Night in a cave in Santorini’s white town of Oia seemed like an obvious choice, but we didn’t have a specific vision for other Greek islands during our trip. Santorini stretched our budget, so we wanted to save as much as possible in other places. However, when we stumbled upon the charming pink guesthouse on Naxos island, Georgilas Cave House, we knew we would spend any amount of money to stay there for a night. Fortunately, the accommodation booking went smoothly, as Georgilas Cave House is not an astronomically expensive place, and we highly recommend it to you!
Georgilas Cave House – Pink guesthouse on Naxos island
Georgilas Cave House is a fairy-tale-like, pink guesthouse (it’s hard to call it a hotel) located in the north-western part of the island. As we already mentioned, the look of this place is fairy-tale-like – pink-purple houses in the style of Greek caves, all topped with a blue pool in the center of the buildings.
It’s not a big hotel, but rather a small guesthouse with a range of rooms and cottages that can accommodate from 2 to 8 people. The rooms have a small kitchenette and a fridge, which can be very useful for preparing meals (or sweetening your drinks). The place is intimate, boutique, and run by lovely owners. If you’re not into large, soulless commercial resorts, you’ll fall in love with Georgilas Cave House!
Georgilas Cave House is located in the middle of nowhere, or rather in the middle of reed fields. There is really very little around, which allows you to completely reset and experience an almost deafening silence (unless you’re unlucky and someone’s screaming cannonballs in the pool – unfortunately, the hotel is not adult-only, so you have to be prepared for this possibility). About 25 minutes walk from the hotel, you will find Amitis Beach, where you will probably be alone after the season. Walking 7 minutes in the other direction will take you to the village of Galini, where there are supposedly two tavernas – don’t expect too much civilization, as there is really very little going on there.
A bit further is the village of Eggares, where you will find a mini shop, a few more restaurants, and an olive museum. The best thing about this place is that really not much is happening there, you can reset and completely disconnect from civilization! Unfortunately, this remote location also has its drawbacks – you need some means of transportation – a car, scooter or quad, we recommend the last option.
You can reach the town of Naxos Town (where the ferry arrives) on a quad or car in about 15 minutes. In the town, it’s worth stocking up on snacks and drinks, as well as food if you plan to cook in the guesthouse. We drove to the town for meals at restaurants.
The pink guesthouse on the island of Naxos is the perfect place to disconnect from civilization and relax. Naxos itself is not such a huge island and even with a base in the north, you can easily organize one-day trips to the south of the island. Seven days should be enough to visit interesting places on the island, as well as to rest, and 10 days in our opinion is the optimal time if you want to go down the entire island, but also have a few days for a proper rest. We were on Naxos for 4 days and visited half of the island, but we liked it so much that we would gladly return for longer!
As we mentioned before, Georgilas Cave House is run by wonderful owners. More than once, the owner gave us a piece of homemade cake or did our laundry without charge (although supposedly there was a fee for it). However, it is worth knowing that there are several cats on the guesthouse premises that the owners feed. If you don’t like cats and kittens (or are allergic), this will be a serious problem – for us, it was an additional advantage of this place! You can make a reservation both through Booking and directly on the property’s website.
Naxos is a great option for so-called island hopping, or visiting several islands during one trip. The island of Paros is very close, but you can also easily reach Mykonos or Santorini, and from Mykonos, there are ferries to the fairy-tale island of Syros, which we also recommend.
