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Published: January 7th 2014
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October 20, 2013
After much procrastination and holiday cheer I figured I'd better get this blog done before I forget some of the finer details of our stay on Santorini...
K and I always like to plunk ourselves down in one spot for a couple of days when traveling, especially if we have been moving around a lot so planned a good five day stop in the mighty Santorini...decided to take the ferry from Athens, which stopped at four other islands along the way, figured it would be a cool way to travel and it was...long though, 5 1/2 hours but it was a beautiful day and the seas were calm so not too bad...
Arrived just after lunch, found our shuttle from the hotel so it was into the van and away we went...after much deliberation before we left home we decided on Hotel Antonia for our first three nights, and then sort out the final two when we got there...but after the warm reception when we arrived, to the really nice one bedroom apartment with balcony, the flowing homemade wine of owner Lefteris and the fantastic service we decided to stay there all five nights! Can't
say enough about this place, Mario and Lefteris were super nice and arranged everything from port/airport shuttles to car rentals and volcano tours...the location is brilliant (5 minute walk to the Caldera) and the price was perfect...
To say Santorini is beautiful is an understatement; the pathways that wind in and around the Caldera are really cool, the views are simply spectacular and the shops/restaurants are plentiful and great...I have to admit that I'm glad we went there at this time of year, it was still busy enough with the daily arrivals of cruise ship passengers but not too busy...I would imagine in peak season this place would be a zoo and not all that relaxing...
Not a whole lot to report from here; as mentioned this was to be a relaxed hang and we did just that...spent the first day checking out the main town of Fira, with its brilliant cliff-side views of the sea, volcano and cruise ships moored for the day...following day we rented a car and set off to exploring a bit of the island, hitting Red Beach (officially closed due to landslides, some folks braved the hike though) and then hit a couple
Sunset in Oia...
...with one of the many cruise ships leaving port... of beaches on the south coast with lunch near Perissa (although sunny the breeze was cool, not great for swimming...). Made it to the northern town of Oia late afternoon to catch the sunset, reputed to be the best place to see it on the island (dunno, for my money Fira was just as good...).
The next day we had arranged a tour over to the volcano across from the Caldera, really cool...we arrived via boat and once on the volcano it seemed like we were on the moon, absolutely no vegetation and fantastic lava rock formations...the volcano is still active; came upon a couple of vents where sulfur smelling steam was coming out...great hike, highly recommend checking this out if you come to this island...
Spent the following day back in Oia poking around, and on our final full day we rented a car again to do some more exploring...went to Ancient Thira which are ruins on one of the highest points of the island and is the first settlement on Santorini I believe...better than I thought, quite a few ruins and the views are spectacular...went back to the same restaurant near Perissa beach that we had
Caldera
...in Fira... been at earlier this week and then stopped at a cool winery on our way back...
We were told that if we had to visit one island on our trip to Greece to make it Santorini, and we were certainly not disappointed...highly recommend this place; plenty of restaurants/shopping coupled with amazing views, beaches, wineries and friendly locals...a nice place to just relax and finish up a trip, would really consider coming back if we should ever return to Greece...miss the vino and folks at Hotel Antonia as well!
(Some photos copyright of Karen C., denoted by (KC)...used with kind permission)
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Santorini is for lovers
We loved our time in Santorini and hope to go back one day. It is one of the stunningly beautiful places on earth.