Perivolas Hotel Santorini – 3 days in Oia, Greece worth every euro

Santorini is one of those places that’s been so thoroughly Instagrammed that you arrive half-expecting to be disappointed. Then you check into Perivolas Hotel in Oia, walk out onto your terrace at sunset, and immediately understand why people keep coming back. The video above covers three days in Oia – a stay in the Deluxe Suite at Perivolas, a Diamond Cruise boat tour with Sunset Oia hitting hot springs and beaches, a walk through Oia village including the famous three blue domes and Oia Castle, and dinner at Lycabettus Restaurant at Andronis Luxury Suites. July 2024. Here’s what actually matters.

Cost reality check upfront: the Deluxe Suite with Jacuzzi at Perivolas ran €1,804.28 (roughly $2,127 USD) per night. Three nights puts you at over €5,400 in accommodation alone before you’ve eaten a meal or stepped on a boat. Santorini at this level is not a budget conversation, and Oia in particular is the most expensive part of an already expensive island. That said – the people who stay here and call it worth it are not delusional.

Getting to Oia – the transfer situation

The video starts with the transfer from the port to Oia village and this is worth flagging because it catches people off guard. If you’re arriving by ferry – which most people do – you dock at Athinios Port, which is a switchback road descent below the caldera cliff. Getting from the port to Oia is not a short or simple taxi ride.

Oia is at the northern tip of the island, about 15-20 km from the port. By taxi or private transfer it’s roughly 25-35 minutes depending on traffic – and in peak July the road through Fira can be slow. Pre-book your transfer before you arrive. The port is chaotic on ferry arrival days and the taxi queue is not where you want to be after an overnight ferry from Athens with luggage.

Private transfer from Athinios Port to Oia runs around €35-50. If you’re flying into Santorini Airport (JTR) rather than arriving by ferry, the airport is actually closer to Oia – around 20-25 minutes, €30-40 by taxi. Either way, book ahead.

Perivolas Hotel – the cave hotel situation

Perivolas opened in 1983 – one of the original luxury cave hotel properties in Oia, built into the volcanic cliff face in the classic Cycladic style. 22 rooms total, which keeps it intimate. This is not a large resort with a pool deck full of sunbeds and a DJ. It’s quiet, unhurried, and feels like someone’s extremely beautiful private home that you’re allowed to stay in temporarily.

The design is the thing that separates Perivolas from newer properties – whitewashed cave architecture, curved walls, no sharp edges anywhere, everything organic and flowing in the way that Oia cave hotels do at their best. It’s been doing this for over 40 years and the refinement shows.

🏊 Main pool and restaurant

The infinity pool at Perivolas is one of the most photographed pools in Santorini – it merges visually with the caldera and the sea below in a way that looks fake in photos and looks exactly like that in person. The restaurant adjacent to the pool serves breakfast and dinner, and the sunset from this terrace is the thing people come specifically to watch. Day one sunset in the video is from here and it earns the reputation.

🛁 The Deluxe Suite with Jacuzzi – room tour

The room tour runs about 8 minutes in the video and it needs that time because there’s a lot to cover. Cave suite living has a specific aesthetic that either clicks with you immediately or takes a few hours – curved ceilings, natural stone, built-in furniture, everything whitewashed. This is not a Hilton suite with a caldera view. It’s architecturally distinctive in a way that most hotel rooms in the world aren’t.

What you’re getting in the Deluxe Suite:

• 🛁 Private Jacuzzi on the terrace – facing the caldera, used at sunset, obviously
• 🌊 Direct caldera views from the terrace – the view that justifies the price more than anything else in the room
• 🛏️ Carved cave bedroom – built-in platform bed, curved walls throughout, Cycladic minimalism done properly
• 🚿 Bathroom with outdoor elements – cave bathrooms at Perivolas have that semi-outdoor quality that works in July and would be less fun in February
• ❄️ Air conditioning that actually works – critical in July Santorini where daytime temperatures hit 30°C+ regularly
• 🌅 Private terrace with caldera-facing seating – where you’ll spend most of your time that isn’t in the pool or at dinner

At €1,804 per night the view and the terrace are doing heavy lifting in the value equation – and they deliver. The room itself is beautiful but the caldera is the product you’re paying for.

