Super yachts, champers at £65k a bottle, £6k Gucci handbags … and Gigi Hadid: How beaches of the Greek island of Mykonos have become a dripping with cash playground for the mega-rich and famous
- Nammos on the Greek island of Mykonos boasts a 100-metre-long stretch of beach with crystal-clear water
- Revellers can bask in exquisite comfort and absolute privacy while dining on some of the finest seafood in Europe
- Mykonos was a poor fishing island before the tourist boom and now offers seasonal employment for tens of thousands
Beautiful people, superyachts, luxury champagne at £65,000-a-bottle and £6,000 Gucci handbags – welcome to Nammos, the seaside playground of the rich and famous that is dripping with money.
A narrow arc of sand, little more than 100 metres long, Nammos on the Greek island of Mykonos, is the summer hideaway for more billionaires per square metre than almost anywhere in the world.
The pavements may as well be paved with gold because the tiny hamlet in the south-west corner of this party island oozes wealth
Its handful of select bars, restaurants and designer shops bask in endless sunshine and the unlimited spending power of the super-rich.
Nammos is where everybody wants to be seen. In the summer months, champagne literally rains down as the globe’s high-rollers go wild at the exclusive Nammos Beach Club and Restaurant and rack up bar bills of well over £100,000.
Nammos, on the Greek island of Mykonos, serves as a luxury holiday destination for the rich and famous. A-listers can enjoy the crystal clear water off this 100-metre-long stretch of beach in exquisite comfort and absolute privacy in elite bars and restaurants
While champagne rains down as the world’s billionaires go wild, this small stretch of beach wasn’t always so desirable. Once a poor fishing island, Mykonos’s popularity boomed when US first lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis visited with her second husband, the shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis
The picturesque coastline bathes in year-long sunshine making Mykonos a playground to the rich and famous. High-rollers can splash their cash at luxury shops in Nammos Village. A Celine lizard skin clutch bag is on sale for £6,000 from the Dolce and Gabbana store
A glittering roll call of endless footballers, businessmen and models can arrive at this luxurious hideaway in the Aegean Sea by private jet, helicopter and on scores of mega-yachts. Once there, groups can rack up drinks bills of around £50,000 in less than two hours
British billionaire businessman Philip Green, Manchester City footballer Kevin De Bruyne and actors Leonardo Di Caprio and Tom Hanks are some of the elite clientele that have touched down in the luxury destination
Party goers can enjoy 15-litre bottles of champagne of Armand De Brignac nicknamed the ‘Ace of Spades’ after its logo. It costs £65,000 a pop at Nammos. The extravagant celebrations on the island are mostly bank rolled by the world’s wealthiest men. Pictured: A man soaked head to toe in wine at a party in Mykonos (left) and a woman (right) pours champagne
A glittering roll call of A-listers arrive at this luxurious haven in the Aegean Sea by private jet, helicopter and on scores of mega-yachts, attracted by the deep turquoise waters of the sheltered Psarou Bay.
British billionaire businessman, Philip Green; Manchester City footballer Kevin De Bruyne; actors Leonardo Di Caprio and Tom Hanks; fashion designer Valentino; chef Heston Blumenthal; singers Mariah Carey and Nicole Sherzinger and models galore, including Kate Moss, Gigi Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski have all joined the party.
Even the Queen of Pop, Madonna herself, is rumoured to be on her way to Mykonos to give this rocky outcrop her blessing.
Whether the money followed the talent to the island, or the other way around is a moot point. The fact is the extravagant celebrations at Nammos are bank rolled by the world’s richest men.
They splash holiday cash on top brands in the boutique stores of Nammos Village, where a green ostrich leather Gucci handbag will set you back £4,500.
At the Kessaris jewellery boutique you can pick up a de Grisogono emerald and ruby ring for £730,000.
‘If you have the money, why not?’ said the beautiful and bejewelled shop assistant, but she admitted most customers choose a more modest momento of their stay, such as a designer watch, by Rolex or Panerai, for between £5,000 and £20,000. No fridge magnets available.
