Νeema Maison, Finikia: The Santorini I Didn’t Know I Was Still Looking For

A stay at Neema Maison in Finikia, Santorini, a design-forward hotel woven into a village inhabited since 1832, two kilometers from Oia’s crowds

By Eleni Stasinopoulou

After decades of returning to Santorini, I thought I had seen every version of the island worth seeing. Then I stayed in Finikia, a village I had never visited, inside a hotel that turned out to be just as unexpected as the place around it.

I have been coming to Santorini since the 90s. The caldera left me speechless the very first time I saw it, and so did something else: the crush of people in the narrow streets of Fira, long before overtourism became a word every destination had to reckon with. Even back then, Santorini had queues to turn a corner, crowds rushing toward the sunset in Oia. Over the years I kept coming back, and I got to know its villages, its wineries, its beaches, each one distinct in its own right, each one a small proof that the Cyclades never quite repeat themselves. This time, though, I found something new. Proof, if I needed it, that this island still has not run out of surprises.

I stayed in Finikia, a village I had never set foot in before, and it turned out to be unlike anywhere else on Santorini. A miniature town that feels like a three-dimensional puzzle built for a child, all little houses, caves, and canavas woven together.

Canavas are the underground spaces carved straight into the volcanic rock, once used as wine presses and cellars, the same technique that shaped so much of the island’s older architecture. Finikia has been inhabited since 1832, and it still carries that history in every wall.

A Village That Pulls You In

Inside this hidden gem of a village sits a hidden gem of a hotel: Neema Maison. It is a collection of houses and rooms, balconies, domes, courtyards, and gardens, with as much character as the village that surrounds it. Finikia is car-free and crowd-free, and it has an atmosphere that makes you feel like you are living somewhere else entirely, somewhere slower.

Across from the hotel, I could see old caves that had become homes: a small villa, a grandmother hanging out her washing, a man hosing down his courtyard. The colors were everything I could ask for, ochre and pastel and a deep red, with whitewashed Cycladic houses and the sea beyond. Traveling with your eyes alone, in a place like this, is its own kind of pleasure.

Inside the hotel, that same pleasure continues. Urban Soul Project, the architects behind Neema, have done something remarkable. The first thing they built was a scene: the pool, with a bottom full of shapes, set against the backdrop of Finikia’s own church, red awnings marking the space, red details appearing again and again, a palette that fits the village around it perfectly. The rooms are domed, high-ceilinged, and spacious, nothing like the tighter, more enclosed cave rooms you find elsewhere on the island, in Oia especially. Every balcony opens onto the horizon, and design details are everywhere you look. The touch of Domes Resorts runs through the whole property, in the space itself and in the hospitality it offers.

What struck me most, from that very first day, is how little separation there is between the hotel and the village it sits in. Neema does not sit apart from Finikia, it is woven into it, and that is not just a turn of phrase. Neema means thread in Greek, the same thread Ariadne gave Theseus to find his way out of the labyrinth, and you can trace that idea through the whole property: a metal line running through the reception, along the joinery and walls, ending in a sculptural installation, and that recurring red that cuts through every neutral surface. The brief given to Urban Soul Project was apparently a simple one: don’t make another white Cycladic hotel. Make a statement. Looking at the result, I would say they managed both, a statement that still belongs entirely to its village.

That first day was really about absorbing all of it, the history and the sheer uniqueness of the village, and realizing what a rare gift it is to have a spacious balcony sitting right in the heart of Finikia.

From it, I could watch that same grandmother hanging her washing, that same man hosing down his courtyard, life going on exactly as it always has. You are not just looking at an authentic village from a distance here, you are part of its everyday rhythm.

Getting Lost, on Purpose

The next morning began with a walk into the maze-like, miniature labyrinth of Finikia itself. The kind of walk where you simply move through it, noticing the shapes of the houses, the weight of time, the layers left behind by years and by the people who have lived here. I climbed all the way to the highest point of the village, then made my way back down, where breakfast was waiting on the viewpoint.

Breakfast at Neema is really an extension of Antonino’s, the hotel’s own restaurant and the Italian concept that runs through several Domes properties. Eggs, fruit, yogurt, whatever you want, however you want it, laid out either on your own private balcony or on the terrace, with the view doing half the work. One morning I had it up at the viewpoint itself, the whole spread in front of that panorama of the village and the sea.

Lunch was back at the hotel too, by the pool: a Greek salad with a small twist, pickled onions instead of raw, and feta grilled rather than served plain, since the kitchen already knew my personal preference without having to ask. I spent the hours that followed on a sun lounger, book in hand, watching the pool area shift character as the light changed with the turning of the day.

An Evening With the Domes Family

One evening we ate at Maitr & Margarita, the acclaimed restaurant by a chef duo from Thessaloniki, set inside Novos Santorini, Neema’s sister property. Great food, a live singer, and a table facing the sunset made for one of the standout nights of the trip.

The next day, we spent time on the balcony of Helestia, Domes’ brand new, pocket-sized hotel in the heart of Firostefani, right on the caldera, with prosecco and finger food. That is also where I had my first ypovrichio, the submarine sweet dipped straight into a glass of water, with a caldera view in front of me. I have been chasing that particular vanilla flavor since I was a child, and I am still not tired of it.

Together, these three hotels give you a genuinely multi-layered experience of the island, and you get to build it however you like. Stay at one, eat at another, take in the caldera view at the third. It is the kind of flexibility that only makes sense when a group runs properties with such distinct personalities, rather than three versions of the same hotel.

Back at Neema

The stay wound down the way it should: an afternoon siesta in the room at Neema, breakfast and a book on the balcony, and dinner back at Antonino’s, with Italian pasta and pinsa closing out the trip exactly as it began, unhurried, and entirely on Finikia’s own terms.

Neema Maison is part of the Domes Resorts family, alongside sister properties Novos Santorini and Helestia, and it shows in the level of design and service throughout the stay. But what will stay with me longer than any single detail is Finikia itself: a village that has quietly existed since 1832, two kilometers from the crowds of Oia, still going about its own life, largely undisturbed. After thirty years of visiting this island, I did not expect to find a version of it that still felt entirely new. Finikia gave me exactly that, and Neema gave me the best possible way to see it.

In the end, this hotel is a small diamond for anyone who wants to be transported into another, smaller universe, one with real atmosphere and real character, for those who are not looking for the obvious, but for an actual experience.

At a Glance

Location: Finikia, Santorini, a village inhabited since 1832

Rooms: 16, adults-only

Design: Urban Soul Project

Dining: Antonino’s, the hotel’s own Italian restaurant, part of a concept found across several Domes properties

Standout feature: A pool and courtyard setting built around Finikia’s own church and skyline

Concept: Neema means thread in Greek, reflected in a recurring red motif and a metal line running through the property

Group: Part of Domes Resorts, alongside Novos Santorini and Helestia