Where to stay: Mykonos

It seems like the entire universe is in Mykonos this summer. Endless blues and whites across Instagram. Sunsets and swimming pools. Beaches and beach clubs. A month ago I was there too. Soaking up the glorious sun in late May, just before the season kicked off, on the annual mother-daughter holiday.

We stayed a week at Mykonos Ammos Hotel; a 5 star boutique hotel listed in the Small Luxury Hotels of the World guide. A pristine white complex of forty rooms, it's the perfect mix of calm relaxation (around the pool) and then upbeat beach bar a few short metres away. Loungers aplenty, there's lots of people-watching to keep you occupied on Ornos Beach - one of the less busy but still vibrant parts of the island. Deep house and club chill out on just the right side of low volume brought the holiday vibe without making us want to tear our hair out.

The rooms were well-sized with decent enough beds (twins, natch, but we heard the doubles were roomy) and enough pillows to sink into. The ground floor rooms, like ours, let you spill out onto the balcony with wine which you can then oh-so-easily take onto the daybeds or hold above your head as you swim about (civilised, of course) in the pool.

Two restaurants are open for business all day from breakfast to after dinner cocktails. Brunch includes a breakfast chef and enough cheese, ham, local pies, fruit and cereal to keep you going back for seconds, thirds and sometimes fourths. Lunch was easy too with Greek cuisine sitting easily alongside Japanese sushi (Kuzina is the only restaurant on the island to use black sushi rice at dinner, there are Japanese chefs at work), and dinner was always going to be a 'roll me out of here' affair. Don't even mention the deconstructed millefeuille. Portion sizes in Mykonos are favourable, to say the least, which is good bearing in mind that prices tend to be around the London mark.

The staff, as you'd expect, swish serenely around the place in sleek grey uniforms. Incredibly friendly and chatty, we saw everyone falling in love with the waiters and hostess Esmerelda has some very good beach and yacht trip recommendations (more on that later). Mykonos Ammos is a real gem and somewhere we wholeheartedly recommend - it's probably a little crazy (like the rest of the island) now it's high season but go either side of the busy months and you're in for a treat.