My wife and I spent four days out of our honeymoon in Oia and we stayed at Ikies. We both had extremely high expectations but how could you blame us after reading all the gushing reviews. Were our expectations exceeded? Well, almost.

We stayed in the House of Antiquarian and when we arrived, we were greeted by Ileni and other staff members. We chatted for a few and then shown to our rooms. Once we saw the view, we were thrilledt. Nothing can be said about the view and location of Ikies that has not been said before. Yes, it is that spectacular. And what made our arrival even more enjoyable was the complimentary fruits and wine. We toured our spacious room and were pleased by the amenities. LCD TV, wireless laptop, two bed, two baths and the best part....the patio and its lounge chair and table.

All in all, we loved Ikies and found the staff gracious and the atmosphere relaxing. However, as I mentioned, we had extremely high expectations that were not met. The reasons are because the beds were uncomfortable. It was a futon on a board, not a mattress. The other reason, I ordered baklava and it was served to me frozen. Things that I would not expect from a five star rated traditional house. Enough for me to not give it the 5 stars everyone else has given Ikies.

Would I go back to Ikies? Definitely. We loved the service and the view, loved Oia and loved Greece as a whole.

It's rare to have an experience that meets all expectations but Ikies does. There's not much more to say than others have said, but this is one of the only places I've stayed in where the reveiws were uniformly excellent and deserved. And I've stayed in a lot of very nice hotels.

The staff, Eleni and team, make the hotel unique. They are fabulous in all respects and can't do enough for you. We had to leave at 5am for an early flight, and she arranged our breakfast the night before and had someone there to haul our luggage up to meet the cab. The service is just unbelievable.

We stayed in the captains suite and our friends in the artisan's, and both were lovely. Oia is the only place to stay on the island in my view; we were disappointed when we visited Fira, which was noisy and a lot less charming. It was incredibly hot when we were there, but Oia was tolerable and we spent a lot of time on our terraces and in the pool (its smallness is the only minor complaint, but it does work to cool you off).

The place and area are both magical, especially at sunset.

This place was EVERYTHING I had dreamed of, plus more, when I booked it for our honeymoon. I had always wanted to go to the Greek Islands & boy oh boy was this the place to be. The hotel was PERFECT because it is at the beginning of the path that goes into town and the tip of OIA where EVERYONE goes to see the sunset. Most of the other hotels you could see down into and you kind of had lots of others looking on, but this one you had more privacy. The hotel staff was incredible--they came during the day to clean out room and at night to turn down our sheets for us. The breakfast was increible and the room service menu was DELICIOUS (cold food only when we went). Their sangria was the YUMMIEST! The hotel also had access to restaurant reservations that no one else did---for instance they booked us at the restaurant KASTRO, front seats, to watch the sun set while we ate. Absolutely incredible. The view from our balcony in our suite was breathtaking. Everything was PERFECT!!! I wanted to book our room again for two weeks, the same time next year!!!!!!! I can NOT wait to go back!!!!! I have already recommended it to 3 of my friends, who have all gone and absolutely loved it too!!!!!

We booked Ikies based mostly on what we read here on tripadvisor and were not disappointed. Most things about this hotel have already been repeated on this website but some of our key points:

- Every person on the staff was A+ from the planning process, arranging a car rental, welcome, dinner recommendations, general friendliness, breakfast delivered every morning, lanterns with candles delivered every night, everything really.

- We were so glad we got a room with a private hot tub. The view is just amazing and we spent a significant amount of time on our private balcony and in our hot tub. We weren't sure exactly how the layout of the rooms would be in terms of privacy, especially since the Boatman's House is next door to the reception area (which the staff was very up-front about during the booking process), but the layout was fine and we rarely saw anyone. It felt very private.

- The location of the hotel is the absolute best in Oia. Even hotels just a couple of doors down don't get the same view of the sunset against the water. We thought the walk to town every night for dinner was perfect (if you are wearing the right shoes!).

- We highly recommend both Ambrosia and Nector and 1800 for a nice dinner.

-The rooms are fabulous in that they are themed and very fitting of the environment and it is clear that a lot of thought has been put into making them feel like home - fridges, dishes, candles and matches, etc. Our room did have a CD player and a flat screen tv, but you aren't necessarily going to find that the rooms are the top of the line with the newest, latest, greatest remodeled bathrooms, etc. - although some rooms and bathrooms are more updated than others since every room is totally different. Not bad at all to us - that is the only possible thing I can think of that would have you in any way disappointed in your stay at Ikies.

We would stay in the Boatman's House again (great value given its balcony and the hot tub since we were rarely inside the room anyway), but we were drooling over the Captain's House (right below Boatman's), and especially the Winemaker's House. Carpenter's is pretty cool too, over on the side, a little more private as well. I wouldn't stay anywhere else on Santorini other than Ikies and I hope to return someday!