This hotel has some very nice public areas. It is a short walk to the beach promenade and also to the bus station in town, where you can catch a bus to other areas on the island. The buses are inexpensive and clean. Effie, who works at the front desk at the Hermes is super helpful and knowledgable about the island. WiFi is available, but you must pay for it, and I was unable to get a signal in my room, so I had to move to the area off of the lobby to get online. A word of cautuon: the WiFi subscription you buy is available in a number of different increments - 30 minutes, 60 minutes, etc. They tell you that the card will work all over Greece wherever a signal is available. This is incorrect. my card worked in Mykonos but NOT in Athens, where I was forced to buy another card from the SAME provider, WiPLUS. If you buy an access card, buy one with fewer minutes - you can always buy another if you run out, but there is no way to redeem unused minutes.

While the public areas of this hotel are quite nice, the rooms are badly in need of redecorating. The current decor is, well, kinda 1950's hospital-ish. A coat of fresh paint and some new linens would go a long way. There was no overhead light in my bathroom, just an exposed wire where one should have been. The shower stall was tiny and it was impossible to keep the water in the actually stall. Fortunately there is a floor drain. Since the hotel is a few blocks from the beach there is no view to speak of. Some exterior landscaping would be nice, but I'm guessing that due to the arid climate this is easier said than done.

The continental breakfast was adequate - the Greek yogurt was exceptional ! i did not dine in the on site restaurant so I do not know about the quality of other meals.

This hotel is owned by a family that also owns a winery. The hotel offers a free winery tour, which I took. Unfortunately, there is no tour involved. It is simply a wine tasting at their shop. For 3 Euros they give you 4 wine selections to try along with a small plate of snacks and a dish of yogurt with a dried grape sauce at the end. The wine samples are VERY generously portioned and all were quite good. The dessert wine was last, and served with the yogurt I mentioned. While I WAS planning to do a few other things later in the day, I left with a nice little unplanned buzz, so spent the afternoon poolside !! The grape sauce I mentioned is available at the winery store and was so good that I bought some to bring home and also some jarred caper leaves which I'd never tasted before. I HATE capers but the leaves were amazing.

All in all this is nice little hotel with a very good staff. be sure to try some Santorini wines - they are quite nice. I wish I had been closer to the beach but the hotel itself was not bad.

We loved being only a short walk to the Black Beach and its restaurants and shops and feeling safe to walk back to the hotel, even late at night. The hotel staff was awesome both, Maria and Effie, who even checked our room safe for us, when we discovered we had left a ring in the safe. She found the ring and connected with Gate One Travel and a courier to get the ring safely back to us before we left Athens for the US. We were always greeted warmly when we returned at night. The room was sufficient and clean. No frills, but a pleasant patio area. good pool area, and the breakfast buffet was restocked often and good. Charge for the room safe was 2 Euros a day.

... And not just because we had a free upgrade due to no more standard rooms being available upon check-in (king bed, private balcony with jacuzzi). That was just for the first night. Even the standard room was better than other places we stayed (Athens and Mykonos). We had an actual queen-sized bed, rather than two twins pushed together as at the two other places we stayed. The atmosphere was nice and roomy, and the breakfast offered more options than we had had at previous hotels: scrambled eggs, greater variety of fruits, vegetables, and cheeses (in addition to the ubiquitous hard-boiled eggs and cold-cuts!) It is not on the water, but is a short walk to the boardwalk, restaurants and beach.

The staff at Hermes, especially Effy, made this stay very enjoyable. They were most helpful with directions and recommendations. Our room was a little larger than usual, with a very usable deck for sitting or drying clothes. The pool was very nice. The shape was a bit awkward for swimming, but the water temp was just right, and there were plenty of chairs and loungers for resting and drying out.

The breakfast area was also at poolside. If you're lucky enough to get a table in the shade, breakfast is casual and relaxing...especially if you can get away from smokers.

The location of the hotel is within about a 10 minute walk to the bus stop where you can catch a bus to transfer to any other bus on the island. But there really is not much around the hotel itself, other than a very touristy beachfront and "boardwalk".