‘These rich men they have beautiful women,’ said another shop owner with typical Greek candour. ‘They want to buy them something.’
Outside, brilliant, bright modern art installations dazzle in the sun between the white-washed stores of Burberry, Louboutin, and Dior.
‘If you have the money, why not?’ seems to be the motto of this luxury island escape. Holiday makers who wish to splash the cash can visit the Eden Art Gallery where they can fork out £260,000 for graffiti art by New Yorker Alec Monopoly which depicts the pre-eminence of money in modern life
Sun loungers at the exclusive Nammos Beach Club and Restaurant cost £140-a-pair for the day. Food at the sea-front restaurant includes giant carabineros scarlet prawns for £225, sashimi of locally caught grouper fish for £185 and lobster at £165
Only the rich and the beautiful are invited to party at the beach club in Nammos. Mail Online was denied entry by one of the black-clad Russians who line beachfront like security at a pop concert, employed to protect the privacy of the guests
Security guards watch on throughout the village guarding the wealthy visitors and their pricey merchandise. Queen of Pop Madonna is rumoured to be on her way to Mykonos to explore the island’s delights. Pictured: Bikini clad holiday makers soak up the rays in the Psarou beach on the island of Mykonos
One enthusiastic British Instagram influencer and part-time actor told how ‘you can smell the wealth’ on the island. The twentysomething said ‘the island is full of love, happiness and luxury’ and ‘is so rich and exclusive’
Villa Tamarisk (pictured) is available to rent at £300,000-a-week and comes with its own butler, chef and two waiters
The graffiti art of New Yorker Alec Monopoly (real name Alec Andon) depicts the pre-eminence of money in modern life. Oddly it’s a hit with the jet-set, and the most desired canvas can be purchased from the Eden Art Gallery for £260,000.
Around the corner, an extravagantly plumaged long-tailed macaw perches by Dolce and Gabbana, where a Celine lizard skin clutch bag in teal is on sale for £6,000.
And behind the deluxe underwear store, La Perla, a life-size sculpture of a baby hippopotamus is suspended by a sling.
Everywhere, steely, black-clad Russian and Greek security guards watch on – over the guests and the merchandise.
Through the artistic displays and slogans, visitors are urged to fill their senses, to love, to experience, and they are reminded by a large silver engraving that in the end ‘you will die’.
It all helps sell the idea of a Mykonos moment – something so luxurious it is beyond imagination, even in the rarefied existence of the super-rich. Or put another way: You only live once; spend it while you can.
And they do.
‘You can smell the wealth,’ said one enthusiastic British Instagram influencer, who has toured the beach clubs of Mykonos this summer.
‘It is so rich and exclusive,’ said the twentysomething. ‘They have created these places and they are pure luxury. And it’s so boozy, it’s unbelievable.’
Here, money is no object, no barrier to the perfect experience.
When Mail Online visited Nammos, former international model of the year and ambassador for the luxury brand Bulgari Bella Hadid soaked up the rays and sipped cocktails on a sun lounger. She is following in the footsteps of American actress and model Emily Ratajkowski and British model Kate Moss
Gigi Hadid also joined her older sister for the luxury getaway and the pair whizzed around on jet skis. Throughout Nammos Village, the artistic displays and slogans urge visitors to fill their senses, to love and to experience
Model and reality star Kendall Jenner also holidayed in Mykonos. The island is marketed as a moment of unimaginable luxury, even in the rarefied existence of the super-rich. Visitors are reminded by a large silver engraving in the village that in the end ‘you will die’. Or put another way, spend while you can
Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner are among the many models that have visited the luxury destination. At Nammos, elite guests can secure their privacy by renting one of four beach cabanas for £4,600 per day. They come with a jacuzzi, champagne, wine and a private chef
Cavo Tagoo, a hotel built into the hillside near Mykonos town, hosted Strictly Come Dancing finalists, Joe Sugg and Dianne Boswell last month. It charges up to £2,100-a-night and has one room with its own pool within a cave that opens out onto panoramic views of the sea
A green ostrich leather handbag costing £4,500 can be purchased from the Gucci shop in Nammos Village. It is one of the many luxury items on sale
And so, the clientele has the best of everything. They enjoy extravagant wines like 15-litre bottles – known as Nebuchadnezzars – of Armand De Brignac, an exceptional champagne nicknamed the ‘Ace of Spades’, which costs £65,000 a pop at Nammos.
