A private plunge pool sits in front of a stone wall, with two grey loungers on a pale terrace, and a bench under a reed-roofed pergola on timber decking with a dry hillside above.

Casa Cook Rhodes

££

Grown-upArchitecturalContemporaryRecommended

Recommended by friends and by publications we trust. We have not stayed yet; it is high on our list.

European Union Street, 851 02, Kolymbia, Rhodes Website

White blocks under a bare limestone hill on the east coast of Rhodes, where every veranda gives onto a pool, shared or private, and even dinner has a resident DJ.

The hill behind Casa Cook Rhodes, in the foothills at Kolymbia, is bare limestone, grey rock and scrub filling the sky above the rooftops. The hotel answers it with low white blocks and garden walls of the same rough stone. Paved paths run between agave and tall cacti, past long shallow pools edged in white; inside, it is rattan and raw concrete. All 119 rooms are for two, and every veranda steps into a shared lagoon pool or a pool of its own. Outside is plainly the point. The Double Standard with Premium Veranda is four square metres smaller than the plain one, so whatever the premium is, it is out of doors. It was the first Casa Cook, opened in May 2016 by Thomas Cook, of all firms: the package-holiday company putting its name to something far more stylish.

Recommended for couples who want the Aegean without anybody's children in the pool, since the hotel takes adults only. White Rock Beach is 850 metres away, five minutes on foot, though with a pool off the veranda it has competition. Yoga is on an open-air terrace, and after it come the hammocks and cushioned loungers, with a DJ keeping the music mellow. At Kitchen Club the DJs are resident too, over Greek and Mediterranean plates for sharing; Olive does seafood. Hikes reach temples and waterfalls for anyone who can leave the hammock. On one terrace a large olive tree comes straight up through the decking, and the table beside it gets the shade.