Travelling

Visiting Santorini

Travelling is my favorite hobby or at least used to be one. Here I would like to share my experience with you.

This summer we spent our honeymoon at Santorini as it is a popular place for lovers and romantic people in general. So we decided that it would be great to spend honeymoon there. We didn’t have a big budget so it was a big challenge to go to a so-called expensive place for a fair price.

Where to stay?

In general, the island is not very big. We stopped in a 4* hotel in a place called Perivolos. As it turned out it was known for its black sands and smooth but a little bit cool sea. The place was rather lively, full of cafes, bars, restaurants along the coast and the main road with lots of tourists mostly from the US, France and China. The only thing that worried us the first day was that we were deprived of all the beauty that the island shared.

As we rent a bike and started exploring the island we realized that it wasn’t a bad choice to stay for the reasons we wanted – to sunbath, swim and have a rest. The other place that is also nice for these particular reasons is Kamari. It’s closer to the main island cities and as well has nice beaches, hotels, tourist shops etc.

It was really obvious that the best places to stay are the most popular ones on the island – Oia and Thira – with their unique indigenous architecture and fabulous view from the edge of the steep. Almost every hotel or an apartment has a small swimming pool that is directed towards this magnificent view that will crawl into your heart. The drawbacks of the stay  in these cities are that there are unbelievably many tourists in summer and you will meet them in any case while walking inside these small streets. The prices are really high comparing with other parts of the island and there are no beaches inside the towns so you will need to drive somewhere.

What to watch?

As I’ve already said, the island is famous for its marvelous view. The feeling when you reach either Oia or Thira is unbelievable. The towns are built right on the edge of the mountain where you can see the inner side of the island with the sea of different colors breathing in fresh maritime air. The white-blue houses are built like stairs so that the road level is equal to the roof of the building that is on the next level and you can almost step on it. Right in-between the small streets you can find not only souvenir shops and restaurants but interesting churches and museums for people who like sight-seeing, boutiques with jewelry, paintings for people who brought more money with them and even shops with wedding dresses and accessories for those who is planning to merry soon and will probably want to do it on this island.

Sunset

One of the tourist attractions is to watch the sunset. People prefer to go to Oia because it's the edge of the island and no natural obstacle can prevent you from watching the action. Everybody is prepared in advanced to get the best spots in town: either it’s a reserved table in a café or a restaurant or just a nice spot somewhere in town like a fence or the wall of a fortress. It seems like the sun goes deep into the water, shinning till the last spot is gone. You can see people clapping, whistling when the performance is over.

For me, the best spot to watch the sunset was Caldera. It wasn’t full of tourists; you could see the whole island just from there and sit wherever you wanted.

Beaches

I suppose that this island is unique for its beaches. As I’ve already mentioned our place was known for black sands. We also visited once to Akrotiri beach with red sand, it was rather an unusual place with warm water. The only minus of that place is that it’s rather hard to get there (either on boat from other beaches or by car/ bike. If you come there by car you have to climb down a mountain that opens you a nice view but the slope itself doesn’t seem really safe).

We also tried Caldera beach that was pointed on our map and we trusted a road sign. In reality it turned out to be a really dirty beach just next to a tavern.

A long line of beaches is situated in Kamari, the place is rather organized and comfortable but most of the beaches are equipped by local restaurants so you need to take something to drink or to eat.

Places of attraction

Except the things that I’ve already mentioned and are worth watching, we also visited some places that were indicated in the map and other guides and I wanted to visit to my husband’s disappointment like Imerovigli (that we reached unaware that Fira was already several km away from us >_<) or Akrotiri that we passed by while trying to find anything worth watching the first time we went out of our village.

To my poor husband’s disappointment I also decided to watch Ancient Thira the signs to which we saw almost everywhere. It was a really big challenge to get to that really high mountain on bike with +30 C outside. When we reached the top to our great surprise it was only the beginning of our adventure because the entrance point was the point where you had to start climbing on foot. To tell you the truth, it was a really memorable moment not because we saw ruins of an ancient city but because we realized that we can survive in hard conditions.

 

The one thing that I rather enjoyed was going to a volcano by boat just because I really like boat trips. While going to a volcano we stopped to swim in so-called hot baths, which were warmed up by volcano springs (I guess). Ok, they weren’t hot, they weren’t even warm, but it indicated us once again that we were in a good shape (while trying to swim from our boat to this hot bath that was meters away).

Volcano itself wasn’t really impressive as my mind drew huge volcanic vents full of lava. In reality we really saw some even huge ones without any lava of course. We also noticed some small ones that were “breathing” with hot gases.

For curious people the excursion was worth it, for family guys with children, it’s a little bit exhausting especially with the constant heat and lack of any shadow on the volcano soil.

You can also enjoy the view of Greek windmills, climb the mountain near a lighthouse or see different tomato and wine fields for absolutely free.

What to eat?

In general the cuisine is a Mediterranean one, most of the dishes you can try anywhere in Greece. As I remember it now, I fell in love with Santorini salad (that one of the servants told us was made specially for the tourists) with cherry tomatoes and capers. We also tried Fava (a bean dish), but we didn’t really enjoy it.

The island is also popular for its wines which you can try going on winery excursion or just in a restaurant.

Mysteries of the island

As we got to the island I started reading different websites about it. As it turned out, there is a legend that Santorini is supposed to be Atlantis because of the eruption that flooded the half of the island.

Another people say that Santorini is the island where The Great Flood took place.

The island is also known for a shipwreck the remains of which are still deep down in the sea.

Budget

Everyone says that Santorini is a very expensive island. I can tell you that it certainly can be if you want to live with the best view and to eat the best things offered by the island but it can be a more affordable choice as the island offers a big variety of hotels, apartments and even hostels and a large number of restaurants, cafes and fast food services for any category of client.

PS If you have been to Santorini, comment, add your opinion and share!