Santorini: Travel Guide

Greece was an item on my bucket list that needed some serious dusting. So, my husband and I decided to travel to Greece for a more extravagant "honeymoon" once all the wedding planning nerves were gone and I had finally shed the last layer of my bridezilla skin. Santorini is known as one of the most picturesque Greek islands making its Instagram fame widespread. When we bought flights to Athens, I suggested tacking on Santorini and we just went with it!

We have no regrets, Santorini was gorgeous, extremely hot, and perfectly relaxing.

At the beginning of our trip we flew straight into Santorini from Athens (after a 34hr travel day, WHEW!). We sadly flew in at night, but I’m sure the views from above over the Greek islands are incredible.

About Santorini:

• We visited Santorini at the beginning of September. Just after their busiest tourism month (August), but before the tourist season really died down.
• Santorini is situated on top of a volcano! The crescent moon shaped island is actually the rim of a volcano, allowing the seaside cities to overlook the caldera (crater of the volcano) to the west. I was actually freaked out about this initially, but it is not scary at all, you can’t tell what’s down there!
• Due to the whole volcano thing, Santorini has hardly any trees, shrubbery, or vegetation, which made the sun very hot as there was little shade to offer reprieve.
• Santorini is the name of the island, not the Instagram town. The city we stayed in is called Oia (pronounced ee-yuh or ia).
• Oia has the cliché tourist area you see on social media, which is where we stayed. No cars are allowed in this part of the city and all traffic is foot traffic. We arrived to Oia via our hotel shuttle from the airport. The shuttle dropped us off at the post office, which is off the main street of tourist Oia.

Entrance to our hotel

Where we stayed: Oia Mare Villas

• Half of our Greece budget was spent on this hotel (that’s what it felt like anyway) for 4 nights and it was worth every single penny.

View from our room out to the caldera

• We had a private sun deck and private hot tub, both next to our room, and our view was straight out over the caldera, which is the direction the sun sets. Note: not all houses and hotels in Santorini face the caldera.

Laying out on the sundeck overlooking the caldera

• Oia Mare Villas offered complimentary breakfast, and had a pool and larger sundeck where we spent most afternoons when the sun was too hot to hike the stairs that make up Oia’s streets.
• Prime viewing of the sunset each evening was simple as we had perfect views from the hotel, meaning we did not have to plan ahead to fight crowds or find a sunset view restaurant.
• The hotel also offered pickup shuttle from the airport and a shuttle to the ferry when we left (a huge plus considering we did not have to navigate island roads or try to book a cab).

Watching the sunset from out hotel. Look at all the crowds of tourists behind us!!!

What we did: Nothing

• Absolutely nothing, it was glorious.
• The beauty of paying for an expensive hotel with a water view was that we did not feel the need to go do anything and everything while in Oia.

Exploring Santorini

Our typical day in Oia:

• Woke up early to see the sunrise and walk through the city before the suffocating heat and swarms of tourists – Great time to people watch guys taking hundreds of pics of their "I-wish-I-was-an-Instagram-famous-Influencer" significant others for that perfect Santorini shot.

Sunrise

• Breakfast at the hotel – Our last day we ate breakfast at a yummy Crepe place up the hill from our hotel.
• Window shopping/exploring Oia – We did this in the late morning and ended the exploring with finding a lunch spot.
• Hiding in the hotel room from the sun and tourists – Cruise ships dock almost daily and the afternoon are JAMMED with cruise tourists, you can pick them out by the big sticker name tags they all wear. The area around our hotel was free of tourists and quiet and relaxing.
• We spent most afternoons in the hotel room napping, or out on the sun deck reading/napping.

Sunset from the hotel

• Watched the sunset.
• Watching the sunset is equivalent to a sport in Santorini.
• Every single day starting at around 3, you could see people starting to congregate at good viewing spots. They stayed there for hours so that when the sun finally set they would have the best view.
• Right before sunset, all the boat tours would line up on the water so everyone could have a view.
• After the sun finished setting, everyone would clap! That was one of my favorite parts. It was almost like everyone was clapping and exclaiming, “Yay, God! You’re sunsets are beautiful every day, thank you for letting me be a part of it!”
• Nightly stroll on the high street and dinner - Right after sunset was prime dining time for tourists and most restaurants stayed open until midnight or later. We wouldn’t eat until around 9pm!

What we ate:

• Fava beans
• Similar to hummus, but better and local to Santorini.
• Made with yellow split peas, but make sure you order with pita bread, otherwise they just serve you a plate of fava with nothing to eat it with.
• We would put it on our gyro’s, meat, or anything else we were eating (even pizza!)
• We ended up only eating at restaurants that served fava.

• Breakfast
• Every morning except our last we ate breakfast at the hotel.
• Vitrin Café Creperie – yummy crepes and a cute rooftop seating area! Usually busy later in the day but for breakfast we were the only ones eating on the roof!

Lunch view from Skiza Pizza

• Lunch
• Skiza Pizza – the best pizza we had on the island. Tasted like typical Italian pizza goodness, and they let you take your leftovers to go!
• Niko’s Place – best gyro we had on the island!
• Dinner – one of my favorite things we did each evening was finding a dinner restaurant. We walked by so many restaurants on the high street and perused their menus until we found one that looked good. We ate at a different place each night. While some were better than others, they were all yummy.
• Skala Restaurant - Tip: if there is no one eating at the restaurant it probably isn't very good, if most of the tables are full or the place is packed you know its going to be yummy!

We left Santorini via Ferry back to Athens. We actually found out upon arriving in Santorini that we had booked the wrong ferry time and had to rebook 3 days before were to take the ferry (CHAOS!). This is the site we used to book our ferry.

Sunrise

Tips for Santorini:

• Everyone speaks English, most locals don’t even try speaking Greek first because everyone there is a tourist. There are plenty of American, British, Canadian, and Australian tourists in Oia.

Atlantis Books

• There is a bookstore in Oia called Atlantis Books. It has an awesome back story on how it was founded and I bought the book Circe, by Madeline Miller, there to read (which happened to be the perfect book to read in Greece!) The shop is on the high street and they have a cute rooftop as well! I also found a great Greek cookbook there that we ended up gifting to my dad for Christmas!
• We were about the only people we met only doing one island. Most people island hop, or at least visit two. While I loved the simplicity and stress free environment of staying on the island for 4 nights, I can see the value in visiting others as well!
• Research your islands! Santorini is gorgeous and there is a photo op at every turn but I think other islands would prove less touristy with just as much beauty!
• The ferry out was extremely stressful, if you are going to island hop, do it by plane for less stress, or don’t go to a ton in rapid succession. I would not have enjoyed dealing with the ferry on a frequent basis.
• Spend the money on a nice hotel with a view! It is seriously, hands down, worth it. I usually book an Airbnb and always love them, but in Santorini we made an exception and were not disappointed.
• There is SO MUCH to do on this island (boat tours, volcano tours, vineyard tours, different rock “beaches”, the capital city Fira, etc.), don’t let our uneventful, relaxing, and restful time there discourage you from visiting if you want to see the sights and take the tours!