These are #01 and #02 on my Santorini ranking, minutes apart in Oia, and the comparison I’m asked to settle most on the island. I toured both on the same trip. The decision comes down to which room you’ve been picturing.
Toured same trip · #01 and #02 on my Santorini ranking · both preferred partners
Choose Andronis Boutique
If you’re dreaming of the cave room
Authentic cave-style suites, recently renovated — marble, wooden arches, surprisingly bright interiors — with a plunge pool or jacuzzi in every single room. These are the rooms people actually picture when they book Santorini.
Choose Canaves Oia Suites
If you want the caldera, perfected
Completely renovated, and it blew me away everywhere I looked — the finishes, the water features, the landscaping. It sits higher on the Caldera than most, which buys something genuinely rare on Santorini: privacy.
Plunge pool or jacuzzi in every room, no exceptions
Private water features — but not in every category
The splurge suite
The two-level Eternal Suite
The River Pool Suite — best suite I saw across 38 hotels
Spa & gym
Spa devotees should look at sister property Andronis Concept
The best spa product on the Caldera, plus a large gym
Villas
Suites and villas within Oia
Two- and three-bedroom pool villas — nearly nonexistent in Oia
From
$900 / night
$1,200 / night
Both are preferred partners — book either through me and the rate is identical to booking direct, with the partner extras layered on. One planning note: Canaves Oia Suites is 13+; traveling with younger kids, sister property Canaves Epitome, a short walk away, has no age restrictions.
The question behind the question
If the River Pool Suite is available for your dates, stop deliberating.
Canaves Oia Suites was the best hotel I saw for first-time visitors to Santorini, and I’d be hard pressed to recommend anything else first for the classic caldera-luxury experience. Complete privacy doesn’t exist anywhere on the Caldera, but Canaves does a particularly good job of engineering it — set higher than most, with coverings above every room’s outdoor space.
But Andronis Boutique’s rooms are the real thing — genuine cave architecture with a water feature in every room, at rates that usually land a few hundred a night lower. Between the top Oia properties you really can’t go wrong; this one is about the picture in your head. And if you land on Boutique, book dinner at Lycabettus the moment you confirm the room.
Still deciding?
Tell me your dates and I’ll tell you which one has the room worth having — same rate you’d pay booking direct, sometimes better.
