2017 - Greece (Summary)

Duration: 15 days
Locations: Santorini, Crete, and Athens Greece

In June of 2017, we visited Greece and here is a summary of things that I enjoyed the most, one for each location that we visited which are Santorini, Crete, and Athens.

Highlights

Fira to Oia Hike (Santorini), with clear signage and it being the #1 thing to do in Santorini on TripAdvisor (as of September 2017), you aren't really go wrong here. The hike itself is free, no money required, however, there is no shade on the way, so bring some sunscreen or stay covered and there are also no stops for water, so make sure to bring enough of that as well. There will be plenty of people along the way (at least when we went in June), so don't worry too much about getting lost and just enjoy the hike which takes roughly 3-4 hours. Try to start early, that way you avoid the high afternoon sun (unless you like hiking in the heat).

Samaria Gorge (Crete), a great and quite strenuous hike which does have an admission cost, but it was pretty low for us when we went at roughly 25 euros per person and this included all the transportation as well as a guide for the entire trip. You have the option to go from the bottom to the top or the top to the bottom which is what most people do. The hike itself will take all day with a start time of roughly 6:00am to an end time of roughly 8:30pm. There are plenty of water refill stations here, but do bring some hiking poles if you don't like going down. Make sure to enjoy the nice views!

Meteora (Athens), a long day trip from Athens, we did it as a 2 day trip and it was wonderful. Meteora is a collection of monasteries that appear to have just dropped from the sky and landed on top of mountains that literally just appeared out of nowhere. You'll have to see it to believe it. What's even more impressive to me was once I went inside one of them, it was like I was in a normal monastery on land. A must see if you are in the area and you have time to do this.

Lowlights

Nothing was particularly disappointing on this trip. The only part that was disappointing was that we started in Santorini, did Crete and then ended up in Athens where the environment and vibe completely changed. Depending on where you are, you can see that the city has/is undergoing some difficult times.

Food Suggestions

Lucky's Soulvaki (Santorini), a tourist favourite (or local, I can't tell). We ordered the pitas on several occasions and the plate and every one that we have tried were excellent. Bare in mind, this is compared to what we have in Toronto, Canada which I think is already quite good. The food here is great, quick, and fairly inexpensive. The only downside would be that it lacks seating. There are mainly just bar stools, no real sit down tables.

Paralia (Crete), a restaurant right by the water where they serve freshly caught seafood. Enjoy the food, the sights, and the sounds while here.

Thansis (Athens), come for the kebabs, they were amazing! A must try in my mind and very reasonably priced since the street that it is on is actually full of restaurants fighting for customers.

Tips

While in Santorini, rent an ATV. You may worry about the safety, but Santorini in the main areas seem to be littered with ATVs, so don't worry about being run over by cars. With ATVs, it also is a lot easier to park since most people just park on the side of the road and you don't require as much space as a car.

Final Thoughts

I can see why Greece is a place for tourists to visit. There is plenty of variety of things to see and do and it really is just an island hop away. I liked the food variety that was available and was shockingly not bored by the end of the trip which is a common issue that I noticed while travelling.

Until our next trip!

2017 - Greece Summary (Santorini)

Duration: 4 days (Saturday afternoon to Wednesday afternoon)

Highlights

Volcano tour - I know that a lot of people won't like tours, but I thought that the volcano tour was a very good way of covering a number of spots while at Santorini and I don't believe you can visit these places on your own.

Fira to Oia hike - Again, probably not for everyone, but I thought it was very enjoyable, although do note that there is no shade available during the entire hike. Plan accordingly.

Lowlights

Nothing disappointed me here. I did find Santorini very resort-like so it seemed a bit unnaturally friendly and clean depending on where you visit.

Food Suggestions

Lucky's souvlaki - not quite sure why we liked this place so much, but we did end up here a number of times. The souvlaki tastes very good and is very inexpensive.

Trani Taverna - very good food and if you luck out, a nice view to boot.

Tips

I think our duration was a bit long based on what we did. You may like to relax a bit more, but based on the things we did, I would suggest the following:

Day 1: Rent an ATV and drive the southern half of Santorini
Day 2: Do the volcano tour
Day 3: Do the fira to oia hike

That was sufficient for us in terms of things to see and do there. There are more things to do there, but that was enough based on our experiences.

Final Thoughts

Your duration is based on your interests. If you want to just relax, I would suggest a nice hotel with a view, otherwise, I think 3 days is a good amount of time to spend here.

2017 - Greece - Day 1 [Santorini]

Today is day 1 of our trip to Greece leaving May 19 and returning on June 4. I'll be counting this as day 1 even though it was another full day of travel after because we left Toronto on May 19 at 4:00pm and arrive in Athens on May 20 at 9:00am and then fly to Santorini after that.

Our idea behind transferring at Athens to Santorini was that we left some buffer time in case any delays occurred but we did see a few people who went straight from Athens to fly to Santorini with less than 2 hours of a gap, so it is up to you how you want to approach this. The airport itself isn't very large, so you shouldn't have issues, however, if there are flight delays, you might be cutting it close. We hung out at the McDonald's at the Athens airport while waiting for our flight to Santorini in the afternoon. Ordered the Greek Mac to try since there weren't very many items that were different there. It wasn't very good and I would recommend just sticking with what you know.

Flight to Santorini was interesting, it was on a small propeller plane. The gate just leads you to a bus that drives you to a propeller plane. The flight was less than an hour and surprisingly, Santorini's airport was really small, it only had ONE baggage claim area.

Our taxi was arranged with the hotel and it cost 20 euros to get there from the airport which seems pretty pricey but the other option was to wait for the local bus, but that only comes every hour. For convenience sake, we just paid for the taxi.

Santorini itself looks a lot more like a desert than I imagined. I don't know where I got the idea that it would be just as green as Toronto but that isn't the case. It is very rocky with trees and very little grass.

Our stay will be at Hotel Nemesis for the next 4 nights, just south of Fira which is the middle of Santorini. Nice little place, has a decent balcony (standard room, sea view on hotels.com), although it had a very small shower. It is just a 5 minute walk to the southern part of Fira.

Dinner was at Lucky's Souvlaki and it was good. Pitas are under 3 euros and plates were under 10 euros. We ordered the chicken plate and souvlaki pita with a fanta for 11,50 euros.

After dinner, stopped at the local grocery store and got some water before heading back out for a walk. Ended up wandering around for almost 1.5 hours and caught a bit of the sunset before heading back to the hotel and calling it a night.

When we checked into the hotel, we asked them about renting an ATV for the following day which is what we will do tomorrow and drive around the southern portion of Santorini.