Costsis Pyschas pulls up to Thirassia’s wharf in in a whirl of sea spray, reigning his Zodiac like a blonde-haired Poseidon.
“Come!” he calls with urgency, “If we hurry, we’ll make it!”
This lonely island, 10 minutes from Santorini’s famed Oia — the one of whitewashed houses tumbling oceanward like a fistful of fetta — is where Santorini’s most respected, if intensely private hotelier, has his personal holiday home, The Hideaway (rentals are on application).
The pressing date isn’t with one of the many celebrities that visit Perivolas — the Oia cave houses-turned-five-star paragon of Cycladic luxury begun by his parents. Rather, it’s a floor being crafted into existence by father and son artisans Giorgis and Markos. Apparently this unique “patito” floor pauses for no one.
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Patito is an ancient method of cement-like flooring using ground pumice that cracks, requires maintenance, enjoys holding wine stains and takes five men a full day to lay 30m. Other Santorini hotels use a cheaper, synthetic body double, but such an idea is offensive to Pyschas.
“This isn’t easy and it’s rare to find special craftsmen who can still do it,” he tells ROAM. “This is the traditional way — seeing it is so lucky.”
Pyschas was equally fortunate to buy The Hideaway, a ruined mine he used as a pin-drop for teenage snorkelling trips and which he purchased from 25 globally scattered owners. That the avid sailor helped rebuild the site by hand, carrying stone from the cliffside and with a commitment to heritage, speaks volumes of what to expect at Perivolas.
Perivolas is home to 23 gorgeous cave house rooms. Credit: Timos Tsoukalas/Timos Tsoukalas
Most don’t head for Perivolas to view the floors. Instead, they speak as one about that infinity pool (the one that’s graced more magazine covers than a nineties’ supermodel), the location on the quiet edge of Oia’s white web and the unique 23 cave house rooms — Pyschas’ little ‘Perivolas pocket’ swelling like a rising tide whenever a neighbour offers to sell up.
The cave houses originated 300 years ago when subsistence fishermen dug into the cliffside seeking winter shelter. They’re a delirium of organic contours, not a plumb line in sight and the decorations — low wooden tables originally used for pummelling pie dough, the personal blue glass collection of Mrs Pyschas senior and cushions woven on her loom — are objects money can’t buy.
The luxury accommodation is terraced into the hillside. Credit: Enrique Menossi/Enrique Menossi
Like the glamorous main pool, the Perivolas Suite — with distinctive olive tree and external private pool that spills like an elegant gate crasher halfway into the living room — has become a Greek icon. But the New Perivolas Suite is a Goldilocks moment. Accessed via a heavy wooden door this cave house sports a pool large enough for dolphin diving, plush deck chairs with box seat positions prepped for the nightly cinematic caldera light play and a large living area where white couches seemingly levitate. It’s simple in lines, glamorous in a non-pretentious way and will never date, given it was never designed to fill a tend.
If only the donkeys could see it now. Yes, this was once a donkey stable — their former feeding trough (a hole through the high ceiling for lazy stable hands) now a light fixture and the oval forms of the original lovingly preserved. The only surrender to colour is in the shot of bougainvillea pink textiles.
The stunning Perivolas Suite has become a Greek icon. Credit: Timos Tsoukalas/Timos Tsoukalas
It’s calm and it’s serene — the high domed roof and alabaster hues akin to being in a large, calming, eggshell with birdsong that arrives from the nearby date palms.
Given rooms come terraced into the hillside it also means zero rubber necking Instagrammers, a necessary and highly welcome reprieve in this paradisical part of the world, particularly in peak season.
It makes for a cave experience that, like a hibernating bear, is difficult to leave. And you needn’t, not with dining at Perivolas Restaurant (a former wine cellar) and which offers meals across the day, from the included breakfast buffet of figs, honey and yogurt and through a la carte options from chef Theodore Kakoulis, who crafts a meltemi storm of rich flavours, spotlighting Santorini ingredients across freshly caught seafood, local fava and heirloom tomatoes with hyper local Assyrtiko wine sauces.
The cave houses originated 300 years ago when subsistence fishermen dug into the cliffside seeking winter shelter. Credit: Timos Tsoukalas/Timos Tsoukalas
Here, fireflies bob amongst the flowers of the various poolside nooks, where sunset dinner slowly unfolds by candlelight against the dramatic caldera backdrop (the Chef’s Tasting menu of €180 is a must). Still, room service proves an ultimate indulgence – dining on Kakoulis’s roasted octopus with spetseriko onions and fried okra, paired with a rare Santorini vintage from the cellar by our own private pool.
Catch show-stopping sunsets from the pool deck. Credit: ROAM/ROAM
If you do leave, aim to explore Oia’s labyrinthine beauty of whitewashed alleys before the cliffside town wakes with the stroll down to Ammoudi Bay at sunset spectacular and launching off rocks at nearby Saint Nicholas island etching lifelong memories. Turning right directly out of the property also accesses a spectacular hiking path — an 8km floating ribbon trimming the caldera to Imervogli.
For all the Instagram statics and stories, nothing quite prepares for the raw intensity and devastating beauty of Santorini. Soak it up by water with Renieris Santorini Sailing Centre (with a fresh fish lunch at a mini volcanic island mooring), or by land with Lefteris Karipidis of guiding company Blue Shades of Greece. Swap the buzzing hive of the seaside towns for the quiet whisper of mountaintop Pyrgos and Megalochori — cloaked in a riot of fuchsia and bougainvillea — and don’t miss the archaeological site of Akrotiri, the Cyclade’s Pompeii.
The infinity pool has graced more magazine covers than a 90s supermodel. Credit: Enrique Menossi/Enrique Menossi
For all of Santorini’s headlines and its race towards reinvention, Perivolas remains still and proudly rooted as it once was — proof that when heritage beats as the heart, things never go out of style.
