The first thing you notice is the quiet. No beach-club bass, no jostle for sunbeds, just olive groves running down to the Ionian and a warm breeze that smells of wild rosemary. I have been to Costa Navarino twice now – long enough to have firm opinions on the Olympic Academy course, to have been put through my paces on court by Patrick Mouratoglou himself, and to have eaten a Greek salad at more or less every meal. What keeps pulling us back is that it does what Greece so rarely manages: serious sport, serious food and 4,500 years of history, all in one place, with no one trying to sell you anything.
Costa Navarino is less a resort than a small, exceptionally well-run territory in Messinia, in the southwest Peloponnese. There are four five-star hotels, four signature golf courses, three spas and more than 40 restaurants, spread across three sites on the Ionian coast. The Constantakopoulos family opened the first hotels here in 2010. Sixteen years on, it is the most complete destination in Greece.
Where is Costa Navarino?
Messinia is the Peloponnese’s southwestern corner: olive country, sunbaked and quietly prosperous, with the Ionian on one side and the Taygetos mountains on the other. Costa Navarino takes up a stretch of its coast just north of Pylos, a small harbour town on the Bay of Navarino.
The resort splits into three. Navarino Dunes is the original, busier half: The Romanos, The Westin, the Dunes Course and the private villas. Navarino Bay is the newer and sleeker, home to Mandarin Oriental, W and the Navarino Agora marketplace, with the Bay Course running between them. Up at Navarino Hills, José María Olazábal’s two courses look back down over it all.
Getting here from the Gulf is easier than it looks. Doha has 14 direct flights a week to Athens, Dubai 11, Abu Dhabi 10, Bahrain seven, and Riyadh and Jeddah six apiece. From Athens, drive 3.5 hours across the Peloponnese or take a short hop to Kalamata, 45 minutes from the resort. The drive makes the better story. The flight is the better idea with children.
When to go to Costa Navarino
Most of Greece keeps island hours: open in May, shuttered by October. Costa Navarino does not. The Westin was open by the end of February this year, Mandarin Oriental and W by early April and The Romanos a week later, and the sports calendar runs until the IRONMAN 70.3 on 24–26 October. The resort bills its sports programme as year-round, and for once the claim has substance.
Spring belongs to golfers. The fairways are green, the air is mild and the tee sheets are empty. Eid al-Adha, expected in mid-May 2027, falls neatly in the window – worth knowing before the rest of the Gulf catches on. Summer is for the beach and for children, who vanish into basketball, tennis and Juventus football camps while the Legends Tour and the AEGEAN Messinia Pro Am bring tour golf in June. It is hot, and it is full.
Our pick is autumn. By late September the sea has had all summer to warm up, the crowds have gone home and the courses come into their own. On 20 October, Pylos re-enacts the Battle of Navarino in the bay. Birders should aim for September to May, when Gialova Lagoon fills with migrating flocks and eagles, herons and bitterns settle in for winter.
Golf at Costa Navarino
Greece is not a golfing nation. It has a handful of 18-hole courses in total, and four of them are here. In 2025, the World Golf Awards named Costa Navarino the World’s Best Golf Venue, a title that sounds like hyperbole until you have played it. Plan on two courses at least, and book after 2pm for enviable twighlight rates. They are more different than you would expect.
The Bay Course
Robert Trent Jones Jr.’s 2011 layout is the one we would play every day, given the chance. Two holes run along the Bay of Navarino, the same water where British, French and Russian fleets sank the Ottoman-Egyptian navy in 1827. [Isabella: your favourite hole and why.] Mandarin Oriental is a short buggy ride away, and some of its villas look straight onto the fairways, which is how my golf-mad husband came to spend hours on our day bed studying other people’s swings. Finish at Ted’s Lounge, the 19th hole, where the club sandwiches are good and the accents are American, Australian and British.
The Dunes Course
The one that started it all. Bernhard Langer’s course, laid out with European Golf Design, opened in 2010 as Greece’s first signature course, and it is still the home fixture for guests at The Romanos and The Westin.
The International Olympic Academy Golf Course – our favourite
Olazábal’s first course at Navarino Hills is the world’s first to carry the International Olympic Academy name. At 6,366m, it plays high above the coast, and the views across the bay to the Ionian justify the climb.
