We took a ferry from Mykonos to Santorini and arrived around 5pm. It can be real chaotic getting a ride from the port to the town perched on the cliff above so we decided to skip waiting for a bus and just take a shuttle. The driver dropped us off at the wrong area and we ended up walking about a half mile looking for our hotel. Even checking in to our hotel didn’t go smooth. We got to our room and it wasn’t cleaned from the last occupant. Luckily someone else hadn’t checked in yet so we took their room. The staff was very apologetic and we brushed it off. What we wanted most was some comfort food. I ordered a cheeseburger in Mykonos and got something that wasn’t beef. We headed straight to McDonalds and enjoyed a meal we knew couldn’t go wrong. Pigged out is more like it. Then we found ice cream cones and called it a night. The next morning we decided to start our time here off doing what every website lists as the best thing to do in Santorini. A 6 mile hike from Oia, the northern most town on the island to Fira, the capital city in the center of the island. The trail runs along the crest of several mountains, through a handful of small villages. These villages are the iconic ones with white buildings with blue roofs perched on the side of the cliffs. The hike was relatively easy with the length and heat being the only real challenge. No shade the entire way. Still most people only do parts of the hike. But “we ain’t no halfway hikers”. This hike was one of the most iconic and scenic hikes we have ever done. Right up there with Cinque Terre in Italy. We call it the wow hike. Every time you turned your head you were either saying or thinking “WOW”. If not you could hear everyone else saying it. The views were just stunning. It took us over 4 hours but we took our sweet time soaking it all in, flying the drone, taking pictures and stopping to snack. We even took a half mile detour to climb another path to a monastery. This hike will rank up there with Italy, Switzerland and New Zealand as one of our favorites.
Unlike the Mykonos, Santorini is more then just tourists. One side of the mountains has the white buildings and tourism and the other side is normal life. The prices here are reasonable except for accommodations. Food and everything else is normal. We spent our first two nights in Fira in a normal hotel and the cheapest we could find was $100 a night. The room was basic and close to everything but still more than we usually spend. However, we couldn’t come here and not try some luxury, so we booked our last night in a cliffside iconic white hotel. We got a great deal and are still paying well over $250 for the night. Got to splurge sometimes. To be honest this was a mid range hotel with many running over $1000 a night.
Day 3 and we decided to skip the beach trip we had planned, and we just found a café where we spent the morning relaxing and getting some work and laundry done. Then around noon we grabbed our bags and walked to our new room. It was so much more than we are used to and we really loved it. The suite had a loft bedroom, an open round rain shower and a balcony over looking our pool and the caldera that makes up the volcano that Santorini was formed from. Our balcony had a perfect view of the sunset. We spent the afternoon by the pool. It seems we keep so busy on these trips that any chance we get to lay on a beach or by a pool we both end up falling asleep and waking up sun burned on one side. So after a nap poolside we showered and headed out for our last meal in Greece. Souvlaki and Gyros. Delicious. We returned home just in time for a spectacular sunset. Instead of our usually routine of wandering the town on our last night we choose to stay in and enjoy our suite. Time to leave the islands.
