It’s easy to miss Sandblu if you’re not keeping an eye out for it. Carved into the side of the Mesa Vouno mountains on the Greek island of Santorini, the resort’s whitewashed facades were designed to appear as if borne from the stone itself. You enter through a nondescript pathway on a stretch of road dotted with blue-domed homes and restaurants, and may think you’re invading private property—if not for the brightly lit reception area at the foot of the resort, where a troupe of employees in sand-colored linens are on-hand to check-in guests and buggy them up to their rooms.
Sandblu opened in July 2024 on the Southeastern edge of the island—a convenient 10-minute drive from the Santorini International Airport. The island has developed something of a reputation in recent years for being one of the more congested tourist destinations in Greece. And while you’re bound to encounter crowds when venturing beyond its gates, Sandblu offers a serene getaway from the hustle and bustle often associated with Santorini. With two restaurants, a spa, boutique, wine bar, bakery, children’s club, and even a chapel, the resort functions like a self-contained Greek village (but with a little more comfort and convenience). Most importantly, the food is superb: the resort embraces a farm-to-table approach where every bite is sourced locally or from nearby islands. At the open-air restaurant Nectar, you can partake in the grilled “catch of the day” while looking out onto the sea where it was likely caught that morning by local fishermen. (And definitely try the Aegean Sour, Sandblu’s signature cocktail consisting of a locally made Greek brandy called Tsipouro infused with Mykonian fig leaves, fresh lemon juice, and thyme honey.)
Meanwhile, the more casual Plateia offers a number of Mediterranean favorites for poolside dining. Open for breakfast and lunch, you can start the day with some traditional Greek dishes like strapatsada and marathopita while watching the sun rise over the neighboring village of Kamari. Santorini is a more relaxed island compared to party destinations like Mykonos, after all, and that’s reflected in Sandblu’s approach to curating an atmosphere of total relaxation. There is no loud music blasting from the villas or kids running around; Plateia even offers cooking lessons if you feel like dropping the kids off to make a Greek salad while you sample their extensive wine menu and take a dip in the pool.
Sandblu also has relationships with a variety of local vendors who can cater to your various travel whims. Tell the front desk that you want to go horseback riding, and they’ll make a call so that you’re trotting along the beach and through the mountains in no time. You can also rent a boat for a sailing tour of the island, where your own personal captain will take you to some of the best swimming spots that Santorini has to offer and even cook a fresh seafood lunch onboard.
If you’re in the mood for some self-guided exploration, on the other hand, the resort’s entrance is right across the street from a charming scooter rental agency called Santoride Rent-a-Moto. The owner is a spirited Greek woman named KiKi whose cropped and colorful haircut reminds me of the singer P!nk. (I had a feeling her music must have reached the shores of Santorini, and further research on P!nk’s Greek chart numbers supports the fact she was a likely inspiration for the ’do.) While there are multiple means of transportation for getting around Santorini, including taxi services and a public bus system, motor-bikes came most highly recommended by Sandblu staff and locals. Depending on your preferred mode of transportation—ATV, scooter, buggy—a rental at Santoride will run you anywhere from €40 to €70 a day if you include fuel and insurance. KiKi will even provide a map where she circles her recommendations for the best beaches, restaurants, and hidden gems on the island before sending you off.
Sandblu’s discreet location is a welcome refuge from tourist-dense hubs like Thira, where you could easily waste a day sampling olive oils and fine linens at the variety of shops. After buying ashtrays and soaps for friends back home, I ended my day walking around Thira with dinner at the Greek fusion restaurant Kaliya, which came highly recommended by the Sandblu staff. Built out of a 1950s-era building at the top of a caldera overlooking the Aegean Sea, it’s worth braving the crowds for some fabulous food and jaw-dropping views. My table sampled everything from the wild lobster spaghetti to the braised lamb over rosemary potatoes, with each dish more decadent and perfectly seasoned than the last.
