Santorini possesses one of the irrefutably unbelievable landscapes on the planet. From its hovering cliffs overlooking the calm azure Aegean Sea to the white, purple, and black sand seashores shaped by eons of volcanic exercise, Thera, the island’s official title in Greek, has change into synonymous with the nation’s interpretation of hospitality. It stays a longstanding and foremost vacation spot for luxurious romantic escapes and households on the lookout for 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 12 months, 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 momentary 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 lodge model and owner-operated Canaves Assortment.
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 find out how to craft particular events in a magical setting by profiting from the encircling space. It’s a timeless story in hospitality, but it so typically 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 supplied a humbling, reassuring perspective that’s but yet another enduring lesson for each hotelier confronting a disaster administration scenario.
“In relation to geology, you want magma to create the magnificent. After all, we at all times take precautions for our company. However simply take a look at the historical past. Santorini is the one actively inhabited caldera on the planet, with this newest type of rugged, stunning surroundings carved by volcanic eruptions in the course of the Ottoman period within the 1600s. After which there have been earthquakes within the Nineteen Forties, within the Nineteen Fifties and so forth. But, the folks listed here are powerful, reflecting their rocky environment and we’re at all times able to welcome folks again.”
That welcoming perspective 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 sought-after locations on the globe.
To paint this scene some extra, in addition to the volcano-born landscapes that provide unbelievable mountain climbing experiences, one other massive 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 could even declare this as proof of Atlantis! – by way of to the island’s time as a Venetian buying and selling put up 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 trendy Cycladic structure model of whitewashed buildings and blue-domed church buildings was outlined.
Agronomically, Santorini is legendary 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 method to defend them from the sturdy 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 turning into a well being vacation spot very like 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 elements (as protected by municipal legal guidelines governing agricultural practices that prohibit the usage of chemical substances). The meals in Santorini is now its personal draw with personal chef experiences fairly fashionable amongst villa company.
This distinctive mixture is what’s so typically 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 among the greatest hospitality in Greece to assist company unearth all of the actions at their disposal.
First timers could wish to soak up these iconic views from Oia and go to the purple 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 in the end change into methods for company and teams to bond by way of shared experiences, which is what drives memorable stays and repeat visits.
The Historical past of Canaves Is a Historical past of the Group
As accommodations are about storytelling, this lesson is greatest revealed by way of the origins of this lodge assortment, going again so far as the Nineteen 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 model, and in addition restricted the whole variety of lodge, 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. Trying again a half century later, although, we are able to 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 impartial for water and sewage recycling whereas additionally placing cable traces 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 model and structure to Santorini, this lodge was developed from family-owned constructions that went manner again to Markos’s nice grandfather who was one of many greatest winemakers in Oia. To keep up the unique format in the course of the conversion to a lodge, the whole lot needed to be handmade in an effort to implement the Cycladic model onto Santorini’s rounded caves. With no corners in any of the rooms, all of the furnishings was custom-made, which turned 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, remodeling the unique property into Canaves Oia Boutique Resort which is now Canaves Ena (which itself underwent a refurbishment and title change simply final 12 months). With the massive price of development 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 the US – turning into an envoy and steward for the island within the course of. Whereas the inside design model 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 mirror the island’s volcanic origins, the emphasis remains to be resolutely targeted on empowering locals to cocreate the story of Santorini by way of artisanal furnishings, linen, pottery and art work manufacturing.
For instance of this native stewardship and collaboration, for the newest addition to Canaves Oia Suites of 5 suites which only in the near past in April 2025, the Chaidemenos household chosen Kapsimalis Architects, a agency based mostly 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 model with softer, impartial materials, sustainably sourced supplies, a minimalist aesthetic and a extra seamless mix of indoor-outdoor dwelling areas.
Santorini as a Multigenerational Journey Mecca
One other successful wager for Canaves Assortment occurred within the mid-2010s when the senior workforce began shifting the realm planning of its lodge 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 in an effort to accommodate what Chaidemenos noticed as the following massive factor: multigenerational journey.
As he remarked, “Many vacationers now need the perfect of each worlds. They need privateness for his or her households or group of associates within the villa, however they nonetheless need entry to a resort pool or signature restaurant to fraternize with a neighborhood of likeminded company. Once 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 manner, lacking the forest for the timber, as when you construct the distinctive expertise, the RevPAR will care for itself.”
This mix of privateness and a way of neighborhood is a common fact for luxurious journey these days, whereby accommodations act as homebases for small teams to expertise a vacation spot collectively, bonding within the course of. For this, the instance supplied 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 customary in all suites for in-room eating and personal chef experiences.
For all to take notice, it’s these versatile room configurations that additionally assist to help 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 in addition to counting on the pool and close by seashores.
The actions that assist to spherical out these visitor journeys needn’t be something too elaborate other than being the perfect 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 way of 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 really passionate for the business, reflecting this constructive aura again onto the company.
Taken collectively, the geology, the historical past, the design, the meals and the folks all act in unison to spotlight the true which means of a way of place. We will’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 under, journey to Santorini is what’s really immortal as a result of it has so many layers of experiences to supply; it solely wants a guiding hand to convey these to the forefront for company from all over the world.
