Senga

We stayed at La Perla Villas this month and were extremely disappointed. The hotel has a total air of neglect; huge containers of dead flowers, weeds growing in all the cracks, broken railings, holes in the towels, mildew on the umbrellas. I will be posting pictures next week and will come back here to post the website. If you do end up here, DON'T book the "traditonal cave house" room - it's more like the ORIGINAL cave! They upgraded us at no charge to a pool room which was a million times better than the lowest category. The pool was nice but, again, the air of neglect with the plastic chaise lounges covered in torn 1/2 cushions. The view was incredible but you could definitely find far better accommodation. I would not recommend La Perla Villas.

Senga

As promised, here is the link to the pictures.
http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sengamilne/my_photos

worldinabag

Hi


Thanks for the info. You may also want to post a review on Trip Advisor - www.tripadvisor.com.

Photos were great!!

Cheers

yipper

Hi,
I loved your pictures. They are wonderful. Please write a trip report. What a shame about La Perla Villas. I do not need the best, but clean is a must.

Trish

I'm sorry about your experiance, my friends that travelled with us in Greece this month stayed at La Perla Sept 8 thru 11. They said they were upgraded from the superior room they booked to their best suite (or so Kiki said) and they loved it. I was still in Syros and she called to tell me she was never leaving La Perla! So I guess there is big differences in the rooms within that hotel, I would have died with that first room you had I have bad allergies to mold it wouldn't have been pretty.

beanweb24

Wow...thanks for following your review with pics of the 2 rooms. Shocking difference between bathrooms. What a shame!

Hope your trip to Santorini was otherwise wonderful.

Greecebound123

Help! We just booked this hotel based on all the great reviews at Trip Advisor! We were so looking froward to sitting out with our breakfast taking in the views. Any place else you would recommend in this price range? We are apying 140 per day booked through a travel agent. I am so upset!

Senga

Greecebound: I have a list at home I made of hotels which appeared much better kept than La Perla so I'll post them on Monday. As another poster noted above, maybe if you upgrade you'll be okay but as I said (and showed in the pictures) there is an overall air of neglect about the property and Kiki is a legend in her own mind! She was horrified that we didn't like the room and said we had insulted her!

beanweb24

Greecebound -- when is your trip? Prices vary during seasons, so suggesting other rooms in your price range would help if we know when you're going.

Greecebound123

We are arriving in Santorini on Oct 10.
We would like a good view, a pool, ata bout the same price or less-140. Thanks

beanweb24

We stayed at Esperas and loved it. They have a pool and an unbeatable view of the sunset. We paid roughly 190 for a superior traditional house, so their "regular" rooms may fit your budget.

Brotherleelove highly recommends Laokasti Villas. If you do a search on Laokasti you will find his complete description. He does indicate that there is a pool but that the view is not of the caldera.

A friend of mine returned 2 days ago from Santorini and she stayed at Anastasis Apartments (www.anastasisapartments.com). Not in Oia, but she loved it. They had the honeymoon suite for 176 euros, so the smaller rooms are surely cheaper. She said it's gorgeous, clean, and has an amazing view on the caldera rim. The property also has an infinity pool.

Hope this helps!

beanweb24

Follow up...just looked at the Esperas website. Click on "Special Offers" - there is a mention of a 20% discount for booking in October!!!

Greecebound123

Thank you for your suggestions. I will follow-up. I apprecaite your help

Senga

The other hotel I checked out in Oia was Filotera but it didn't have a pool. Other ones that LOOKED nice (didn't personally check them out) were:
Thea Studio Rooms, Kyma Villas,
Atrina, Delfini, Alta Mare (small pool) and Armeni Village.

Digbydog

We stayed at La Perla last June in the Palia Canave cave house, and we loved it. It is featured in most of the pictures on the hotel's website. It was very clean and in good condition. It was much nicer than the rooms shown in Senga's pictures. The hotel is not as upscale as Katikies next door, but the price is not as upscale either.

I would not have liked the room Senga pictured, but we really enjoyed our room and our stay at La Perla. I didn't notice the air of neglec, and I am pretty picky.

jkirk

Thank you for sharing the beautiful pictures and the tip about La Perla Villas - We are planning a trip for Sept 06. Can you provide advice on where to stay on Santorini. We are traveling with another couple and they want to stay in Fira because they feel there is so much to do. I want to stay in Oia because of the picturesque environment. I wonder if Fira is too "touristy"? Yet, I do want a place to explore on foot for several days. What type of transportaton is provide to Oia from Fira? I noticed you traveled to Crete - would you recommend Mythos Palace? How did you travel to Crete? You may respond directly to my email- [email protected] Thank you.

Senga

The bus service between Oia, Fira and the port is excellent and cheap. We took a taxi to the hotel on arrival in Santorini at a total cost of 25 euro. At the end of our time in Santorini we took the bus from Oia to Fira, transferred to the Athinos Port bus for a total cost of 5 euro. The buses are comfortable, run on a regular schedule (allow 15 minutes leeway) and have luggage bins. The port has lots of eating places and comfortable, covered indoor seating areas. The bathrooms, however, can be both disgusting and clean within a short span. ALWAYS carry a package of tissues as toilet paper is not always available. We took a bus (1 euro p/p each way) into Fira and found it to be much busier than Oia. The only note I made there was that you could end up with a nice looking hotel and have a pile of rubble next door but the building right above La Perla was in pretty bad shape so maybe that doesn't matter. You mention picturesque for Oia but we thought Fira was just as nice and the food in Fira was less expensive. I think you could easily do what we did in reverse - stay in Fira and take a bus into Oia for an afternoon and evening. This really is enough time to see everything. I can't imagine either place would take several days to explore on foot. We took the Flying Cat from Santorini to Crete. It is much faster but also less dependable. We were supposed to depart at 5:30 and the ferry didn't arrive until 7:10 which we were told was normal. If you are travelling in early September I would recommend either business class on the regular 4 hour ferry or the Flying Cat to ensure you get a comfortable seat. However, if you're travelling later (off season) the regular ferry would be fine as you would get a comfortable inside seat and it kept to it's schedule. We really liked Mythos Palace and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. I would suggest spending the little extra to book a pool/sea view rather than the mountainview rooms. Hope this helps.

Greecebound123

Hi. We just returned. We ended up at Alexander's Boutique Hotel. When we booked it we did not realize that it was a little away from the center of things. However we were rewarded with a limited number of steps down to the hotel! I hadn't realized what a hike it was to many of the places we had looked at on-line. Our room was very nice. We would have liked a pool on-site, but other than that we were happy. We were actually upgraded to a luxury suite for 3 out of 4 nights, so who can complain. While I was in Santorini I went to look at the grounds of La Perla. It was indeed run down. Perhaps witha nice room it would not have mattered so much. The pool looked nice.