Perma

Five private suites built into Serifos’s southern hillside, low and close to the rock. The walls are raw concrete and local stone, the beds are low and dressed in linen, the floors polished cement. It shouldn’t be warm, and yet it is. The fringed parasols by the pool, the sculptural wire chairs, the handmade cushions and ceramic lamps, each piece was chosen every piece carefully, and it shows.

Each suite opens directly onto its own pool and outdoor kitchen, the Aegean framed between stone walls like a painting you never get used to. Most guests swim, walk, read, and find that’s entirely enough. Organised retreats run through the summer : yoga, coaching, creative workshops; but nothing is required of you. Lia Beach is four minutes down the path.

The name is deliberate: PERMA stands for Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, Accomplishment, the framework of the founder, a coach and psychologist who built this place around those principles. Solar energy, local materials, food sourced from the island. The sustainability isn’t performed. Neither is the wellness. Both are just part of how it works.

Our Take: As off-grid as Greece gets without actually disappearing. Five private suites, five pools, a hidden beach, and nothing on the agenda unless you put it there. Bring a good book.