Exploring Santorini (Part 2)

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Sunset Dinner Cruise - Santorini

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). Continue reading Exploring Santorini (Part 2)→

Anamnesis City Spa Hotel and Exploring Santorini (Part 1)

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Floga Santorini - Shrimp Caldera and Stuffed Calamari

On Monday evening, we flew from Athens to Santorini, a quick 30 minute flight on Aegean Airlines. As I’ve mentioned a few times, Aegean Airlines seems to run a pretty poor operation – delays aren’t posted timely, leading to chaotic boarding, without any sort of order or priority boarding for passengers who have paid extra for Business Class or have earned the benefits through being a frequent traveler. In the end, we arrived safely, which is obviously the most important factor, but I certainly would choose another airline over them if possible. The Santorini airport is small, so it didn’t take long to make it through to baggage claim, where there were dozens of drivers holding signs for arriving passengers. Continue reading Anamnesis City Spa Hotel and Exploring Santorini (Part 1)→

Flights to Ireland: $323 roundtrip

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SNN

Act fast on this one!  Several airlines have dropped fares for flights to Ireland (specifically to Dublin) for as low as $323 roundtrip from cities like Chicago, Washington, DC, Cincinnati, and San Francisco.  Most of the low fares I’m seeing right now are on Delta and Air France, but other airlines like United and American are dropping some of their fares to match. There are dates available into late spring/early Summer, such as this trip from Washington, DC from May 8-15: The “base fare” before taxes on these flights to Ireland is only $0.50 to $0.55 each way…that’s right, fifty Continue reading Flights to Ireland: $323 roundtrip→

Athens Airport Lounges and Aegean Airlines Athens to Santorini

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Aegean Airlines Lounge Athens

We made it to the Athens Airport around 6:45 pm after spending 2 days exploring Athens. Our flight from Athens to Santorini was scheduled to leave at 9:35 pm, but since we had checked out of our hotel earlier that morning, we were ready to be on our way to Santorini.

Check in was a bit crazy, but the Business Class line only had a handful of people in front of us. After we checked in, we passed through a checkpoint where we simply had to show our boarding pass and passports, but we wouldn’t pass through formal security until heading to the actual gate. Once we made it through the first checkpoint, we headed down the long hallway towards the end of the B terminal where the Aegean and Lufthansa Lounges are located next to each other. We decided to check out the Aegean lounge first, which is a bit larger than the Lufthansa lounge: Continue reading Athens Airport Lounges and Aegean Airlines Athens to Santorini→

Exploring Athens (Part 2)

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Ancient Agora of Athens

Our first day in Athens was spent exploring the Acropolis, the New Acropolis Museum, and the Monastiraki area. Dinner at Oineas was excellent, and our hotel was tough to beat, with the amazing complimentary breakfast and fantastic location.

Directly across the street from the Hotel Amalia Athens is the National Gardens, a huge tranquil garden right in the middle of the city. After breakfast, we packed up our suitcases and left them at the front desk, since we’d be flying from Athens to Santorini that evening, and then we spent an hour or two wandering around the gardens, which are beautiful. Spanning 38 acres, the gardens are free and open to the public from sunrise to sunset Continue reading Exploring Athens (Part 2)→

40% Bonus on Amex Transfers to British Airways

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American Express just announced a 40% bonus when transferring Amex Membership Rewards Points to British Airways Avios until January 31, 2015.  If you happen to be one of my loyal readers (read: Mrs. Guru), you may already be somewhat familiar with why this is a big deal.  I’ve posted a few times in the past few months about how useful British Airways Avios can be, but here’s the spoiler: for folks in North Carolina, you could fly anywhere within 650 miles of Charlotte (including Freeport, Bahamas) for less than 6,500 points roundtrip!  If this makes no sense to you, I’ve Continue reading 40% Bonus on Amex Transfers to British Airways→

Hotel Amalia Athens and Exploring Athens (Part 1)

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Parthenon

We landed in Athens around 12:40 am on Saturday night (technically early Sunday morning), after spending an exciting day in Istanbul. Athens does have a metro that extends to the airport, but the last train leaves the airport at 11:30 pm. There are a few buses that run 24 hours a day to and from the airport, so we knew that we’d need to take the X95 bus into the city. We had checked one bag, which was tagged with a bright orange priority label, so it was the very first bag on the belt. There didn’t appear to be any other flights arriving when our flight did, as there was no line at all to pass through immigration. Continue reading Hotel Amalia Athens and Exploring Athens (Part 1)→

You Can Still Get a $30 Uber Credit

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All summer long, Uber had been offering their best sign up bonus ever: both new users and the user referring them would receive a credit of up to $30 Uber credit towards their first ride.  I posted about this back in June, although that promotion ended on November 23.  I’ve seen a lot of traffic come through my site on those posts, and I greatly appreciate those of you who signed up using my link! Since late November, the normal referral bonus has gone back down to $20, which is still a great deal.  At this point, my referral link Continue reading You Can Still Get a $30 Uber Credit→

Aegean Airlines Business Class Istanbul to Athens

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Turkish Airlines CIP Lounge Istanbul

As a bit of a refresher, we left from Greensboro on Friday morning, spent a few hours in Toronto, then flew overnight from Toronto to Istanbul, and spent a full day in Istanbul. After our day in Istanbul, we made our way back to the Istanbul airport, and took some much needed showers in the amazing Turkish Airlines lounge.

The lounge just opened about a year ago, so it’s in excellent condition, and is huge!

The lounge has 2 floors, with video games, a miniature remote control race track, a golf practice simulator (which unfortunately was closed while we were there), a kids’ play area, and a small movie theater Continue reading Aegean Airlines Business Class Istanbul to Athens→

Flights to Las Vegas from Charlotte: $164 roundtrip!

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United has launched a sale for flights to Las Vegas from Charlotte, NC for as low as $164 roundtrip.  Vegas is definitely a destination where it’s tough to find flights returning on Sunday for a reasonable price (because everyone who goes to Vegas wants to go for a long weekend and fly home on Sunday, so airlines jack up Sunday flight prices), but if you can be a bit flexible with dates, it’s possible to find a reasonable itinerary with this sale. Fares are available through March and April, 2015 but dates are relatively sparse.  Spring weather in Vegas is Continue reading Flights to Las Vegas from Charlotte: $164 roundtrip!→