My wife and i stayed at this hotel for 5 nights from 17th to 22nd September 2019 (first Kenyans to stay in Smaragdi). We stayed in Room 15 (Luxury Room) and enjoyed our stayed and recommend it to guests visiting Santorini. The hotel has many highlights which i will summarise below but i wish to advise that Santorini is a very small island and you can access all of Santorini affordably by bus (for about EUR 4.20 which is EUR 2.40 to Fira town and EUR 1.80 to other places including Oia). The hotel is near a bus stop called Euro Market from where you can go anywhere on the island. We enjoyed exploring Santorini by bus and also by boat which is available on the beach 2 minutes away.
Now for the summary of the hotel stay:
1. Great location within a 2 minutes walk to Perivolos Beach (black sand beach)
2. Near the Euro Market bus stop where you can travel to the entire island by bus. We went to Fira, Imerovigli, Firostefani, Pyrgos, Kamari among many other places by bus very affordably. Taxis can be very costly in Santorini (approximately EUR 35). Instead of paying thousands of Euros in staying in Oia and the other Caldera towns, its more affordable to stay at Smaragdi which is very spacious - Oia hotels are small and quite crammed.
3. Delightful room. We stayed in a luxury room #15 with external jacuzzi. The jacuzzi was heavenly after our daily excursions and especially on the day we did the Fira to Oia hike. Coming back to the hotel and soaking in the jacuzzi was a highlight.
4. The hotel has a good breakfast spread with a good mix of hot and cold options and cold juices.
5. The nearby Perivolos beach and promenade all the way to Perissa has a nice mix of restaurants and bars with nice beach beds and music for relaxation though a good number of them charge for the beds. A note to future guests is that at the very end of the promenade next to the mountain, there is a EUR 5 boat that can take you round the mountain to Kamari beach in 20 minutes. Try it out!
6. The staff at Smaragdi are very friendly, nice and always willing to help especially in advising on nice places to visit. They always have a 7.00pm briefing to guests on areas to explore so that guests can select which excursions they would like to do. The staff are very hardworking as well in keeping the rooms clean, fresh and spotless.
The hotel remains 5-STARS though one area of improvement would be to heat the pool to improve the guest experience. We lounged on the pool beds but rarely swam because the pool water was extremely cold and we could not stay in for long. Surprisingly, the pool would be very cold even when the sun was very hot - even our swim in the Aegean Sea, the water was extremely cold.
Otherwise, well done to the Smaragdi team and we have already recommended the hotel to our friends in Kenya and Africa for their next visits to Santorini.
