Hotels : Curated
A white terrace beside a turquoise pool, with pale loungers and parasols on the left, a two-storey white building with arched doorways behind, and the sea and a distant island under a clear blue sky.
Santorini, Greece

Simple Sophie

££
Grown-upStayed

Personally verified. We stayed here.

Messaria 847 00, Santorini, GreeceWebsite

Eight adults-only rooms in whitewash and green shutters, facing the caldera, for the one night Santorini gets between the plane and the ferry.

Simple Sophie stands on the main road and turns its back on it. Once inside, you face the other way, across the caldera, the sea-filled crater that is the reason anyone wants to sleep on this side of Santorini, and the traffic is left to the street.

It looks the part: eight rooms in whitewash and green shutters, the Santorini everyone carries a picture of, and we liked it on sight. Ours was a Superior Room with Caldera View Split-Level, a name that at least says what it is. It was a duplex, with a terrace on the lower floor and, as we remember it, the bed up the stairs. Downstairs is where to be: the view across the caldera from that terrace was the best thing about the stay.

The room was clean and comfortable and we slept well, which for a single night is most of what anyone asks of a hotel. Santorini can be very expensive, and this was not: a little over £150 for the night in September, with breakfast in the rate. There is a pool and no spa, and the hotel takes guests from eighteen, so there is nothing here for children.

We went out to dinner, at a restaurant we liked a great deal and have since lost the name of, and the next day took the ferry to Ios, so of Santorini we saw an evening and a view. That is the trip this hotel is good for: a night facing the caldera between the plane and the boat to the other islands. The airport is about three kilometres away, and the port was easy to reach, which on the day of a ferry is the one thing a hotel really has to get right.

Two woven rattan pendant lamps hang over a bed with white linen, beside a round wooden stool holding a potted succulent.
An aerial view of a turquoise pool with a sand-coloured shelf and two dark rocks at one end, and a woman in a red bikini walking across the white deck.
A breakfast table outdoors with an omelette, pancakes, sliced fruit, a jar of orange juice with a slice of orange, coffee cups and a basket of croissants, with the sea and islands behind.
Through open double doors and a pair of arched windows, the view across the caldera sea to a rocky islet and a distant island.
A white cubic building with a turquoise door sits on a cliff above the sea, with a plunge pool on a lower terrace and a blue-domed church beside it.
A shaded outdoor lounge under a timber pergola with woven reed, with a low dark sofa piled with patterned cushions, a wooden table, and a rug on the floor.

The facts

Rooms

Rooms
8
Adults-only rooms
Yes

We stayed in
Superior Room with Caldera View Split-Level

Pools

Pools
1

Food and drink

Board
Room and breakfast

Practical

Airport
Santorini Airport
Beach
A drive
Minimum age
18
Air conditioning
Yes
Dogs
No

What's nearby

Santorini Airport
3 km

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