A week with us on Amorgos
What seven days of rest, myth and salt water actually feel like.
It’s 3 PM on a Tuesday. Back home, your inbox is multiplying. Here, you’re floating on your back in the Aegean, so far from your to-do list you’ve forgotten it exists.
This is Myth + Magic, our week on Amorgos, the long, rugged island at the wild eastern edge of the Cyclades. Whitewashed villages cling to the hillsides, a monastery hangs from a cliff above the sea, and the herbs on the hills perfume the air when the wind blows. Crowds sail right past it on the way to Santorini and Mykonos. Lucky us.
The whole point of this week is rest. Here’s what a week with us looks like.
The rhythm of a day
Slow mornings, softer afternoons, and evenings that send you straight into the best sleep of your year.
- Mornings. A couple of mornings we wake the body up with vinyasa, with the bay spread out below the mat. Other mornings are yours: sleep in, swim, or sit with your coffee and do absolutely nothing.
- Afternoons. Beach time, salt water, a long lunch, and restorative yoga when the heat softens. Bolsters, blankets, and permission to stop.
- Evenings. Yoga nidra and restorative ritual as the light goes gold. You will sleep like you haven’t in years.
This week is for anyone who is tired. Come rest.
Boat day on the Aegean
Amorgos’ water is famous. The 1988 film The Big Blue was shot here, and one swim tells you why.
Our boat day starts at the beaches of Nikouria, then tender boats carry us to a hidden beach for sun, snorkeling and floating on the tranquil sea. Curious about steering the boat? Guidance is provided, and a captain is with you the whole time. Lunch and drinks come along for the ride.
Sacred stops
The day we climb. Two places that will rearrange something in you.
- Hozoviotissa Monastery. A white monastery built straight into a sheer cliff, hundreds of feet above the sea. The climb up the steps is part of the pilgrimage. Dress modestly, go early, and take your time.
- Chora. The hilltop capital: windmills on the ridge, lanes too narrow for cars, tiny tavernas and bougainvillea spilling over every wall. Wander without a map.
- Aegiali. Our home bay, with a sandy beach and a harbor full of fishing boats.
On an island with more goats than people, the myths of the ancients still hum in the soil.Shelley Carroll
An island under a spell
Legend says Ulysses, sailing home to Ithaca, was drawn to Amorgos by the goddess Kirki and stayed for years under her spell.
The ancient Greeks sailed across the sea to ask their oracles about love, war and fate. Amorgos had an oracle spring of its own, said to show the future. The island carries the energy of Artemis too, protector of the wild places, and its hills are covered in the healing herbs that gave it a restorative reputation long before anyone called it wellness.
So we lean in. During the week we gather for a new moon ritual and ask the oracle’s question for ourselves: what do I actually need? The answer, almost every time, is rest.
Aegialis Hotel & Spa
Our home on Amorgos, perched above Aegiali Bay.
Aegialis is the only five-star hotel on the island and has been named one of the top yoga hotels in Greece by CNN. Picture yoga with the bay below you, a spa built for restoration, and organic gardens that feed the kitchen.
It’s the kind of place where a nap on a pile of bolsters before sunset counts as the main event.
Opa! Food + wine
Greek food tastes like sunshine here, and we learn to make it ourselves.
In our cooking class, the resident chef walks us through traditional dishes using vegetables and herbs from the hotel’s organic gardens:
- Fava, a silky purée of yellow split peas.
- Amorgian lentil fritters and herb-packed vegetable croquettes.
- Cheese pie and spinach pie, flaky and golden.
- Sweet-and-salty wine cookies and honey puffs.
- Tzatziki, of course.
Then we sit down and eat every bite over a long Greek lunch, with Greek wines alongside.
The week, from our itinerary
Amorgos through our eyes
The oracle prescribes rest
Come rest with us. Seven nights of restorative yoga, yoga nidra, ritual and salt water on Amorgos, July 1–8, 2027, with Shelley and Lisa Rolf.