AndSheXplores

Santorini is an absolute dreamland. Prettiest Greek island. It’s combined of white villages built on the cliffs overlooking caldera and offering views everyone wants to see. I believe Santorini doesn’t even need an introduction as it’s so famous among travelers. Originally it’s named Thira and I call it a pocket island as it’s super small and easy to see it all just in a day. But don’t! Take your time here, enjoy village by village. Explore white, red and black beaches and spoil yourself with a hotel overlooking caldera.

Experience the capital city (but it’s really just a village 🙂 )

Fira is located on the west side of the island, on the caldera side. It’s best to stay in Fira or Firostefani, which is kind of suburb connected to Fira that offers even better views and is walking distance (10 mins) to the capital. Fira offers cafes, bars, restaurants, all with views, shopping centres, little streets and even outdoors cinema that plays Mamma Mia every second night! 🙂 How great is that? It surely has the liveliest vibe and is available for every budget.

*wearing Daniel Wellington watch

Sunrise and sunset in Oia

Oia is the village you will find on basically every Greek postcard. It’s the pearl of Santorini. Sitiuated on the tip of the northern cliff with the famous blue domed churches (which are now in the area of the private property and opened only really early in the morning), blue, yellow & pink houses and stunning sunsets. It draws enormous numbers of tourists, and overcrowding is the price it pays for its good looks. Especially sunsets are magnets for tourists and you should go see it at least once. At the beginning I hated it for so many people around me, but when the sun drowned to the sea, the crowd gave a big applause and it kinda feelt magical. However note, we visited in November when it was already low season.

*wearing Daniel Wellington watch

Climb the stairs in Imerovigli

Imerovigli looks exactly as a Greek village should: iconic whitewashed buildings with blue domes, prettiest walking paths and best views. This village has the calmest vibe of all and attracts more high end tourists. It offers the highest view of all three villages and overlooks both Oia and Fira. My favorite thing was climbing the Skaros rock.

Stay at Villa Ilias

We were invited to stay at Villa Ilias during our stay in Santorini and we couldn’t have asked for the better treat. They call themselves the friendliest hotel and they really are, all staff is super nice and friendly and we felt really welcome. It is actually far more affordable then many other villas, but it also features swimming pool, rooftop terrace and BEST VIEW ON THE ISLAND. We even skipped few sunsets in Oia to watch them on our own at the Villa’s pool terrace.

*wearing Daniel Wellington watch

Explore the beaches on the south and east

Even thought we visited in November we couldn’t resist not going to the beach and to our surprise people were still bathing as the sea temperature was the same as the air temperature (22 degrees C). We wanted to rent a scooter, but in Greece you can not rent it if you don’t have motors driving license (car license doesn’t count), so we rented a car for as low as 20 EUR per day and explored the beaches and surroundings. We loved Kamari black beach in the east of the island, but my favorite was the red one in the south. Because you don’t see red beach everywhere. 🙂