A GOLDEN AEGEAN

While we enjoyed our Irish holidays last summer, there’s a feeling that we deserve guaranteed sun, sea and sand in 2021. This time, though, our tentative return to travel will see bohemian design, and island utopias, trending, predicts

When travel abroad returns (in all its sun-soaked glory), relaxed, small-scale retreats will be top of our wish list

Last summer, we were only delighted to take a holiday in a different county.

“I’m just happy to leave these four walls!” we gabbled, throwing sun dresses, swimwear, wellies, raincoats and the kitchen sink into luggage unburdened by airline weight limits. Cajoled into rediscovering our mother country was a revelation: we admired Ireland’s highways and byways with fresh, grateful eyes and wondered why we ever bothered to vacation in Spain.

And then the sea change. It’s no surprise that after being cooped up during the physical, emotional, fiscal and existential hardships of winter, many of us pined for warmer climes and everything they represent (white sand, warm sea, cheap plonk, not cooking, lie-ons). Those fond summer nights in Co Kerry – “remember when Storm Francis flooded our car in Killarney” – have been supplanted by the visceral urge to fly to, say, a Greek island on the sly.

Specifically Kos, in my case. Travel press releases are a mainstay of an editor’s inbox,

but it was one announcing a new opening by the recently launched OKU Hotels, on said island, that caught my eye, poked it, and had me mentally preparing what books I’ll read on its private beach. “Laidback luxury” is OKU’s tagline, which translates through clean lines, a steadfastly sepia palette, comfy couches hewn in natural materials and sun splintering through bamboo canopies: zeitgeist design that both tugs at the heartstrings and, in time, our bank accounts, when the world is vaccinated to the hilt and our lockdown-era commitment to carbonneutral living is, alas, a distant memory.

OKU’s design makeovers of former Thomas Cook (RIP) properties were signed off long before Covid-19, and yet “laidback luxury” couldn’t be more timely than if it were eating homemade banana bread in a dryrobe. Some holidaymakers will have packed party dresses and heels before the vaccination needle has even left their veins. But, after a year of loafing around in elasticated waistbands and sloppy slippers, the vast majority will be more tentative. We’ve gotten too comfortable, too louche, to want to squeeze ourselves into constrictive clothing and sole-destroying footwear for heady nights on the tiles. We want kaftans and caipirinhas brought to our own private cabana.

Nor are we in a hurry to suddenly rub sun-kissed shoulders on crowded beaches, or in busy tavernas, after so long of avoiding strangers literally like the plague. Labyrinthine towns and inner-cities – garlic-scented streets studded with packed bars – will remain aspirational for a while yet; mass tourism on hiatus (silver linings!), as travellers think twice about flocking to densely packed destinations where viruses might thrive given half the chance.

Islands, such as Kos and its many neighbours, will become the retreats

du jour, the effort of getting from A to B via a combination of stopover flights, boats and/or hire cars putting off your average package-holiday punter. Also, the geographical and psychological appeal of being “marooned” on a “desert” island – even a populous one with an airport – against a waning global pandemic, has a wide appeal.

Slow travel, as a concept, will be the reserve of the well-off, since only they have the time and money to take a gypsy caravan from Howth to Hydra before checking into a solar-powered smart yurt with a hot tub made from fairy breath. Bohemianism, despite its humble origins, commonly requires Goop-levels of disposable income. So it’s refreshing to see that OKU’s double rooms start at €180 in both its Kos and Ibiza properties, which may not be quite so prohibitive for those who have managed to keep their jobs over the past 12 months and/or squirrelled savings that were otherwise haemorrhaged on commuting, takeout coffees, supermarket meal deals and a hectic nightlife.

Travel will certainly look different when the world is safe to do so. And if it looks anything like “laidback luxury” then I’m all for it. Make mine a retsina.