Dream house! I can not over emphasize how amazing our Santorini experience was, we had a hard time leaving.
First of all Ioakeim goes above and beyond to make his guests feel welcome. He spent 45 min showing us the house and helping us to plan our 3 day trip with detailed maps and suggestions. Do yourself a favor and follow his recommendations! We went on a 5 hour catamaran tour for about $200, it was the highlight of our entire vacation. They pick you up, have towels, bottled water, an open bar, and served a huge family style meal on the boat. We got to go swimming and sun bathed and when it was over our driver took us back to the villa.
The villa, has everything you need and more. Delicious food made from his family (meatballs from their family butchery, cakes made by his mother, a cheese and potato omelette). Lots of bottled water. The bedrooms are beautiful and comfortable and the two bathrooms are meticulously cleaned with hot water and great water pressure. In the evening we enjoyed the hot tub and our amazing, private view of the Aegean Sea.
We were glad to have a rental car, everything is close when driving. We got our international drivers licenses from AAA for $20, and car rental was about $40 a day. If you're a confident driver then you have nothing to worry about. The streets are narrow and windy but smoothly paved. You'll need to be patient when you're in the towns because there is so much traffic and many tourists but parking is free and once you're there you can walk everywhere you want to go. There's also small market close by (less than 5 min drive) where we purchased extra snacks, beer, wine, bottled water etc.
We took the Blue Star Ferry into Santorini and the car rental company met us at the port holding a sign with our names. When it was time to leave we planned to fly back to Athens but there was a strike and we were stranded in paradise for an extra 24 hours (this type of thing happens a few times a year but fortunately it only affected our vacation plans and not our return flight back to the states). Ioakeim offered the villa to us for an extra day for no additional charge and we were able to take a ferry back to Athens late that same night. He arrived at 11pm to check us out and see us on our way.
I am an Airbnb Superhost in New Orleans so I know what it takes to be a great hostess but the hospitality we experienced at the Aronia Villa was unlike anything we expected and can not say enough about our time there. It was difficult to leave and we all wish to return.