Review: Santa Marina, Luxury Collection, Mykonos

Name: Santa Marina, a Luxury Collection Resort
Address: Mykonos, Greece
Price range: $$$

By: Ben Schlappig

Updated: September 20, 2021
Published: August 21, 2019

41 comments

Booking Santa Marina Mykonos

Hotel rates in Mykonos are crazy-high in summer. Not because the hotels are necessarily amazing, but rather because they have a short season, and everyone wants to go around the same time.

Santa Marina was retailing for over 1,000EUR per night when we were booking. However, we managed to redeem points. Santa Marina is a Category 8 property, though we booked earlier this year before Marriott introduced Category 8 award pricing.

We paid a total of 240,000 points for our five night stay — that’s a cost of 60,000 points per night, with the fifth night free. As a point of comparison:

If you booked now, the hotel would cost 85,000 points per night, since Marriott introduced Category 8 pricing in March 2019
If you book as of September 2019, the hotel would cost up to 100,000 points per night, as Marriott is introducing peak pricing

At 240,000 points for five nights I’d say we got an excellent deal. That’s an average of 48,000 points per night. At a valuation of 0.7 cents per Marriott point (which is what I value them at), that’s like paying $336 per night including all taxes and fees. For one of Mykonos’ best hotels, I’d say that’s a steal.

See this post for the best credit cards for earning Marriott Bonvoy® points.

Santa Marina transportation & arrival

Santa Marina offers complimentary transfers from Mykonos Airport as well as from the port, both on arrival and departure. This is a nice feature, given how much nickel-and-diming usually goes on at hotels in Greece this time of year.

The driver was waiting on me on arrival. While this is a shared transfer, there was only one other guest being picked up, so we left almost immediately.

Santa Marina airport transfer

Upon arrival at the hotel I was escorted up to the lobby.

Santa Marina Mykonos

The hotel is built into a hill, so expect to do a lot of walking to get around the property, and to walk up hundreds of steps. To get to the lobby I walked through this cute passage.

Santa Marina walk to reception

Then the lobby was up a set of stairs. The lobby was on the basic side, but then again this wasn’t a focal point of the hotel — the only time you’d come here is if you specifically needed something.

Santa Marina Mykonos lobby

Our room was ready upon arrival. We were driven up to the room on a golf cart (this was a steep road), though otherwise we always walked up and down stairs to get to our room.

Santa Marina room

Santa Marina has 114 rooms, and they’re spread across many buildings. Due to the design of the hotel, just about every room is different, so there’s not a single standard room type.

Each building has just a few rooms. In our case we were assigned room 233. This was in one of the buildings near the top of the property. That has the benefit of having awesome views, though also means you have to walk a lot of stairs to get there. For example, it was 196 steps from our room to breakfast (I counted!).

Santa Marina stairs for days

Santa Marina walkway

Santa Marina Mykonos property

Santa Marina Mykonos

Santa Marina Mykonos room exterior

Santa Marina Mykonos floorplan

The room was small. However, I knew going in that the base rooms here were small, and I also wasn’t expecting any upgrade, since these hotels are at capacity in peak season. The room was about 200 square feet, and I don’t think there’s that much to say beyond the pictures.

The room featured a king size bed, a chair in the corner, and a desk with a TV above it.

Santa Marina Mykonos room

The room had a minibar and Nespresso machine.

Santa Marina Mykonos coffee machine

Santa Marina Mykonos minibar

On the plus side, I was impressed by the welcome amenity. We were given a bottle of Taittinger and some chocolates and strawberries. For a hotel with such a captive audience, that was generous on their part (since many hotels like this just take their customers for granted).

Santa Marina Mykonos welcome amenity

Back towards the entrance was a small closet (we didn’t realize this was here until halfway through our stay).

Santa Marina Mykonos closet

The bathroom was by the entrance, and featured double sinks, a toilet, and a walk-in shower.

Santa Marina Mykonos bathroom

The water pressure was good, though the problem was that the bathroom flooded pretty easily, as there wasn’t anything preventing water from leaving the shower.

Santa Marina Mykonos shower

Toiletries were from Acqua Di Parma, which I love.

Santa Marina Mykonos toiletries

The highlight of our room was the incredible balcony, which was about the same size as the rest of the room. It featured two sun beds, and a table with two chairs. What a nice outdoor space!

Santa Marina Mykonos room balcony

The views were stunning.

Santa Marina Mykonos room view

That was especially true at sunset.

Santa Marina Mykonos room view

Wifi in the room was fast and free. I spent a lot of time from our balcony working. However, Mykonos is extremely windy, to the point that many times I couldn’t work outside, since my computer screen would be knocked closed from the winds.

So yeah, our room was small but had a lovely balcony. I wouldn’t say the room was particularly luxurious, but it was well maintained.

Santa Marina beach

Santa Marina has a beach. Mykonos isn’t the Maldives in terms of beach quality, so don’t get too excited about the beach. However, it’s nice to have such easy access to a beach, because most hotels in Mykonos don’t have this.

As mentioned above, it was so windy for our first few days in Mykonos, to the point that there was basically a sandstorm on the beach, and that made it unpleasant to sit there. We didn’t actually spend much time at the beach.

Santa Marina beach

Santa Marina beach view

Santa Marina pools

The hotel has two pools. There’s one by the main restaurant. The pool is pretty nice, though it’s literally right in front of the restaurant, so you almost feel like you’re on “display.”

Santa Marina pool

There was a second pool not far away, located right next to the gym and spa. This was the nicer of the two pools.

