Hotel Matina — Hotel in Municipality of Thira

We spent 12 days in Santirini staying in Matina hotel. This is old Greek place run by Greek family. Everything is in good condition and owners take huge care of the facility.

What was surprising from the beginning that COVID restrictions are treated super seriously. Our bags were disinfected, people must use the masks and every facility e.g. swimming pool chairs or tables are cleaned up all the time.

The hotel is located in the best place in Santorini in Kamari, very close to the airport, beach, bus station, restaurants and markets. Also Kamari is good place to stay as it’s touristic but much less crowded than Oia, Fira and more clean and higher standard than Perissa. Every point you want to visit is up to 30 min by car.

The rooms are basic but clean. If you have a choice take the room upstairs. Our room was on the ground with very limited light like in a basement and hotel staff running all the time just outside of the room. Air conditioning saved our lives. In the summer you cannot live without it as it was 30 plus degrees of Celsius outside. I think owners should clean up the air conditioning as the smell was not fresh. Other than that room is cleaned up every day and they bring you new towels. On Greece islands you cannot put paper to the toilet so it’s really a must to have the bin empty every day. You will get also some small washing cosmetics. The shower is old style with material cover so the water is in the whole bathroom after every usage.

The whole building is old-style and kept in great condition. Beautiful patio with many amazing flowers, clean swimming pool. All natural materials like wood and stone around. Every day it’s music played in the swimming pool area till night hours. You can also order some drinks or coffee. The hotel also has free swimming towels for guest.

Everyday is a breakfast served from 8am till 10am. It might be a bit longer during holidays. Due to COVID restrictions it’s not open bar. It’s served by 2 ladies. You must ask for every slice of cheese, drink or bread etc. From hot dishes you can choose from scrambled eggs (very bed), omelet (bed as well), sausages (impossible to eat), fried eggs (good). Then you have cheese, ham, vegetables, Greek yoghurt with fruits, croissants and cakes baked by them. The sweet verity it wider and better. For drinks there is coffee and tea and juice (super sweet from syrup). Every day is exactly the same food. After 12 days I can say breakfast was one of the worst experiences and we cannot look at fried eggs ;) but for couple of days it will be fine. Also in Greece in general breakfast are not the best unless you like croissants and coffee.

The service is helpful and there is someone 24h in the reception - nice and supportive. They showed us places to visit and recommended Greek restaurants. What I didn’t like is that once I got sick one day (being also pregnant) they charged us 3 euro for cup of tea in the evening. My perception is that when you pay more than 1k Euro for hotel, stay almost 2 weeks and you order some additions/drinks during the day I would expect to be more emphatic. Other than that no surprise.

In general our stay was very nice and relaxing and we can recommend...

This is not a 3* hotel. My stay in Santorini was splitted into 2 different locations and 2 fifferent hotel both 3 *. With the first one I was very happy so was very excited when checking in to Matina after reading all the reviews but was unplesently suprised. Good stuff: Very comfortable and large bed No problem with hot water Great location Communication with owners was good The gentleman in the reception is very pleasant Lady at the pool was very nice and not pushy when selling their stuff

Disliked: Dated rooms and very dated hotel - very dark unplesant reception Dated sun beds without materaces - uncomfortable to use but fortunately nearby restaurants offer great sunbeds if you irder food/ drinks from them Small room- barely able to walk around bed. Extremly loud fridge- we had to switch it off for the night No kettle and other utensils in the room Very small and dated bathroom- shower curtain doesnt block the water so you end up with water all over the floor Hit and miss cleaning- owners tried to blame it on us for not wanting cleaning when we were away from the hotel! No apologies from the lady at the reception- she was quite rude. Breakfast - poor choice, small portions served on dessert plates- ive noticed the weggies from the previous day were kept and then served the following day. There were just a few pieces but no fresh ones were added so I got2 pieces of tomato. The covid protocol- ridiculous and not well-thought through- you need to leave the key at the reception when leaving so they can spray it( whats the point if you are the only one touching it), at breakfast you need to ask someone and tgey will serve you what you want- in my opinion it is a way for them to save money as they portions are tiny and setved on a dessert plate. They are not supporting other local businesses - the bread and pastries are from the frozen packets instead from the lical bakeries- you can easily taste it. When i opened the balcony doors the smell of cat urine was present- there is at least 3 cats at the property and saw them on my balcony as well. Love animals but this was disgusting. There is so many stairs and doorsteps everywhere- between the bathroom/room, different parts of corridor- if you have sny mobility isues do avoid. No elevator- you will be carrying your luggage up all the stairs by yourself The staircase and corridors are all in stone and hence every little sound is going to be multiplied- dont book if you care about good sleep Hotels offers you a taxi to the airport- we have used it and the minibus was (suprise suprise) quite old as well- the aircon was blasting hot air and was so loud we could noteven talk. The driver was trying to start conversation but forobvious reasons it was very short one It is a good hotel if all you are looking for is to spend the night...

We feel it is time to update our review of Hotel Matina which we wrote in 2011 when Vangelis and his wife,Matina (hence the name),ran the hotel with the assistance of their daughter,Vasso.Although Vangelis still puts in visits to the hotel,it is now run by Vasso with the very able assistance of hotel manager Elias.Together with Ender they form a very experienced team and the high standards the hotel has always provided continue.|For us the friendly,helpful nature of ALL staff is a breath of fresh air.|The first thing that strikes is the overall cleanliness of the hotel.|There are a number of rooms which have been upgraded and are splendid but,obviously,more expensive than the standard rooms.|The standard room has A/C,TV,Telephone,fridge,safe and compact bathroom with shower.|The reception area is spacious and an ironing facility is available in the basement.Pool towels are provided by reception.|The pool area is,again,spacious with approximately 20/25 comfortable loungers,bar stools,6 or so tables and chairs and a well stocked bar that also offers snacks.|No review would be worthwhile without mentioning the breakfast.It is,in our opinion,outstanding.There are numerous choices,both hot and cold some of which change on a daily basis (I confess my favourite are the small spanakopita parcels!).There are also fruit juices,water,a coffee machine and tea.|As a relatively small hotel, Hotel Matina "Punches well above its weight.|Highly...