Liostasi Hotel & Suites

Ios claims Homer's grave, and Liostasi has taken the claim to heart: the opening of the Odyssey runs in red light along the edge of the lounge floor, in Greek and in English, past white sofas and birds of paradise growing from beds of pale pebbles. The hotel sits on the hillside midway between the port at Gialos and Chora, ten minutes' walk from each, and its main pool looks over the harbour to the Aegean. At dusk the pool is lit blue, with lanterns between the loungers and a red sculpture of acrobats balanced on one another's shoulders. Book the Liostasi Sea View Suite, which has a heated pool to itself; the Panoramic Sea View Room makes do with an olive tree filling one window and a thatched terrace. One pool has a glass side, which puts whoever is swimming on show to the terrace.

Recommended for couples, and for families happy to be their own kids' club: there is none, but connecting and adjoining suites sleep up to six, and babysitting is on offer. Grandma's, the restaurant with the Toques d'Or, keeps to an open-air deck facing the sea, and Despina Denaxa teaches cooking lessons there from family recipes. More than one guest has called the breakfast the best they have had. The days go downhill: to the sand at Gialos, about 650 metres on foot, or out on one of the hotel's private boats to Sikinos or Folegandros, stopping to swim on the way. Back up the hill, Cine Liostasi shows old films and new ones in the open air, with a cocktail and the night sky where the ceiling would be.