Past POIs - Akrotiri Lighthouse [Santorini, Greece]

While in Santorini, make sure that you rent an ATV and drive around the island. When we were there, it seemed like there were actually more ATVs than cars! All the tourists seemed to do it and it was fairly inexpensive (roughly 25 euros a full day).

With our ATV in hand, we drove it down to the Akrotiri lighthouse which is the southwestern tip of Santorini. Which is a great spot to watch the sunset (or at least that's what we were told). Unfortunately, when we went, it was cloudy and the sunset didn't happen as nicely as expected. However, it seems like a nice place to visit and hang around.

Like a lot of the places in the area, it seems like most people just park their vehicles wherever they can and hope for the best. There is a small parking lot there at the very end, otherwise you would just park on the side of the road and walk to the lighthouse.

Both the parking and the lighthouse is free to visit in 2017, however, you aren't actually able to go inside the lighthouse which I thought would've been neat, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. If you say for the sunset, make sure to stay a bit longer because the lighthouse is actually a working lighthouse and the light will come on shortly after the sun has completely set.

The surrounding areas has some nice views of the island and it is nice since it is not as busy as Oia would be for watching sunsets.

Come back next Friday for another Past Point of Interest!

Past POIs - Fira to Oia Hike [Santorini, Greece]

During our trip in Santorini, Greece, we did the hike from Fira to Oia which is a 10km hike with an estimate time of 3 hour hike. You can also do it from the other direction (Oia to Fira), however, it is easier from Fira to Oia since you'll be walking mostly down instead of up.

Signage from Fira about potential hikes and duration.

The time it takes is really dependent on your ability and I would say how many stops and detours you take. It took us roughly 5 hours to do the full hike, but we got sidetracked by things like Skaros Rock which took us about an hour to do and just where you decided to take breaks and enjoy the scenery.

Skaros Rock (view from the bottom looking up at Fira)

I would say that as long as you are in okay shape, you can do the hike. We saw all types of people doing the hiking and nobody seemed to have any issues doing it.

Skaros Rock (looking down from Fira)

Note, the hike itself is out in the open for the full hike, so do prepare yourself accordingly. Make sure that you bring enough water for yourself since there really aren't many shops that you can just stop at on the way. For the most part, once you leave Fira, it is fairly empty with no shops until you get to Oia. Bring sunscreen or an umbrella depending on the weather.

Panorama between Fira and Oia

Overall, I'm glad we did the hike, it was a great experience.

Come back next Friday for another Past Point of Interest!

Past POIs - Red Beach [Santorini, Greece]

Located in Santorini, Greece near Akrotiri is the Red Beach which is known for the red rocks that are located there. It is one of many beaches in Santorini and actually one many beaches, other ones include the White Beach, Black Beach as Karami to name a few.

The Red Beach gets its colour from the iron-rich rock and sand that is there. Oddly, it is actually supposed to be off limits due to the potential for rockslides and the waves that take place here. However, when we went, there were plenty of tourists there with no fear although we didn't see any swimmers while there.

Worth a visit if you happen to be at Akrotiri, it is a very short 10 minute walk. It is a public area with no cost to enter and visit.

Come back next Friday for another Past Point of Interest!

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 5 [Santorini/Crete]

Today, we spend the morning in Santorini before taking a high speed ferry to Crete for the next part of the trip.

Such a small door

We wandered around Santorini for the morning and ended up at Ouzeri for lunch where we ordered the fava, grilled sardines, and giouvetsi which came out to 30 euros. The food was nice but nothing special in my mind.

Giouvetsi top left, fava on the right, sardines on the bottom left

With out stomachs filled we wandered around some more in Fira before heading to the bus station. We got there about 1 hour before the bus was expected to arrive and if you are going to the ferry, the schedule seems to change daily, so it is a bit hard to plan out well in advance. You also don't need to come too early since there is no line to reserve your spot, so just show up and you should be okay. There was no problem with getting on the bus for us. It cost us 2,30 euros each to get to the port. The bus left at 4:15pm today and got to the port at 4:40pm for our ferry which is at 5:20pm.

Allison found my double

There isn't much at the ferry to do, so don't head down here too early. There are a few shops and some restaurants but nothing to really entertain yourself for too long. There is a covered shelter if you are lucky enough. The ferry was VERY quick and took us about 2 hours to get to Crete and the ferry itself was very nice and the seats were comfortable.

Our ferry

We ended up walking to our hotel which is Capsis Astoria which was a 20 minute walk with our bags. Checked out the dinner buffet at the hotel which didn't impress us and we ended up eating at a local fast food joint called kpaoas. We ordered the chicken mix, manouri salad and it came out to 17 euros. While the plating and portion was impressive, the food was very ordinary, I wouldn't suggest it unless you wanted a lot of food for cheap.

