This is part three of a two-week trip to Greece. If you missed them, here are parts one and two.
day 6
We took a SeaJets ferry from Paros to Santorini. We walked in, dropped our luggage off along a wall, and made our way upstairs to find our seats. Quite a bit smaller than the BlueStar ferries, the SeatJets ferries only have assigned seating, rather than the addition of open area tables and chairs. The seats were more like airplane seats than recliners, and it took us a long time to find our seats because the signage skipped over our seat numbers.
About two hours later, we docked at the port in Thira, Santorini. The port is, of course, at sea level, while the town itself is built way up on the cliffside. The options for getting to the top are: a) walk up steep switchbacks, b) ride donkeys up the steep switchbacks (this is inhumane, please don’t do this), c) take a cable car up to the top, or d) take a car, but there is no public transportation. We stayed at the Hotel Villa Illias in Firostefani, and they offered a decently priced private transport from the port to the hotel, so we took that option.
If you’re planning a trip to Santorini, I’d definitely recommend this hotel. The staff was super friendly, half the rooms overlook the caldera, and its only a 20 minute walk into Fira for the main shops, restaurants, and central bus station. (And it was way less crazy than Oia, but more on that later.) We booked two neighboring rooms for this part of our stay. The first room had a good sized living area (including a sofa bed that could fit a 3rd person), a king sized bed, and huge bathroom. Our second room had twin beds and a bathroom so small the door didn’t even open all the way, but it was a fair trade off for our window overlooking the caldera.
Between Firostefani and Fira, there’s a main road for cars, and a second main cobblestone road just parallel to it for pedestrians, with plenty of shops along the way. After freshening up, we walked the 20 minutes into the town of Fira for a late lunch, and then popped into several stores on our way back to the hotel. We had made reservations for dinner back in Fira, but it ended up pouring down rain. We waited it out a bit in the hotel with a deliriously tired game of Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza*, but by the time we finished, the rain wasn’t letting up. We ended up cancelling our reservation and went to a much closer restaurant in Firostefani called Aktaion, which is supposedly the oldest restaurant in Santorini, and this ended up being another one of our favorite meals of the trip (more on that to come).
*Pro-tip: always pack a small game on group trips; there will always be some down time
Day 7
There are several sailing cruise options in Santorini, and we ended up booking a sunset cruise with Sunset Oia on Viator prior to our trip. It was supposed to start on the south end of the island at Vlychada Beach, then stop at the Red Beach, the White Beach, pass by an ancient lighthouse, stop for swimming in the hot springs, and end in Amoudi Bay on the north side of the island just outside Oia.
One of the downsides of visiting Greece in October are the high winds, which were especially noticeable in Santorini as we were so high up on the cliffs. Due to the winds, just as we were about to hop on a bus to Vlychada Beach, we received a notification from Sunset Oia that there was a change of plans, and instead the cruise would start and end in Amoudi Bay. So, we ended up spending the first half of the day touring the village of Oia, which was by far the busiest place of the whole trip, thanks to two cruise ships that had come in. It was also by far the most touristy in the sense that prices in all the restaurants were significantly higher (€8 for a coffee as opposed to €2 everywhere else we had been), everything felt slightly less authentic, and it was the only place that actively asked for tips.
While there are blue domes all over Santorini, Oia is home to three in a row that have become the place to snap a photo for Instagram. We weren’t actively trying to find them, but when we turned down a little side road to get out of the way so we could reapply our sunscreen, we noticed we could see them just fine from there – and we could see the line of people waiting their turn for a selfie. We took photos from our slightly-farther-away spot, and by the time we were finished, a line had formed behind us as well. (Does that make us influencers?)
A funny little bonus story from Oia: aside from the blue domes, there are also old windmills scattered about the island. We were looking at Google Maps trying to find our way back to the bus stop to get picked up for the sailing cruise, and we saw something labeled “Glitzy Windmill”. We immediately headed that way, curious to see what made this windmill so glitzy, only then to realize it was just the name of a shop across from a windmill that looked just like all the other windmills.
Just as it started pouring down rain right after we visited the Acropolis in Athens, it started pouring again as we were waiting for our transfer to the sunset cruise. However, it thankfully cleared up just in time. Our crew informed us that the reason they had to reroute the cruise was because there were 6 foot waves on the south side of the island. We also learned they were the only company who didn’t completely cancel for the day, and I’m so glad they didn’t because the weather ended up being perfect for our ride.
