Katharos Villas

Katharos is definitely the best hotel in Oia. Nice location. Spacious room for a big family. Just a few minutes walking distance to the center of Oia but with a rare privacy. Our family had such a great time there. Good facilities, great pool. Customised 5-star services. Francesco is always very helpful and considerate. I would recommend anyone who wants to stay in Santorini for a perfect holiday with privacy to stay in Katharos Pool Villas.

If you are thinking of staying here, think again. Advertising for this villa was misleading. We were disappointed. A requirement for where we stayed was about the size and quality of the beds. I was clear with our travel agent that a pull out sofa would not work. When we arrived we found one queen bed, a pull out sofa and a couch upstairs that was converted to a bed, none of which were comfortable, and ended up resulting in waking up not well rested, with sore bodies. I explained to Francesco that my primary requirement was to not have a pull out sofa. He offered to add multiple thin mattresses which didn’t improve the situation. When I told him I was surprised there was a pull out sofa that was listed as a Murphy bed his response was that his travel person provided him with the language to use for the descriptions. Alessandro came to us and had a bad attitude saying that the bedding situation was not their problem and that we needed to contact our travel agent. The bed headboard was made of concrete. The place was a lot lower quality than what we would have expected. The downstairs bathroom had no shower curtain and water sprayed everywhere when taking a shower that the floor had to be covered in towels to prevent from slipping. The upstairs shower did not have a shower curtain but had a concrete barrier. It did not have a place to hold soap, shampoo, etc. so you had to reach around to the counter to get those items or use the floor. The upstairs toilet had a hissing noise. There were stains on the bedsheets and towels. The towels were paper thin and low quality. When we checked in there were 2 bath towels for 4 of us and no pool towels. The Wi-Fi was out intermittently. The lighting fixtures and decor looked like they were from a yard sale. The jacuzzi is part of the small pool and you have to request it to be warmer. It takes several hours to heat up. The Jacuzzi jets are on a 4 minute timer and you have to constantly reset. There’s not much private about the pool. The villas are one right after the other and you can hear people talking who are right next to you or even a villa or two down from you. There were not a lot of food options right nearby. You had to walk at least 15 minutes for food. My son had developed a medical issue shortly before our trip (which made it difficult for him to walk too long and required him to eat somewhat regularly) so that made it challenging. We asked whether they would be willing to refund us for 2 nights so that we could enjoy our vacation in more suitable and comfortable accommodations. They refused to refund us anything despite the fact that I explained our primary reason for wanting to move is due to waking up in pain because of the uncomfortable beds and it grossed us out having towels and sheets with stains. The positives: they were helpful prior to our arrival in providing recommendations for a catamaran cruise (which was excellent) along with restaurant recommendations and securing reservations for ATVs. We were provided with bottled water and other drinks and snacks. Francesco was gracious in driving us up the hill to Oia several times (Alessandro drove us once) and Francesco gave us a platter of fresh strawberries and clementines which were delicious. If you want to visit in Oia, I recommend staying somewhere further up the hill closer to the village and also staying for three days and visiting another village. I do not know how so many positive reviews were posted. It has to consist mostly of people who are friends or who were paid to do so because the majority of our stay was well below our expectations and extremely disappointing, especially due to all of the money we spent. Traveling internationally is not something we do often. We realize that in European countries, the beds are smaller and may not be as comfortable, however, I feel certain that there were many other options that would have been better suited for our needs.