I blew all my SPG points at this hotel on a Greek Island, and it was worth it.

If you’re daydreaming about what vacation you’ll take once the quarantine is over, I found the perfect hotel for you. Mystique, in the impossibly beautiful neighborhood of Oia in Santorini, seems too good to be true. I assure you, it’s a real place and not the stuff of fairy tale.

We booked our stay during the last week of the tourist season in Santorini. A week later, and this hotel would have been closed down and completely empty. Because of our timing, it was less crowded and a bit chillier. But this Texan lived in Chicago for 7 years, so I got used to pretending that I’m not cold. We even had the pool to ourselves most of the time.

If you ever notice that a hotel isn’t very occupied, always ask for an upgrade. Odds are the nicest rooms are sitting vacant. We worked up the nerve and asked. They ended up showing us several different suites that were available–and even let us pick which room we wanted.

The hotel path is much like the city paths that wind throughout the steep hillsides of Santorini. You wind up and down stairs and little seating areas jet out over the waters, offering sweeping views of the caldera.

Our tiny private hot tub was the perfect place to drink a beer (that we smuggled in) and enjoy the insane view. In the photo below, you’ll see how perfectly perched this little tub was.

One of the nights, we watched the sunset from the pool, and were visited by a little fur-ball. There are a lot of strays all over the island. Many of the dogs travel in little packs.