Sandy Villas

Super time at Sandys, lovely family very kind and helpful, apartments were large and cleaned every day. The kitchen equipment was basic but who wants to cook on holiday. The pool area was great and Sandys bbq is recommended, good value at around 15 euro per person.
The best place we found to eat was the Laturna which we found a pleasure as we did not get hounded at the door to go in, and the food was great and very good value. The bakery beside the big co-op was lovely try the pizzas there, nice.

1 reader found this review helpful

Stayed at Sandy Villas in August this year. Perissa is much nicer than we had been lead to believe. Sandy Villas did not live up to the standard of the reviews. We stayed in two one bedroom apartments which were next to each other, 33 and 34. They were spacious but only for 3 people. Terrible odour in the cutlery drawer. Inadequate facilities for cooking, two rings and no kettle and very little in the way of cooking utensils.
Very expensive to eat and drink at Sandy Villas and Sandy herself was very unfriendly if you didn't frequent her bar. To hire fans (which were essential in 44 degrees!) even if only to blow warm air around plus security box was 117 euros. The rooms were cleaned every day except Sunday - sheets were meant to be changed twice a week, but once only.
There is not much to do at Sandy Villas, inadequate amount of sun beds, counted 32 with 3 brollies, for the amount of people staying. Had to get up at 7.30 to get sunbeds. They are situated away from the main road and are in a quiet location which was good.
Many lovely restaurants, best being Laterna, Aquarius and Atlantis. The Atlantis had to be the best. Very professional staff and typified the lovely Greek hospitality. Two course meal inclusive of drinks for five around 50 euros and massive portions.
Would go back to Perissa again but not to Sandy Villas, found the owners to be unfriendly and very money orientated which is very unlike Greek hospitality.

I have just returned from a week in Santorini, staying at Sandy Villas. We had a great time. Sandy is very welcoming and the apartment we stayed in was lovely, very spacious with its own balcony.
It was exceptionally clean and cleaned every day apart from Sunday. We didn't use the pool or the bar there as it was always very busy and full of kids but it was the school holidays.
The beach is under a ten minute walk away and has parasols and beds for hire. There was a very welcome wind (meltemi) which helped to keep the soaring temperatures at bay.
It was too hot to explore the island, it's not a beautiful island but it was a lovely and relaxing break.

2 readers found this review helpful

Obviously trying to make a necessary buck. Rooms are titchy but tolerable and kept very clean.
Self catering facilities are as basic as they come. A two-ring hob and two saucepans. Just enough knives, forks and spoons, one teaspoon. An adequate fridge, no kettle and clearly no controlled inventory of items to get (we noticed other villa’s had more/less or a different selection of tools/utensils).
On arrival we were offered a package of useful stuff. A fan, a safe-key and cleaning services. Not too steep but would prefer this was either included in the price or at least pre-announced somewhere.
Beds were OK (two singles in the double bedroom and a bed-sofa (more a bed than a sofa) with a pull-out bed beneath in the living/bedroom/kitchen area. Our villa had a decent balcony off the rear bedroom, but some others has a rather public one on the front. Pillows on the beds were terribly hard and I had a stiff neck most mornings.
Pool area is nice and pool is clear and cool. Not enough loungers or space for them but largely due to people reserving them and going away - despite a sign saying reservation was not allowed and towels would be removed – they weren’t.
Best strategy was to sit down and watch, and in half an hour or so you could usually ask nicely, or spot someone leaving, or fold up a reservation towel neatly and take the lounger. It’s strange, everyone says how selfish such reservations are, even the ones that make them – and there were NO Germans there!
The pool bar/snack bar is just that. Food there is not really up to regular eating in the evenings so combined with the sub-optimal catering facilities, eating out is usually the case.
If you like cats, you’ll meet many, we do and we did. Like a few other families, we fed them occasionally and they all seemed pretty fit and healthy, and most of them friendly and affectionate. One in particular often slept with us in the night sometimes as due to the heat, we left some doors and windows open.
Constructive criticism of the bar service. I am sure that if there were more items on the menu that were like an evening meal, rather than a snack, then more people would eat and buy more drinks etc. in the evening. And – Pizza’s are NOT best made with Tomato sauce – Passata is the stuff , and I suspect cheaper than ketchup.
The barbecue evening was pushed hard, personally by Sandy. The food was fine and it was good to be pushed into talking to the other people there, but why no entertainment? A dancer, a singer, some games, juggling – anything! Put €5 on the price for an entertainer and it would have been a better and fuller evening.
Lots of decent restaurants in the town and on the front. We were generally disappointed about the lack of spicy food in Greek cuisine, but when in Rome and all that. A welcome exception to this was a restaurant on the beach we found on our last night called Visanto. They have a couple of Thai curry dishes each night and their Red-Thai chicken was so welcome by us all and delicious. The cocktails were lovely, the music well chosen and the staff beautiful and friendly.
Don’t drink the water, its salty, but Sandy will do 6 X 1.5 litre bottle of drinking water for €3.
We will not be returning Sandy Villas but others seem to like the place. I guess it’s all about expectations and ours were not really met. Still we forked out for a hire car and found lots of lovely places. The sunsets in Santorini (or Thira) are wonderful. If you head up the road from Perissa a km or three, you’ll see a sign off to the left to “Unique Sunset View”, head down there about 1km and there I is on the right (look for the windmill). Its mainly a bar but the seats and tables are all laid out to sit and chill with a drink while you watch the sun go down (around 8 in mid August). It’s really well set up for that, almost grandstand-like, from that point. Sounds a simple pleasure but do it once at least while you’re there.
Thira is not a large or sophisticated place, but that’s part of its charm. Tourism is about all its got (apart from eine production) but it’s all run in a sort of organic way that embraces the older parts of the culture.
If you want M&S and Tesco and all mod cons, forget it. If you want to see somewhere beautiful with a culture that is significantly different from the UK and are prepared to accept the differences in lifestyle that brings to you, then Thira is a good one to go to.
A word on the roads. They are narrow and cluttered with pedestrians, 50cc Mopeds and quad bikes with no power and inexperienced drivers - as well a few donkeys. There’s also a few crazies in hot hatches or on fast bikes. The danger of all this is taken for granted by the locals and crash helmets are rarely worn. Great care is needed on foot, on a rented ped or quad., or in a car. We had a 5 speed car and I don’t think I had much cause to get out of third gear – anytime or anywhere on the island. It now seems a miracle that we survived without at least scrape or broken door mirror. There’s a lot of people with fresh casts – ask them how they did it and its usually a fall from a ped.
Glad if this helps.