These are not simply trophy bottles to pep up the list.
‘To them, buying expensive champagne, it’s like buying bubble gum,’ a Greek waitress at the beach club told Mail Online.
The ‘Ace of Spades’ is not the only jaw-dropping bubbly on offer. A magnum (1.5 litres) of Cristal Exclusive Limited Edition is listed for £55,000 and a jeroboam (three litres) of Cristal Rose Vintage 2007 is on offer at £32,000.
And they don’t always finish the bottle, the waitress confided.
After shopping and a tipple, the well-heeled crowd want to lunch and where better than at the edge of the Aegean, the sea rippling the shore 30 feet away.
An extraordinary array of seafood is laid out on ice and includes giant carabineros scarlet prawns at £225, sashimi of locally caught grouper fish at £185, lobster for £165, or huge Alaskan crab legs, each at least a foot long, for £140, all priced per kilo. Dessert includes a chocolate mousse bowl for £200.
Throw in a bottle of Chateau Haut-Brion Blanc, a celebrated white wine from Bordeaux, France, and you can add £2,600 to your bill.
Meanwhile, the beach is a catwalk. The club’s strapline is ‘luxury in flip flops’ and every item, including the flip flops, is chosen with the utmost care. Luckily, crystal embellished flip flops can be supplied by the fashion label, Philipp Plein, which has an outlet in Nammos Village, for £375.
Nammos is officially full of the world’s most beautiful and best dressed people.
When Mail Online visited last week, former international model of the year and ambassador for the luxury brand Bulgari, Bella Hadid, and her younger supermodel sister, Gigi, were sizzling in bikinis and riding jet skis across the bay.
Also soaking up the sun were underwear model Alessandra Ambrosio, who was once named in a list of the 100 most beautiful people in the world, and fellow glamour-girl, Demi Rose, famed for her curves and almost 10 million followers on Instagram.
At Nammos, elite guests can secure their privacy by renting one of four cabanas – luxurious cabins – on the beach for £4,600-a-day to share ‘private moments’ and ‘refresh your look before joining the party’.
However, former Girls Aloud singer and Lucky Day musician, Nicola Roberts, chose to shower on the beach after a dip in the sea – and set pulses racing.
Even Tiffany Trump, first daughter of US president Donald Trump flew in for a day and was seen settling uneasily into a small boat by the club jetty.
She was following in the footsteps of American actress and model, Emily Ratajkowski and Czech model Petra Nemcova, as well Kate Moss, who visited last year to host the opening of the village shopping complex.
But it’s not only models. Mykonos attracts stars from almost every field.
Australian billionaire businessman James Packer, 51, who inherited the Packer media empire, is a visitor, along with actress Liz Hurley, 54; Flavio Briatore, 61, the Italian businessman and former chairman of QPR, as well as American fashion influencer and entrepreneur, Olivia Palermo, 33.
And even Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the Greek-Cypriot who founded easyJet, enjoys a spot of luxury.
It wasn’t always like this. In Greece, Mykonos, which is in the Cyclades group of islands that includes Santinori, another celebrity hotspot, was mostly considered unworthy of attention.
