We woke up absolutely devastated to be leaving Barbara’s house in Corfu. It had been an amazing 5 days with the most incredible views and hospitality, so we didn’t want to go!! Despite the sadness of leaving, we tried to make the most of our last morning; sleeping in and eating our last breakfast on the patio. We packed up our bag and took care of some last-minute errands, waiting for the van to arrive.
When our driver arrived, we bid farewell to the beautiful view and the amazing hospitality of Barbara and Aristotle, and headed to the Corfu Airport.
We ended up arriving at the airport too early to even check in, and our flight was delayed on top of that. We managed to keep ourselves occupied by working on blog posts and updating our weekend plans. There was no direct flights from Corfu to Santorini, so we had to have a layover in Athens.
The flight from Corfu to Athens was just over 30 minutes, where we rushed to make our connecting flight to Santorini, only to face another delay (Aegean Airlines has delayed every single flight we’ve taken in Greece so far). Luckily, the flight from Athens to Santorini was only about 30 minutes, where we swiftly collected our luggage from baggage claim and headed to our accomodation.
Now, we’ve all seen the iconic photos of Santorini – white buildings, blue dome roofs, beautiful infinite pools overlooking the water…. But what those photos fail to show you is outside of the few photo worthy villages, the rest of the island is very dead and dry. It’s a volcanic island with very little fresh water resources, so there is little to no greenery and shade. To be frank, we all thought the drive through the island was…ugly!
We arrived at our accomodation, Exi Sea Side Suites. It was smaller than Barbara’s house, with no AC in one of the rooms and no doors on either of the rooms. We felt a bit catfished by the photos posted online, but at least its location was right on the beach and close to many good restaurants and shops.
Our first morning in Santorini was very relaxing. We had a nice breakfast, and walked around our little area. The beach is a black sand beach due to the volcanic ash, and there were tons of shops, bars, and restaurants lining the water front to explore. For lunch, we savoured the flavours of Greece at a beachside restaurant called Pepitos, each ordering our favourite gyro wraps.
In the afternoon, my dad and I embarked on an adventurous (and very hot) hike to the ancient Thera, experiencing the island’s rugged landscape. The hike took us up the slopes of the Mesa Vouno Mountain, where the ancient city of Thera once thrived. There was a beautiful ocean view as we hiked up the side of the mountain, but absolutely no shade whatsoever.
When we finally reached the top, we had an amazing 360 panorama view of the oceans on either side of the mountain. Unfortunately, the Ancient Thera museum was closed already, so we were unable to explore the ancient ruins.
We stopped by a little bar on the way back home to treat ourselves to beers, sangria, and snacks after our big hike.
We decided to make a homemade chicken roast at home for dinner, so we chucked that in the oven and then ran to the beach to jump in the ocean while the chicken cooked. To my massive relief, the water was MUCH warmer than the water had been in Corfu. We spent about an hour floating around the sea before heading home to shower and eat dinner.
The next day, my parents went out for a day of solo exploring while Saz and I had a major work day. We had a lot of posts to write, photos to post, and files to organise! We had a super productive work day and celebrated in the evening with a delicious dinner at a local restaurant called Aqua.
After an amazing dinner, we got some tasty gelato and headed back to our hotel to discover that the power had gone out! We took cold showers and went to bed hoping it would come back on soon.. but it was still out when we woke up the next morning.
The next morning we woke up in a sauna — it was so hot with no AC in our room. We decided to rent e-bikes from the hotel and go explore the coast.
We rode along the beach for about an hour, had lunch in our hotel courtyard, and then got ready for our main event for the day: A Santorini Villages & Churches Day Tour with Sunset View in Oia with Kamari Tours.
As we were getting ready for the tour, the power finally came back on (almost 24 hours after it first went out). The tour bus picked us up in a small mini van at Perissa Beach and brought us to the Kamari Tours head office, where we boarded a big bus and were introduced to our eccentric tour guide, Tonya. The bus headed to our first stop: a Byzantine Church built in the year 1115, making it the oldest church on Santorini.
