Canaves Oia Hotel

Canaves Oia Hotel

On a cliff above Oia's caldera, the floor of this hotel began as a wine cellar centuries before anyone slept in it. Canaves Oia Hotel opened in 1986, when the Chaidemenos family carved 17th-century wine storage caves into the village's first hotel, years before Canaves Oia Suites arrived to become the group's flagship. That history is still visible: cave walls, antique furniture and objet d'art fill suites decorated in traditional island style, on a property of just eighteen rooms, a kilometre's walk from Oia Castle, the Naval Museum and Katharos Beach. Several suites open onto private verandas above the water, and the Superior Double Suite comes with its own pool, useful for anyone who would rather not share the caldera view with strangers at sunset. Rooms carry minibars, bathrobes and room service, and the staff work in English, French, German and Russian, handy for booking a transfer, a rental car, or a hike along the cliff path. There is a sauna, massage treatments and a doctor on call, an indoor pool for cooler months and an outdoor one running April to October, plus a gym. Children thirteen and under are not permitted, which settles the question of who this is for: couples and quiet travellers rather than families, and anyone wanting a sprawling resort with kids' facilities should look elsewhere in Santorini. What competitors built in the last decade cannot fake is what sits beneath this one, a working wine cellar older than tourism itself in this corner of the island, still cool under eighteen rooms that have outlasted every trend built on top of them. Carved from 17th-century wine cellars on the Oia caldera in 1986, this eighteen-room hotel keeps its original character in antique-filled suites, one with a private pool. Children thirteen and under aren't permitted, so it suits couples and solo travellers more than families chasing a big resort.