Villa Tama

Best of Both Worlds on Mykonos

Built suspended above a semi-private beach on a rugged point overlooking the sacred island of Delos, this vast villa curls around the huge boulders covering its lot, combining vivid Cycladic walls with the solid embrace of exposed local stone. It’s an open-air, organic, waterfront residence that lets you hunker down on the Aegean in solitude.

This villa for rent in Greece stairsteps across its rough, boulder-strewn lot like a seaside fortress, yet still manages to be a breezy, minimalist beach house created for alfresco living. Holding court above the Aegean, the prominent property by Quentin Moyse of Orizon Contract features two independent guesthouses and a separate studio apartment joining the principal villa on its seafront spit. There’s a spacious pool platform and, most notably, a private beach below. A small gate opens from the home onto seafront sun loungers built into a chalky outcropping, and the waves are just two quick steps away. 

Inside the cool residence, wood joins the stone and whitewashed simplicity. Furnishings overseen by Anestis Michalis tend towards the spare and organic, with shades of white prevailing with earthen accents. Covered terraces provide cool, cavern-like respite from the sun's rays by day and come evening, they offer front row seating for Mykonos’s famed pastel sunsets.

Around

This villa is relatively isolated on a boulder-strewn land point stretching into the Aegean. The property offers the best of both worlds on Mykonos—extreme privacy and easy access to Ornos village and Mykonos town with its energetic nightlife and restaurant scene. Ornos village is filled with small tavernas and family-run cafes. Korfos Beach, north of Ornos village, is a popular kite-surfing spot, and ferries leave from Ornos out to Delos, the sacred island that's home to archeological ruins only (no residents). Considered the birthplace of Apollo, Delos Island was a port and religious outpost in 1st century BC. Doric temples, an amphitheater ruin and the iconic Terrace of Lions statues still stand, and the island’s Archaeological Museum is one of Greece’s best.

Mykonos town, called Chora by locals, curves around a bright blue bay, its sugar cube homes offset by wooden doors and terraces painted in bright color blocs. Mykonos’ houses are stacked topsy-turvy up the hillside from the waterfront, crisscrossed by a maze of small stone streets kept mostly car-free in the town center. Mykonos is famed for its nightlife, of course, its bustling Little Venice quarter, and plump windmills. The trademark windmills were built in the 1500s and used until the early 1900s to grind wheat and barley into flour, a primary commercial activity for the region. Once numbering nearly two dozen, sixteen mills still stand, with five lined up on a strip of land near Little Venice, the neighborhood so named for its waterfront location and for the Venetians who once ruled the island.

Location

Aleomandra, Mykonos, Greece. Nearest airport: Mykonos (approximately 12 minutes)

Best time to visit

April to October