We have just returned from Sandy Villas in Perissa, it was our first visit to the island of Santorini but had such a fab time. I can categorically state that we will return!
Sandy and her family are lovely and their aim as well as their motto is 'Don’t stress' which they work hard at helping their residents in achieving.
We visited in early May and were lucky with the weather as we had a mini heat wave and temperatures hit low 30's a bit above the average for the time of year.
The pool area was lovely and the pool and the rooms are cleaned to a good standard every day. The pool bar serves a good special omelette and the Mythos is well chilled!
Santorini is a very windy island sometimes!!
The wind comes and goes in a way that we have not experienced before, but when it’s hot its welcome.
The resort was quiet as it was early season, however there was still a good variety of restaurants and bars open for our use, we really liked the News bar and the Mellitsa (think that's how you spell it!) recently opened for the season.
Would also recommend the Veggra hotel if you like pasta! You should also visit the bakers next to the big Coop (established over 70 years ago) the cakes bread and pastries are excellent.
There are some fab places to visit and see we hired a car and did a bit of sightseeing ourselves, however Claire (the Olympic rep for Sandy Villas) was very helpful in regard to the car hire and her welcome meeting is one the best I have been to, very interesting and well delivered, she is a great rep!
All in all Perissa and Sandy Villas are worth a visit or two!

It was our first time to Santorini, and we were advised to go to Perissa, I can honestly say it was one of the best holidays I have had.
We stayed at Sandy Villas, rooms were very basic but spotless, the rooms were cleaned every day.
Sandy and her family work very hard to make your holiday special, no matter what time of day they are there to help.
We met some really nice people, we also made special friends with her son Manoli, who worked from morning till night and just kept smiling all day.
We are going back again in Sep 07 and taking some friends to this great little resort and to meet Sandy and her family.

This was my 5th visit to Sandy Villas in Oct 2006. I have always been in May previously.

This year I travelled alone, but on previous visits there has been a crowd of us. Sandy and Manolis (her husband) plus their children Lefteris and Manolis work hard to make your stay relaxed and enjoyable.
The youngest Vangelis is not quite old enough yet to help. The rooms are cleaned and I mean cleaned every day.
The pool and bar area are also to a high standard. The beach is only a short stroll away. The Olympic rep this year (again) was Claire who is knowledgeable and most helpful.
On a previous visit two of our party had unfortunately to fly home in a hurry and she couldn't have been more helpful. The cold draught Mythos at Sandys poolside bar is welcome on a hot day and well priced as are her meals and snacks.
I always hire a motorcycle or scooter on my visits to Sanorini and the local hire shop holds onto my personal crash helmet so that I do not need to take each visit or hire one. The drivers on the island are quite forgiving to us Brits.
I cannot recommend too much the Bakery next to the Co-op Supermarket they are open 24 hrs and the rolls and cakes are superb. The bar that I frequented on most days was VISANTO reasonably priced drinks and superb food.
If you are drinking or eating here then they do not charge for the sunbeds- a good saving. They are very welcoming and remember u from previous years.
The big Co-op Supermarket next to the Bakers has everything in stock that you are likely to need on holiday. It tends not to open before 9am, but their other branch further down the street opens early.
The bus service during the season is good value for getting round the island if you dont hire a bike or car. From Sandy Villas there is a good walk over the mountain to Kamari, dont tackle it if you have very bad legs- I am suffering from the after affect of a m/cycle accident but still managed it in May and Oct.
You can catch the water taxi back to Perissa beach from Kamari after your walk.
I look forward to my next visit late 2007 I will definitely be staying at Sandys and booking with Olympic.

Sandy Villa - an attractive building and the smartest, cleanest apartment ever. This place is just wonderful if you have kids - really set up for families.
Pool was perfect for our boys (4 & 9) with a very shallow pool and a graduated deeper pool. Sandy and her family were very friendly and helpful and the room stayed clean as they cleaned it every day - amazing.
Just wish it had, had air-conditioning, but we managed with a fan from Sandy. Beer from their bar was the coldest we drank in Perissa (had to mention that!) Beach is about a 10-15 min easy walk (and we were doing it every day with a slow-coach!) Main street is 5 min walk.
Perissa is lovely with plenty of restaurants - all lovely, but our favourites were God's Garden and Kalimera. Best bar - News Bar. All the locals were so friendly and made us feel very special.
We were holidaying in Perissa with a group of friends and family for a wedding which was beautiful - so a fantastic time all round.

Having been to five other Greek Islands prior to going to Sandy’s, (I enjoyed them all by the way) I must say that I enjoyed staying at Sandy’s the most. Sandy and her husband and sons find nothing too much trouble and go out of their way to make sure you enjoy your stay.
The accommodation was spotless and cleaned every day as was the pool.
I can honestly say that I had a fantastic holiday and will be going back next year.