The lure of stones & silence

In recent years, searching for a summer holiday in Greece, I've turned my back on the sea. Icons of carefree fun since the 1960s, the beaches and islands now come with heat waves, forest fires, crowds, and inflated prices. I've headed inland, up into the mountains.

- ALEX SAKALIS

Here, whitewashed villages give way to stoic stone settlements, draped in silence and mist. It's a Greece few tourists see: a highland culture that defies postcard clichés.

Few areas encapsulate this more than Zagori, in northwestern Greece—a lofty realm of cascading rivers, emerald forests, towering mountains, and 46 ancient villages orbiting Mount Tymfi, at 8,192 feet, one of Greece's tallest mountains. The entire area is part of the Vikos-Aoos National Park and in 2023 was honored as a UNESCO World Heritage site. On a trip to Zagori last September, I made Aristi Mountain Resort and Villas, in the village of Aristi, my base. The hotel features guest rooms housed in elegant stone villas, along with a swimming pool and spa.

In accordance with Zagori's strict conservation laws, everything is built using local materials.

Aristi is in western Zagori, just a 45-minute drive from Ioannina, the bustling capital of the Epirus region. A proud and traditional village, Aristi comprises a vertical cluster of tall stone mansions arranged around a central square where people gather in the evenings. There you can sit and marvel at the flat rock face of Mount Tymfi, as it turns shades of pink and yellow in the evening light. A summer storm becomes a scene of genuine theatre, the lightning dancing off the mountains and the entire valley shaking to the sound of thunder.