Nammos Village is home to boutique stores stocking top brands. Shop owner Mary Louca first went there for a holiday from her home in Athens in the 1970s and never thought it would see such a development
The Kessaris jewellery boutique has an emerald and ruby ring by de Grisogono with a £730,000 price tag. The incredible wealth of Nammos’s visitors is in stark contrast to Greek population. The average Greek salary is around £12,000-a-year, so it would take every penny of 60 years hard work for a typical local to buy the ring
No fridge magnets are available to tourists who want a memento of their stay. They can instead splash their cash on a designer watch (left) or a Louboutin bag (right). The tourist boom on the island has offered seasonal employment to tens of thousands of people, isolating Mykonos from the economic troubles suffered in many parts of Greece
Up to 30 super-yachts were at anchor with values ranging from £5 million to £250 million each. Thumping beats boomed from some of the sea-borne parties while others holiday-makers sit down to dinner on deck in the warm ‘meltemi’ breeze
In the 1960s that began to change when former US first lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis visited with her second husband, the shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.
A string of stars followed, including Grace Kelly, Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren.
A decade later, the Italian-American painter Pierro Aversa and a local fisherman, Andreas Koutsoukos, set up Pierro’s, an LGBT-friendly bar. It was an inspired decision and although the local population was conservative, they were tolerant of visitors’ behaviour and Mykonos’ reputation as a Bohemian bolthole began to grow.
Even then, Nammos and many of the island’s current honey pots, consisted of one taverna and could hardly be reached by road.
‘I could not have imagined this,’ said Mary Louca, who visited Mykonos from her home in Athens, aged 10, and now runs the popular interiors store, VST, in Nammos Village.
‘For the people of Mykonos this development has been good. Before it was just a poor island.’
The tourist boom has insulated Mykonos from the economic troubles suffered in many parts of Greece. Even so, the wealth of the visitors compared to the Greek population is a stark comparison.
The average Greek salary is £12,000-a-year, so it would take every penny of five-and-a-half years hard work to buy a big bottle of ‘Ace of Spades’.
In August, the Mykonos party season is in full swing, and Nammos is at the centre of the celebrations.
Every afternoon, the beachside restaurant closes and from 5pm it becomes one of the most exclusive dance floors in the world. The DJ cranks up the volume and the elite crowd migrate from their £140-a-day sun loungers.
The dress code is designer swimwear, with some men choosing to pair a fitted shirt with their branded shorts buttoned once or twice at the midriff, while women slip on an elegant kaftan or chain mail dress, or simply get down in their bikini.
Only the rich and the beautiful are invited.
Soon the champagne corks are popping and around 200 people strut their stuff on the restaurant tables with the ocean – and their luxury yachts – before them.
As Mail Online looked on, a particularly raucous group ran up a drinks bill of around £50,000 in less than two hours, sending champagne showers across the sun beds.
One reveller, soaked from head to toe in wine, fired the contents of £6,200 jeroboams (three-litre bottles) of Dom Perignon into the crowd.
Another necked a magnum of Veuve Clicquot champagne, which costs a mere £350 a bottle, and a woman in a long white dress, poured bubbly over his head, extinguishing his cigar.
The DJ mixed up the music with classic pop anthems, Greek favourites, house and even an instrumental version of the Russian national anthem, perhaps in deference to the eastern European money flooding into Mykonos.
And then as quickly as it started, the party ebbed away not long after 8pm. Worse-for-wear revellers drifted back to their yachts courtesy of the beach club’s Riva speed boat sea taxis, or in their own launch, piloted by their crew.
In the bay, and around the headland, up to 30 super-yachts were at anchor during Mail Online’s visit, available to charter for between £100,000 and £300,000 per week.
Once on board, the party starts again. Thumping beats boom over the bay from the sea-borne revelry, while others sit down to dinner on deck in the warm ‘meltemi’ breeze which sweeps Mykonos from the north each summer and keeps the temperature bearable.
The beach club will send supplies to your yacht, which is fortunate since there are no supermarkets in the village.
The uber-rich enjoy the sea view. Last week, the Tis, a British-designed six-deck mega-yacht valued at £250 million and owned by the Russian businessman, Alexey Fedorychev, 64, weighed anchor in Psarou Bay. Mr Fedorychev, now a citizen of Monaco, is thought to be worth more than £1 billion as a result of his stevedoring (loading and unloading ships) business.
