Winter stays on Tinos
Winter here
In summer, guests live outdoors, under the pergola. In winter they live indoors, around the stove.
It is a wood stove with an oven. It does not just heat, it cooks. A dish left for hours in that oven while the wind blows outside is on its own a reason to come in January.
The living room, the dining room and the kitchen are a single space. The stove heats all three comfortably. That is where the day happens.
What the island is out of season
Empty. The beaches are yours. In the villages, the people who stay are the people who live here all year.
Quiet. That is the product. There is no nightlife in winter and I promise none. There is a house that looks over the whole bay, and time.
Practical things, said at the outset
You need a car. The house is fourteen kilometres from Chora. Without a car, a month here does not work.
The shopping is done in Chora. That is where the supermarkets, the pharmacy, the doctor and the banks are. Twenty minutes’ drive. Everything you need is open all year.
The sea is three minutes away by car. Two beaches, seven hundred metres. On foot it is five minutes down and a climb back up — in winter most people take the car.
Two ferries a day, even in winter. Fewer than in summer, but every day. Mykonos airport is close by. In very bad weather sailings are sometimes banned; it happens, and it usually lasts a day.
Heating - what heats what
The stove heats the shared rooms: living room, dining room, kitchen. It does not reach the bedrooms upstairs.
The bedrooms are heated by air conditioning. There is a unit in every one.
I say it plainly because it changes how you live here. If you are a couple, the sensible thing is to spend the day downstairs with the stove lit and heat one bedroom in the evening, not five.
Firewood: one cubic metre, delivered to the house, €180. It lasts a month with the stove lit seven or eight hours a day.
What it costs
November to March. The whole house: five bedrooms, two bathrooms and a separate WC, 130 m² inside and another hundred square metres of terraces.
Included in the rent: water and electricity for reasonable domestic use — up to €50 for seven days, €100 for fourteen, €200 for thirty. The meter is photographed with you on arrival and on departure. If consumption goes over the cap, you pay only the difference, at the price on the bill.
Starlink internet, fast and suited to remote work: about €40 per stay, whatever its length (the cost of one month's subscription).
Firewood is not included. One cubic metre, delivered to the house, €180 — it lasts a month. It is also the cheapest way to heat the house: as long as the stove is burning downstairs, the electricity stays well under the cap.
On request, during your stay: mid-stay cleaning €120. A set of linen for two people — two sheets, two pillowcases, two bath towels, two hand towels — €24.
A security deposit, equal to the rent for the stay, by bank transfer. It is returned within seven days of the electricity bill for your stay being issued.. It is not a hold on a card — it is a real sum that goes and comes back, and I ask for it because in a long stay there is no platform between us.
The Climate Resilience Fee is a state tax of €4 per night, passed on to the state in full.
Payment and cancellation
The booking is confirmed with 30% of the rent, by card. The balance and the security deposit ten days before arrival.
You never lose more than the advance payment.
Cancellation
What happens
More than 30 days before arrival
Everything is refunded, nothing withheld
Between 15 and 30 days before
Half the advance payment is retained
Less than 15 days, or no-show
The advance payment is retained. Nothing further
The security deposit is always returned in full if you cancel — it is not a penalty, it is yours.
Cleaning and the state tax are always refunded in full. They cover a service that was not provided and nights that did not happen.
If the ferries do not sail. If there is an official ban on sailings on the day you are due to arrive:
If you arrive later, you do not pay for the nights you did not stay. The amount comes off the final account.
If the journey does not happen at all, what you have paid stays as credit for other dates within the following twelve months. You lose nothing and there is no change fee.
If I cannot offer you any free dates within that time, everything is refunded.
The island has weather in winter. That is not your problem.
If I have to cancel myself, for any reason, everything is refunded and I help you find somewhere else.
Leaving early: days not used are not refunded.
The village
Over fifteen years of receiving guests in this house. In all those years, not one incident.
Here cars are left unlocked and keys are left in the door. I do not say it as a guarantee — I say it because it is how people live here, and because it is one of the first things anyone arriving from a city notices.
Who it is for
For someone who wants to work, to write, to read, or simply to have no schedule, with the sea at every window and a car at the door.
It is not for someone who wants to go out in the evening, nor for someone who does not drive.
Write to me
Winter stays are arranged personally. Send me the dates you have in mind and I will reply myself.
Ask about a winter stay
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