Santorini possesses one of the crucial irrefutably unimaginable landscapes on this planet. From its hovering cliffs overlooking the calm azure Aegean Sea to the white, pink, and black sand seashores fashioned by eons of volcanic exercise, Thera, the island’s official identify in Greek, has turn out to be synonymous with the nation’s interpretation of hospitality. It stays a longstanding and foremost vacation spot for luxurious romantic escapes and households in search of genuine experiences.
The ironic half is that the identical tectonic forces which have formed this wondrous pure magnificence for a lot of thousands and thousands of years – and therein act as a key draw for vacationers – additionally causes the occasional disruption. So it was that in early February this yr, a collection of minor earthquakes within the Cyclades (the island chain containing Santorini) prompted the authorities to shut the island to vacationers, solely to elevate the ban as of the start of March forward of a full opening in April and what’s prone to be a busy peak season for 2025.
Regardless of this non permanent scare with all its resultant journey rearrangements and cruise ship reroutes, such quakes and precautionary restrictions are ‘nothing new in any respect’ as we discovered throughout our assembly with Markos Chaidemenos, the Managing Director for the boutique resort model and owner-operated Canaves Collection.
With 5 properties providing luxurious suites and villas on the island together with Canaves Oia Suites, Canaves Ena, Canaves Sunday, Canaves Elefas Villas and Canaves Epitome, what this family-run assortment reveals is how one can craft particular events in a magical setting by benefiting from the encircling space. It’s a timeless story in hospitality, but it so usually requires a fierce ardour and love of the land that solely an area possesses.
Rugged Magnificence and Lovely Hospitality
As a second-generation hotelier who has grown up on Santorini, Chaidemenos has seen these types of earthquake-born disruptions play out earlier than. Throughout our time collectively, he provided a humbling, reassuring perspective that’s but yet one more enduring lesson for each hotelier confronting a disaster administration scenario.
“In terms of geology, you want magma to create the magnificent. After all, we at all times take precautions for our company. However simply have a look at the historical past. Santorini is the one actively inhabited caldera on this planet, with this newest type of rugged, stunning surroundings carved by volcanic eruptions throughout the Ottoman period within the 1600s. After which there have been earthquakes within the Forties, within the Fifties and so forth. But, the folks listed below are robust, reflecting their rocky environment and we’re at all times able to welcome folks again.”
That welcoming angle is now centerstage but once more, with the island contributing roughly 2.5% to Greece’s GDP, or roughly 5.9 billion euros (supply: BBC). Santorini has a pure resilience in its spirit that makes it one of the crucial sought-after locations on the globe.
To paint this scene some extra, apart from the volcano-born landscapes that supply unimaginable mountain climbing experiences, one other huge draw for the island is its historical past. You have got the archaeological website of Akrotiri that marks the stays of the Minoan civilization from round 1600 BCE – and a few might even declare this as proof of Atlantis! – by to the island’s time as a Venetian buying and selling publish when the famed city of Oia was solely a cliffside fortress on look ahead to pirates. Then got here the post-Independence period within the mid-1800s and early 1900s when the fashionable Cycladic structure type of whitewashed buildings and blue-domed church buildings was outlined.
Agronomically, Santorini is known for its cherry tomatoes that draw on the volcanic soil for intense taste along with its white eggplant and fava beans. The island additionally has a deep heritage of winemaking, whereby vines have been cultivated in a solution to shield them from the robust winds. By no means watered, the grapes get all of the hydration they want from the humidity of the air, therein producing one-of-a-kind vintages for company to strive.
On this sense, Santorini is changing into a well being vacation spot very similar to Ikaria – a Blue Zone the place its residents are acclaimed for his or her longevity – with folks touring particularly to the island to relish in its all-organic, all-local substances (as protected by municipal legal guidelines governing agricultural practices that limit the usage of chemical substances). The meals in Santorini is now its personal draw with personal chef experiences fairly standard amongst villa company.
This distinctive mixture is what’s so usually codified as ‘sense of place’ in hospitality. As Chaidemenos listed off how the geography, farming and tradition intersect, what he emphasised was that Santorini has ‘layers to find’ as supported by a few of the greatest hospitality in Greece to assist company unearth all of the actions at their disposal.
First timers might need to soak up these iconic views from Oia and go to the pink or black seashores alongside the southern coast of the island. Returning company in distinction could also be extra enticed to partake in an immersive cultural actions or studying in regards to the distinctive agronomy. Therein, these layers and the pliability to accommodate quite a lot of journey causes finally turn out to be methods for company and teams to bond by shared experiences, which is what drives memorable stays and repeat visits.
The Historical past of Canaves Is a Historical past of the Neighborhood
As motels are about storytelling, this lesson is greatest revealed by the origins of this resort assortment, going again so far as the Seventies when Ioannis Chaidemenos – Markos’s father – was mayor of the city of Oia in a time when it had its personal authorities. Ioannis had the foresight to usher in legal guidelines that each restrained constructing designs and signage to evolve with the localized interpretation of the Cycladic type, and likewise restricted the overall variety of resort, restaurant, bar and café licenses given out. For one to open, one other should shut.