The Hills Course
Olazábal’s second course, a par 72 of 6,280m, turns its back on the sea and looks inland instead, over hill villages and the mountains beyond. Lunch is at Piqantro in the clubhouse, where Iberian dishes come off an olive-wood grill. Green fees run from about €125 to €240 for 18 holes, depending on the season, with a resident rate for guests of all four hotels. Beginners and improvers should book time with the Navarino Golf Academy.
Tennis at Costa Navarino
Costa Navarino landed Patrick Mouratoglou’s first centre in Europe, and it is a proper tennis facility, not a resort afterthought. Twelve courts – eight clay, four hard – sit among the olive trees with the Ionian sea beyond, alongside three padel courts, two for pickleball and one for squash.
When we visited, Mouratoglou, the coach behind Serena Williams and Stefanos Tsitsipas, came down to hit with us, along with a handful of other guests and aspiring young players – cementing himself as one of the most charming people in tennis. He himself has now moved to Athens, and holidays in Costa Navarino, alongside his new favourite Greek island, Hydra, with his family.
The programme runs from private lessons and clinics to family sessions and Challenge the Pro matches, with junior camps from mid-June to the end of August. The centre sits beside The Westin. From Mandarin Oriental or W, allow 15 minutes by car and book ahead, as there is no resident rate on court hire. And watch this space: a new tennis centre is on its way.
Beyond the court
Children are catered for with real intent. The NBA Basketball School, the Juventus Academy and multi-sport camps run all summer. On the bay, there is kayaking, paddleboarding, windsurfing and kitesurfing. Inland, Moraitis Outdoors leads hikes, mountain-bike rides and climbs through the Messinian hills.
Where to stay in Costa Navarino
Every guest can use the golf, tennis and restaurants across the whole destination, so choose your hotel for the atmosphere. Navarino Bay is quieter and more grown-up. Navarino Dunes is where the families are.
Mandarin Oriental, Costa Navarino: the pinnacle
The most refined hotel at Costa Navarino, and our pick for couples and golfers. The main building is cut into the hillside above its own cove – pared back outside, warm within, all cedarwood, local stone and linen. There are just 99 suites and villas. The villas, with infinity pools that seem to run into the bay or onto the Bay Course, are worth the upgrade; we spent hours on the day bed watching golfers pass. The spa, with its hammam and garden spa suites, is among the best we have seen. Breakfast starts with Paramana, a daily-changing spread of Greek small plates, and dinner at Oliviera champions Messinian produce. Book the pizza omakase at Pizza Sapienza, and come hungry. This is not a party hotel: the night ends with a negroni at the lobby bar.
W Costa Navarino: the social one
The first W in Greece is the only hotel here reserved for adults and young adults over 12, and the one for couples and friends in their 20s to 40s. It sits on a 450m sandy beach on the Bay of Navarino, finished in natural stone, wood and contemporary art. Rooms run from swim-up rooms to suites with private pools, and the two- and three-bedroom Oasis Villas suit groups. DJs play at Between, the poolside spritz bar, and Chefs on the Beach brings visiting chefs to cook over open fire through the season. It is not all late nights: the 24-hour gym has a heated 25m outdoor pool, and The Cold Zone has an ice bath. Eat at Parelía, the beachfront restaurant built around Messinian sharing plates, or walk to Navarino Agora next door for Peruvian at Guacana and Italian at Santorre.
The Romanos, a Luxury Collection Resort: the family flagship
The Romanos is the upmarket family resort, and the one to book if you have children and want space and service. Many of its 321 rooms, suites and villas have private infinity pools looking over the golf course. At the top, the Ionian Exclusive villas come with a 24-hour butler. In 2024, Condé Nast Traveler’s US readers voted it the leading resort in Greece. Breakfast is a big buffet, and the Anazoe Spa bases its treatments on the olive tree. The Romanos shares the square at Navarino Dunes with The Westin: an open-air village centre of souvlaki, Italian at Da Luigi, ice cream and families from morning until late. For dinner, go to Armyra by Papaioannou for seafood or Paráfrasi for contemporary Greek. It is an excellent family hotel. Without children, stay on the Bay side.
The Westin Resort Costa Navarino: the sporting all-rounder
The Westin is the largest hotel here, with 445 rooms and suites designed after old Messinian mansions, and the most sporting. The Mouratoglou Tennis Center is next door and the NBA Basketball School is based here, so children can spend the day on court while their parents play the Dunes Course. There is an aqua park with six slides, a kids’ club, family suites and connecting rooms, plus a lap pool for adults. It is also the first hotel to open each year, in late February, which makes it the natural base for a spring golf or tennis break. Guests share the Navarino Dunes restaurants with The Romanos, from Onuki for Japanese to Flame for steak.
