Katikies Santorini

The road through Oia ends at a lane of marble flagstones, and from that lane a flight of whitewashed steps drops over the edge of the caldera to Katikies Santorini. The hotel sits on the Fira side of the village, where the cliff falls sheer to the sea that filled the crater of the volcano. Every suite, every pool and every table faces west across the water to the island of Thirasia, which is the direction the evening light comes from.

History

Oia was built by sea captains and shipowners in the nineteenth century, when Santorini's fleet carried the island's wine as far as Russia. The houses they left behind were of two kinds: captains' mansions above the lane and cave dwellings dug into the volcanic rock below it. The earthquake of July 1956 emptied much of the village, and it stayed half-abandoned until the 1970s, when the Greek state and private owners began restoring the cave houses as guest rooms.

Katikies grew out of that restoration. The first Katikies hotel opened in Oia in the early 1990s, and the name, which means dwellings in Greek, was later carried to sister houses: Katikies Kirini on the same cliff, Katikies Chromata at Imerovigli, Katikies Garden in a former monastery at Fira, and Katikies Mykonos. When the group expanded, the original became Katikies Santorini. It is a member of The Leading Hotels of the World.

Architecture and design

Nothing here was designed on a drawing board first. The hotel follows the shape of the cliff, with the suites set on a series of narrow terraces joined by stairs rather than corridors. The vaulted ceilings are the traditional Cycladic form, built that way because a barrel vault spans a cave opening without timber, which the island never had. Walls are lime-rendered and repainted white each spring. Pools occupy the few flat ledges, with their edges set flush to the drop so the water appears to run into the caldera.

The interiors keep to white plaster, pale fabric and timber, with the view as the only decoration. There are no lifts. Guests climb.

Rooms and suites

The suites are cut into the rock or built against it, each with a private terrace. The larger ones have plunge pools or outdoor hot tubs on the terrace, and the Honeymoon Suite has a pool of its own at the lowest level of the hotel. Beds face the caldera. Bathrooms are built into the vault, so some have no window and others have a view that few bathrooms in Greece can match.

Dining

Mikrasia, the main restaurant, takes its name from Asia Minor and cooks the recipes that Greek families brought from Smyrna and the Anatolian coast after 1922: spiced meats, stuffed vegetables, pastries, the food of a lost cosmopolitan kitchen. Dinner is served on a terrace above the pool. Seltz, the second restaurant, is organised around champagne, with a long list by the bottle and by the glass and a menu of seafood to match. Breakfast is brought to the terraces. The wine list leans on Santorini's own Assyrtiko, grown in vines trained into baskets against the wind a few kilometres away.

Wellness

The hotel's pools are its main form of exercise, stacked on different levels of the cliff. A small spa offers massages and treatments in its rooms or on the suite terraces.

Weddings and events

Katikies Santorini hosts small weddings on its terraces, usually at sunset and usually for a party that fits on a single ledge of the cliff. There is no ballroom and no meeting room. Couples use the pool terraces for the ceremony and Mikrasia or Seltz for dinner. Larger gatherings are not what the house is built for.

Location

Oia stands at the northern tip of Santorini. The hotel lies just below the main pedestrian lane, a few minutes' walk from the village's shops and the ruined castle where crowds gather for the sunset. Ammoudi Bay, the fishing harbour with its tavernas, is reached by a stepped path down the cliff. Santorini's airport at Monolithos is about 20 kilometres away by road, and the ferry port at Athinios a similar distance. Fira, the island capital, is 11 kilometres to the south. This is a luxury hotel in Oia in the strict sense: there is no beach, no grounds, nothing but the cliff and the view.