No doubt Santorini is beautiful. Stunning. Picturesque. Yada yada. But a day and a half is all you need. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Granted, I didn't do any snorkeling or tours to the volcano, so if you do plan on those, then maybe a day and a half isn't enough time. Also, if you do plan on visiting for a couple of days, I would recommend you rent ATVs to get around the island instead of a car. At least for one day. I saw them all over, and although they're obviously slower than a car, there's some benefit to that. Sure the island isn’t that small, but in a car you can honestly get from the furthest tip to the other in about 45 minutes. So the slowness of the ATVs gives you more time to appreciate the island and makes it easier for you to stop and snap pictures of the island (you'll be doing that a lot). Also, with the numerous beaches, the ATVs fit right in. I was envious, but since this was a budget-tight trip, I opted for the more economical, €45/day Nissan Migra (or whatever it was).
I flew in on a Sunday afternoon, around 2pm. When we called our hotel - Dana Villas (literally THE best views from their rooms) - to arrange our complimentary shuttle service, we asked about whether or not they knew of a car rental agency we could use. Carrentals and Kayak had nothing available on their website, and Ryanair was quoting a steep €68/Day rate. Luckily, the receptionist from Dana Villas "knew someone" (probably a cousin or something) and got us a €45/day rate. Still brutal, but cheaper than taxiing it around. As we landed, we met the car rental rep right outside the 1-terminal, smallest-airport-ive-ever-been-to. The man was holding a placard with my last name scribbled on it. As soon as he saw me give him the thumbs up he glided over to the nearest bench to begin the paperwork. A few minutes later and I was in the car. The man had broken English, but when i asked him where I should return the car the next day around 7pm, he essentially said (or what I assumed he said) "here in the parking lot. Keep the car unlocked, and just throw the keys under the mat". Car/theft must be low then. Or this man was an idiot. In either case, I pulled up google maps and used the offline/downloaded maps feature to navigate me to Dana Villas. The directions led us to a dirt road which was blocked. After a quick call with the hotel, they explained that the hotel was a bit tucked inside the tightly-built city of Fira. I parked the car at a dirt parking lot and a hotel bell boy helped with the bags. The view from the hotel room, as i mentioned earlier, was amazing. We were right in the middle of the Caldera, and had an excellent view of the Skaros Rock and the Nea Kameni Island.
After checking out our Grand Villa suite, we hopped back in the car and drove over to the highly recommended Metaxi Mas for dinner. Authentic Greek food. It seemed like a sort of colab with traditional Italian plates. But i’m not much of a foodie, nor am I picky with my food. The Linguini with chicken was delicious.
The next morning, We set out. First to the northern town of Oia to visit the Byzantine Castle ruins. The walk from the parking lot to the actual ruins was beautiful. The trail took you in between these neat, white painted homes built almost on top of each other right up to the cliff side. Unfortunately the Castle was closed due to restoration activities, but the view was great. However, you can only look at a view for so long. An it was then that I realized that was how everything was in Santorini.
As we drove down, now towards the south of the island, we realized that although the Caldera views were great from every angle, it sort of all became the same thing. I took more than 500 pictures, but after reviewing them I realized so many looked the same that I ended up deleting half. Akrotiri Lighthouse perched on a cliff overlooking the ocean was a typical, storybook lighthouse. The Red Beach was cool to see as well; the red sand on the beach is shadowed by a sharp red cliff right behind it. But, again, after taking a few snaps and staring at it, there wasn’t much else. The beach sand wasn’t really sand at all. More like small rocks/pebbles. Same story at Kamari Black Beach. It was cool to see, how on the same island, there were vast differences from one side to the other. And the view from the highest peak, Moni Profiti, put it all in perspective. The island is beautiful. But if you ever go off-season (like me), then don’t expect anything other than the views.
I ended the visit by stopping at Obelix in downtown Fira and had to be the most amazing gyro I ever ate. With having seen about 80% of the entire island, I called it quits and sat at the airport 5 hours early. Again, Santorini is cool, but so-so at the same time. I don’t regret having visited; BUT I would definitely not recommend someone from the U.S. to travel all this way and ONLY see Santorini. If you’re planning on making the trek all this way, you might as well see Athens too.. (the topic of my next post! :)
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