Villas at Costa Navarino
For multigenerational trips, a villa is the best way to do Costa Navarino. The Villa Rental Collection runs from two to six bedrooms, sleeping up to 14, all at Navarino Dunes, from €1,510 a night. Private chefs, childcare, spa treatments and concierge planning can be added, and guests use all the hotels’ facilities. The standout is Villa Santova in the Sea Dunes neighbourhood: six bedrooms, two separate guest suites and a private pool moments from the beach. For a quieter stay, book a villa on the Bay side: Mandarin Oriental’s pool villas go up to five bedrooms, and W’s Oasis Villas suit groups of adults. At the Dunes, The Romanos’ Ionian Exclusive and Royal Villas come with a butler. Decide which side you want first, and for Eid and summer, book early.
What to do in and around Costa Navarino
Messinia wears its 4,500 years lightly, but they are everywhere: Mycenaean palaces, Frankish and Venetian castles, and a bay that changed the course of modern Greek history. Most of it is within half an hour of your sun lounger. Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, released in July and filmed in part in the region, has given it a new audience.
In Homer’s footsteps
Begin at the Palace of Nestor, on Eglianos Hill about 15km from Pylos. It is one of the best-preserved Mycenaean palaces in Greece, with literary credentials to match: in the Odyssey, this is where Telemachus comes to ask King Nestor for news of his father. The clay Linear B tablets found here are among the earliest written Greek records, and the finds are displayed at the Pylos Archaeological Museum.
Then go to Voidokilia, the perfect omega of sand on the edge of Gialova Lagoon, and the beach you have already seen on Instagram. A short, steep scramble leads up to Nestor’s Cave, where, in myth, Hermes hid the cattle he stole from Apollo, and on to Paleokastro, the 13th-century Frankish castle on the ridge, for the best view of the lagoon and the bay.
Costa Navarino has built its own programme around the epic. The Messinian Odyssey Trail sends families on a six-stop treasure hunt through these sites, riddles and all, and crowns one player king or queen for the day. Echoes of the Odyssey is a philosophy walk led by a professor of Ancient Greek literature. Nestor’s Feast is a long-table supper in the spirit of ancient Greek hospitality.
Pylos
Pylos is 10 to 20 minutes away and makes an easy half-day. Climb to Niokastro, the Ottoman fortress of 1573, whose museum holds one of the oldest Linear B tablets yet found, dated to around 1450 BC. Down in Three Admirals Square, a monument marks the Battle of Navarino of 1827, when the British, French and Russian fleets destroyed the Ottoman-Egyptian navy in the bay below, a decisive moment in the Greek War of Independence. From the harbour, boats cross to Sfaktiria, the long island that closes off the bay.
Further afield
Methoni Castle, south of Pylos, is a Venetian sea fortress on a promontory, with an octagonal tower, the Bourtzi, at its tip. Gialova Lagoon, a protected wetland, has around 271 recorded bird species; Moraitis Outdoors runs a bike ride to Voidokilia that pairs well with the climb to Nestor’s Cave. Back at base, there are workshops in ceramics, weaving and jewellery-making, and olive oil tastings. Evenings end at Navarino Agora, with open-air cinema, jazz and comedy, and in August a traditional panigyri and the Messinian Terroirs Wine Festival.
The details
- Mandarin Oriental, Costa Navarino, Navarino Bay, Pylos: mandarinoriental.com, @mo_costanavarino
- W Costa Navarino, Navarino Bay, Pylos: marriott.com, @wcostanavarino
- The Romanos, a Luxury Collection Resort, Navarino Dunes: costanavarino.com, @romanoscostanavarino
- The Westin Resort Costa Navarino, Navarino Dunes: costanavarino.com, @westincostanavarino
- Villa Rental Collection, Navarino Dunes: costanavarino.com
- Mouratoglou Tennis Center, Navarino Dunes: costanavarino.com/mouratoglou-tennis-center
Dubai-based Isabella Craddock is the founder of Near+Far, a founding Academy Chair for The World’s 50 Best Hotels, former Condé Nast Traveller editor and a hotel-obsessed, design-devoted travel planner—for friends, loved ones, and readers alike.
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