Our next stop on our Greece adventure was Santorini. We spent 3 nights there which seemed like the perfect amount of time. It’s a small island! Since our flight left Athens super early, we landed early enough in the morning for a full day of fun. We took the bus from the airport to Thira (or Fira). The bus was super easy…just walk outside and there they are (they do only accept cash so be prepared for that).
Since we couldn’t check into our Airbnb yet, we walked to Kaffeine for a coffee and pastry. This proved to be a good find, because we ended up going there every morning! The kind lady working there introduced us to bougatsa. So good!
We stayed in a fantastic Airbnb. The night before we left for Santorini, I got a message from our Airbnb host that we weren’t going to be able to stay in the place we booked. The previous guests got COVID and the hospital was full, so they couldn’t leave. She graciously found us another place to stay…a brand new place owned by her friend that wasn’t listed yet. It was beautiful and so nice. We definitely scored!
Santorini is unlike any place I’ve ever been. The views of the caldera and the blue waters of the Aegean Sea are spectacular. Truly. We tried to soak in every minute of it. We did a lot of shopping, roaming in and out of the cave-like maze of shops. We also tried to eat our way through this island! Here are the restaurants we visited and loved…
Stolen Fruit ~ Their acai bowls were amazing.
Yogi ~ Amazing gyros.
Lucky’s Souvlaki’s ~ As the name implies, you’re lucky when one of their souvlakis passing through your lips.
Lotza (located in Oia) ~ The view was amazing as was the food. We had the fava starter and mousaka and pastitsio as mains. SO good!
Our other activities included an island day cruise with Santorini View. They pick you up from where you’re staying and take you the port. This 5 hour excursion was a beautiful way to see the island. And the lunch was fantastic. I found the service to be exceptional and would definitely recommend some kind of island cruise if you’re in Santorini.
We also took a bus to Oia one day. There’s a lot of things to love about this iconic town where everyone goes to get their sunset photos. (We tried that, but the crowds were insane.) The views are beautiful (as they are from all the caldera towns), and you can actually walk down to Amoudi Bay. We started walking down, but there’s a lot of stairs, and they’re steep, and it was really hot, so we didn’t go all the way down. If you want to see a glimpse of what it’s like, watch Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. And yes, there are donkeys walking up and down it! I loved visiting Oia but would definitely choose to stay in Thira again should I ever go back to Santorini.
After a very fun 3 days, our next stop was Crete. To incorporate all modes of travel, I decided to take a ferry on Seajets to Greece’s largest island. We took the bus down to the port. They only post the bus times the day before so you just have to walk to the bus station and find the handwritten note with travel times. Very efficient. I don’t know about all Greek ports, but the Santorini port is CRAZY. It’s utter chaos. Don’t spend more time there than you have to. It’s hot. There’s not much to do, and there’s not many covered areas. Our ferry was late which I guess is also pretty typical. When it came, they yelled something out, everyone got up and started walking toward the ferry. I assumed we were in the right crowd. We were toward the back of the line and once we were in the cargo area where the cars pull in, the gates closed. No one had checked our ticket, so I was really hoping we were bound for the right place. Luckily we were. Whew!