Greece: Santorini
Santorini is a fairly small island, and so is the airport. There is one direct bus, and that takes you from the airport to city center for 1.80 euros!
I chose to stay at Villa Manos hotel because it was cheap and had great reviews. and goodness gracious. 5 stars is not enough to express how amazing this place was! First I checked in super early, and the Poppy (owner) ‘s husband welcomed me warmly, and made me a banana smoothie! Then he went over some good information and helped me rent an ATV.
I went over to Fira — the main town — to get the ATV. The place that I was referred to (and provided transportation to city center) rented ATVs for 15 euros, and 5 euros for insurance. The people there were super nice and patient. They gave me a quick tour of the town of Fira, as well!
Renting an ATV is definitely the way to go, because you can stop whenever you want to take in the gorgeous views, and park pretty much anywhere. There are buses in the island, but not many in the offseason, and definitely not enough to hop on and off whenever you want.
In Fira, I scouted out some bakeries to get baklava. One bakery was sold out, but the person at the counter offered to walk with me to the “next best” bakery. Apparently baklavas are too mainstream, but katefis are another Greek dessert that is really good and popular. So I got the combo — baklava with kaitefi. only 1 euro!
On the ATV, in about 45 minutes you can make it to the bottom tip of the island. (maybe faster if you have the guts. I was a wimp. I also got lost.) There are beautiful beaches all along the coast, but on the southern tip, you can get red, white, and black beaches with nice hiking trails.
A super great deal that I learned about when I got here is the tour for the Santorini volcano + hotsprings. The tour leaves from Fira old port, costs 20 euros, and takes about three hours total. To get to the old port, you have to go down this insane series of stairs that is often decorated with donkey poop, or take the cable car for 5 euros. I was in a hurry and totally underestimated the length of the stairs and I ran down. At the bottom of the stairs, a herd of donkeys was blocking my way and I cried out for help but no one came so I just risked my face and shoved my way past the donkeys. But they were nice and didn’t kick me in the face.
Speaking of which, apparently the donkeys here are badly mistreated ): donkey rides are 5 euros — just like the cablecars — so consider walking or talking the cable car instead of making the poor donkeys suffer more!
The boats that we got on were really classy and cute, but the volcano itself was not very impressive. The hike is pretty tough, and I know a substantial number of the people that went on the tour did not go all the way up to the top. But the volcano is this large hole.. with a bit of steam on the side. I know I wasn’t going to see flowing lava.. but.. underwhelming. The view of the island is worth the climb, though!
After that, we were taken to some hot springs. And don’t let them trick you.. there aren’t really any hot springs. Its just a tiny inlet by a small church where there are some thermal action goin on. The difference in temperature is about 1–2 degrees celsius. And you have to swim about 50 meters to get to the springs where you will be able to stand. But I came all the way to santorini. There was no way I wasn’t gonna go in. So I dove in from the ship like a fucking mermaid. It was glorious.
The destination for all tourists during sunset time is the city of Oia. The city: clean, cute, and filled with tour guide dogs that helped me find the way. (not really. they were just chillin)
Located at the northern tip of the island, the cathedral of Oia is in the middle of a bend of the island so you can see the whole city laid out to your left and right, and you have an unobstructed view of the sunset.
The best gyro place on the island is supposed to be in Oia (called Pitogyros) but they were closed when I went ):
