Essays, guides & dispatches on hotels and the views that define them
What the caldera teaches you about choosing a room
Some views punish the indecisive. A guide to reading Santorini's hillside before you book — and why Imerovigli quietly wins every time.There is a version of Santorini that exists entirely in photographs — blue domes, white walls, the light at six in the afternoon. That version is real. But it is not evenly distributed across the island, and it has nothing to do with price.
“The caldera is a theatre. Every room faces it differently — some as front row, some from the wings, some from backstage.”
Oia gets the sunset, and the crowds that come with it. Imerovigli gets the entire arc of the caldera, the volcanic rock dropping three hundred metres to the water, and the silence that comes from being above everything. Firostefani sits between the two, quieter than Oia and cheaper than Imerovigli, at the same altitude.
The question is not which village is most beautiful — they share the same caldera. The question is what kind of experience you want with it. The hotel is centred around its infinity pool overlooking the caldera, which at this elevation becomes less a pool than a continuation of the sky. Guests arrive to find their cave-carved suite already chilled to the evening temperature.
Imerovigli at dusk — the volcanic rim drops 300m to the sea below.
Oia is a performance. Imerovigli is a relationship. Firostefani is both, on quieter terms. There is, finally, the question of light. Imerovigli faces west, which means the morning sun comes from behind the caldera and the afternoon fills it from the front. The hours between four and seven are, in this orientation, unrepeatable.
The hotel that understands this
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