Happy Tuesday!

A lot have you have been eager to hear about Santorini how we did it and where we stayed. So, here is everything you need to know!

Getting there

Firstly the best way to begin is how to actually get to Santorini. In actual fact it is pretty straight forward. Santorini requires two flights. The easiest and most direct way is flying to Athens in Greece and then onto Satorinini. Here the airport is known as Thira airport.

This airport is based in the centre of the island. We looked intially through sky scanner and found our flights. These flights were with Aegean Airlines, a greek airline. However, once we went to book it it brought us to a site called mytrip.ie I don’t reccomend booking via this site as we had issues with our suitcase when checking in . The airline didnt recognise our bag payment through mytrip.ie and wanted to charge us another €60 for the bag each way.

Otherwise however this airline was absolutely wonderful to travel with. You have a full meal on flight free and all drinks are free, including beers, wines and spirits. The flights were very reasonable we paid approximately €650 for both of us for both flights over and back. The flight time to Athens is approximately four hours and then just a half hour flight from Athens to Santorini.

One thing to watch however is if there is a delay in your first flight you could be in bother for the next. Aegean Airlines do however appear to be aware of this. This happened en route over and we barely made our second flight. They did do their best to hold it to ensure all travellers were on board. To concluded I recommend this airline however book directly via their website to avoid any confusion with bags and extra charges.

Accomodation

Okay this part drained me. Simply because I spent MONTHS researching this aspect of Santorini. Initially my whole plan was Oia, Oia, Oia! Oia is the one you see all over Instagram, the infamous white and blue topped buildings. It is the most expensive and busiest part of the island. I reccomend exploring all other parts of the island and coming here at the end of your stay for the least amount of time. I will explain why shortly.

So we wanted everything for the main part of our stay in Santorini. This included the views, a pool, accesiblity yet not over the top pricewise.

Eventually we found Goulielmos Hotel which gave us everything at a reasonable price. It was €1,100 for seven nights which was reasonable in comparison to many other places! Below you’ll see some images of the hotel. It is based in Akrotiri which is the southern most part of the island. This hotel was honestly the most incredible place to stay. The staff could not do enough for us. Initally I was worried about our location for eating out at nighttime, however this was not an issue. There are lots of restuarants located within a five minute drive from the hotel and the best part is that the staff in the restuarants will collect you and drop you back, this is free of charge but we usually tipped them.

Restaurants

Here I reccomend trying the Cave of Nikolas, the Good Heart and Panorama restaurant (particualry for it’s stunning views). In Oia try Kyprida (very reasonable). Karma (for brunch a llittle pricey but fab!) a must in Oia is Candouni the most incredible meal I’ve had (again a little more expensive and will require booking before hand).

What to do?

So as we spent 10 days on the island we wanted to make sure there was plenty to do and there was!

Winery Tours

This is a must on your trip, all wine that you drink on the island is made here. We used Kamari tours and this covered three winerys with drinks and snacks and transport to each winery. We got this for €60 each via getyourguide.com. Again most tours are €120 each so if you keep an eye online you may get them at a cheaper price.

Rent a car

When we arrived to Santorini, we were immediately warned not to rent quads due to the amount of accidents that happen. The drivers are crazy in Santorini and the roads are pretty crap so just be aware. Rather than renting a car from the airport I reccomend using the local care hire, there is less drama and then don’t reserve huge amounts on your credit card. You simply pay for the car hire and dependant on the type of insurance you want that is added on per day. For example our insurance for a 1 litre Peugeot was €10 per day. On top of their daily car hire rate of approx €55. I reccomend a car hire but two days is plenty. You will cover lots of the island at this rate as it is so small. We drove to Frira (Thira) the capital. Again similiar to Oia it is quite busy and streets are tiny, but a must to see.

Yacht Hire

One of the highlights of our trip was our yacht trip. This is a bit pricey but worth every cent. This was via Santorini yachting club. They were amazing, the max our yacht held was 16 so it was just nice. This included a visit to volcano springs, bbq lunch on board, unlimited drinks (including alcohol), a visit to multiple beaches along the island and snorkeling. The snorkeling was incredible.

Akrotiri old city

If you want to get out of the sun for a little while and learn some history about the island then check this out. We took a spin here after renting our car and a lot of the locals recommended seeing this! To see the old town of Akrotiri and remains of the volcanic explosion it costs €7 per person.

It’s incredible to see some of the old buildings and artefacts so definitely pay it a visit!

Oia

Oia is the most popular yet expensive part of Santorini. When looking for accommodation here I reccomend taking your time and researching properly. Don’t rush into booking accommodation.

I got lucky with accommodation here for our two night stay. This was via Trivago which turned out cheaper then a lot of places on Booking.com. Here we stayed in Residence Suites. If you want the views, the white caves and a real Oia cliff experience then here is fab. Our accommodation here for two nights cost approximately €420.

What’s great about this is there is a small communal hot tub and small pool to cool off as well taking in the beautiful views.

As their office and buildings are small there is no area for breakfast so you just get coffee in the mornings. I don’t think breakfast is covered in much accommodation due to small confined spaces. As well as this you can only get transport so far. We met a porter from our hotel in the information centre in Oia and he kindly carried our bags to the hotel. Don’t forget to tip these very kind people. I honestly don’t know how they work so hard in that heat!

FYI

Taxis

When you get a taxi be sure to confirm prices before hand as they are all set in Santorini. We got charged a little more as we didn’t know from the airport to our accommodation. Some many chance their arm so beware. There is a set price on the island of €30.

So that is as much as I can get into a blog post and I really hope it helps. Please feel free to message me on Instagram if you have any more questions!

Happy travels,

Sinéad X