Santa Marina pool

Santa Marina gym & spa

Santa Marina has the Ginkgo Spa, which is open daily from 10AM until 10PM.

Gingko Spa Santa Marina Mykonos

I didn’t get any spa treatments here, since the spa prices were rather outrageous (~245USD for a 50 minute massage). Here’s the price list:

Also located within the spa was the gym, which can be accessed 24/7 using your room key, thanks to a door at the side of the gym.

The gym was basic, which is fair enough for a vacation destination. However:

Holy cow, this gym was overused; at times when we used it there were a dozen other people in there, so it was almost not usable
The gym has a full time trainer on staff, who was kind of just taking up space and not doing anything useful

Santa Marina gym

Santa Marina breakfast

Breakfast is included for all guests at Santa Marina, and is served from 8AM until 11AM daily at Colonial Restaurant.

Santa Marina Colonial Restaurant

Most of the restaurant’s seating was outdoors, though there was also some indoor seating (though that was almost entirely unoccupied).

Santa Marina Colonial Restaurant seating

The restaurant has a great buffet. While not as extravagant as you’ll find in Southeast Asia, I thought the selection was excellent — there was lots of yogurt, fresh fruit, fresh veggies, cold cuts, fish, cheese, pastries, cake, cereal, and more.

Santa Marina breakfast buffet

On top of that, there were custom made espresso drinks. Both their hot cappuccinos and freddo cappuccinos were excellent.

Santa Marina breakfast drinks

You could also have made-to-order eggs.

Santa Marina breakfast omelet

There was a menu on the table for further additions, though we stuck to the buffet, custom made coffee drinks, and eggs, and were never charged. For what it’s worth, the menu read as follows:

Note that Colonial Restaurant also has a bar area, which was a great place from which to work.

Colonial Restaurant & Bar Mykonos

On a couple of occasions I had a freddo espresso here.

Colonial Restaurant & Bar Mykonos

Santa Marina Buddha Bar Beach

Santa Marina has Budda Bar Beach. This is a popular restaurant not just with hotel guests, but also for those visiting from other hotels.

Buddha Bar Beach Mykonos entrance

The restaurant was entirely outdoors, and had great views of the water.

Buddha Bar Beach Mykonos

The menu was pretty mixed, with Asian fusion dishes, sushi, and even some Greek food. Our lunch was excellent.

Buddha Bar Beach Mykonos lunch

Santa Marina in-room dining

The in-room dining menu read as follows:

We ended up ordering in-room dining once for dinner, since we may have had a bit too much to drink during the day, and didn’t make it out for dinner.

Santa Marina service

For the most part I thought service at Santa Marina was pretty good, given that destinations with seasonal labor often don’t have amazing service, and also Greece isn’t exactly known for attentive service.

For the most part everyone was friendly, though everything was definitely on “island time.” When we went to breakfast during peak times it often took 20 minutes to get a coffee, but then again when we arrived before the rush, service was much faster.

So overall I was pleased by the service, though this isn’t an Aman or Four Seasons in that regard.

My take on Mykonos

“Wow, gays going to Mykonos in August, how original.”

I know a lot of people roll their eyes at the people going to Mykonos in August, and probably picture a certain type of person.

So let me share my take, as someone who doesn’t fit the traditional mold of a Mykonos visitor. I’ll support that statement by saying that I actually didn’t even pack a bathing suit for Mykonos, while just about everyone else there seems to wear a speedo (or less) 24/7. And that wasn’t an accident.

First of all, this was my first time properly visiting Mykonos. I think I had been before when I was maybe 10 years old on a cruise for a day, but I don’t really remember it.

In general, Greece is such a beautiful place to go in summer — it’s relaxing, the food is amazing, and the landscape is beautiful. As someone who also works while traveling and tries to stay somewhat close to US business hours, I absolutely love the timezone. Last summer we had a lovely time in Santorini, and I was curious to see how Mykonos compared.

To sum it up, I think Santorini is physically more beautiful, though Mykonos has the advantage of having beaches (if you care — I don’t), and of also being a lot more fun.

Look, I’m generally an uptight person who goes to bed at 8PM and who gets up before sunrise. Mykonos turned my schedule around. 2AM was an early night, and we struggled to make it to breakfast every morning before it closed.

That’s not because we were partying until 6AM, but because you have dinner at 10-11PM, and then by the time you’re done, unwind, etc., it’s the middle of the night.

I really loved spending a few days in Mykonos, and I had an amazing time. Sometimes it’s fun just to day drink, and Mykonos has no shortage of incredible restaurants and beach clubs to go to during the day. And yes, even going to Jacky O’ is actually really, really fun.

Is Mykonos the vibe I’d always like in my life? No probably not. But damnit, it sure was a fun time, even for someone like me. That being said, I have no plans to get an eight pack, speedos, a spray tan, or tattoos, which otherwise seem to be part of the Mykonos starter pack. However, I will continue to watch RuPaul’s Drag Race…

Santa Marina bottom line

We had an awesome time in Mykonos, and Santa Marina was the ideal base from which to enjoy the island. Having redeemed an average of just 48,000 Marriott points per night was an exceptional value, given the rate of over 1,000EUR per night.

You don’t stay at Santa Marina because it’s the most luxurious hotel on earth, but rather because it’s one of the best hotels on a really fun island.

I’d stay at Santa Marina again in a heartbeat, and would recommend it.

If you’ve stayed at Santa Marina, what was your experience like? Is there another hotel in Mykonos worth checking out?

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