Are you looking for a nice hotel in Santorini?
Before looking for hotels, you need to decide where on the island you want to stay. The two biggest settlements are Fira and Oia, and Oia is the most famous one. Those blue domes you’ve seen on Instagram before? They are in Oia.
Oia is much more expensive than Fira, but the Aethrio Sunset Village provides great mid-range accommodation on Santorini. Daniel and I both enjoyed our stay so much that we decided to write a detailed review.
We fully paid for the stay ourselves, and all of the opinions below are our own. Hopefully, this hotel review can help you decide whether or not the Aethrio Sunset Village is the best place for your trip to Santorini!
Aethrio Sunset Village, Oia – Review
Location
One of the first things Daniel and I consider when searching for hotels is the location. This is especially important if you only have a few days and don’t want to spend most of your time in a bus or car.
As already mentioned above, Santorini has two main settlements, Fira and Oia. Oia is far more famous than Fira, and if you want to see the blue domes, you will need to come here. You can also find some great sunset spots here if you are prepared to deal with huge crowds.
Staying overnight in Oia means that you can walk back to your hotel after watching sunset. It also means that you can go out for sunrise instead when most tourists are still asleep, and you don’t have to fight large crowds.
The disadvantage of staying in Oia is that the village is located at the northern end of Santorini. Reaching Akrotiri at the other end of the island takes around 40 minutes by car, and if you move around by public transport, you first need to take a bus to Fira.
We still think that staying in Oia is worth it and highly recommend it.
Oia has one main pedestrian pathway that sneaks along the Caldera. Here, you find most shops and restaurants, and also most tourists.
The Aethrio Sunset Village is located in a quiet side street. You can reach the main path in around three minutes, but you’re still a little bit away from the crowds. When you’re lying at the pool, you don’t even hear the noise from the main street.
In addition, the hotel has two entrances, depending on where you want to go. This makes it easy to reach all attractions in Oia after a short walk.
Check-In & Service
When you enter from the main gate, you first have to walk past a few houses until you get to the main area.
Here, you can find the pool, the restaurant and also the reception.
Checking in was different to any hotels we had been to before. A few days before our arrival, we received a message from Aethrio, asking us to provide our check-in information. We filled out a form where we entered our address and all of the details you usually have to give a hotel before you get your room keys.
They also asked us if we needed a transfer to the hotel, which was very convenient. That way, a driver picked us up at the ferry port, and we didn’t have to worry about taxis or buses.
Once we arrived at the hotel, check-in was fast as we had already given most of our information.
We came back to the reception multiple times during our stay. First, we needed an airport transfer at the end of our stay, which the staff arranged without problems.
We also came back to book a boat tour of the Caldera. The woman working at reception gave us some basic information, and the tour seemed affordable, so we decided to go for it.
It would have been nice to have some more information for this one. We knew that the tour included a stop at the hot springs near the volcano, but we didn’t know that those hot springs were in the middle of the sea. You basically jump off the boat and swim to a bay, where the water is warm.
It was really nice, but I had expected hot springs in a pool.
It also would have been good to know that the tour included a stop in Therasia.
Overall, the boat tour was great, and we had a fantastic day, but the information we received from reception was incomplete and, at times, not entirely true. They booked through a travel agency, and I think their communication wasn’t the best.
Besides that, all of our interactions with the reception staff were great. On the day of our check-out, we were able to leave our luggage at reception. The staff gave us pool towels so we could spend the last hours swimming and relaxing in the sun. We highly appreciated this, as it made our last day much more fun than it would have otherwise been.
Accommodation
The Aethrio Sunset Village looks like a small Greek village, with lots of small white buildings and blue doors and window frames.
Our little house was opposite reception. We had booked a studio, which came with a large bedroom, a kitchenette and a bathroom. Plus, we had a little terrace with a table and chairs outside our room.
In general, I found our room quite dark. It was very large, and I loved the spaciousness of it, but I would have preferred another window. On the other hand, fewer windows meant that we didn’t have to worry too much about heat from the sun.
We came in October, so it wasn’t too hot during the day. But if you’re visiting Santorini in summer, you’ll benefit from the rooms remaining fresh and cool inside.
Plus, you have air conditioning which doubles as heating.
Inside our room, we had a double bed plus a couch and a table. We didn’t spend much time here, as we were too busy exploring the island, but the sofa is nice for relaxing in the evening. We also appreciated the kitchenette, which is great if you want to prepare some snacks or small meals.
The bed was, like almost all beds in Greece we slept in, quite hard. I would have preferred a softer mattress, but Daniel didn’t mind it at all. In the end, it comes down to personal preferences.
Facilities
The Aethrio Sunset Village in Oia offers several facilities that make your stay more fun.
For me, the most important one was the pool. As I already mentioned above, we spent our last day by the pool. It was the end of October, so the water was already a bit cool, but I found it very refreshing and enjoyed relaxing here.
Around the pool, you can find multiple lounge chairs and sun umbrellas where you can relax. Plus, you can ask at reception for complimentary pool towels to use during the day.
Close to the pool, you can find showers and toilets. We used those on our last day, after checking out, which was very convenient for us.
In the evening, you should climb up to the sunset terrace above reception. Up here, you can watch sunset without having to battle the crowds at the public sunset spots.
Food and drinks
Room rates at the Aethrio Sunset Village in Oia include a traditional Greek breakfast buffet. You have the choice between multiple types of bread and baked goods. There were multiple types of cheese, cold meat and jam, but also fruit and vegetables.
A coffee machine lets you choose between various types of coffee specialities. You can also drink hot chocolate or tea and choose between different kinds of juice.
We usually had breakfast inside because, in late October, it was already quite cold in the mornings. If the weather is nice, though, you can sit on the terrace outside and enjoy the sun.
The breakfast buffet opens at 08:30 am, but if you have to leave earlier one day to go to the airport or to join a tour, you can ask for a breakfast basket at reception. Staff delivered it to our room the evening before, and it included bread, jam, tea and coffee.
While it obviously wasn’t as nice as the regular breakfast buffet, it was a gesture we highly appreciated.
If you’re in the hotel around lunchtime, you can buy a salad or light lunch on the terrace next to reception. This is great if you spend a day by the pool and don’t feel like going out for lunch.
We hope you now have a good idea of what to expect from your stay at Aethrio Sunset Village in Oia.
The hotel might not be overlooking the Caldera, but it is a solid mid-range option in Oia. The location is perfect, in a quiet backstreet from where you can reach all sights within a few minutes.
We also loved the friendliness of the staff, and all the services offered by them.
Considering prices in Oia, the Aethrio Sunset Village offers you a lot of facilities and amenities for much less than what you’d pay in other hotels. We think it’s well worth checking out for your next stay! Click here to see rates and availability for your trip to Santorini.
Until your next adventure!
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