Villas with Pools in beautiful Loggos

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Villas with Pools in beautiful Loggos
5 November 2010 by Tony Wells

Loggos, the smallest of the three coastal villages on tiny Paxos in the Ionian Sea, is almost the place that time forgot. Before tourists first discovered Paxos in the early 1970s, Loggos, consisting of 30 or so stone-built village houses around a pretty natural harbour, lived mainly from olives. The old factory, which pressed olives and turned the residue, coarser oil, skins and stones, into usable by-products such as soap and fuel, supplied work for the villagers and wealth for the family which owned it. The work is long gone, supplanted these days by the hospitality industry, from which most of the villagers now earn their living, but the old factory, now a ruin, still occupies its old site at the northwestern edge of the harbour, its tall chimney still an unmistakeable Loggos – and Paxos - landmark.

Has Loggos been changed by the tourism which has provided the locals with their living for the past 40 years? Hardly. The bread is still baked by a solitary tradesman in the old bakehouse behind the church – one of the pleasures of a Paxos holiday being to collect the warm, crusty loaves from the baker’s shop first thing in the morning (before it all goes). Over the years more and more of the buildings around the harbour have been restored, becoming tavernas, mini-markets, cafes and offices, but these have not altered the character of Loggos as a village, merely provided amenities for the enthusiastic and loyal holidaymakers who seek out this their favourite Greek island destination year after year, and sometimes twice or more in the same year! None of the restoration has been out of character, and the handful of newly built houses in the village precincts have been designed in tasteful and traditional style. The people of Paxos in general, and Loggos in particular, have been very careful not to kill the goose that lays their golden egg. They clearly understand what the visitors from other countries love about their home, and have no desire to ruin it.

This applies no less to the holiday accommodation in Loggos and the most recent addition to it: a group of brand new, state-of-the-art, luxury villas on the southeastern side of the village. The first development is a group of three two-bedroom properties standing on the fringe of land still owned by the family who used to have the olive factory. As you would expect from a family with such long associations with Loggos, these villas have been positioned very discreetly but in a location which offers the most spectacular sea views of any property on the island. Screened from the village by trees and land, and invisible except to swimmers returning from Marmari and Levrechio beaches, these stunning new villas will provide their guests with the most private, peaceful and commanding location imaginable, all within the easiest of walking distances from Loggos village in one direction and the beach in the other. Some combination!

The second development is also a small private project of two up-to-the-minute villas with private pools, in a beautifully tranquil location on the way to Marmari beach. Marmari is about a ten-minute walk from Loggos, so at these new villas, too, life could not be more convenient. One of the great attractions of Loggos for its many regular visitors over the years has been the simplicity of life there. Nothing is more than a few minutes away on foot: the sea, the beach, the cafes, the restaurants, the accommodation, the shops, the bakery, the bus stop, the motor boats to hire. This is all true of these luxury new villas, as well. The two properties at Marmari, close to the sea and with fine sea views, are under five minutes’ walk to the beach and only double that to the village. Life could hardly be more relaxing.

For anyone anxious to know when these stunning new villas can be rented, the news from Travel à la carte holidays – the company the owners of these wonderful properties have chosen to rent them through – is that two are already nearing completion and the other three will be ready to occupy from April 2011. Travel à la carte is taking bookings at the villas now and photographs illustrating these fabulous new additions to the range of self-catering accommodation in Loggos are regularly updated on their website.

There are plenty of examples in the Greek islands of how insensitive design and cheap materials can ruin the magic of ravishingly beautiful locations. Here in Loggos, Paxos, there is an example of the exact opposite: sensitive design and the best materials coming together to add something quite new to a traditional holiday destination, without altering its unique charm and beauty one iota. Loggos, Paxos: this is what the future of Greek tourism should be like.