Karidis Hotel — Hotel in Municipality of Thira

We booked the Karidis because of being labelled as a small and friendly hotel – and it certainly lives up to its name.||Firstly, the hotel only has 21 rooms, so it feels very personable, and never crowded.  The swimming pool is quite a nice size for the hotel and there are plenty of sunbeds always available.  There is a sunny part of the pool, and a shaded part with umbrellas and trees.  As a lot of people tend to go to the beach, travel to Fira, Oia or Akrotiri during the day (as Santorini is dripping in beautiful sights and experiences), the pool tends to be quiet for a swim at any time of the day.||We had a triple room, which was described as being in a basement room.  Don’t be fooled, these rooms are large, have been modernised and have a courtyard (with a drying area, table and a lot of space) and have an incredible amount of light both inside and out.   They are accessed via an external staircase and sit at the front of the hotel, but are double glazed (so we did not hear traffic noise).  They have a kettle, fridge, safe and air conditioning. ||When we arrived, the incredibly friendly staff greeted us, and showed us to our room.   In the room, as we had been delayed, the hotel had left us a large bottle of water in the fridge. There were some coffee sachets, tea bags, milk, sugar, a welcome gift of Turkish delight and a small decanter of Ouzo.  It was a lovely treat!||Breakfast is simple, but sufficient.  I am vegan, so I generally ate toast with tomatoes (or the Marmite I took with me). However, my family had croissants, eggs (scrambled or boiled), dependent on the day there was bacon or smoked sausages, cheese, ham, yogurt, honey, fruit, cereals or other pastries.   There is a toasted sandwich maker, so my family had cheese toasties a few times through the day.| |There is a laundrette just across the road, and just below there is quite a good supermarket.  There is also an excellent smoothie bar (Juice Me) next door to the supermarket, and they will tailor fresh smoothies and juices for you, and have snacks took.  There is an excellent bakery at close to the sea front which does a range of salads, sandwiches, desserts and drinks if you don’t want to eat out.||There are a range of tavernas leading down the road. The only issue is that there is quite a lot of ‘pester power’ trying to get you to go into the taverna.  We felt quite pestered by the people standing outside of the tavernas (quite often the owners).  In particular, we felt pestered by the owner of Meli and Thymari restaurant – and we did try the restaurant, but it wasn’t as good as the Olive Oil restaurant across the road (which is beautiful food).||The walk to the beach is around 4 minutes, and there are a lot of tavernas which will give you free sunloungers and umbrellas if you buy drinks or food from them.   ||Just above the Karidis, there is a tour company.  It has tours which are cheaper than the package holiday companies, and they are so helpful with local information there.  Buses are also easy to catch and good value just along the road.||There is a lovely terrace at the front of the Karidis where you can eat breakfast or, during the day or evening, you can buy a drink from the fridge at hotel (including a glass of wine or beer), and watch the world go by.  We would definitely stay at the Karidis again.  It’s convenient, close to the beach and amenities, it feels very friendly and welcoming and has great...

My daughter and I stayed for 5 nights in September, hotel is really handy, beach and plenty of restaurants couple minutes walk away, also we walked to open air cinema so would recommend that. Buses go regularly to Fira from bus stop right outside the hotel only €2. Reception staff really friendly and helpful and they left a lovely cake for my daughter’s birthday. Room was fine shower very small and curtain didn’t keep the water in the shower tray so floor flooded everytime we used it. Room tidied everyday, our room was over looking the pool so quiet although our balcony was very small not really enough room for 2 people to sit out together. Breakfast was basic but fine to get the day started. Glad we stayed in Kamara away from the bustle of Fira and Oia as they are very busy with 1000s of cruise ship...

Stayed here for 10 days in September. I give it three stars because it was very clean and the staff were friendly. However, I must say that the breakfast had very little choice. I don't mind eating the same thing everyday but I found the breakfast to be of very poor quality.. a good coffee for example would have gone a long way. Also, we rang and emailed months in advance about having a double bed and when we arrived it was two singles that could not even be pushed together due to the bedframe kind of a bummer as a couple. They did make it into a double bed the next day but it would have been nice to be spared the trouble of having to ask and worry. Also the rooms are a little bit outdated. I must say though it was a good location and the cleanliness of the hotel mostly makes up in the...