Before Mykonos became the Cyclades’ playground of superyachts, the island was forged by filoxenia, the same central moral law that governed Homer’s ancient Greek epic, The Odyssey.
Filoxenia is the instinct to receive a stranger as though they might be a god travelling in disguise — with warmth, generosity and something delicious to eat. The concept transformed this quiet fishing island into a glamorous eurosummer hotspot, where sunsets are now scored by a different DJ every night. But, beneath it all, the truest luxury in Mykonos still lives around the table, from fine dining concepts to recipes perfected by yiayias long before the island came into fashion.
And these are the two distinct sides of Mykonos. Bill&Coo — a member of the Leading Hotels of the World consortium since 2015 — has the good sense (and the good kitchen) to serve both.
The Vibe
There’s no need to choose between beach or town; Bill&Coo offers a property at both. The beachside property, The Coast Bill&Coo, lies along the sands of Agios Ioannis on the island’s south-western flank, turned away from the dry meltemi winds so that the water lies calmer than anywhere else on the island. It is a hushed adult-only retreat that feels full of repose as days linger over long lunches beneath canvas canopies. Ten minutes away, Bill&Coo Mykonos stands above Megali Ammos, within strolling distance of Chora (Mykonos Town), and in possession of one of the island’s great sunsets that blushes the whitewashed suites in tones of amber. At both, an infinity pool spills toward the sea, each marked by its own small white chapel. Acomplimentary shuttle connects the two.
Both properties face Delos, the legendary islet where Apollo and his twin sister Artemis are said to have been born. Around it, the entire archipelago arranges itself in a loose ring, the circle (kyklos in Greek) that gives the Cyclades their name. To wake at Bill&Coo is to look out at the literal centre of a myth. Everything worth crossing the Aegean for can be found at the two properties: Ancient Greek lore, perfected hospitality and a supernal dinner table.
The Rooms
Bedroom at Bill&Coo, The Coast
The rooms at The Coast centre around the light, and along this stretch of Agios Ioannis the light is mythical. All twenty-five suites are adult-only and turned to the sea, their terraces spilling out to private pools or jetted tubs with Delos holding the horizon magnetically beyond. Crisp white linen, muted stone, floor-to-ceiling glass, soft rounded edges and not a great deal else: the palette stays low-key so that the shifting blues of the water and glow of golden hour is the only art on the walls. Even the wetroom opens onto the terrace, which makes actually leaving the shower a Herculean task as you keep vigil over each passing yacht. Bathrooms are stocked with Diptyque, whose presence in a hotel bathroom has been shorthand for good taste and long showers since 1961.
The town property lends itself more to socialising, with thirty-two suites and three private villas, from sea-view rooms to two-bedroom residences that can be taken alone or knitted together for a travelling parea. Many come with heated plunge or infinity pools and can be warmed on request, which is worth knowing in the shoulder months when the island belongs to fewer people. The rooms feel so complete that the only thing that could reliably prise you away is the promise of lunch, which, at Bill&Coo, is quite a promise.Â
The Food + Drink
Image credit: Rose Winter
The dining at Bill&Coo is one of the most pertinent reasons to come. Beefbar, the cult concept Riccardo Giraudi launched in Monaco some two decades ago and since scattered across the world’s most well-heeled postcodes, sits at The Coast’s water’s edge. The name undersells it, as the kitchen in fact runs on a ‘beef, reef, leaf’ logic, gliding between prime cuts, fresh seafood and greener things. The Kobe beef prosciutto, Wagyu tagliata and sashimi scarpetta are as photogenic as they are good, though the dish that unexpectedly followed my tastebuds home was the broccoli kinoa salad. A menu of quick bites follows you down to the sand, including a savoury panettone Angus prosciutto melt that is completely correct after a swim.
Coozest takes a homier tack with its ‘Greek Table’ concept. Executive chef Aggelos Bakopoulos curates his largely seafood-led menu from tradition and season, built for sharing, with the accompanying olive oils and wines often reflecting the owner’s Kalamata roots. But the meal I’ll be describing to strangers for years happened at Bostani, the private dining set within the enchanting herb garden, with many dishes imported from the Coozest menu, but bookable only in advance, and only for groups. It was the closest thing to being temporarily adopted on holiday by a Greek family and invited to dinner in their backyard: perhaps because of the no frills red-checked tablecloth or the herbs perfuming the evening air, or the dishes that don’t try too hard to be perfect, though perfect is exactly what they are. Rooted in recipes passed down through generations, dishes are cooked with meraki (an untranslatable Greek word for doing a thing with your whole soul). Think moussaka cooked for four hours in an outdoor wood-fired oven and Greek salad that tastes of tomatoes picked at their absolute peak.
