Canaves Oia Hotel, Santorini, Greece

Canaves Oia is a seriously classy luxury boutique hotel with some of the best views in Santorini. As the owners are wealthy Greek antique dealers, it is elegantly furnished in a traditional style and equipped with all the luxurious facilities expected by the well-heeled honeymooners and jet-set habitués of this legendary Greek outpost.

The rooms

This is a boutique hotel of two halves. Canaves Oia has traditional cave rooms (called ‘canaves’ in Greek) which are typical of Santorini. Next door is the fancier Canaves Oia Suites where the rooms are among the biggest on the island.

All 33 rooms at the boutique hotel have elegant, period interiors and mod cons including air-conditioning and flat-screen TVs. The Canaves Oia Suites have Wifi and beds that can be automatically angled to allow guests to read comfortably in bed.

The facilities

The two halves of the boutique hotel have similar facilities – both have pools and restaurants. The pool at Canaves Oia Suites is much larger. The guests there have the use of an elevator and get a buffet breakfast rather than breakfast in their rooms. The restaurant on this side of the boutique hotel serves gourmet Mediterranean dishes and the pool bar serves elaborate cocktails and is stocked with cognacs and cigars.

The boutique hotel opened a brand new wine cellar in the summer of 2008 with space for up to 8 guests to enjoy wine-tasting. Until the new100 m2 spa is built in 2009, in-room massages and beauty treatments can be arranged.

But the boutique hotel’s private 68-foot Feretti yacht is by far its most impressive facility. Moored in the Pireus marina in Athens, it has four cabins and can sleep 8 guests for weekly cruises around the Mediterranean. A 28-foot speedboat is also available for shorter trips and fishing excursions.