Santorini is probably the most crowded and expensive Greek island, but justifiably so. It was the undisputed highlight of the trip. Oia, the claimed most beautiful town of the island, was out of this world.
Sights visited: Oia town, Oia Castle, Amoudi Bay
Santorini is shaped like a backwards "C", as it used to be a round island, and volcanic activities sunk the centre part of the island. The main town of Fira is located right in the centre, but Oia, where we would be staying for three days, is located at the Northern tip.
Tourists can choose to arrive by air or by sea. If by sea, most arrive in either Athinios Port, or the Old Port. The Old Port is used by cruise ship tenders, and has no road access. Visitors use either the cable car, walk, or ride the donkey up the caldera to Fira town. Athinios Port is used by commuter ferries and is the only port accessible by cars. Our cruise ship conveniently dropped us off at Athinios, and I've arranged private transfer with my lodging to take us directly to Oia.
Santorini is not big by any means, but any car travel on the island will take much longer than google map suggests. The roads were tiny, winding, and always jammed with traffic.
In Oia, hotels with or without a view were priced dramatically different, and I'm speaking in terms of 80 EUR a night versus 800 EUR. I started looking for hotels in Oia three months prior, and everything with a good caldera view was full or ridiculously expensive. I searched for self-served holiday rentals instead, and found Villa Marina. The driver dropped us off at Oia and the villa's porter, Vilnius, led us to the very well hidden location of the accommodation. The actual owner, Maria, greeted us the next morning.
Villa Marina is an apartment unit that fits 9 people, so there were more than enough room for the three of us. It is an authentic traditional Santorini cave house, carved into the cliffs of the caldera. It was not cheap, but a lot more affordable than the boutique hotels.
The apartment unit had three different unit, the largest one include a living room, a master bedroom with in suite bathroom, and a mezzanine.
Upstairs of the master bedroom was a small, triangular bed, probably more suitable for a child.
Two more beds were in the mezzanine.
The smaller apartment unit includes the kitchen, and beds for three more people. Behind the bed is a gigantic walk in closet!
There was no food in the kitchen, and whatever condiments there I believe were left by previous guests. Most things were provided in the villa like wifi, air conditioning, clean linens, towels, hair dryer, cutleries, except toiletries and coffee/tea/salt.
We used this kitchen more than we anticipated and didn't bother leaving the apartment for lunch.
The third unit was a second exterior bathroom. This bathroom was the only part that was not as nice, but it was functional. No way nine people could possibly live here with only one bathroom.
The rooms were all lovely, but the balcony was the only reason why I booked this apartment.
The dining table outside was to die for. I rarely want to relax and do nothing when I travel, but Santorini inspired me. During our stay on the island, we usually stay in until 2 PM. Why go out in the boiling temperature when we were already at the prettiest spot of the island?
Santorini's postcard view was right from the comfort our balcony!
If you google image "Greece", this view will most likely pop up within the first three search results. I couldn't remember when was the first time I saw a photo of this and told myself I must go there one day, and the feeling of finally being there was priceless.
Looking down from the balcony we could see the ocean, the horizon, and the volcanic island that sunk most of the island. We didn't go for the very popular volcanic island trip, because I was perfectly content with sitting on my balcony looking at it.
The one negative point about this property was the lack of privacy. Since the view from our balcony was so great, the tourists would often stop at the entrance to take pictures. They could see me walk out of the exterior bathroom (and I saw some of them taking pictures of me too). I took it as a "are you jealous of my awesome accommodation haha" moment, but I wouldn't feel comfortable walking out of the shower with just a towel on...
Villa Marina was only a short walk to centre of Oia. There was one small grocery store "Proton (a supermarket chain in Greece)" near the bus stops, and most of its stock was geared towards travelers. They even sold small packets of salt! We stocked up on food and also 6L of water as tap water in Greece is not potable.
We had wonderful self-served breakfast every morning.
It felt really nice to be back to independent traveling, and one of the perks was to get photography done at a time when nobody else was around. These were taken just outside Villa Marina's entrance.
During the day it was a different story. One morning I found myself blocked by a bride taking photos with our door as the background. We saw at least a dozen couples, most of them Chinese, taking their wedding pictures in Santorini.
I couldn't blame them, as Oia's white buildings and blue skies served as the perfect background for wedding photography.
Church of Panagia is located at the centre of Oia. These cute blue and white churches were everywhere on every Cycladic islands, even in the some very remote areas.
This being one of the hotter September in Greece, we had beautiful weather but it was seriously hot. Bring lots of water and all the sun protection possible! I couldn't have survived without my Tilley hat.
So many cats everywhere in Greece, especially on the islands.
From 10 AM to 3 PM was the peak hours when cruise ships unload their passengers, and walking in the narrow alleyways of Oia quickly became a nightmare. Another good reason to just stay at the hotel and not come out until these day trippers leave.
Oia is famed for its "world's most beautiful sunset", and the location to do that was at a castle fortress at the western end of the town, shown on the left side of this photo. On the right is the stairs down to Amoudi Bay, a good place to have dinner after the sunset.
From the fortress, the iconic postcard view could be seen on the northern side.
Looking down would be Amoudi Bay.
Photos of the same views, taken the night before.
In the morning and at night the fortress was practically empty, and only got crowded in late afternoon. The cover photo of this post was taken during sunset. While it arguably is the prettiest photo of the three versions, it came at a price.
To secure a good spot, I got here one and half hour before sunset.
People tried many times to steal my spot or block my view, so I got annoyed very quickly. I got even more annoyed when a group of Chinese tourists dropped their water bottle from the fortress wall above and almost hit me on the head. They were being careless, big deal, but I was most pissed about them not apologizing and laughing it off!
For me a great sunset requires beautiful foreground and more than just a horizon, so this was far the most beautiful sunset in the world. The statement was merely a marketing catchphrase. It was fun when the sun dropped into the water and everyone clapped, but that was about it for the hype.
The dinner at Amoudi Bay after watching the most beautiful sunset in the world was also a memorable experience. We had to walk down and climb back up 500 steps each way to get it, but well worth the effort.
There were four seafood restaurants at Amoudi Bay: Dimitri's, Taverna Katina, Sunset Ammoudi Taverna, and Ammoudi Fish Tavern. Each has its own supporters, so it was hard to choose just one. I ended up choosing Dmitri's because of slightly more favourable reviews, a less optimal location, and their claim of using local seafood.
Dimitri's was located on the far end of the bay, turning left after the stairs. It was connected and hidden behind Taverna Katina, and we had to walk through Katina's seatings to get there. We chose outdoor seatings beside their bright yellow walls and lovely view.
Everything we ordered from their specialty salad to the standard calamari was amazing!
I planned for months to have lobster spaghetti in Santorini, and it did not disappoint! There was a minimum portion this order, and this three person sized dish cost 90 EUR. Not cheap, but worth the splurge!
I'm not sure the origin of lobster pasta, or why it became the signature dish of Santorini, but it was so good! Every restaurant in Amoudi Bay has their own recipes, but this dish should have a whole lobster, and most of its juice cooked into the spaghetti. All the meat was kept in the shell, including the huge tail. The other tables were looking at us with envy!
We saw someone lighting fireworks on our way back, although I couldn't recall any local holidays at the time. A perfect finish to the night!
This post sums up our time in Oia and also our incredible last dinner on Santorini. In the next entry I will be writing about some less crowded, but equally interesting things to do on other parts of the island.