YEÌ„VO restaurant
Up at the town property, YÄ’VO closes the argument in flame. Sat celestially across from the starlit infinity pooI, its Pyra menu is literally fire, from first plate to last: carabineros under charcoal-infused butter; a pudding of charcoal-grilled strawberries with smoked goat’s-milk ice cream; a charred meringue espuma. Mornings, meanwhile, belong to The Coast’s open breakfast, now thrown open to non-residents for the first time, with organic kefir bowls, warm cheese pie, eggs kagiana, bread from the on-site bakery and juices pressed that morning.Â
The drinks deserve their own footnote. House music drifts across the terrace as the Bar Lab begins its evening alchemy. Cocktails are made from scratch here, where ingredients are clarified, infused and distilled to a near-zero-waste philosophy, the effect being that you seem to be consuming a single, seamless drink rather than the usual spirit-meets-mixer.
The SpaÂ
Duality is the moment, and Bill&Coo has proved that it has an answer to every contrasting want and need. To both the cocktail and the clear head that follows it, the long lunch and the even longer swim, and to be thoroughly indulged and then thoroughly renewed. The renewal part starts in the Valmont Spa, the island’s only outpost of one of Switzerland’s most revered skincare houses. This Swiss house’s cult was built on results, its lineage tracing to a cellular-therapy clinic on the shores of Lake Geneva, and its treatments (and their famously ritualistic application) engineered to leave skin instantly brighter, firmer and better-rested. I surfaced from a Valmont facial looking like I’d slept for a week, which is perfectly possible as the sanctuary itself is low-lit and sensual, with private access to a Jacuzzi, sauna and steam room. When you do re-emerge, the view across the infinity pool looks a shade bluer than before.Â
The brief for the rest of the wellness offer here is disconnection in order to recharge. For total severance from modern life, sail to the island of Rhenea (its population comes in at a grand total of zero) with a holistic guide for meditation on its empty shores — how’s that for switching off? There are also private sound-healing and breathwork sessions to re-tune the nervous system, and a 200-square-metre fitness room at The Coast with the sea for a view.Â
The Little Extras
Bill&Coo’s membership to The Leading Hotels of the World is announced subtly by the Monacelli coffee table volumes left about the place, good for flicking through over a cocktail. Still, the grace notes are the ones you clock onto the deeper you sink into your stay. The nightly turndown, for one: slippers appear beside the bed, an eye mask waits on the pillow, the lighting is dropped to floor level, and a small, unasked-for kindness in the form of a homemade sweet that arrives each evening. The property isn’t large, but getting anywhere is effortless using the golf buggies that purr between the levels of the Coast property. Should you want for anything at all, there is a WhatsApp line answered by an apparently nocturnal concierge, and a Bill&Coo app that holds the whole operation in your pocket, from menus and spa treatments to experiences.
The To-Do ListÂ
Days at Bill&Coo are mostly spent floating, lazing, yacht-spotting or eating, but Mykonos Town is a ten-minute stroll away from the town property, if the itch to explore strikes. Lose an hour in Little Venice, where eighteenth-century merchants’ houses lean their balconies straight over the water. Get lost in the whitewashed labyrinth of the winding old town, engineered to confound the pirates who once plagued the island, where every alley eventually spills you out onto the sea. The hotel can arrange a private tour that opens the doors of two nineteenth-century Mykonian townhouses, or you can simply admire kato mili from a seafront bar – the row of sixteenth-century Venetian windmills that once ground the grain of passing ships, back when the meltemi was an essential business asset.Â
Delos island
The essential pilgrimage is to Delos itself, a short private boat away, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Walk the historic Sacred Way before viewing the weather-worn marble replicas of the Naxian lions (whose originals were moved indoors to protect them). The Cyclades hardly end there, with Tinos barely half an hour away by ferry. Here, Mykonian hedonism is traded for the great pilgrimage church of Panagia Evangelistria, a hinterland of Venetian dovecotes and marble-carving villages, and a food scene (wild artichokes, local cheeses, sun-blushed everything) that is entirely worth the crossing.Â
Closer to home, the hotel arranges private yachting along the south coast for four hours or eight, or for something more cinematic, a helicopter over Naxos, Ios and Paros to the drowned caldera of Santorini. Back at Bill&Coo, creativity finds an outlet in a bookable Ancient Greek mosaic workshop around the Bostani table, while romantics should hold out for the horse-riding picnic, transporting you along goat tracks and the boulder-strewn hills that island myth says are the petrified Giants that Herakles felled — perhaps to a beach with no name and, better still, no one else on it.
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