The Wild Hotel wants you to take a minute to appreciate where you are (a glorious beach cove on Mykonos) and what was here before (the island’s most fearless fishermen).
By Nicky Hornsby-Clifton
Tablet Contributor
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Ahead of setting foot on Mykonos, you will have been told what to expect: beach clubs, super yachts, nightlife that runs into the early hours. How much will you have been told of what came before? There is undoubtedly a party scene in Mykonos, but there is also history. There was a time when travelers arrived in search of something more sacred. This was a gateway to the mythical birthplace of Apollo and Artemis, on the neighboring island of Delos.
This other Mykonos is what The Wild Hotel by Interni hotel aims to honor. Far from embodying the island’s contemporary mythology, its name pays tribute to an old one. The local fishermen who inhabited the whitewashed, blue-shuttered little houses along this exposed coastline were affectionately known as the wild ones. Their boats once lined the sands of The Wild’s very own private beach. Here, tucked away in a sheltered cove from where countless expeditions were launched into the sea, “wild” doesn’t mean loud or rowdy. It means elemental.
The men who once fished these waters were fiercely brave, but they understood that the sea could never be conquered. It had to be respected, and worked with. That same restraint is evident in The Wild’s architecture. Outside, you’ll find limed walls and weathered timber; inside, woven lampshades and handcrafted ceramics. Simple, elegant, and never trying to compete with the shifting blues of the Aegean, nature remains the protagonist here. Guests seem to understand this instinctively as scrolling gives way to reading, resting, and swimmers lingering long after they’ve cooled. Shaping behavior through rhythms, it turns out, isn’t new.
The same sensitivity extends to the hotel bathing areas. Overlooking the bay, the infinity pool connects two ways of being: one communal, giving way to easy conversation and one contemplative, where sun beds are hidden in stone alcoves. For those drawn towards the sea, a stairway carved into a cliff leads down to the hotel’s greatest luxury, a private cove.
The water is clear and cool enough to demand your attention, and if you come early, before the beach fills, the experience becomes almost intimate. With fewer swimmers disturbing the shallows, shoals of tiny fish emerge, leaping from the water in perfect synchrony, around and in front of you, accompanying you for as long as you inhabit their home. It feels like a reward, a quiet reminder that the natural world reveals itself most generously when we learn to move at its pace, rather than insisting it moves at ours.
Like the hotel, Mezé, the main restaurant, respects tradition, without being constrained by it. The menu is unapologetically Greek, built around recipes shared long before they were written down. Food arrives in clay pots, hot from charcoal and wood fired ovens, with diners encouraged to eat as families have done here for generations: together. There’s room for surprise too. Baked watermelon, served with spicy feta spread and fresh basil, that neither looks nor tastes like the fruit you thought you knew.
This is not the only hotel on Mykonos that prioritizes the rhythms of nature over those of the night club. In fact, in defiance of the island’s fast-paced reputation, there are many (after all, this is still one of the most serenely beautiful places on earth). For some, that’s old news. For others, who may only know Mykonos from, say, Lindsay Lohan’s Beach Club, it will come as a pleasant surprise — and one worth publicizing. If you’re curious for more, enjoy these twelve tranquil hotels in Mykonos.
See the entire Tablet selection of luxury and boutique hotels in Mykonos.