How Nostos Began

More than thirty years ago, two people came to Santorini on holiday and never quite left.

Oia was a different place then. Dirt paths. No marble walkways, no infinity pools visible from every terrace, no queues at sunset. Just the caldera, the volcano, the silence, and a quality of light that is difficult to describe to someone who hasn't seen it. They found a plot on the cliff's edge — below it, only the cliff face and the sea, nothing that can be built upon — and they decided to stay.

What began as small apartments drew a particular kind of guest. Backpackers, painters, writers. People who had heard something about this place and wanted to find it for themselves, who cooked their own meals and sat on their terraces until the light was gone. The rooms were simple. The view was not.

Santorini changed. Slowly at first, then all at once. The island that had been a discovery became a destination, then an icon. Nostos evolved with it — each addition considered, nothing added for its own sake.

What has not changed is who is here. The same people who built this still run every aspect of what Nostos is today — present in the way that only those who built something with their own hands can be.

Nostos. The Greek word for the longing to return, the pull of a place that stays with you after you leave. Homer understood it. So, we have found, do our guests.