My friend and I had the BEST time staying at the Alonistra Oia Houses and getting to know Vaggelis and his family! There are so many wonderful things to mention.
1) The apartment is so cute, clean, and comfortable. It has strong WIFI, plenty of hot water, AC/heating, and all the amenities you will ever need.
2) The breakfast Vaggelis' Mom prepared each day was great! We had hard boiled eggs, bread, jam, ham, cheese, orange juice, coffee, and tea. She brings it to your room.
3) Vaggelis took us anywhere we wanted to go for an extremely reasonable price and was super great company at that! He picked us up and dropped us off at the ferry port. He took us all over the island when our boat tour got cancelled because of bad weather, and he suggested some other wonderful sites like Pyrgos and Akrotiri which he also took us to see.
4) When we first arrived Vaggelis gave us some great maps and walked us through how to navigate the island. He also wrote down some common Greek words and phrases that we might need and taught us how to pronounce them. This made our stay in Greece even more wonderful because folks really seemed to enjoy hearing us try to speak Greek and jumped in to teach us new words the entire trip. It really helped us connect with people on a deeper level.
5) The houses were in the village of Finikia, just outside of Oia. This was the perfect location because there were no crowds and it was so peaceful and quiet. It was only a 10-20 minute walk (with a bit of up and down) on the pedestrian trail, which is just outside the apartment, to get into Oia. There are also at least three very good restaurants in Finikia. Vaggelis thankfully suggested and made for us a reservation at one of the restaurants that turned out to be a good thing. It was busy and the food was AMAZING. Vaggelis never steered us wrong with restaurant suggestions.
I think staying at the Alonistra Oia Houses may have been my best Airbnb experience yet. We weren't just staying at someone's place. We got the opportunity to benefit from the experience of a local.
Thank you SO much, Vagglis! We can't thank you enough!