In partnership with
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The Lifestyle Edit
No. 24
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Greece
Five Islands, Five Ways of Doing Things Well
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By James B. Stoney, Editor · July 2026
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Editor’s Letter
Greece doesn’t really do one thing. It does five, this week, across five different islands, and none of them resemble each other.
On Kos, a resort that hands you a car and pays for your dinner somewhere else entirely — the opposite instinct to every all-inclusive that came before it. On Corfu, a house at the water’s edge in Kalami where Lawrence Durrell wrote his best book about the island, still a working taverna rather than a museum behind glass. On Rhodes, a fortress that turns out to be two things at once: a genuine medieval seat of power, and a 1930s Italian fantasy of what that power should look like. On Folegandros, the island’s first five-star, built from its own excavated cliff, with wellness treated as a foundation rather than a spa menu. And on Ios — an island known almost entirely for its nightlife — a fish taverna that’s sat on the same stretch of sand since before the island had a road to reach it.
Different centuries, different ambitions, different reasons to matter. What connects them is only this: each is doing its own thing properly, rather than doing the expected thing adequately.
— James
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Read The Greece Edit →
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The Tax Trap Waiting for Surviving Spouses
When one spouse dies, the survivor keeps the income but loses half the deduction — and files single. The tax hit is large, and preventable. Roth Conversion Reset by Craig Wear, CFP®, shows IRA Millionaires how to solve it while rates are low. Free, delivered instantly.
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In This Edit
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Living · Stay · Folegandros
Gundari
Built from the cliff it stands on
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Folegandros’s first five-star, built substantially from stone excavated on its own site, with a subterranean spa drawing on ancient Greek ritual rather than a standard treatment menu. Raw luxury on one of the Cyclades’ quietest islands.
Read the article →
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Place · Restaurant · Corfu
Durrell’s White House
The room where Prospero’s Cell was written
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The Kalami house where Lawrence Durrell lived and wrote in the 1930s, still run as a working taverna on the water by the same family who took him in. Not a preserved room behind glass — a place you can eat lunch in, at the table it may well have been written at.
Read the article →
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Experience · Cultural & Heritage · Rhodes
The Palace of the Grand Master
A fortress that isn’t quite what it claims
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A 14th-century Knights’ stronghold, ruined by earthquake, rebuilt in the 1930s under Mussolini as a romanticised version of itself — mosaics imported from Kos, medieval weight layered with fascist-era theatre. Two histories in one building.
Read the article →
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Place · Restaurant · Ios
Drakos Taverna
Sixty years on the same stretch of sand
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A family fish taverna at the far end of Mylopotas beach, run by the same family since 1962, back when the beach had no road and supplies arrived by donkey. The setting does the work; the food is simply what arrives while you’re in it.
Read the article →
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Living · Stay · Kos
Ikos Aria
The all-inclusive that sends you off-site
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A 47-acre resort on Kefalos Bay whose signature move is handing guests an electric MINI and paying the bill at a real taverna down the road — the opposite of the usual all-inclusive instinct to keep you inside the fence. Eight restaurants, extensive complimentary sport, and a Deluxe tier genuinely worth the upgrade.
Read the article →
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One Death, Higher Taxes
Here's the math most couples never see coming.
When one spouse passes, the survivor usually keeps most of the household income — but starts filing as a single taxpayer. Same IRA. Same required distributions. Roughly half the standard deduction, and tax brackets that compress to nearly twice the rate at the same income.
It's called the survivor's tax trap, and it's one of the most preventable problems in retirement — if you act while both spouses are alive and rates are still low.
Craig Wear, CFP®, has walked 3,000+ families with $1M+ in IRAs through exactly this planning. His new book, Roth Conversion Reset, lays out the year-by-year framework for converting at today's rates so the tax problem never lands on the person you love most.
The book is free. Full PDF, in your inbox in minutes.
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The Lifestyle Edit is curated by Vitae Wellness — exploring living, place and product through use rather than trend.
Thank you for reading. Next Sunday, back to a single place.
Until then. — James
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From The Reset Series™
If you missed Wednesday’s Weekly Reset, we looked at claims that turn out lopsided in one direction or another — saunas with strong observational evidence and weak trial data, a new flavanol target almost nobody hits, an early-dinner trend the one randomised test couldn’t confirm, an energy drink ban that looks inconsistent until you see what it’s aimed at, and a condition called “phone elbow” that isn’t what most people assume.
Read Vitae Weekly Reset No.33 →
Also this week on the blog
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A Second Chance at Today's Low Tax Rates
Most IRA Millionaires missed the first Roth conversion window. Craig Wear, CFP® — who's helped 3,000+ families avoid a projected $10B+ in lifetime taxes — wrote Roth Conversion Reset to make sure you don't miss the second. The full book is free, delivered to your inbox in minutes.
