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42 TRAVEL+LEISURE | JUNE 2020
GEORGE SFAKIANAKIS/COURTESY OF EUPHORIA RETREAT. ILLUSTRATION BY MAY PARSEY
than anything, I was intrigued by the resort’s
goal of reviving the healing traditions of ancient
Greece. I knew Hippocrates was the father
of modern medicine, but I was surprised to learn
his teachings were also the foundation of a
wellness culture stretching back to around the
first century B.C., roughly the same time that
Chinese medicine emerged. Would Euphoria
be the first of many destination spas to draw
on Greece’s millennia-old techniques?
When I arrived on a sweltering day last July
after a 2½-hour drive from Athens, I realized how
inherently restorative it felt to be in a place as
wild and unspoiled as the southern Peloponnese.
Euphoria occupies one of the peninsula’s most
enviable spots, surrounded by dense pine forest
and an expansive river valley at the base of Mount
Taygetus. Facing the resort, with your head tilted
toward the sky, you can make out the Byzantine
town of Mystras, a unesco World Heritage site,
clinging to the mountain’s edge.
Built around a honey-colored mansion
that dates back to 1830, the resort has a warm,
lived-in feel. Rooms are scattered throughout a
trio of four-story residences that have terra-cotta
rooftops and stone archways. Everywhere I went,
the sound of cicadas floated through the air.
My room was bright and spacious, with an
intricate red-and-gold tapestry, pendulum-style
lamps, and a large window that looked out
onto the deep green forest.After getting settled, I met
founder Marina Efraimoglou, a warm,
charismatic woman in her fifties.
Over smoothies on the veranda, she
explained how a cancer diagnosis in
her late twenties had caused her to
abandon a lucrative career in banking.
“I decided it was my purpose in
life to share my passion for holistic
medicine,” she said.
Efraimoglou’s journey took her
around the world to study with gurus
such as Deepak Chopra and the
Taoist master Mantak Chia. Around
this time, she also began reading
the texts of Greek philosophers,
including Plato and Epictetus.
It was while she was enrolled at
the Academy of Ancient Greek &
Traditional Chinese Medicine, in
Athens, however, that she had a
breakthrough: “I discovered that
herbs, cupping, and other age-old
remedies were as much a part of
Greek medicine as Chinese,” she said.
It took her two decades to track
down healers in her native Greece
who still practiced the ancient forms.
Resident wellness therapist
Katerina Kastrinaki is one such
healer. During our session, she askedTAL0620_E_Euphoria.indd 42 FINAL 4/21/20 7:35 PM