On Santorini a honeymoon house is chosen by name. IKIES, at the edge of Oia, has fourteen cave houses between 20 and 95 square metres, and a couple booking one is deciding between a hot tub on the terrace and none, a pool level and a high private terrace, a room for two and a villa for six.
Cave houses on the caldera rim
Oia lies along almost two kilometres of the caldera’s northern rim, roughly 70 to 100 metres above the sea. The caldera is the water filled crater left by the Minoan eruption about 3,600 years ago. A merchant fleet made the village prosperous in the nineteenth century, and the captains’ two storey houses stand on its highest ground. Lower on the slope, the simple houses of seamen were built into niches in the rock.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck on 9 July 1956, renewed emigration followed and the population stood at 306 by 1977. After a preservation programme in 1976 many of those cave dwellings became guest houses, hotels and restaurants.
Fourteen houses, assembled over three decades
The hotel dates its own story from 1993, when the project began under the architect Adam Kostikas. It opened in 1999 with six houses carved out of original cliff caves. In 2004 four adjacent properties with wider exteriors were added under the architect Akis Charalambous, and further properties followed, the last of them by 2020, among them the largest of the Captain’s houses and a cliff cave divided into the Alchemist’s and the Shipbuilder’s houses. According to the hotel, the caved in form protects against harsh winters and earthquakes, and the design follows Cycladic tradition with subtle postmodern touches, in local materials. The name is Greek for residences.
The result is fourteen houses that sleep between two and six adults, each named for a trade: the Gardener, the Boatman, the Winemaker, the Collector. The hotel’s elevated site looks over the caldera and the volcano.
Experience Cycladic minimalism at Ikies Santorini. Film: IkiesHotel on YouTube.
Choosing the house
Three houses carry the hotel’s honeymoon language. The Boatman’s House, 31 square metres for two with a hot tub, is in its words a “modern-day love nest” and sits among the highest levels of the complex. The Winemaker’s Suite has 60 square metres for up to four, with a secluded terrace over the caldera and the Aegean. The Carpenter’s Suite has 65 square metres at the far end of the property, with its own exit to the village pathway. The largest house, the Collector’s Villa, has 95 square metres for up to six, with a hot tub pool that flows from inside to out.
Eleven of the fourteen houses have a private hot tub. The three without are the Gardener’s Petit House, the Sailor’s Maisonette and the Fisherman’s Maisonette, all at pool level and the smallest at 20 to 30 square metres. Within that group the Sailor’s Maisonette is a loft with a private balcony facing Thirasia and the caldera, and the Fisherman’s Maisonette has two levels, its queen size bed upstairs above the living area. Because the houses are stacked on a cliff, height is part of the choice: ask which level a house is on, and how many steps lead to it. Among the others, the Artisan’s Suite has its queen size bed in a hollow cut into the volcanic rock, the Captain’s Suite has a curved terrace facing Thirasia across the caldera, the Cook’s Maisonette has an elevated terrace with a 180 degree view of Oia and the caldera, the Antiquarian’s Suite has a hot tub in a corner of its terrace and a table where breakfast is served, and the Alchemist’s Maisonette, on two levels, is described by the hotel as having “complete privacy”.
What the Diamond Honeymoon Package holds
The package costs 450 euros. It brings flowers on arrival, rose petals on the bed, a 200 ml bottle of Moët or Laurent Perrier champagne served at breakfast, two massage treatments, two hammam towels to keep, and a cheese platter with wine from Argyros Estate and a 750 ml bottle of Moët & Chandon. Validity dates and the houses it can be added to are confirmed with the hotel when booking.
Dining on your own terrace
Breakfast is served in the house or on the terrace, and a private dining menu of Greek and international dishes is served on each house’s veranda. According to the hotel, breakfast runs from 08:00 to 11:00 and the dining menu from 12:00 to 22:00. The in room dining menu can be downloaded from the hotel’s pages. Yoga sessions and private massages can also be arranged, and the reception desk organises tours to the ruins of ancient Thira, boat trips around the island and hiking. The hotel’s pages recommend exploring Santorini by boat, and they point guests to the island’s beaches, the most famous of them the black beach at Perivolos.
The sunset, from a distance
Oia is famous for its sunset, and the village gets crowded in summer. IKIES sits at the edge of the settlement, a ten minute walk from its centre according to the hotel, and its terraces face the caldera. Below the village, Ammoudi is the small harbour reached by steep stairs, with ferries to the island of Therasia.
Getting there, and when
Santorini’s airport lies south east of the main town, and Oia is about 14 kilometres from it by road; travel guides quote taxi times from about 16 to 40 minutes. Buses run through Fira, the island’s central bus station, which means a change on the way to Oia. Most routes into the airport other than those from Athens are seasonal, among them many from Britain, Germany, Italy and France. In 2022 the United Kingdom was the airport’s second largest market after Greece itself. By sea, ferries connect Piraeus with the island every day of the year, with up to five direct crossings in summer.
According to the hotel, private transfers run at any hour, a direct booking of four nights includes a complimentary transfer from the airport or port, and the return transfer is complimentary from five nights. Check in is from 15:00 and check out by 11:00, and late check out is arranged at an extra charge depending on availability.
Santorini has dry summers and wetter winters, with about 270 millimetres of rain across the year. The hotel writes its current offers around summer, so a couple hoping for spring or autumn should ask which houses and services run in those months.
Planning the honeymoon
The hotel also hosts weddings, with guest numbers, dates and the choice of house agreed directly with it, so a couple planning more than a honeymoon should raise that in the first message. IKIES suits a couple who want a private terrace more than a resort with facilities to move between. Fix the house first, then the dates the package covers, then whether the transfer is included for the length of the stay. For another Greek island stay, read the Edit on The Courti Estate in Corfu. See the IKIES profile for every house and the films, read about Santorini in the Wedding Atlas, or browse weddings in Greece. Ready to plan? Check your date.
