Bratsera by Jamie Dunford Wood

For those who prefer more of an hotel hotel, as well as the feeling of staying in the top joint in town, nothing will do but the Bratsera. For little more than 160 euros you can secure the best room in the island here, the Virani suite, much photographed for Herbert Ypma’s Budget Hotels book. ‘Budget’ is stretching it a bit, but it’s still no more than double the price of the run-of-the-mill hotels on Hydra, and three times the most basic ‘rooms for rent’. It’s also the only hotel on the island with a pool - a small affair in the central courtyard, but you can eat lunch or breakfast around it, and romantic candles flicker around the edge at nighttime.

Rooms here are nothing special – the Bratsera is a converted 18thC sponge factory, and they have that warehouse conversion feel with whitewashed stone walls – or else colour wash rough plaster – and basic furnishings, rather like an African Lodge, but they are tastefully done, some with Moroccan or Indian-inspired furnishings, and muslin-draped iron bedsteads. Most have small windows and are dark and cool, and a few are split level. Three have terraces, and one a small balcony – though this latter is the bigger room, sharing in the larger windows of the reception wing, along with the suite, and so generally preferable. With 23 rooms this qualifies as one of Hydra’s larger hotels, and a large conference room by reception attests to its popularity with incentive groups and company get-togethers.