#273: Santorini (pg 172, Second Ed, pg 163)

Sept 2019

Welcome to Santorini!  

We arrived in the afternoon and headed into Fira where we explored the town.

And we ate dinner at Taverna Nikolas, which I would recommend.  It isn't one of the restaurants with a water/sunset view, but the service and food were both great!  The other food place I would recommend (not pictured here) is Lucky's.  You can get a Gyro/Pita stuffed to the gills with delicious meat and other greek yumminess for 2.5 Euros.  And it's served to you by this sweet older married couple who own the place.  You feel like they are serving you at their home.  The place is located very close to the bus terminal and the taxi depot. 

More from our Nikolas dinner.

The next morning, we did the famed Fira to Oia hike.  It's about 5-6 miles long and takes several hours if you stop along the way to enjoy the views and side streets and stop to take pictures and such.

Here is a map of the hike. 

For 6 Euros each way, you can get a ride to/from the top of Fira, down to the water.

One of the most photographed churches in Santorini.

And we took the side route to climb to the top of Skaros rock.

We made it to Oui!

The next day, we booked a catamaran for 95 Euros/person.  There are many boat options, all of which have roughly the same itinerary - they take you to the hot springs, the the Red Beach, then the White beach, then back to land where they bus you back to your hotel.  You can do these for cheaper, but you are on a boat with 50-60 people.  We figured it was worth it to pay a little more money and be on a small catamaran with only 10 people in addition to ourselves and the 3 crew members.

Living our best life!

This was my Santorini highlight!

And the sunsets weren't too shabby either!

Verdict:  I vacillated on this one, but after having been to several islands and places in Greece this past week and a half, I'm going to give this a No.  Don't get me wrong.... this is a beautiful island that has a lot to offer and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there!  It's just that there are other islands that are (imo) better and a higher priority to do before you die. More on that in the upcoming posts.....