Our story
One cave-house, one family, and ninety years on the same caldera path. This is how six villas came to be — and why we still run them ourselves.
Maria Vlachou, born in The Galini Studio, 1932.
Eleni’s grandmother, Maria Vlachou, was born in The Galini Studio in 1932 — three rooms cut into the volcanic rock, a single skylight, a cistern outside, no running water until 1981.
Maria raised four children in that cave. Every summer of Eleni’s childhood was spent on Imerovigli’s caldera path — chasing goats, swimming at Ammoudi, carrying water from the cistern. When Maria passed in 2010 the cave was inherited by Eleni’s mother, and three years later by Eleni herself.
In 2014 Eleni left Paris — fifteen years managing properties for a Mediterranean luxury group — and came back to Santorini with her partner Dimitris Marinos, an architect from Volos. They lived in The Galini Studio for two summers, removed the 1991 cement render, replaced it with white lime plaster, and opened it to two friends in August 2015.
The friends asked if they could pay. They said yes.
What we hold to
Eleni answers every booking enquiry personally for the first 48 hours. No agency, no franchise. Write at 11pm and she will reply before you wake up.
None of the six villas were ever extended beyond their original footprint. We never added a floor, a partition, or a “junior suite”. Every villa is what it was — only better cared for.
Booking with us costs 18% less than Booking.com. That 18% used to go to a Dutch corporation; now it stays with the family and the team.
All five of us live on Santorini year-round, most working together since the third season. We trained and pay our own — no seasonal labour bussed in for August.
How we grew
The five of us
Founder & host
Grew up between Athens and her grandmother’s cave on the caldera path. Fifteen years managing properties in Paris before coming home in 2014. She answers every booking enquiry herself for the first 48 hours.
Greek · English · French · Italian
Architect & co-founder
From Volos, architecture at the NTUA, eight years in restoration practice. He designed every AegeanBlue restoration and mixed the lime plaster himself. Ask him about the plaster and he will not stop.
Greek · English
Head of hospitality
Born in Fira, with us since the second season in 2018. She knows every guest’s name within two hours of arrival and their coffee order by the second day. The herbs in your basket are from her garden.
Greek · English
Concierge & driver
Six years coordinating yacht charters across the Cyclades before joining in 2021. He drives the navy pickup that meets every guest, and books every restaurant and boat.
Greek · English · German
Caretaker & pool engineer
Born in Mesaria in 1968, on Santorini his whole life, with us since 2018. Every plunge pool and every winter storm is his. Press the wrong pool button at midnight and he is there in fifteen minutes.
Greek · basic English
Six restored cave-villas, four hundred metres above the volcano, run by the family who grew up on the path.