💪 Gym and lap pool

Perivolas has a separate lap pool and gym space – more functional than the main infinity pool, useful for an actual swim rather than floating and looking at the view. The gym is small but equipped. In July when you’re not planning to do anything more strenuous than walk around Oia, the lap pool is the more used of the two.

🧖 Spa

The spa at Perivolas is compact – treatments available, massage options, the standard luxury hotel spa menu. It’s not the headline feature of this property and the video reflects that – a brief section rather than a deep dive. If spa access is a priority, it’s there. If you’re coming to Perivolas specifically for a spa experience, there are more spa-focused properties on the island.

Day 1 – dinner and sunset at Perivolas

The first sunset is from the hotel terrace and restaurant and it runs almost 7 minutes in the video – which tells you everything about how good it is. Oia sunsets are famous to the point of cliché and they are still genuinely spectacular in person. The caldera orientation means you’re watching the sun drop toward the sea with the volcanic cliffs framing both sides. Perivolas’ terrace positioning makes this one of the better sunset views on the island without having to fight the crowds at Oia Castle.

Dinner at the Perivolas restaurant on night one – the food is good without being the gastronomic highlight of the trip. Mediterranean menu, fresh ingredients, the caldera below. It’s a proper hotel restaurant that takes itself seriously. The wine list leans local – Santorini assyrtiko if you drink white wine and you’re not already obsessed with it, you will be by the end of this trip.

Day 2 – boat tour, Oia village, and the best dinner

⛵ Diamond Cruise with Sunset Oia – €230 per person

The boat tour runs about 10 minutes of video coverage and deserves it. The Diamond Cruise from Sunset Oia (sailing-santorini.com) is a semi-private sailing experience covering the hot springs near Palea Kameni, snorkeling stops, the Red Beach and White Beach on the southern coast, and a sunset component. At €230 per person it’s one of the higher-end boat tour options on the island – and the difference from the cheaper group tours is noticeable in boat quality, group size, food and drink included, and general atmosphere.

The hot springs are warm, slightly sulfurous, and a genuinely unusual experience – you swim into a section of sea heated by volcanic activity below and the water turns rust-orange around the entry point. It’s strange and interesting. The snorkeling stops have clear water and decent marine life. The Red Beach has dramatic red volcanic cliffs that photograph spectacularly. The whole tour is a solid full-day use of time in Santorini that you’ll reference for years when people ask about the trip.

Practical note: the tour departs from Ammoudi Bay, which is at the base of the cliff below Oia. There are 300 steps down from Oia village to Ammoudi – manageable on the way down, less fun on the way back up in July heat. Donkeys are available for the return climb if needed. A small thing to know in advance.

🚶 Walking around Oia village

The walk through Oia covers about 7 minutes of video and the key stops are the three blue domes and Oia Castle. A few honest notes:

Oia village itself is genuinely beautiful – the white and blue architecture, the narrow cobblestone paths, the bougainvillea, the caldera drops visible between buildings. It’s also extremely busy in July. The main pedestrian path through the village is crowded mid-morning through sunset. Early morning (before 9am) is when Oia is at its best – the light is good for photography and the crowds haven’t arrived yet.

🔵 The three blue domes

The three blue-domed churches below the main path are the most photographed image in Santorini – possibly one of the most photographed views in all of Greece. They are exactly as photogenic in person as they look online. Getting the shot without other tourists in it requires patience or a very early start. The viewing area above is narrow and everyone wants the same angle. Go early, or accept that you’ll be editing people out.

