Page 58 - MYCONIAN COLLECTION MAGAZINE 2025

HERITA GELEGA CY
T
Clockwise from left: Vangelis, Panos, Markos and Marios
Daktylides in their early years, when Mykonos was a very
different place. As one of the island’s pioneering hoteliers,
George Daktylides opened Kohili and ran both the reception and
Mykonos’s only public bus service. Eleftheria worked alongside
him in the kitchen, while their young sons pitched in after school
and during holidays—laying the foundations for what would soon
become Korali, and eventually the Myconian Collection.
058
"Dad worked from
morning to night and
invested all the profits
back into the business."
Vangelis Daktylides
There is something about a family business and its unique synthesis grandfathers hammering to uncoil the steel just below our house.
of heritage, loyalty and emotion which captures the essence of Everything was done by hand.”
luxury and accounts for the strength of some of the world’s greatest Tourist accommodation on the island had grown modestly with
portfolios. This quality is at the heart of the Myconian Collection’s the state-funded construction and informal room and board offers,
success. “My brothers and I are as proud of our roots as we are of but demand from visitors drawn to experience the warm hearts,
our growth”, says Vangelis Daktylides about his parents George and rich culture and exceptional hospitality of the locals continued to
Eleftheria Daktylides, founders of the Collection that today counts grow. It was not uncommon for cash-strapped backpackers in the
fourteen of the leading luxury hotels on Mykonos,with affiliations to Eighties to be invited to open up their sleeping bags on private
Relais & Châteaux, LHW, SLH, The Set, Design Hotels and Legend. terraces under the stars. So, with his burgeoning contacts in trading
Mykonos during George Daktylides’s youth was very different from and construction, George decided to undertake a development of
that of today. The island ran a barter economy well into the Fifties. his own, seeing an opportunity to build the first hotel on Mykonos
“My mother, along with everyone else who lived off the land, will outside of town. Marios Daktylides recounts: “He came home
tell you that they traded their cheese, sausages, cured fish and one day on a Caterpillar that he’d picked up second-hand, and it
produce with the townsfolk for imports such as sugar, flour, rice, remained his favourite set of wheels long after he could have any car
coffee and spaghetti, not to mention the all-important cigarettes, he wanted.” The well-worn but solid 920 four-cylinder diesel loader
sold individually from a big box”, Panos Daktylides explains. Besides went on to dig the foundations of his first four hotels, starting with
visitors to a few private villas, the island was a well-guarded secret the 25-room Kohili in 1979. Set high above town and looking directly
before the yachts and cruise ships of the Sixties began to drop anchor onto the seven famous 16th century windmills, the charming little
on their way to view the magnificent ancient ruins of Delos. Onassis hotel commanded sweeping views of the Aegean by day and the
and Jackie O were followed by Princess Soraya, Grace Kelly, Brando glittering spectacle of the town by night. Kohili was the first private
and Liz Taylor, to mention but a few, and Christian Dior famously hotel on Mykonos outside Chora, and an instant hit, followed by
crowned the town’s tailor, Josef Salachas “le roi du pantalon” [“the Korali a year later to double the room count.
king of trousers”], inspiring Givenchy to collaborate on a couture Their success was built on the back of hard work. Eleftheria made
collection. The secret was out, and close on its heels came the boho breakfast for all the guests and did the housekeeping and laundry,
chic of the Seventies. as well as providing meals for the 40 construction workers who were
George Daktylides was a handsome young man in a hurry when he busy erecting the new hotel. She was also raising four sons, and
married the beautiful young Eleftheria from Delos. On completing somehow still found the time to take her boys for a daily swim. “I can
his military duty, he had returned home with big dreams. He drove still smell the cake she baked for the hotel in our kitchen”, Vangelis
a bus that carried men and materials from town to the barite mines, recalls. “She gets emotional when we talk about those times... My
and soon convinced his brothers to invest with him in a vehicle of parents would sacrifice anything to create opportunities for us. Dad
their own. Before long, they were operating the only public transport worked from morning to night and invested all the profits back into
on the island, with a fleet of twenty-five buses on which the four boys the business. My mother had one good pair of Sunday shoes which
cut their commercial milk teeth. “As kids, we sold tickets on our dad’s she would only wear before walking into church".
buses, which was a little boy’s dream”, says Markos Daktylides. The personal touch and attention to detail that to this day defines
Concurrently, George started trading in cement, bricks and sand the Myconian Collection inspired a loyal clientele and a reputation
that he was hauling to the mines and construction sites, and for ten that spread by word of mouth. Six years later, Kyma and Kalypso
years mixed concrete and brought in coils of rebar used for structural joined Kohili and Korali to form what became known as K-Hotels.
reinforcement. “I can still remember the ringing sound of both of my In 1986, in anticipation of growing demand for luxury destinations,
059