Andronis Concept

Santorini can be a hard island to be calm on, and Andronis Concept is built to make calm the default. It sits at Imerovigli on the western coast, high above the caldera, and gives every suite and villa a private pool, warm, so the water is used at seven in the morning and again at midnight rather than merely photographed.

The house calls itself a wellness resort and means it lightly: Kallos Spa, yoga and a daily rhythm of movement and rest, with no timetable pinned to the door. Throubi, the restaurant, is named for a wild Santorinian herb and cooks from its own experiential garden, where the island’s tomatoes and white aubergines grow. Suites start at 35 square metres with a caldera view; the four garden villas trade the view for space. It is largely adults-only, and the sunset arrives whether or not anyone is watching.

A warm pool for every key

The promise is uniform: every suite and villa has a private pool, and the pools are warm, which on a windy Cycladic evening is the difference between a pool and a picture of one. The Cozy Suite, at 35 square metres, already has an infinity pool and the caldera; Wet Allure and Finesse rise over two levels; Fabulous, at 90 square metres, runs to two bedrooms across three. The villas go to four bedrooms, the largest with two pools of its own. Four garden villas have no caldera view, and the rest look straight at the volcano and the sunset.

Kallos Spa, without a timetable

Wellness here is a temperature rather than a programme. Kallos Spa provides the treatments, and the hotel’s idea of a day, movement in the morning, stillness in the afternoon, a swim at any hour, does the rest. There are terraces and open-air lounges for doing nothing in comfort, a cave pool that is heated and a main pool that is not, and a policy that keeps the house largely to adults, so the quiet is real. Nobody is asked to attend anything. The spa is where the island’s pace, fast in Oia and slower here, finally becomes the guest’s own.

Throubi and the experiential garden

Throubi takes its name from a wild herb of the island and its kitchen from the garden: Santorini tomatoes, white aubergines, Katsounia cucumbers, oregano, thyme, lavender and throubi itself. The cooking is Santorinian and Mediterranean, seasonal by definition, and breakfast is à la carte. Private cooking classes take the same ingredients into the guest’s own hands. A complimentary evening shuttle runs to Oia, 25 minutes away, for those who want the famous sunset in the famous place; the wiser course is the terrace and a second glass.