🏰 Oia Castle

The Oia Castle ruins at the western end of the village are the sunset spot that most visitors gravitate toward – the elevated position gives an unobstructed 180-degree view over the caldera and the sea. In peak July it is extremely crowded at sunset. Arrive at least 45 minutes before sunset to get a decent position. The ruins themselves are atmospheric beyond just the view – the crumbled Byzantine fortifications have a texture that the photos don’t fully capture.

🍽️ Lycabettus Restaurant – the dinner worth planning around

Dinner on night two is at Lycabettus Restaurant inside the Andronis Luxury Suites complex in Oia, and the video gives it almost 7 minutes of coverage – the most time spent on any single meal of the trip. That’s deserved.

Lycabettus sits on the caldera edge at Andronis with a view that is, without exaggeration, one of the most dramatic restaurant settings in Europe. The food matches the setting – modern Greek cuisine with serious technique, local ingredients, a wine list that leans heavily on Santorini and broader Greek producers. This is not a tourist trap riding the view – the kitchen takes the food as seriously as the location.

Reservations are essential and they book out weeks in advance in high season. If you’re planning a July trip to Santorini and Lycabettus is on the list, book the restaurant before you book the flights. That is only slightly an exaggeration. Budget for a proper dinner – two people with wine will be in the €200-300+ range.

Day 3 – breakfast and departure

Breakfast at Perivolas on day three and then checkout. The breakfast spread is good – fresh pastries, local honey, yogurt, eggs to order, the full Mediterranean morning setup with the caldera below. It’s the kind of breakfast that makes you want to delay checkout and sit there for another hour, which is presumably the intention.

The souvenir situation in Oia: the village has dozens of shops selling ceramics, jewelry, local food products, and the usual tourist items. Santorini-specific buys worth considering – local fava from the island (a yellow split pea product unique to the volcanic soil), cherry tomatoes (another Santorini specialty, genuinely different from mainland tomatoes), assyrtiko wine from local producers, and handmade ceramics from the better shops rather than the mass-produced stuff.

Santorini Airport (JTR) is a small airport and the security and boarding process is fast – but the airport has almost no facilities beyond a small café and a gift shop. Don’t arrive too early expecting lounge options. The views on approach and departure are spectacular – the caldera from the air on a clear day is one of those aerial views you remember.

Practical details and best time to visit

Best time to visit Oia: Late May, June, and September are the sweet spots – good weather, manageable crowds, better availability at restaurants and hotels. July and August are peak season with peak prices and peak crowds. The video was filmed in July and it’s clearly busy but the experience at a hotel like Perivolas buffers you from the worst of it – you’re not fighting crowds at a budget hostel, you’re retreating to a private terrace with a caldera view. October is underrated – quieter, still warm enough for swimming, dramatically better rates.

Island transport: Santorini’s public bus system (KTEL) is cheap and covers the main routes between villages – Fira to Oia is around €1.80. Taxis are available but limited in number and expensive in peak season. ATVs are the classic Santorini transport option – rented everywhere, useful for reaching beaches and villages on your own schedule, and genuinely fun on the island roads. An ATV rental runs around €25-40 per day depending on season.

What this actually costs

Three nights at Perivolas in the Deluxe Suite at €1,804/night: approximately €5,412 in accommodation alone. Add the Diamond Cruise at €230 per person (€460 for two), dinner at Lycabettus at €250-300 for two with wine, meals at Perivolas, transfers, and incidentals – a three-day trip to Oia at this level for two people runs €7,000-8,000+ comfortably.

How to make it less painful:

• Travel in shoulder season – Perivolas in late May or September runs meaningfully cheaper than July peak rates
• Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts – Perivolas participates and the benefit stack (breakfast, F&B credit, room upgrades) is meaningful at these nightly rates
• Book direct through Perivolas – perivolas.gr sometimes has direct-only rates and always gives more flexibility on cancellation than third-party platforms
• Points for flights – flying into Athens and then the domestic connection to Santorini on miles significantly changes the total trip cost calculation

Frequently asked questions

📹 Video by ST Travel