Manouri salad

Chicken mix

Tomorrow, we get the car and drive to Chania for the next couple of days.

2017 - Greece - Day 4 [Santorini]

Today, we do the boat cruise which has a bus picking us up from the hotel taking us to the port, from there, on a boat to the nearby island volcano, a swim in the local hot spring, a stop at Thirissia island and finishing off at Oia for sunset and a bus back to our hotel.

Our boat cruise ticket

Breakfast was the same at the hotel, so I'll skip that part today. We woke up, ate and got ready for our bus ride to the port for our cruise. While we got there pretty early (we were the first people onboard the ship), it was clear that we weren't the only people since we were only one coach bus load and we ended up waiting for other buses to arrive which ended up taking about an hour for this to happened. I wonder if something happened that caused this issue or if that was the actual scheduled departure time.

Our boat for the day

Other boats

Volcano

People balance rocks everywhere!

 Anyways, onboard the ship, they do sell drinks and snacks if you want. Food is not included with the cruise and the sandwiches look a bit depressing, so, bring your own food. We were told that the stop at Thirissia which would have restaurants would be at approximately 2:00pm.

Volcano (can you see the steam?)

 First stop, volcano! My second volcano visit, the first being Vesuvius in Italy, and it was very different. For one, it is an island instead of being on land. You'll see various types of rocks and rock formations, and even changes in colour. With the cruise, the tour guide does provide us with a lot of information about the volcano, how it came to be, what the surrounding area used to be like and more. Our guide also dug out a small hole in the ground and if you felt it, it was actually REALLY hot. By dug, I mean she literally scooped out maybe two handfuls of rock and if you left your hand there, you would probably burn yourself.

Still on the volcano!

The guide took up most of our time unfortunately, which left very little free time for exploration and pictures. There isn't a lot to explore, but it was a bit disappointing that we only had roughly 15 minutes of free time before we had to head back to the ship. The guide was very good at making sure that she had rounded up most of her guests, although it would likely be impossible to make sure everyone has returned since there were over 100 guests on the ship.

Jumping and swimming to the hot spring off in the distance

Second stop, hot springs! This part was on Allison's radar, until we realized that it wasn't an actual stop. Let me explain. The hot spring isn't the type that you normally thing of where there is a pool surrounded by land and you just walk into it. The ship actually stops NEAR the hot spring and you need to swim to it and they said that it is a 50m swim but that seems like a low estimate, it seemed much further than that. If you aren't a good swimmer, it was advised that you don't try it. Note, don't wear light swimming outfits since they will come back stained due to the high sulfur contain. There were plenty of people jumping in and doing it, although they mostly came back and said that it wasn't as hot as expected. We just stand on the ship and relaxed. Also, the ship is only partially covered, so expect that you might be sitting out in the open sun the entire time.

Thirissia (do you see the zig-zag? That's the only way up!)

Snack at Nick the Greek

Allison pointing to our destination

Third stop, Thirissia! By now, we were starving and ended up getting a snack at the gyro stop right by the dock, it was 3 euros, a bit more expensive than normal, but not crazy expensive. With our growling stomachs calmed, we decided to walk up the steps to see what Thirissia had to offer. Honestly, it is a very long and tiring walk. I didn't think it would be too bad since it looked similar to the hike in Amoudi Bay, but I think a combination of the time of day (it was around 2:00pm) and the fact that it was hot with no breeze made it very tiring for us.

I guess they only sell blue and white paint here too in Thirissia?

Fried cheese on the left, octopus on the right

View of our hike down (can you see the people?)

Ended up at Different Snack Bar for snack #2. Ordered the octopus, and fried cheese. The octopus was very nicely cooked and tender, not chewy at all. The fried cheese was too salty. Also got some drinks and it came out to 19 euros. The shop seemed like a family run business where two of the kids were helping out, a boy and a girl. The girl was very cute and was trying to assist all the time, running around with a tray and offering to take things from guests even if they had nothing to return. It had a nice view of the surrounding area as well.

View of the Oia port/dock area, can you see the zig-zag path up? Yup, by foot again

The stop at Thirissia was for 2.5 hours, so there was plenty of time. However, if you don't plan on hiking up the steps, there is very little to do by the docks. And the only way up is by hiking up the steps. I would guess that the hike up is similar to Amoudi Bay (70-100m or 230-330 feet). As from the shops there, we saw that some people were just lounging by the water.

Lotza! Pork in a clay pot on top-left, Oia's past top-right, mussel saganaki on the bottom

Fourth and final stop, Oia! Once we docked and were off the boat, the tour guide told us when/where to meet and we were free to explore and it was around 6:00pm at that time with a meet up time of 8:35pm by the big church square. Since we were here the day before, we knew where it was, but it isn't too hard to find. By now, we were fairly tired of all the hiking and guess what, we had to do another one! Either hike up the long and tall set of stairs or pay for a donkey. I know that Allison seemed really tired and wanted to ride a donkey (which cost 5 euros) but I convinced her to walk up with me. We ended up getting to the top before the donkeys did!

