The BRETSARA breakfast is served in a nice, big airy room with a fabulous indoor buffet. Or, alternatively as most people do, sit outside on the terrace adjacent the pool. It is generous for the size of the hotel, simple and very homey, with big baskets of bread and croissants, giant industrial toasters with 7 slots, urns with all kinds of fresh juices, eggs and sausages in big copper trays with roll back lids and steaming jugs of coffee. And the staff will whip up whatever kind of high maintenance egg dishes you want.

Because the weather is so beautiful for summer there is a big, sunny outdoor area with stone floors, and canvas director chairs. It is lovely around the pool, where magnolia hangs from a wooden trellis. We tended to eat inside because our daughter Zoe would be too hot otherwise; when you are going to be in the heat all day it’s nice to start the day in a cool room and it’s easier to go back and forth to the buffet table. And we liked the handmade, checked tablecloths and industrial atmosphere of the room.

For our first breakfast on Hydra we had gone out the hotel to a café around the corner, looking to recreate the mind blowing experience of the classic village yoghurt, honey and fruit that we started the day with on one of our favourite, lesser known islands, Folegandros. I still dream about the unmistakable tang of that creamy, fresh Greek yoghurt and fragrant honey! But the ingredients were just not the same and I didn’t like the environment, which was really empty of people. I realised that the hotel could offer a terrific meal that was better than what was on offer along the promenade, also called the Coastal Road.

In an earthy culture that prizes fresh food and the outdoors one of my favourite meals is a picnic (but only when I am away) - putting it together is even more fun for me than a sit-down meal where you are waited on hand and foot. We had come across a tucked away beach called Bisti that we loved so our water taxi driver, Con was going to take us back to the cape at the western tip of the island.

We made all our grocery pit stops at the local shops in port and they were only too happy to contribute. I love this old fashioned way of shopping at small specialty stores for cheeses, fresh bread and biscuits at the bakery, the butcher and the fruit shop full of tubs of watermelon, next to oranges with leaves still on them and big lemons… The shops are all clustered together in a local market for the locals, so for me it’s that touch of real life. I love the ritual of having big blocks of local cheeses and long sticks of salami sliced, releasing their powerful smell before we begin. I bought my usual fresh tomatoes still on the vine, olives, cold meats and breads and sent the kids out on cutlery detail. We even bought towels to use and throwaway - at a crazy 15 Euros each, practically more than the food!

Getting around is easy because you can always find the water taxis and donkeys on a corner of the Coastal Road, near the local monastery. We met our driver, Con whom we had bonded with. He is married to Kypreou Despina, the owner of the specialty seafood restaurant, Taverna Marina.

He anchored around the corner so that we could have a swim off his speedboat in the deep, crystal clear waters before dropping us at BISTI BEACH. It is a gorgeous cove with a strip of sand dotted with permanent thatched umbrellas in front of a dense wood of pine trees, right on the calm, green sea here. We love how scenic yet untouched it is - there is nothing to eat here but what you bring yourself. The smell of the pines and loud buzz of the cicadas work their spell.

The man to see on the beach is George, a real character. He has that Greek good humour and shoulder shrugging, happy go lucky approach - and can’t speak a word of English, which to me always adds to the charm of leaving familiarity and home.

George has his homemade hot and iced coffees and sells bottles of beer, soft drinks and watermelon in his homemade esky. He has a very cute, quaint little business. We paid 3 Euros per chair and bought drinks just to soak up the beauty of Bisti and relax for a while, before taking our newly bought towels and picnicking under the shade of the olive trees.

The Saids love a simple feast al fresco: we relished the little cherry tomatoes that burst with flavour in your mouth, the tangy goat cheese, mini pizzas, sweet green grapes and cold meats with the marbling of fat that you squish between doughy bread. To me this comfort food, with simple but fresh ingredients, is just as delicious as the finest dining.

This afternoon at Bisti pretty much sums up the Jonathan Said travel philosophy: treat yourself to the best room in the best hotel then enjoy the simple pleasures that the locale has to offer as balance.

This was a recommendation from some chatty local women we met on the street and it’s a great choice for home cooking if you want to eat in town, but not necessarily right on the water at the port. I find those restaurants too empty and, even if they had been busy, too big (the economic crisis has hit tourism hard even on the Greek islands it seems). So we followed the tip to “Cristina’s place” in the little Gitoniko neighbourhood for a late 10 o’clock dinner. Cristina the owner, in her mid 40s, runs the restaurant with her husband, serving classics like Chicken Souvlaki and rice, crisp Greek salads and minty, stuffed capsicum (we were already getting hooked on the stuffed tomatoes here). Easy, tasty food with friendly service…

Noah and Zoe coined the phrase “Christina Manoplaaaaaas” for this Taverna. It became their favorite restaurant on Hydra. It is one of those comfort restaurants when travelling; …you know what you are going to get in advance! We would wonder over at any time, knowing there would be at east one or two tables free. We would wonder up the stairs past the open kitchen with delicious smells wafting by, climb further stairs to the roof terrace and plonk down for a simple easy clean Greek meal.

Christina would wonder over with her pen and notepad and tell us what she did have left on the menu ! We always knew that one or two things we were after she had run out of, but she always made up for it with the perfect alternative suggestion. Her food is so fresh, and that is why she runs out of things like stuffed peppers, or home made dolmades.

We were sad to say farewell to her on our last night. She is a lovely lady.