My friend and I traveled to Greece for two weeks in late August. After spending 5 nights in Mykonos, we took the ferry from Mykonos to Santorini. We arrived around 4 PM in Santorini port, rented a car and drove to the hotel. Upon arrival at this beautiful property, we were promptly greeted by the hotel's friendly staff. They brought us champagne and water. Our check-in was fast and the hotel reception took us to our room to go over all the amenities and shows us our room. The rooms are beautiful, clean and comfortable. We were upgraded to a two story suite. The hotel is in Megalochori, which is 20 minutes away from OIA and Fira by car. I like the idea that this hotel is somewhat in a more quiet/secluded area of Santorini away from all the touristy areas of town. The hotel grounds are stunningly beautiful, well-maintained and feels like you are in a 5 star expensive community.

The hotel staff is very friendly. On our first night, we were tired so we decided to stay in and dined at the hotel restaurant Vinsanto. I must say this restaurant is under rated. The service was amazing and the food was delicious. I highly recommend this restaurant for those staying at the hotel. We had an incredible meal, dessert and local wine from Santorini. The chef of this restaurant is amazing!!

Breakfast is served by the pool area. On weekdays, breakfast is served a la carte. Buffet breakfast is only served on weekends. However, considering this is a 5 star hotel, the choices for breakfast is limited on weekdays and it could use some improvements.

One of the other areas that the hotel could improve on is the house keeping. At a 5 star property, you expect that your room if fully serviced. This does not mean changing the bed and towels, but picking up dirty dishes, glasses, etc. This was not the case during our stay and I had to ask the House Keeping to remove the dirty dishes from the room. Some of the dishes sit outside the rooms for several hours until they are picked up.

One other great thing about this hotel is the wine cellar. They have a beautiful wine cellar/cave, where they store great wines here. They have wine tasting on a daily basis, but be sure to make reservations for wine tasting. Worth trying this if you are into wine connoisseur.

The hotel also has a free shuttle service to and from the airport which is really convenient. Other amenities are the Spa service for those wanting to enjoy a relaxing massage and other spa services. The gym located by the SPA needs some improvement. Lots of bulky old machines in need of repair and some are not up to standard for a 5 star property considering Starwood always has the best gyms at their properties worldwide.

We truly enjoyed our stay and miss this beautiful property. I strongly recommend this hotel to everyone and hope to return to beautiful Santorini again soon!!

My husband and I stayed at the Vedema Resort in August 2012. We arrived in Santorni at 7 am and were (promptly) greeted at the airport by the Vedema (free) shuttle. We got to the hotel around 7:30 and were taken on a tour of the premises while we waited for our room to be ready. Even though the hotel's check-in time is sometime in the early afternoon, the Vedema let us access our room in the early morning, which was a welcome relief after a very early morning flight.

The Vedema's premises are very well-maintained and the pool area is particularly beautiful. I agree with some of the other reviewers that some of the rooms are a little dated, but they are all HUGE and offer a number of nice amenities (i.e., roof-top terrace, very large bathroom). We were originally placed in a Dorian Suite that was right off the main street. Though the view was not great, the room was beautiful and had clearly been recently renovated. The internet access was spotty, so we ended up switching to another Dorian Suite which had three levels (main living room, upstairs sleeping quarters, and roof-top terrace). It was perfect for us.

Service at the restaurants is impeccable. The captain (whose name escapes me right now) is a great host and was constantly catering to our every need. The food at both the breakfast buffet and the Vinsanto restaurant was exceptional. Some of the best meals we had on the island.

I'm sure most people who read this are concerned about the location. The island of Santorini is pretty small and you can really get anywhere within 30-40 minutes. We rented a car and took day/evening trips to Oia and Kamari. It's very easy to get around. We absolutely LOVED Oia (incredibly romantic, perfect location for a honeymoon or anniversary) and if you are splurging on something really special it might be worth it to stay there. But we were very satisfied with our decision to skip the caldera hotel and stay at the Vedema instead. In fact, on our last night of our stay, the Vedema offered us a free shuttle ride over the Oia for a dinner at their sister property Mystique.

Overall, we felt that the service was the highlight of our stay -- everyone bent over backwards to make the trip an unforgettable experience (in particular, Dimitra, who helped my husband surprise me with Anniversary flowers). We used starwoods points to pay for our rooms, so I'm not sure how expensive the daily rate is -- but it's a great deal with the points/cash combo if you can book it in time (it books up pretty quick).

We had a great time and we would definitely recommend the Vedema.

My wife and I went to Greece and Italy for our honeymoon - and we stayed in 2 hotels/resorts on Santorini. Vedema was one of these hotel resorts we stayed at, based upon our Greece Fodors book. Resort was exactly what we were looking for after our wedding - a nice, clean, quiet resort to recuperate. Staff was extremely helpful and the grounds were well kept. We requested a specific room during our booking a few months ago and they remembered our request and fulfilled it - and the room did not disappoint. Had an excellent private patio that we got a lot of use out of.

One night we did eat at the restaurant on the hotel grounds - while the atmosphere was great we found the food to be ok, but nothing to write home about. We'd suggest near by Raki for a bit more of a local flare in a small town square via eating al fresco (we also did cooking classes at Raki and it was a good time - also there is a small wine maker near Raki that you could explore for an hour or two).