Everyone needs to go to Santorini. All the hassle of getting here, and the disappointment of Athens has disappeared into the Agean sunset. This island is incredible. We have four nights here, but we are wishing we stayed for a month. I have some actual travel advice to impart now:
1. Don’t take the seajet to save time as we did. Yes, it is about three hours quicker than the regular ferries, but you can’t go outside, you can’t see any of the scenery as you approach, and you can’t even really walk around because it’s rough. It’s like a plane, assigned seats and everything. Take the ferry and enjoy the freedom to move around and the spectacular views.
2. Do rent a car or some other mode of transport. I was skeptical at first, but the island is small, and has an incredible variety of things to see, so by the time you pay for buses or taxis, it’s well worth the cost of the car. Surprisingly, the roads are not too hairy either. We got a car for four days from some guy at the port for about 70 euros. Hotels will quote you 35 a day.
3. Do stay in Fira. Oia is probably even more stunning, but Fira is so central you are never more than twenty minutes from anything really!
4. Do eat lots of gyros. It’s very yummy, and cheap too.
5. Do not try to find ancient Akrotiri on your own. We did and it was a massive fail. We will be trying again tomorrow, so I’ll keep you posted.
6. Do explore lots of different beaches. There are black volcanic sand ones, pebble ones, red ones, white ones, ones with pumice cliffs, ones with no cliffs…look how many days you need just to go to the beach!
In the meantime, go ahead and plan your trip. But stay a while.
Roadschooling Claytons 