Nestled on the hills between the picturesque towns of Firostefani and Fira, the charming boutique hotel Anteliz Suites overlooks the Caldera in the deep blue Aegean Sea. Sitting a little higher above the walking path through the hills, the hotel court and terrace offers an unobstructed panoramic view of the stunning shore of Santorini. The walk from the main road to the hotel is a minor challenge using the cobbled winding path uphill, but thankfully they extend assistance to transport your suitcases for you. Furthermore, the slight climb is more than worth it when you reach the cozy and intimate enclave, arriving at the traditional looking white porch with wrought iron doors.
The multi-level court terrace is spacious and offers various lounge areas to enjoy a drink or to sprawl out on a sunbed to soak up the sun, while the fair-sized pool is perfect for a cooling swim now and then. The rooms and suites are built around the court terrace in typical Greek style featuring white walls with blue doors and accents, making the hotel seem to blend in perfectly with the rest of the mountain village. The view is gorgeous from any point within the compound of the hotel, a soft sight for sore eyes during the day while boasting the most magical sunsets at dusk. Yet pedestrians walking down the village path are often distracted by the inviting atmosphere beyond the hotel’s porch, peeking in through the front doors and even taking pictures.
Comfortably staying in one of the private pool suites, we imagined a romantic sojourn during which we could enjoy each other’s company in privacy. However, it is very important while booking a private pool suite that you have confirmation of which suite it will be exactly! For our first night, we stayed in a private pool suite which was not built perched high enough above the village path, and had a very small rectangular pool which was so tiny you couldn’t even really swim in it. Not only is a pool that small not worth the supplement to the hotel rate, but the whole idea of privacy was crushed with all the pedestrians passing by because the gates at hip-height gave them a full view of us. We were subsequently moved to a different suite the next day, which much to our delight was perched on a much higher level above the village path and featuring a much bigger pool with infinity effect. Here we enjoyed ourselves immensely and felt completely undisturbed within our secret little hide-out, as if the lovely caldera view was only for us.
This certainly made up for the disappointment from the day before, but we do feel that the hotel should have honestly communicated that not all of the private pool suites look like the one we ended up in a day later. We would have just booked a normal room without pool for the first night.
A nice touch is the complimentary bottle of bubbles and fresh fruit that you receive in the suite, refreshments in the blazing Greek sun are very welcome!
The best thing about waking up in those cute white traditional hotel rooms, is walking over to the windows in the morning to open up those wooden shutters to the amazing view. After a night’s sleep, it’s like your eyes are realizing all over again just how impressive it is, especially with the majestic cruise ships reaching the shore. You can often hear them blowing their horns in the early morning while you wait for your breakfast. Speaking of which, we were gladly surprised to hear that it is served within the comfort of your own room at Anteliz Suites. Greeted at our front door, breakfast was decked out on the table on the terrace by the friendly staff members. Now that’s the perfect way to start the day!
To be honest, the quality of the food could be better. And while upon making arrangements breakfast is stated to be included, only a few things compile the standard breakfast while almost everything to make it a full decent breakfast has to be ordered at an additional cost. Again, notifying this upfront would have made a difference. We could have opted to go for breakfast in the village instead.
While Anteliz Suites has a superb location, with the building having a well-maintained appearance, unique atmosphere and wonderful staff, the transparency about the different rooms and breakfast are just the things that prevent them from meeting the expectations of a seemingly luxurious establishment, also compared to other hotels we stayed at in Santorini which promised much less. Specifically show the differences between the private pool suites, stipulating the huge differences in pool size, to which extent they are “private” and offer compatible individual rates per room to justify this. Also, honestly state that a “modest” breakfast is included, with an option to upgrade it to a full breakfast. Even better would be to just offer the full breakfast in the first place, that is what you expect from a hotel with 4+ stars. With some little adjustments to their marketing communication expressions, we are confident they would be able to exceed expectations in the future.