On the time, residents protested, however defending and preserving was a part of the household philosophy. Wanting again a half century later, although, we will see that this prescience helped to thwart the overtourism and over-commercialization of Santorini, thus preserving its attraction and cultural iconography. Ioannis additionally launched into the development of a desalination plant to make Oia completely unbiased for water and sewage recycling whereas additionally placing cable strains underground to stop disruptions from earthquakes. It was all a part of a generational imaginative and prescient.
The story of the founding of Canaves Assortment started in 1994 with the opening of Canaves Conventional Homes in a first-rate place proper on the sting of Oia with panoramic view of the cliffside city in addition to the caldera. Embracing Santorini’s historical past, a ‘canaves’ is the Greek phrase for the wine caves that had been constructed into the cliffs in order to protect the flatter lands for farming and to reap the benefits of the chilly winds for pure air-con.
The primary property to adapt the Cycladic design type and structure to Santorini, this resort was developed from family-owned buildings that went approach again to Markos’s nice grandfather who was one of many greatest winemakers in Oia. To take care of the unique structure throughout the conversion to a resort, every thing needed to be handmade with the intention to implement the Cycladic type onto Santorini’s rounded caves. With no corners in any of the rooms, all of the furnishings was custom-made, which grew to become a collaborative effort with native producers.
This meticulousness was repeated after Chaidemenos assumed the management place in 2010 with a brand new spherical of restorations and an upleveling into luxurious lodging, reworking the unique property into Canaves Oia Boutique Lodge which is now Canaves Ena (which itself underwent a refurbishment and identify change simply final yr). With the large price of building for renovating the cavern construction all by hand, on paper no parsimonious accountant would ever approve of it and but it’s precisely what was required to launch an immersive expertise model.
To assist promote the dream, Chaidemenos needed to begin touring aboard to unfold the phrase – primarily to america – changing into an envoy and steward for the island within the course of. Whereas the inside design type within the post-pandemic journey period has developed away from the Cycladic all-white-and-blue into the extra earthy tones with pure timber and darkish marble accents to replicate the island’s volcanic origins, the emphasis continues to be resolutely centered on empowering locals to cocreate the story of Santorini by artisanal furnishings, linen, pottery and paintings manufacturing.
For instance of this native stewardship and collaboration, for the most recent addition to Canaves Oia Suites of 5 suites which only recently in April 2025, the Chaidemenos household chosen Kapsimalis Architects, a agency primarily based out of Santorini. Every suite having its personal personal infinite pool, one of many targets within the design transient was to embody this new volcanism type with softer, impartial materials, sustainably sourced supplies, a minimalist aesthetic and a extra seamless mix of indoor-outdoor residing areas.
Santorini as a Multigenerational Journey Mecca
One other profitable wager for Canaves Assortment occurred within the mid-2010s when the senior workforce began shifting the realm planning of its resort to favor villas and multi-bedroom configurations slightly than smaller, single-king and double-queen guestrooms. This meant scaling again the important thing depend by half on what a website might match with the intention to accommodate what Chaidemenos noticed as the subsequent huge factor: multigenerational journey.
As he remarked, “Many vacationers now need the very best of each worlds. They need privateness for his or her households or group of pals within the villa, however they nonetheless need entry to a resort pool or signature restaurant to fraternize with a neighborhood of likeminded company. After we first got down to craft these types of on-premises experiences, many had been nonetheless locked right into a mindset of whole occupancy and charges. They had been, in a approach, lacking the forest for the timber, as when you construct the distinctive expertise, the RevPAR will maintain itself.”
This mix of privateness and a way of neighborhood is a common reality for luxurious journey these days, whereby motels act as homebases for small teams to expertise a vacation spot collectively, bonding within the course of. For this, the instance provided was the gathering’s latest property, Canaves Epitome, which has a five-bedroom villa with 6,000 sq. toes of indoor and 6,000 sq. toes of out of doors area. Barbecue gear comes normal in all suites for in-room eating and personal chef experiences.
For all to take observe, it’s these versatile room configurations that additionally assist to assist each longer lengths of keep in addition to elevated shoulder and offseason journey by making certain that there are areas for small teams to bond collectively apart from counting on the pool and close by seashores.
The actions that assist to spherical out these visitor journeys needn’t be something too elaborate except for being the very best of what the native space has to supply. For Santorini this implies artisanal wine excursions, olive oil tastings, cooking demonstrations, pottery lessons or probably a guided mountain bike tour by Tholos Naftilos, the park on the unoccupied island within the heart of the archipelago.
Furthermore, Chaidemenos believes that the family-owned nature of Canaves Assortment additionally performs an enormous position on this uptick in LOS and shoulder season occupancy, particularly as a result of there’s a tradition of actual hospitality which attracts those that are actually passionate for the business, reflecting this optimistic aura again onto the company.
Taken collectively, the geology, the historical past, the design, the meals and the folks all act in unison to focus on the true which means of a way of place. We are able to’t assist however finish by recalling one of many island’s different names from antiquity: Kallistae, which means the ‘most stunning one’. Regardless of this newest shudder from the depths beneath, journey to Santorini is what’s actually immortal as a result of it has so many layers of experiences to supply; it solely wants a guiding hand to carry these to the forefront for company from world wide.