Just in case you couldn't see the people from yesterday

Seriously, literally thousands of people must be watching

Anyways, dinner was at Lotza and we ordered the mussel saganki, oias pasta and pork in a clay pot. The food was good, view was okay since we weren't by the edge and the bill came out to 40 euros. 

Oia's sunset

Oia's sunset

Wandered around some more, found a different spot to look at the sunset, took some pictures, made it back to the square in time for our bus to take us back to the hotel and we got back to the hotel by around 9:30pm.

Tomorrow, we have the morning in Santorini before we head to Crete, the second island of Greece we plan to visit before heading to Athens for our final leg of this trip.

2017 - Greece - Day 3 [Santorini]

Today, we do the hike from Fira to Oia, which is expected to be around 3 - 4 hours long with basically no shade (sorry, I wrote that we would be doing the boat cruise in the previous post).

Signage of various hiking routes

Breakfast was the same this morning with a slight change to the Greek items at the end of the table. Still fairly good in my mind.

Some vases from the Preshistoric Museum of Thira

Our first stop was the Preshistoric Museum of Thira. We were told that it would be an hour long but we only took about 30 minutes. It really depends on what your interest is, it isn't very large. There are a lot of old pots, vases and we didn't seem to keen on them. The museum is located on the southern side of Fira and costs 2 euros but was included in the museum pass.

Random Santorini pic

This morning, we were debating about which boat tour to take and walked to several different tour companies and ended up with the one that the hotel is connected with, however, since we were talking to the tour company in person, they told us that the hotel normally gets a commission and if we booked with them directly, they would reduce the cost since they didn't have to pay the commission. The company was Kamari Tours and the tour will consist of us visiting the island volcano, the option to go swim in a hot spring (this is included but optional), visit Thirassia Island, drop off at Oia for dinner (at your own expense), time for some sunset pictures and a bus back to our hotel. It cost us 40 euros and will last basically the entire day.

Skaros Rock from above

With that completed, we did the hike to Oia and it took us about 4 hours to complete. There are a few major climbs and descents, so do beware. Also, there is basically no shade, so wear enough sunscreen and try to protect yourself. We lucked out that we had a bit of a breeze while doing this hike, without it, I think it would have been much more grueling. Overall, it was a very nice hike to do and it isn't very hard, just long. There are lots of people doing the hike which means, you shouldn't get lost and there was sufficient signage in cause you are worried.

Santorini

Oia

Santorini

Santorini

When we reached Oia, it oozed upscale when compared to Fira. The walkways are nicer (cobblestone in Fira vs granite/marble in Oia), the roads were cleaner, the shops are nicer, there are brand name shops here and people were even dressed nicer here.

Skaros Rock (view from the bottom)

Panorama of part of the hike

After our hike I knew that we needed a snack since it was still too early for dinner and we ended up at Karma where we ordered mussel saganki, tomatokefdes, and watermelon with feta which came out to 32 euros. Food was okay, due to our time, the service was a bit lacking since it was between lunch and dinner time.

Mussel saganki top left, tomatokefdes top right, watermelon and feta on the bottom right

With our stomachs a bit filled,we wandered Oia a bit to take in the scenery and get some pictures and ended up at Amoudi Fish Tavern for dinner which is at the bottom of a steep zig-zag staircase which has an elevation drop of between 230-330 feet (70-100 meters) where there are actual donkeys at the bottom which are offered (at a price) for people who don't want to do the climb. The steps are uneven, cobblestone, and covered with donkey/horse poop, so, do wear proper footwear.

Look at all these donkeys!

Oia

At Amoudi Fish Tavern, the server showed us the fresh fish that they had and we picked a 0.5kg sea bream and also ordered fried zucchini and loukoumades for dessert, total came out to 40 euros.

Fish selection 

Fried zucchini

Our grilled sea bream

Loukoumades (basically, fried dough with honey and walnuts on top)

With our bellies full, we walked over to a spot that the server suggested for looking at the sunset which we did. After that we walked up the steps and made it to the local bus which cost us 1,80 euros each which would take us back to Fira's bus terminal. Fira's bus terminal is the last stop, so there was no announcement, but we noticed that everyone left, so we did as well. Check the bus schedule beforehand since it changes quite frequently.

View from Amoudi Bay, if you look closely at the top wall, it is full of people watching the sunset

Close up of the wall and sunset viewers

Again, look at all these people!

Oia sunset

Tomorrow, we do the boat cruise for real this time!