Sound Alchemy and guided meditation among other things, which gives the menu a genuinely spiritual edge alongside its more structured diagnostic side. Efraimoglou herself hosts certain retreats in person, and Mary Vandorou, described as the retreat's spiritual mentor, co-hosts others, so the programmes carry a real, named point of view rather than a generic wellness brand voice.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eGetting in\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eEuphoria can be booked directly through its own site, through Small Luxury Hotels of the World, or through a specialist wellness travel agent such as Healing Holidays, though the simplest Classic Rooms are only available as part of a wellness programme rather than on their own, and a straightforward room booking starts from the Superior Deluxe category up. Spa treatments and day visits of two or four hours can be booked without any residential programme attached, though day visits are not offered at weekends or on public holidays, so a plan built around a quick day trip needs checking first. Kalamata International Airport is the nearest useful gateway, around fifty to sixty minutes away by road, though its flight routes run seasonally; Athens International Airport works year round and is roughly two and a half hours by road from the retreat.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhat to know before you fall in love\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eEuphoria is an adult only property, and nobody under fourteen can be accepted at all; guests aged fourteen and over are welcomed and treated exactly as adults from that point, with no separate children's facilities on site. The retreat itself recommends a stay of five days at the least to feel the real benefit of a programme, so this suits someone planning a proper week away far better than a weekend add on, and the simplest rooms can only be booked alongside a programme rather than by themselves. Some of the newer programme content moves into sound healing and energy work rather than staying purely clinical, which suits a guest genuinely open to that kind of exploration more than one looking for a strictly medical wellness week. And the nearer airport runs seasonally, so outside its season the realistic route in is the longer drive from Athens rather than the short hop from Kalamata.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eBest for\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis suits someone after a genuine personal health journey built on a real framework, Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal, rather than a conventional hotel spa menu, and a couple who want the Byzantine Hammam Ritual together rather than separately. It suits a solo traveller planning a proper week away on their own terms just as well as a couple, and anyone drawn to Greek history will find the Byzantine ruins of Mystras, reachable on foot before breakfast, a genuine reason to come on top of the spa itself. It suits less well a family with younger children, since Euphoria does not accept anyone under fourteen, and anyone hoping for a quick overnight rather than the fuller week the retreat itself recommends.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Luxury Spa Escapes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55749396234581,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0864\/5217\/5189\/files\/pexels-photo-38320318.jpg?v=1794472657"},{"product_id":"four-seasons-astir-palace-hotel-athens","title":"Four Seasons Astir Palace Hotel Athens","description":"\u003cp\u003eFour Seasons Astir Palace Hotel Athens · Vouliagmeni, Athens Riviera, Greece\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOur assessment: \u003cstrong\u003eSilver\u003c\/strong\u003e · 79%\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe one thing\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eMichelin's own guide to Greece names exactly one hotel in the whole country at Three Keys, its highest mark for an extraordinary stay, and Four Seasons Astir Palace Hotel Athens holds it alone. The hotel sits on its own private peninsula at Vouliagmeni, built on the bones of the 1960s Astir Palace and reopened under Four Seasons in 2019 without losing the terraced, mid century lines Michelin's inspectors still single out. Inside the spa, the signature Storgi Ritual and the Apotoksinosi detox massage are built from olive, grapeseed, laurel and bitter almond oils, olive wood cupping tools and the cold pressed Cretan rose oil of a small producer called Bioaroma, so the treatments carry a genuine sense of place rather than a borrowed Mediterranean idea.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe verdict\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe peninsula itself does a lot of the work. Three hundred and three rooms are spread across roughly thirty hectares of landscaped grounds, with three private beaches, a working marina and a helipad, and the hotel places Pelagos, its Mediterranean restaurant, among a wider dining line up that has earned a Michelin star of its own. Meyer Davis led the interiors through the redevelopment that brought Four Seasons to the site, and the result keeps the original 1960s architecture's terraced balconies and sea facing lines rather than smoothing them away, which is exactly what Michelin credits when it calls this a sixties era property with a distinctive construction worth the look. The hotel also carries its own independent Five Star rating, the whole property judged at the top of that scale.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe World's 50 Best Hotels put Astir Palace at twenty seventh in its 2026 list, independently confirmed on the ranking body's own site rather than taken from a press release, which situates the resort among a genuinely global top tier rather than a locally flattering one. None of that comes at the expense of family life on site. Children aged seven to fifteen get their own pool hours each morning, family spa treatments run daily into the afternoon, and a kids' club and family activities programme run across the resort, so a stay here reads as a serious, architecturally credentialed address that happens to welcome every age of guest properly rather than screening anyone out.