Delfini Villas, Strogili Hotel, Aris Caves
 

Interestingly enough, given the TA Topic that generated so much response, Aris Caves is number one on Trip Advisor.

Anyway, I'm deciding among these 3. When I look at the map that brotherleelove posted (VERY useful, thanks for that) somewhere on this forum, it appears that Aris Caves is sort of out of the way - is that true? Delfini seems right in the middle of things. Strogili a little further away. But it's hard for me to gauge scale.

Delfini has both an apartment and a studio available, I would probably take the studio.

In a comparable price range, Strogili has a standard studio available. In terms of facilities, the only difference I see is that Strogili has breakfast, although this is not a deal breaker. Since we'd have kitchen facilities, and it appears that bakeries are nearby, we can do breakfast ourselves.

So I'm leaning towards Delfini - any reason not to? Or anything overwhelmingly more wonderful about Aris Caves or Strogili? From reading other posts, people seem to like all three. We'll be there for 3 nights.

I will owe a gigantic trip report when we get home.

Thanks,
Alice

Strogili has a pool, Delfini does not. Delfini is about 10 minutes from the village square, Strogili is about 15-20 minutes from the village square. Aris Caves is the most central of these three, located just below the village square. There is an excellent bakery/minimarket right across from Delfini. There is an excellent market next to Strogili and a produce market just a few more steps away across from the Anemomilos Hotel. There are lots of restaurants and shops and bakeries very close to Aris Caves and the village square.

http://www.santorini-hotels.info/san...ni-oia-map.htm

The village square is in B5. Aris Caves is in C5 over the cliff below the Neptune Restaurant.

Just found out Aris Caves doesn't have an opening for our dates. I figure we won't need a pool in mid-May. So I'm opting for Delfini, since it's a little closer in.

Thanks, Brotherleelove. And I must have confused something on the map before when I thought Aris Caves was out of the way. This trip is now coming together nicely! I just need a hotel in Naxos and one in Nafplion and I can spend my time reading about what we want to see and do.

Alice

In the morning, be sure pick up some fresh bread and try the warm apple pies and spiral spinach pies from the bakery across from Delfini.

When I was researching my trip to Oia in May 2008, I had narrowed it down to the same three hotel choices.

We went with Strogili because it had a pool (which my traveling partner made good use of b/c it was quite hot), but I think we would have been happy at any of those places. We met some people on the volcano tour who were staying at Aris Caves and loved it, and they seemed happier with the service than we were (we didn't have complaints so much as we were just on our own - Strogili is more a room for rent than a "hotel" with a staff that is going to offer help and book stuff for you). Delfini also gets rave reviews on TA and it's in a good location, closer in than Strogili (which isn't that far out, but it still takes about 5-10 minutes to get to Oia proper).

Alice, how did you contact Delfini? I've sent e-mails (to two different addresses) and filled out their online reservation request form (twice), but have never received a response.

Update: I finally got smart (it happens from time to time) and submitted the reservation form for Delfini again but used my husband's e-mail. We got a response within a few hours. Yeah!