Side by side Mandarin Oriental, Costa Navarino vs Mandarin Oriental The Landmark, Hong Kong

A Pool Villa here runs from roughly €1,000 a night in shoulder season to double that in August, and what arrives for it is some of the best-built rooms in Greece: stone and wood finishes, private plunge pools even at the entry level, and a site plan low enough that nothing competes with the view of Navarino Bay. Several guests who've toured both the villas and the Junior Suites actually prefer the suites' layout, which says more about how well this place is designed than any one room category could.

Getting here is a real cost, not a footnote: Kalamata airport runs a handful of flights a week, and the alternative is a four-hour drive from Athens. The building and the setting don't waver, but the floor does: breakfast is the most consistently excellent meal on property, yet more than one guest describes coffee refills that take ten minutes and food arriving after the plates are cleared. One family was told they'd have to pay for a room upgrade on a quiet week and left feeling like an afterthought; another had a mistaken transport booking that management wouldn't make right. None of that touches the honeymoon-anniversary crowd's experience, where staff remembered dietary restrictions down to the allergy and sent a cake and balloons on hearing a couple was expecting.

Go for a week, not three days: this is a resort built for settling in, with olive harvesting, golf, and boat trips to fill the time between pool days. Book it for the rooms and the breakfast, and go in May or October if the crowds and the heat both worry you.

This is the newer of the two Central Mandarin Orientals, a few buildings from the original, and the case for it comes down to the address: a covered walkway straight into Landmark mall, Man Wah rated by more than one traveler as some of the best Chinese food in the city, and doormen who remember your face by the second night. One guest recovering from a knee injury got upgraded to a room with a proper soaking tub and help onto the wheelchair lift without being asked twice. Another had a birthday and left with an upgrade and a warm word from the same doorman on every return to the lobby.

The catch is that this is a hotel still finishing its renovation, and it shows. Rooms have come back spacious and comfortable for most people, but at least one stay flagged a bathroom with no outlet by the vanity and finishes that already looked tired. The bigger issue is the spa and gym were not running at all during recent stays, with guests sent to another hotel's facilities and not warned about it before they booked a staycation built around exactly that. Breakfast is mixed too: several people loved it, one found the à la carte spread thin and the order wrong twice.

Book it for Central, for Man Wah, and for staff who clearly take pride in the small stuff. Skip the staycation angle until wellness is actually back, and confirm what's open before you pay for it.