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
Our final day in Santorini gave us the opportunity to explore a bit more of the island. We had the most delicious dinner of the trip up on the northern tip of the island in Oia, and took a sunset dinner cruise around the southern tip into the central caldera, but there are several other towns worth exploring. On the southeast corner of the island are 2 black sand beach towns, Perissa and Kamari. We decided to spend a day out in Kamari, which involved another challenging bus episode.
We did make it on the Kamari bus, which was about a 25 minute ride from Fira town. The bus pulled in just a block or two from the beach, which is lined with dozens of shops and restaurants. We decided to walk down the main street, running parallel to the beach, which had some shade, but it was a bit off-putting that every 10 steps, as the next set of tables was part of a new restaurant, we were loudly offered to “Come! Have a seat! Delicious food!”
We eventually decided to eat lunch at a restaurant called Nichteri, which was one of the least pushy restaurants we walked by. We shared pizza, calamari, and a Greek salad, which were all very good.
Many restaurants – including Nichteri – advertise the additional benefit of a set of beach chairs for you to use after eating there. So after lunch, we walked down on the beach (which was mostly made of black pebbles), and relaxed in a couple chairs under an umbrella.
Being down by the water under an umbrella with the breeze was much more comfortable than up by the shops. It felt about 10 degrees cooler with the breeze coming off the water, so it was perfect to relax for a while.
Later in the afternoon, we headed back to Fira town, although we almost missed the bus, since it apparently took a slightly different route into town. We stood waiting where it dropped us off earlier in the morning, but after waiting there for a while, we looked around the corner and found it waiting at the other end of the block. Fortunately, we just made it on before it left. When we got back to Fira, we grabbed a quick gelato on the way back to our hotel.
We had already checked out of our hotel, but they held our bags since we weren’t flying out until later that night. The pool at the hotel had some chairs in the shade, so we relaxed there for an hour or so until we were ready to grab dinner. Our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 8:25 pm, so we had scheduled our airport shuttle to pick us up at 7:15, given how small the Santorini airport is.
Around 6:00, we walked into town and decided to eat at Stani Restaurant, which offered incredible views out over the water. There are some reviews that mention receiving poor service, but we didn’t have any issues with our waiter. It wasn’t necessarily the most memorable place like our dinner at Floga in Oia, but the food was tasty and was extremely reasonable in price.
After dinner, we made it back to our hotel in time for our shuttle back to the airport, using Santorini Transfers and Tours. Our shuttle arrived right on time, and there were a handful of other passengers who had already been picked up. We pulled into the airport about 15 minutes later, where the small check in area wasn’t too busy.
While the service wasn’t exceptionally friendly, we were checked in within a few minutes and made our way through security to the departure area. As we had come to expect with Aegean Airlines, the gate area was pretty chaotic, without much seating.
There were a couple shops in the departure area, but little else and no lounge, so we were glad that our shuttle company recommended that we didn’t arrive any earlier than we did.
As with the previous flights on Aegean, boarding was just a mob, and there were a few tense moments as one gentleman rudely pushed his way to the front of the line with his other 4 family members in tow. In any event, we again boarded a hot, sweaty bus that would drive us the 100 yards out to the plane.
Once on board, we settled in quickly, and before long, we were off without issue on the quick 30 minute flight back to Athens. The flight was uneventful, with just enough time for a quick distribution of packaged croissants before we landed. The following day, we would be flying on to Milan to meet up with some family before continuing home, but with the limited flight schedules, it was easiest to fly back to Athens in the evening and catch the connecting flight in the morning (the other option was to wake up around 3:30 am to catch a 5 am flight out of Santorini, so we decided to fly back and have a quick overnight in Athens).
Arrival in Athens was quick since we had arrived on a domestic flight, and we headed outside to where our hotel shuttle would be picking us up. The Athens airport is in a relatively deserted area (about 35 miles outside of the city), so there aren’t many hotels nearby. There is a Holiday Inn that is advertised as an “airport hotel,” but it’s about 8 miles away from the airport. With that being said, they do offer a complimentary airport shuttle, and the ride only took about 15 minutes, so it was convenient enough.
