ABOUT US

LuxurIOS Island Experience is a Greek owned travel and tourism business born out of a love for our country and respect for Greece’s cultural and natural heritage.

Like most Greeks we passed our summers island hopping.  We travelled and sailed in the Aegean and the Ionian seas,  discovered each island’s unique villages and natural beauty, swam in the safe and clear blue waters, grew up on fresh fish and meals from the local tavernas and experienced the famous heart warming greek hospitality.

Greece was very different 25 years ago, a country in its very early stages of tourism, with many islands still untouched by overdevelopment. As the country organized itself around what would soon become its largest contributor to the economy – the travel and tourism industry – many of Greece’s iconic islands started surrendering their character and beauty to the economic promises of mass tourism growth.

These islands gave up large sections of their traditional communities. Small fishing ports disappeared as a result of unrestricted and unsustainable construction, becoming victims of their own economic gain as rapid mass tourism and uncontrolleddevelopment led to environmental degradation and a loss of authenticity.

Ios, on the other hand, despite being located right in between two of the most known islands in the Mediterranean, Mykonos and Santorini, not having an airport and largely known only to young and intrepid travelers, escaped the mass tourism tide that washed over other islands.

Having until recently only few paved roads, the tourists who came to Ios frequented only the main town and the two nearest beaches. The rest of the island was left virtually undiscovered and even today is a place of dramatic untouched natural beauty and authenticity.

In 2003 we decided that we wanted to embrace and promote sustainable tourism in Greece and dedicate our mental, emotional and financial resources to protect the cultural and natural heritage of Ios.

We purchased a significant amount of land on Ios with the purpose of preserving it for the future by pursuing a model for sustainable development that included safeguarding vast tracts of natural landscape and building a small collection of villas, lounges and boutique hotels based upon environmentally-friendly design and construction, working closely with the local community thus providing direct economic benefits through responsible tourism development.

We believe that we do not have to damage the earth to accomplish our dreams so our aim is to use a very low-impact, environmentally sensible approach to sustainably develop the land by leaving 95% of it undeveloped, so that Ios’ natural beauty, unspoiled beaches, sense of place and Greek island cultural heritage continues to thrive for future generations of locals and visitors alike. We have made a conscious decision to build on only 5% of the land we own on Ios, leaving 95% to remain as part of nature to help ensure that future generations will also be able to enjoy the wild beauty of Ios and its magnificent beaches.

LuxurIOS Island Experience is committed to sustainable tourism principles and practices. We are firm believers that when planned and managed well, tourism can be a powerful force for protecting natural and cultural heritage. Our sustainable development philosophy is based on the following principles:

1. CONSTRUCTION
   During the construction process all the materials we use, except wood, iron, glass and cement and some of the marbles, are produced locally. The uniqueness of this project is that our venues are built out of materials that are extracted from the ground of the actual building site..They are then cut and carved by local craftsmen while the lower quality ones are grinded by a stone-processing machine to produce sand, gravel and plaster to be used as the building/finishing materials such as concrete, plaster, etc. We then use local master craftsmen to lay by hand and construct each one of our venues, some of them requiring millions of such stones in a painstaking but authentic effort.The swimming pools, patios and open ground surfaces are alsoconstructed in the same way by adding thousand of marble pieces crafted byhand and put together similar to a giant puzzle aimed to create a uniquefinished product in yet another painstaking effort.We are fortunate that some of our sites are significant stone- marble quarries offering distinctively different color and quality of marble and even stone-granite.
2. POWER LINESThere is no exposed infrastructure anywhere on our properties; no electric or telephone lines are exposed as all cables are dag underground at a great cost in order to not pollute visually the environment.
3. TREESWe planted more than 55,000 trees so far including more than of 500 ancient (300+ year old) olive trees brought by boat from the mainland. They were destined to become firewood and instead have been given a second life in Ios. It is actually quite stunning to watch them every day give it all they have in order to grow again in their new home instead of being burned in a fire place in Athens!
4. WATER COLLECTION.Storm water management and harvesting is in the forefront of our land development philosophy. Every venue of ours has very large (for a total of 8.500 cubic meters underground water reservoirs to collect water during the rainy season and consume it in the summer tourist season. Some properties have additional water reservoirs built at high points for irrigation through gravity and fire protection in case of wild fires
5. WASTE MANAGEMENTAll the water from the daily cleaning of the venues and various water features is recycled in separate waste management reservoirs to be used for the watering of our trees.
6. LOCAL COMMUNITY We are actively committed to the well-being of the local community in more than one ways.In order to protect the marine life and the surrounding waters  from illegal fishing  and other activities we have donated the only boat  the Coast Guard of Ios owns .  To ensure safety for the local community and the tourists we have donated to the police a 4X4 car. To protect the island from wild fires we have donated a fire track to the municipality of Ios. We financially support the local medical center. When needed, we  provided significant financial assistance to the Ios cooperative of shepherds.We are committed to youth and the children of Ios.  We provide funds for music lessons and other activities during the slow months of winter. We have helped organize free yoga instruction in the square for local residents to experience and enjoy.