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe water\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe core of the spa is the Fountain House, an adults only hydrotherapy zone named for Hippocrates, the physician born on nearby Kos who treated the whole body rather than any single complaint. A sauna, an aroma steam grotto, a traditional hammam and a jacuzzi with three separate jet types sit together here, cooled afterwards by a run of chill showers and three aromatherapy and chromotherapy shower stations rather than an ice room, so the circuit moves cleanly from heat through to a lighter, scented finish. A twenty five metre heated indoor pool runs for proper lap swimming, an outdoor pool sits beside the spa itself, and the separate Arion Pool is kept adults only at all times for anyone wanting water without the rest of the resort around them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom May to September, weather allowing, the Spa and Wellness Garden opens as a seasonal layer above all of this, three private cabanas set into its own seaside garden for treatments, sunrise yoga, Pilates and a silent disco style stretching session taken through headphones. It reads as the resort's own quieter, more intimate register laid over a spa that is otherwise built for a full house, open to the sea and the light rather than tucked away from either.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eTreatments\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eTen treatment rooms carry the main menu, two of them couples' suites and six with sea view balconies, and a separate dedicated Couples' Suite with its own soaking bath and private deck is kept for the Sinantisi Ritual specifically. The Storgi Ritual, Greek for affection, pairs organic lavender, thyme, rose, rosemary and sage oils with a full body exfoliation and a warm crystal massage, while the Apotoksinosi Massage works lymphatic drainage and pressure point technique through olive wood cupping tools and that same run of Greek oils. The Rythmos Signature Facial turns to Bioaroma's cold pressed rose oil, drawn from hand picked rosa centifolia petals grown on Crete, and the Monadiko Facial runs on a Biologique Recherche remodelling machine for guests after something more technical.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNewer additions lean further into that clinical register. Omorovicza facials introduced in 2026 bring a Hydrafacial machine into the menu, with LED light therapy and booster serums offered as add ons, so a guest can move from a traditional Greek ritual to a more contemporary skin treatment within the same visit. Beyond the treatment rooms, the programme runs to sunrise yoga by the sea, Pilates, personal training, aqua spinning, hiking and a biohiking routine of breathing work and vibrating foam rolling after group sessions, which gives the spa a genuine movement practice alongside its massage and facial menu rather than treating fitness as an afterthought.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eGetting in\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe hotel takes bookings directly through its own site or reservations team, or through a travel agent, and spa treatments and day passes are both confirmed by calling the spa directly rather than through an online booking widget. Non residents can buy a day pass covering the pools, the beach facilities and the spa's hydrotherapy areas, a genuine option for anyone not staying the night, though nothing is published online for it, so a call ahead is the only way to plan. Athens International Airport sits about twenty five kilometres away, which the hotel's own page puts at twenty five minutes by car or fifteen by helicopter, though an independent transfer specialist gives a more realistic thirty to fifty five minutes by road, stretching to fifty or sixty in peak summer or Friday traffic.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Spa runs from ten in the morning to seven at night, the pools from ten until eight, and the main indoor pool keeps family hours from ten until two before switching to adults only for the rest of the afternoon. Standard spa treatments are for guests aged sixteen and over, though children aged seven to fifteen can take a designated family treatment alongside an adult any day until three in the afternoon.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eWhat to know before you fall in love\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a large, three hundred and three room family resort on its own peninsula, not an intimate boutique spa, and the kids' club and family pool hours mean a day here suits a lively resort rhythm rather than a hushed retreat. The spa's own treatment menu isn't published anywhere, so calling ahead is the only way to find out what a visit involves. The hotel itself holds Michelin's rare Three Key rating and its own independent Five Star mark, but both belong to the hotel as a whole, and the spa does not carry a rating of its own the way its Riviera neighbour's spa does, so anyone choosing specifically on spa accreditation should weigh that. And the seasonal outdoor Spa and Wellness Garden only runs from May to September and depends on the weather holding, so its cabana treatments and sunrise sessions are not something to plan a visit around outside those months.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eBest for\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis suits a couple or a family who want a genuinely credentialed address, Michelin's only Three Keys in Greece, a World's 50 Best placing and a signature ritual built from real Cretan ingredients, rather than a conventional hotel spa bolted onto a nice beach. It suits families particularly well, since children are properly catered for rather than tolerated, and it suits anyone who wants Athens itself within reach of a proper beach escape rather than a remote island retreat. It suits less well anyone hoping for an intimate, adults only hideaway or a spa with its own independent accreditation, since this is a busy resort spa inside an exceptional setting rather than a boutique wellness address in its own right.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Luxury Spa Escapes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55749870289237,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0864\/5217\/5189\/files\/pexels-photo-14784814.jpg?v=1794474744"}],"url":"https:\/\/luxuryspaescapes.com\/collections\/country-greece.oembed","provider":"Luxury Spa Escapes","version":"1.0","type":"link"}