While the rich and famous enjoy their luxury stays, not everyone is impressed. A hotelier in a neighbouring village said: ‘I don’t like it,’ and described the excess displays of wealth as ‘very snobby’
Before the big tourist boom, Mykonos, which is in the Cyclades group of islands, was mostly considered unworthy of attention or even a visit. It was largely populated by fisherman and the hot, inhospitable landscape was hard to work
After a night of hard partying, revellers can enjoy a good night’s sleep in some of the world’s most opulent villas and indulgent hotels. For example, Villa Tamarisk is available to rent at £300,000-a-week and comes with its own butler, chef, sous chef and two waiters
Nearby, the Atlante, the £35 million yacht of fellow billionaire, Italian Remo Ruffin, 57, who has made his £2 billion fortune as the chairman and CEO of Moncler, the Italian fashion company, lay at ease. It is said to have walkways made of marble. There is a gym, spa, Turkish bath, elevator and, of course, helicopter landing pad.
Meanwhile, British businessman, Andrea Panayiotou’s £9 million boat has spent the summer in Mykonos. Mr Panayiotou, 54, is the chairman and CEO of the Ability Group which has a hotel portfolio and other commercial assets approaching a net worth of £2 billion. The group owns the London Syon Park Hilton Hotel, among others.
Back on dry land, opulent villas and some of the world’s most indulgent hotels await.
Villa Tamarisk is available to rent for £300,000-a-week overlooking Mykonos town with a sunset view and outdoor entertaining for 120 people. It comes with its own butler, chef, sous chef and two waiters and has eight bedrooms and nine bathrooms.
Or Cavo Tagoo, a hotel built into the hillside near Mykonos town, where one room has its own pool within a cave that opens out onto panoramic views of the sea. The hotel, which hosted Strictly Come Dancing finalists, Joe Sugg and Dianne Boswell last month, charges up to £2,100-a-night.
Wherever the glitterati lay their head, there is no shortage of evening entertainment. Scorpios, five minutes from Nammos is owned by the exclusive London club, Soho House.
Scorpios is popular with famous faces, Gigi Hadid ate their recently (despite rocking up just 10 minutes before the kitchen closed), but also for party nights when queues can reach 2,000 for top DJs like Jean Claude Ades.
Thankfully, the wine list at Scorpios is more approachable – you can enjoy a refreshing bottle of Puligny Montrachet Premier Cru from Burgundy, France, for £500 – but a table for an all-inclusive dinner on a party night, overlooking Psarou Bay, will cost you up to £10,000.
The club has been described as ‘relaxed luxe’ in comparison to the frenzied atmosphere of the Nammos beach party. Here the emphasis is on well-being with daytime yoga classes and the chance to make your own lunchtime taco from striploin beef, guacamole, red onion and chilli for £75.
In fact, top-end beach clubs are dotted all around the coast of Mykonos. One of the best known is JackieO’s, named in homage to Jackie Onassis.
But back in Nammos, not everyone is impressed by the outrageous displays of wealth and the profligate spending that the village is becoming known for.
The locals tolerate the excesses, after all the money brings obvious benefits.
‘But I don’t like it,’ said a hotelier in a neighbouring village. ‘It’s very snobby.’
‘Pure-greed,’ muttered a wealthy middle-aged man as the champagne flew and he looked on, sipping a more modest rose wine with a cube of ice and a strawberry.
Quite what the West African ‘lookie lookie men’ selling fake designer sunglasses to the wannabes who rent £25 sun loungers on the beach, make of all the excess is anyone’s guess.
From Senegal and Nigeria, they have migrated to Athens and then made the 100-mile boat trip to Mykonos. They looked on open mouthed as the booze flowed like water next door.
‘I came here because I heard there was money,’ said one recently arrived Senegalese woman.
And with that, a golden helicopter lifted into the air from the helipad behind Nammos, dipped its nose over the beach and wheeled away, out to sea.
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