Ranked · Updated July 2026
A hundred hotels worth the money, ranked. We paid our own way at every one in the top ten and stayed at least two nights. Prices are what a mid-season double actually costs, not the rate card.
1
Cave suites
The caldera hotel everyone else is copying
Thirty-odd whitewashed cave suites cut into the cliff below Oia, three infinity pools stacked down the rock, and a service culture that has not slipped in twenty years. It is absurdly expensive and worth it once. Ask for a suite on the lower terrace: the same view, several hundred euros less, and you avoid the sunset foot traffic entirely.
2
Infinity pool
The pool you have already seen a hundred times
Imerovigli, not Oia — which is the whole point. You get the same caldera edge without the crowd that arrives at six every evening. The infinity pool is the single most photographed piece of water in Greece, and breakfast is genuinely one of the best in the country. Rooms are smaller than the price suggests.
3
Private villas
For once, a Santorini hotel built for families
Almost every top-tier property on the island is adults-only, which leaves families in resorts on the wrong coast. Epitome solves it: private-pool villas set back from the caldera with actual floor space, a proper kids' offering, and a shuttle to the group's cliffside restaurants. No caldera view from most villas — that is the trade.
4
Rooftop bar
Walk to town, sleep away from it
The compromise Mykonos rarely offers: eight minutes' walk down into Chora, far enough up the hill that the bass does not reach you at three in the morning. Matsuhisa on site is the best food on the island and priced accordingly. Rooms are dated in places for the money — you are paying for the position and the pool scene.
5
Family suites
The one big resort we would actually book
Crete is full of enormous all-inclusives that exist to keep you on site. Domes is the exception: residences with private pools, a beach that is genuinely swimmable rather than a rock shelf, and a kids' club good enough that parents get a day back. Elounda is thirty minutes from Agios Nikolaos and an hour from Heraklion airport.
6
Historic mansion
A hundred and eighty years of the same address
Syntagma Square, opposite parliament, and the rooftop bar looks straight at the Acropolis. It is the grand hotel of Athens and it behaves like one — heavy on marble, formal service, a spa in the basement that is better than it needs to be. Book a Parliament-side room high up; the square is noisy on protest days.
7
Design-led
Cycladic minimalism done without the cliché
White concrete, olive trees and an unusually large central pool, ten minutes inland from Naoussa. The design is the reason to come — vaulted ceilings, hand-thrown ceramics, nothing decorative for its own sake. Being inland means no sea view and no beach walk; a shuttle handles it, but bring a car.
8
Private villas
The island's first properly expensive hotel
Milos spent years as the affordable alternative to Santorini, and this is the property that ended that. Twenty-six villas down a private cove, each with its own pool, and a boat on call to reach the beaches that have no road. Extraordinary, and completely at odds with the character of the rest of the island.
9
Old town
A Venetian mansion in the old harbour
Seventeenth-century, family-run for three generations, and hidden in the lanes behind Chania's harbour where cars cannot reach. The pebble-mosaic courtyard is the best breakfast room in Crete. Rooms vary a lot — the suites are excellent, the smallest doubles are genuinely small. Ask before you book.
10
Historic mansion
A sponge factory, four minutes from the port
Hydra has no cars, so everything arrives by mule — including your luggage. Bratsera is a converted nineteenth-century sponge factory with the machinery still bolted to the walls and the only real swimming pool on the island. Athens is ninety minutes away by fast ferry, which makes this the easiest good hotel in Greece to reach.
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Crete
Spa & wellness
Go in April–June, September–October Flight from Athens 50min
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Hydra
Historic mansion
Go in April–June, September Ferry 1h30 from Piraeus
92
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Hydra
Beachfront
Go in April–June, September Ferry 1h30 from Piraeus
93
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Hydra
Historic mansion
Go in April–June, September Ferry 1h30 from Piraeus
94
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Hydra
Small boutique
Go in April–June, September Ferry 1h30 from Piraeus
95
€€
Hydra
Sailing base
Go in April–June, September Ferry 1h30 from Piraeus
96
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Patmos
Quiet
Go in June, September Ferry from Kos or Rhodes
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Patmos
Spa & wellness
Go in June, September Ferry from Kos or Rhodes
98
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Patmos
Private villas
Go in June, September Ferry from Kos or Rhodes
99
€€
Patmos
Village stay
Go in June, September Ferry from Kos or Rhodes
100
€€
Patmos
Sailing base
Go in June, September Ferry from Kos or Rhodes
