Nicoletta and her daughters, Alexandra and Christina, made the trip very straightforward. They arranged for a shuttle service to meet us at the airport and drive us to Ammoudi Bay where Alexandra and Christina were waiting to escort us to the boat and on to Armeni Bay about 5 minutes away. The villa was ideal for our family of 5, which included 3 teenage children. The 3 main bedrooms were air conditioned but not the bedroom located in the upper loft space, which was the only disadvantage. The house is literally only about 5 metres from the sea and although the water gets deep quickly, it is rocky to enter so we benefitted from having brought lightweight swim shoes. There is a stepped pathway from Armeni bay to Oia above, which was quite challenging but not too bad for us and so we tended to climb these steps about once a day. At other times, we simply sent the boat captain, Alex, a text message to arrange a pick-up and he took us to Ammoudi bay where you could make an easier climb to Oia by foot on the road side (or could park a rental car if you wanted). The good news was that the relative inaccessibility of Armeni Bay by foot made it much quieter for enjoying the water and gave it much more of a traditional feel than the busy tourist spots while still being very convenient. There seem to be few such spots on the Island.
There are a few small supermarkets in Oia where we stocked up on provisions using backpacks and then generally took the steps back down. The kitchen was well equipped so it was easy for us to eat at home. There is a quality seafood restaurant in Armeni Bay, although we did not use it and chose to have dinner a couple of times in Oia instead. There is a good bus service from Oia to the capital, Fira, from where you could get buses to other parts of the Island. We found the buses comfortable and quite frequent, but not according to timetable! Alexandra and Christina recommended the cliff top walk from Fira back to Oia, which we completed in about 3 hours after a day in Fira. Also on their advice we took one of the several semi-private Catamaran tours on offer, and were glad we did.
We would highly recommend this villa to anyone who enjoys swimming and spending time on the water (kayaks and snorkelling equipment were provided) and who feel able for at least taking the steps down.