The new route started in Amoudi Bay and made its first stop off the island of Thirasia, which we learned is mostly home to fisherman. We stopped there for about 30 minutes so people could get out and swim or snorkel, but everyone opted out since it wasn’t quite warm enough, and we knew the hot springs were next on the route. When we got over to the hot springs, the crew informed us that they’re called that because they’re right next to the volcano, but that the water isn’t really hot. At this point, we decided to go for it anyway because we didn’t come all the way to Greece not to swim.
Let me paint the picture for you a little better: a sailing cruise around Santorini is definitely a romantic experience, so the guests on the boat included four couples in their 20s (including honeymooners), and then the four of us in our late 30s to early 40s on a girls trip. We joked later about how the other cruisers most likely considered us “the old ladies” on the boat, and yet we were the first to jump in the water and eventually encouraged everyone to join us, despite their hesitation. Having grown up on the shores of Lake Michigan, I’m no stranger to swimming in cold water, but this might have been the coldest water I’ve been in (maybe even colder than the Gulf of Mexico in February, which I’ve also swam in). But, it was refreshing and I’m so glad we did it, although we only lasted about 15 minutes before we all got out.
We finally putted our way back to Amoudi Bay where they grilled dinner on the back of the boat, and we hung out there until the sun went down. They drove us back up to Oia, and we stopped to grab some frozen yogurt for dessert. (Can froyo please make a comeback in the U.S.?) We thought we had time to finish it before getting on a bus back to Fira, but suddenly it started pouring, again, and everyone else had the same idea and hopped on the bus which then announced it was getting ready to leave, early, and food wasn’t allowed. I scarfed down the last of my froyo while my friend abandoned hers, and we ended up having to stand in the aisle of the bus since all of the seats were taken. (And it was a charter style bus, not the kind that’s made for people to stand.)
Day 8
Since we didn’t get to see the Black Beach on our sailing cruise, heading down to Perissa was on our agenda for the following day. We first made a pit stop in the small village of Megalochori to see the “Heart of Santorini”, a heart-shaped hole in some rock formations, through which you can see the caldera. The path down to it looked more treacherous than I was expecting, and my slight fear of heights (namely, slipping on pebbles and falling off the cliff) kept me from following my friends down. Instead, I sat on a giant lava rock at the top of the path and enjoyed a few peaceful moments overlooking the whole island. (And, as someone learning German, I got to eavesdrop on a German family discussing their plans for the day.)
The Black Beach gets its name from all the lava rock, and at the very end there’s a small public beach area. The whole rest of the strip was lined with restaurants offering sun beds along with their dining options. It probably doesn’t take a seasoned traveler to tell you that if people are standing outside their restaurant begging you to come eat there, the food isn’t going to be that great, and that was every restaurant along the strip. One friend in our group grew up in Belarus and noticed one of the menus was written in Russian. The restaurant worker came out and tried to argue with her that no, it was Greek. He then proceeded to pronounce gyros with a soft g, and we still aren’t sure if he was dumbing it down for dumb Americans, or if that’s what he actually thought they were called; he certainly wasn’t Greek if he couldn’t tell the difference between Greek and Russian.
We settled on the last restaurant along the strip since the guy was the least pushy, and all I’ll say for now is that we ended up feeding half our lunch to the cats. Aside from the beach, there wasn’t much else to see in Perissa, so after lunch we just went back to our hotel in Firostefani. It was too chilly to use the pool, but I opened up my Kindle for the first time since my flight and read for a little awhile on the pool loungers, enjoying some much needed down-time in the middle of our trip. We eventually all freshened up changed into our nicest dresses and had a little golden hour photo shoot on our balcony before dinner.
day 9
If I could change one thing about our itinerary, I would have swapped our second day in Santorini for a third day in Crete. Although, if our sailing cruise had stuck to its original plan, we would have wanted that second day to see Oia. But honestly, if you’re reading this to plan your own trip, one full day in Santorini is plenty. Unfortunately, the only ferry from Santorini to Crete was later in the day, so even though we had already seen everything we wanted to see, we still had most of the daylight hours to kill. We wandered back down to Fira, stopped for some photos of the Three Bells of Fira, and while my friends did some more shopping, I just sat and people watched (of which I am a pretty big fan).
Scream And Be Frees 
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