Intro and Greensboro to Chicago
Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge Toronto and Exploring Toronto
Air Canada Executive First Suite Toronto to Istanbul
14 Hours in Istanbul
Aegean Airlines Business Class Istanbul to Athens
Hotel Amalia Athens and Exploring Athens (Part 1)
Exploring Athens (Part 2)
Athens Airport Lounges and Aegean Airlines Athens to Santorini
Anamnesis City Spa Hotel and Exploring Santorini (Part 1)
Exploring Santorini (Part 2)
Exploring Santorini (Part 3) and Aegean Airlines Santorini to Athens
Holiday Inn Athens Airport and Aegean Airlines Athens to Milan
UNA Hotel Cusani and Exploring Milan
United Business Class Milan to Newark to Greensboro
On our second full day in Santorini, we had booked a sunset dinner catamaran cruise, which was definitely the highlight of the trip. In the morning, we had breakfast again at our hotel, and then planned to head up to a small town just north of Fira called Imerovigli. Our hotel was well situated for getting into Fira (also sometimes spelled Thira or Thera), the main town on the island, but the island is about 15-20 miles from north to south, so getting to other towns (such as Oia, where we had dinner the night before, or the beach towns of Perissa and Kamari) definitely requires a vehicle. There are some cars available to rent on the island, but they tend to be on the expensive side ($40-50+ per day). Another popular option for getting around is by renting an ATV, which are somewhat cheaper (about $30 per day) or small mopeds (about $25 per day).
We had read that ATVs and mopeds can be dangerous on the hilly, narrow, winding roads, which was very true. By themselves, they’re mostly as unsafe as your own driving abilities, but the problem lies in the fact that the roads are narrow, and the cars and buses on the island all drive much faster than the ATVs and mopeds can. So on small, windy, two-lane roads, cars pass on blind turns, which can be relatively hazardous. We also had read that the public buses are cheap (about €1.80 per ride) and are a very popular way to get around, so we figured that we could just venture out on the buses when we needed to head somewhere else besides Fira.
The buses are mostly newer coach buses, although there are some older buses still in service as well, but the actual process for catching a bus is an absolute, total disaster.
Particularly since we were visiting in August, still during the peak summer travel season, getting on a bus was just a mess. In Fira town, the main bus station for the island consists of a medium-sized parking lot, with spaces for about 6 or 7 buses to park at one time (all lined up next to each other, not angled pull-in spaces like most bus stations) and a small shack that serves as an “Information” Booth, which is a bit ironic since there’s not really much information that they can give. The spaces in the lot aren’t marked or dedicated at all, and the parking lot is just a mass of people wandering around trying to figure out which bus is going where. Some bus routes are scheduled to operate every 15 minutes, but the schedules seem to just be approximations, as sometimes 2 buses would arrive within 5 minutes of each other, and sometimes it’d be 30 minutes in between. When a bus pulled into the parking lot, it would drive forward to one side of the lot, and then back into whatever spot was open and that it could swing into, based on the herds that were swarming about. So you never really knew when your bus was coming, and where it would park. Depending on the time of day and bus route, there’s a good chance you wouldn’t even get on the bus, because as the bus was backing into a spot, the crowds would swarm towards the front door, inching along with it as it backed into a space. They smashed on as many bodies as they could possibly fit (filling every seat, and cramming people standing in the aisle), but if you happened to be towards the back of the swarm, there’s a good chance you wouldn’t get on. Then, the problem became the fact that just because you missed this first bus in no way put you in any better position to catch the next bus. If the next bus pulled in a few spaces away, you’d still be at the back of the herd. Watching a time-lapse video of the bus station from a couch in an air conditioned room would have been totally hilarious. Trying to actually catch a bus in the hot sun, however, was considerably less than hilarious.
Most of the time, though, we were able to move with the herds and get on a bus on either the first or second try, but after we got shut out of the first bus heading to Imerovigli, we decided it wasn’t worth standing around on the hot, uncovered parking lot for the next bus that may or may not be coming in 20 minutes. The walk from Fira to Imerovigli would be about 25 minutes, and it was relatively hot (85°F), but we set off on a short hike. The town of Imerovigli was really pretty quiet, which was a nice change from Fira, which is a bit crowded and busy.
When we reached the outskirts of Imerovigli, the views back towards Fira town were stunning.
We wandered into Imerovigli relatively aimlessly, just taking in the sights and enjoying the quiet.
After spending a little time in Imerovigli, we were ready to head back into Fira for lunch. We were lucky enough to catch a bus on the way back, although we were jammed on, standing in the aisle for the short 7 minute drive back to Fira.
We grabbed a quick lunch at a random pizza place that sold pizza by the slice, and then went back to our hotel to relax for an hour or so before being picked up for our catamaran cruise, which would pick us up at 3:30 pm. There are a number of yacht operators in Santorini, many of which get very high reviews. Since we booked last-minute (the day before), our options were somewhat limited. We ended up booking through Spiridakos Sailing, and they were overall fantastic.
Right on time, a small van pulled up to our hotel to take us to the Vlihada Marina on the southern tip of the island. We stopped at a few other towns along the way to pick up some other passengers, so the drive took a total of about 40 minutes. Soon, we were climbing aboard a 38′ catamaran with 15 other folks from around the world. We made out way out and around the southwest tip of the island, then turned north to parallel the west coast. The weather was perfect – the sun was warm, but the breeze felt great.
We stayed within a few hundred yards of shore, with enormous cliffs hanging over the clear, blue water.
We pulled into a couple coves where we were able to jump in and snorkel around for a bit. We also pulled into the “hot springs,” which is the area in the center of the lagoon, where the active volcano site is still active underwater. It was advertised to have temperatures as hot as 120°F, but it didn’t seem quite that hot to me. Certain areas were warm, but not too hot. Overall, for the novelty factor, it’s sort of fun to say that we swam over an active volcano in Greece, but otherwise, there’s nothing that incredible about that specific stop of our itinerary.
After the hot springs, we made our way over to a quiet cove, where we were able to swim some more. While we were swimming, the crew started cooking dinner right there on the ship. About 30 minutes later, dinner was ready, and we all sat down to a delicious dinner of spaghetti, fresh shrimp, pasta salad, bread and hummus.
Dinner was delicious, and afterwards, we were able to swim for a bit longer.
After another quick swim, it was time to make our way back during the sunset. The view grew more and more spectacular as the sun slowly drifted down towards the horizon:
As I said, this cruise was the highlight of our trip. I would highly recommend Spiridakos Sailing, especially with the size of our ship. We saw a number of other ships that were larger, but crammed on dozens of people. Our boat only had 16 people, so by the end of the evening, we seemed to become friends, and really enjoyed the whole experience together. I would highly recommend taking one of these cruises, and would definitely recommend checking on the number of passengers for each option. The smaller yachts are somewhat pricier, but absolutely worth the premium for the more intimate setting.
After a long but incredible day, we crashed back in our hotel, excited for one more day in Santorini.