Travel Log: Greece

Santorini

In one word? Ahhhh.

Santorini really is a beautiful island with white buildings tumbling the arid land. I believe it has something for everyone; there's clubs, bars, boutiques, markets, something for both male and female, young and old.
We stayed at Santorini Palace which was absolutely great to us. I very recommend it if you're looking for accommodation. It was an easy 3 minute walk into the main town of Fira and had a beautiful pool and the rooms were stunning. We walked in and looked at each other in disbelief that we were actually going to be staying here for the next three days!

Santorini Palace

During our time here we enjoyed a pedicure after trying out the Kissing Fish, which I actually enjoyed! It was like a bubble massage as toothless fish ate away dry skin. They did a good job of it too!
We enjoyed an especially overpriced (and average quality) meal at one of the many restaurants on the Caldera (cliff-side). After developing a rapport with one of the nicest cab drivers I've ever had, he shared with us that those restaurants are ridiculously over priced and recommended a few other restaurants. It was here, however, that I got to experience a cactus cocktail for the first time. It was…interesting!

Cactus cocktail

First piece of advice: don't go to the fancy, overpriced restaurants on the Caldera over looking the sunset. You can enjoy a better meal without the view and then grab some Greek Frozen Yoghurt or a Crepe and enjoy the same view of the sunset at your leisure. 

We also took time to visit Perivolos, the beach with black sand. It certainly was different. We could never have black sand in Australia because it would get that hot we wouldn't be able to walk on it! In Greece however, it's a little cooler than our summers and it proved to be manageable. Santorini is also home to a red sand beach which I would have liked to see but didn't get to it.

Rikki-Lee and myself

We also visited Oia. Oia is a breathtaking village where parts of The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants and Mama Mia were filmed. Our hotel did cheap transfers, which was convenient, but meant we were there during peak hour. A lot of tourists go here to watch the sunset, so it was packed. We had dinner here as well and poked our head in the many (expensive) adorable shops. I highly recommend exploring this village.

If we had a little more time in Santorini we would have also done the cable car ride and the Donkey rides. We figured we would be able to do the Donkey ride in another part of Greece throughout our trip. Wrong! Unfortunately, we missed out on this iconic adventure. It looked pretty terrifying to be frank.

Second piece of advice: do the donkey ride in Santorini. We didn't see any in Ios, Athens or Mykonos. 

I travelled to Greece with a dear friend of mine who isn't a huge drinker. On our first night in Santorini I got her so drunk she barely touched alcohol for the remainder of our trip! The bartenders there measure their drinks by what I know to call a 'three-second pour'. This is very inconsistent, but being two young attractive girls, the bartenders were generous.

On the balcony of our hotel

Third piece of advice: redetermine your limits. If you think you know how much alcohol you can handle. you're wrong!

We had also planned to visit the hot springs and volcano, but our trusty cabbie didn't recommend it. He said it was overrated and said they were closer to warm than hot. He did, however, recommend we visit   the Acropolis which we had considered but it was a bit of a trip and we were short on time.

Our visit to Santorini was magical. The only complaint I have is that we didn't have enough time to experience the full wonder of this glorious island.

View of Santorini