Plenty of hotels borrow classical Greece for their marketing; Amanzoe actually built it. Ed Tuttle, the architect behind Amanpuri, raised a modern acropolis on a hilltop above Porto Heli in the eastern Peloponnese: colonnades, reflecting pools and limestone symmetry with 360-degree views over olive groves to the Aegean and the island of Spetses. At sunset the stone turns gold and the temple conceit stops feeling like a conceit.
The 38 pavilions each have a private pool and a pergola-shaded terrace, arranged for near-total seclusion; the villas scale from one to nine bedrooms with chefs and hosts, which is why a certain kind of European family arrives every July and vanishes from view. The Aman Spa arranges its treatment rooms around private courtyards, with Greek rituals built on olive oil, honey and herbs, and there is even a small amphitheatre for summer performances.
The sea is a ten-minute shuttle downhill: a private beach club in a sheltered cove with four pools, cabanas, watersports and a seafood-leaning restaurant. Culture does the rest, with Epidaurus and Mycenae in day-trip range, Nafplio for an evening, and boats across to Spetses and Hydra. The hilltop position means nothing is walkable and rates sit firmly in Aman territory, but for a honeymoon that alternates ruins and swimming it has few equals in Europe.