The church was small and cute with a beautifully maintained garden on the outside, but the inside was quite tiny and very cluttered.
Afterwards, we headed to the Mesa Gonia Village. This village isn’t one of the normal tourist hotspots, so it was a nice insight into how the local people really lived.
Next on the itinerary was visiting the village of Pyrgos, a picturesque little town with the iconic Santorini white buildings and blue doors and roofs. We were given some time to wander through the narrow streets, explore the shops, and admire the beautiful ocean views.
Our last stop of the day was the most famous and iconic village in Santorini — Oia. Oia is renowned for its stunning sunsets, so when we arrived around 6:30 pm it was already PACKED! The streets were bustling with tourists and locals alike, making it hard to navigate the narrow and winding alleys. We had dinner at a cozy pizzeria nestled in a little courtyard, and then explored the little town.
We saw the iconic blue roof churches, window shopped through some of the little stores, and admired the beautiful views. Around 8 pm, people were already picking their spots to stand and wait for sunset. We walked all over taking photos and then picked a nice spot to stand for sunset.
The sunset definitely did not disappoint! The beautiful Cycladic style white architecture contrasted the beautiful orange/red/purple sunset.
We had to be back at the bus right after the sun went down, but ran into a major traffic jam after the sunset. Thousands of people were also headed back towards their respective buses, so the narrow alleys were crowded over. It took us over 20 minutes to navigate towards the entrance of the village, and we had to run back to the parking lot to catch the bus after we got out of the sea of people.
The village tour was a great experience for us to get out of our hotel area and see the rest of the island. The architecture and design of the sea-side/cliff-side villages was so unique and beautiful, and we got to see the iconic Santorini sunset! Click here to read about our full adventures on our tour!
The next day, we decided to take the local bus to Fira, the capital of Santorini. We wanted to explore the town of Fira a bit, and then do the 6 mile sea side hike from Fira to Oia.
The local bus arrived and only cost 2 euros per person to get to Fira. It took around 30 minutes to pull into the Fira bus station, and we found a beautiful restaurant overlooking the sea to have lunch in.
We browsed some of the little shops, and then embarked on our walk to Oia. The trail led us along the edge of the caldera and offered amazing views of the volcanic cliffs and the deep blue Aegean Sea below. There was absolutely no shade, but luckily the sea breeze kept us cool enough to keep going.
Along the way, we saw a huge rock formation in the distance with people climbing on it. This turned out to be Skaros Rock, and we took a quick detour from the hike to explore.
After our detour, we trekked on towards Oia. We barely saw anybody else on our walk, so it was very peaceful. The cliff side villages and ocean were beautiful, but most interior parts of the island were just so dead and barren that it didn’t even look that beautiful. It was honestly such a nice hike we just wished the island was a bit more lush.
After arriving in Oia, we enjoyed some refreshing Gatorade and Schweppes to celebrate our accomplishment and headed back towards the bus station. Unfortunately there was no direct bus from Oia to Perissa, we would have to change buses in Fira.
Luckily, right as we arrived in Fira the bus to Perissa was boarding, so we made it home very smoothly. It was our last night in Santorini, so we had a nice homemade dinner and enjoyed the sunset before heading off to bed.
Overall, we found Santorini to be nice but overrated. The little villages were beautiful, but most of the rest of the island is so dry and dead that it’s not very aesthetic. It was the busiest season when we visited, so it was very very crowded. Our accomodation was also sub par – it was too small and had too little privacy for 4 adults to fully relax. In hindsight, we probably should’ve booked an accomodation in a cuter little cliffside village like Fira or Oia. That said, it was still beautiful to see the unique villages, architecture, and caldera that Santorini had to offer.
The next morning we woke up, packed, and headed towards the airport for our next destination: Istanbul!
To check out our full Santorini gallery, click here!