Santorini is known for its fantastic boutique hotels and the best luxury hotels on Santorini are essentially boutiques. There are no large impersonal chain hotels on Santorini. There are no all-inclusives or mega resorts.
The towns along the caldera on the west side of the island (Fira, Firostefani, Oia, and Imerovigli) are where you’ll find most of the five star hotels on Santorini. The views and settings in these 4 villages are magical.
Of any destination in Europe Santorini is the one place where splurging on a great hotel is money well spent. In so many destinations (Paris, London, even Mykonos) you spend a majority of your day out and about. But in Santorini, with those incredible views, it’s common for people to spend most of the day lounging on their deck, jaw dropped, staring out into the caldera.