ATHENS
We were sad to say goodbye to Park & Lauren, but were looking forward to the next country on our trip: Greece! This was especially exciting because it was going to be the first place on our trip that neither Andrew, nor I, had ever been to. Before spending a majority of our time in Greece on the island of Santorini, we decided to spend one night in Athens to check out the city a bit.
Since we were only going to be spending one night in Athens, we got a hostel for the night, which turned out to only have 3 beds inside, so it worked out well. Our 3rd roommate was a girl from Australia, who was also traveling for an extended amount of time. She had just come back from spending a few weeks in the Greek islands, so she gave us some great tips for our future travels out to Santorini.
We decided to spend the rest of the afternoon in Athens checking out the Acropolis, where we got some great pictures of the ancient ruins, as well as some great city shots.
Athens Hostel
Acropolis
Panoramic View of Athens from the Acropolis
The Parthenon at the Acropolis
Andrew and I in front of the Parthenon
View of the Acropolis
After checking out the Acropolis, we went to dinner at a local, family-run restaurant called Smile Restaurant. The owner was a lady who worked there with her son and daughter, and you immediately felt like part of her family once you sat down. We had a wonderful time enjoying some delicious Greek food, while talking with the owner a bit about Santorini and her 31 years spent in Athens. Later that night we went to a roof top bar, which unfortunately I can’t remember the name of, but had a couple of drinks before heading back to our hostel for the night.
After enjoying our complimentary breakfast at the hostel the next morning, we hopped on the train to head back to the airport. There are 2 ways to get to Santorini from Athens, either by ferry or by plane. For the ferry, you have 2 options, a high-speed ferry (about 5 hours), or a standard ferry (about 8 hours). After hearing of the potential “rough rides” some encounter on the ferries, we decided to opt for the 30 minute flight instead. This was definitely a good decision, as the day we left it turned out to be particularly windy, so the ferry might have been a rough ride.
Goodbye Athens!
SANTORINI
After a quick and easy flight, we landed in Santorini on a Tuesday afternoon. We were looking forward to our 4 night stay on the island since this was our first hotel stay, and we were treating this as our official “honeymoon stay”. As we exited the airport, we were greeted by a man holding my name and our hotel name on a sign.
The Mercedes van that picked us up was full of about 20 people going to various hotels around the island. We were anxious and excited to get to our hotel, and the feelings only increased during that 30 minute ride since we were the very last people to be dropped off. Well, it was definitely worth the wait. We pulled up to our hotel, which had a STUNNING view of the ocean and the entire caldera, which is lined with the white buildings you see on the cliffs in numerous pictures of Santorini.
Our Hotel – Absolute Bliss (Perfect name)
View from our hotel
Upon arriving, the girl that worked the front desk, Penny, took us to our room and gave us a very detailed and thorough explanation of how everything worked, including the private jacuzzi on our balcony and the complimentary breakfast menu. The customer service here, from the front desk, to the cleaning staff, to the room service was absolutely wonderful.
Complimentary Breakfast Menu we filled out every morning – So many options!
Our hotel was located in Imerovigli, a small town located in the middle of the island, which was in between Fira (30 minute walk) and Oia (2.5 hour walk). Fira & Oia are the 2 main cities in Santorini, however, Imerovigli had a number of hotels and restaurants as well. After dropping our stuff off, we decided to walk over to Fira to check out the town.
Not a bad walk when this is your view…
We ended up finding a local gym that charged us only 20 euros each (approximately $22) to use the gym for the entire week we were there. For the next few mornings, Andrew and I would wake up and start our day off with this beautiful walk, get in a workout at the gym, and walk back to the hotel before starting our day.
One of the things Penny had showed us when running through the details of our room was the extensive room service menu, which included food that came from the hotel’s restaurant. We decided to take advantage of this on our first night. The food was delicious and while we wanted to sit outside to enjoy the sunset, it was a bit too chilly, so we got in one quick picture before moving the food inside to enjoy.
The next morning we received our breakfast, which we were able to enjoy on our private balcony since it was warmer than the night before. The view from our balcony was just incredible and we enjoyed breakfast here every morning after our workouts.
Andrew enjoying the view
The majority of the day was spent doing this…
After enjoying some sun by our pool, we decided to head into town to get some lunch. We captured some more pictures along the beautiful path from Imerovigli to Fira.
Panoramic View
Unfortunately I had also accumulated a number of bug bites from a combination of Munich and Athens (about 60 bites in total!), so we were able to head to the local pharmacy before dinner and get some itch crème to assist in healing them. Not fun.
One of the things that people say Santorini is most known for, is its stunning sunsets. They’re not lying. Every single night we witnessed an incredible sunset, and of course, were able to capture numerous photos to share the beauty. Since I was not feeling the best from all the bug bites, we decided to have dinner delivered to our room again after enjoying another beautiful sunset.
We spent the next morning just lounging around the hotel, as we had planned a sunset dinner sailboat cruise for the late afternoon/evening. It was a 5 hour excursion where we set sail on the sea and explored a few different areas, including hot (really just warm) springs, white & red sand beaches, and got a completely unobstructed view of the sunset that night. We stopped a few times and were able to go out in the water and swim around a bit. We also met another couple who were on their “babymoon” and lived in San Francisco, so we enjoyed talking with them. We had a great and relaxing time and highly recommend this if you’re ever in Santorini.
Amoudi Bay – Where we set sail from
Dreamcatcher – Our ride!
And we’re off!
Enjoying some wine and the view
Red Sand Beaches
Another beautiful sunset
On our walks to Fira every morning we noticed multiple cruise ships docked. Santorini is a major stop for numerous cruises and one of the locals told us sometimes there is up to 6 or 7 cruise ships a day in the middle of summer. The people coming from the cruise ship have 3 options to get up the hills of Santorini: Cable car, Walk, or Ride the Donkeys! We got a quick picture with a few of the donkeys heading down to pick people up!
We wanted to spend the next day checking out the other side of the island, Oia, so we decided to rent an ATV for the day. It was about a 20 minute ATV ride to Oia, along a very windy road. I’ll admit I was a bit nervous at first, but it ended up being a wonderful way to explore the island. Andrew drove the windy roads, but I drove a bit while we were in town.
The view from the city of Oia
Not a bad lunch view
While walking along the shops, we noticed this place where you could get a “greek pedicure”. It turns out that you put your feet in water and numerous fish (with no teeth) eat away the dead skin on your feet! Andrew wasn’t feeling up to putting his feet in a tub of water with a bunch of fish, but a nice lady let me take a picture of her getting it done. She said it felt very weird!
After having lunch and checking out the shops in Oia, we headed to one of the local wineries, Domaine Sigalas, to enjoy a tasting. Andrew offered to drive back, so I enjoyed most of the tasting. 🙂
Another picture from the top of our hotel…just because.
This was the walk within our hotel to our room, stunning views all around.
We spent our last night in Santorini enjoying a wonderful dinner at a local place called Mezzo, which came highly recommended from a few different articles we had read. The food was delicious and the sunset views were perfect for our last night.
Came back to our room to find this nice surprise from our hotel on our last night:
My lovely husband (who thoroughly enjoyed the hotel robes)
Andrew and I agreed that Santorini was probably one of the most beautiful places we both had ever been to. The views were incredible, the sunsets were stunning, and it was the perfect place to relax for a few days. We were definitely sad to leave (hence I didn’t get out of bed until 11:30AM or so), but felt fortunate to experience 5 days in complete paradise.
Andrew + Allison Around the World 