Located on the northern tip of Santorini, the village of Oia is famed for the blue-domed homes built directly into the cliffside (the type you see on the cover of every Greek travel guide). Compared to the relative serenity of Sandblu and its surrounding villages, both Thira and Oia are where the bulk of restaurants, resorts, and shops are located. Home to less than a thousand permanent residents—but always bustling with the nearly three million tourists estimated to visit Santorini each year—the village is somehow even more picturesque than its popularity as a postcard would suggest. It’s delightful enough just to walk through Oia soaking in the views, but the village also boasts some of the best shopping on the island. Whether you’re looking for a locally made pashmina or a stack of Greek Playboys from 1996, there’s a variety of treasures to be found.
After soaking in the sun all day, head back to Sandblu and treat yourself to an hour or three at the elegant Aurora Spa, which offers premium treatments ranging from a “bespoke natural face lift” and “de-puffing cryo facial” to “black diamond sculpting.” After several days of sightseeing, I opted for a classic deep-tissue massage, with the massage therapist incorporating a pleasantly spicy jasmine and tuberose-scented oil. You’d need to stay at the resort for a week just to sample the numerous treatments and amenities offered by Aurora—yoga, meditation, personal trainers, manicures and pedicures, and an indoor pool among other luxuries.
One morning while exploring the village of Kamari at the foot of the resort, I spotted an advertisement for a nearby theater that plays Mamma Mia! multiple times a week. I had heard that the musical—filmed on-location nearby in Skopelos and Skiathos—was a perennial favorite in theaters throughout Greece, where the film is often screened for British tourists whose only frame of reference for the islands is watching Meryl Streep sing “Dancing Queen” on a dock. Lo and behold, less than a 10-minute walk from Sandblu lies the Open Air Cinema Kamari. Surrounded by towering trees and shrubs that evoke a lush, garden-like atmosphere, the charming outdoor theater hasn’t changed much since it opened in 1987. Except nowadays the cinema typically flip-flops between Mamma Mia! and a sampling of new releases every few nights, with screenings scheduled this month for more recent hits like Superman and F1 (all in English with Greek subtitles).
Given I had spent six months of my life writing and researching an oral history of the 2008 film, I was never going to pass up an opportunity to watch it how the filmmakers intended: at an outdoor theater in Greece with a cigarette in one hand and a lemon drop martini in the other. If I didn’t already know I was in for a memorable evening, a gay couple that I chatted up in line outside the theater earlier that evening got engaged before the film even began.
Respectful humming during the first half of the film turned into full-throated singing and dancing in the aisles by the time we got to “Super Trouper.” Any holdouts in my audience finally stood up at the very end to sing “Waterloo” with the rest of our seatmates. Maybe it was the Grecian air or the four (five?) lemon drop martinis talking, but the energy never felt anything less than deliriously joyous. The audience even formed a conga line that wove through the aisles until the bartenders directed it out of the theater and onto the streets of Santorini.
The first thing I did after returning to Sandblu from a long day of sightseeing, eating, or Mamma Mia!-ing was to throw my bag on a pool chair and dive right into the pool. The property features 51 rooms, suites, and villas, the latter of which boast sizable private pools as well as separate bedroom and living room areas. Regardless of the temperature outside, the water—and the views—were never less than perfect. The solar-paneled lanterns and cozy outdoor sofas also make the terrace a perfect spot for some late-night stargazing.
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The room interiors mirror the rest of Sandblu’s aesthetics: white marble floors, handcrafted wooden furniture courtesy of the Italian designer Morelato, and soft lighting by the famed Atelier Alain Ellouz. It’s like an incredibly chic cave with lots of natural light and neutral furnishings. Each room is stocked with a selection of toiletries by the high-end skincare brand Espa. The staff also place 111SKIN face masks on your pillow during turndown service so you can end each day with your own mini-spa experience. The most luxurious thing I did during my stay at Sandblu might have been during my last night when I watched Greek music videos while wearing the rose gold face mask and enjoying a bag of truffle crisps from the minibar.
By the time my stay at Sandblu came to an end, I felt like I had gotten my fill of the resort, while still only scratching the surface of everything it had to offer. You could spend an entire trip bopping around the resort’s self-sustaining ecosystem, and a separate trip working through the list of excursions that the resort has curated for its guests (a historical hike, a tasting at Santorini’s oldest winery, and much more). Regardless of what you’re looking to get out of your time on the island, the staff here will be on-hand to make sure you enjoy every moment.