A Much Needed Holiday in Santorini

On Sunday last, we flew out to Santorini in the Greek Islands for a week for our family summer holiday. The morning was spent finishing off our packing and doing a few last minute jobs before we set off for the airport. OH had been super busy in the weeks leading up to our departure, so it was nice when he had finally finished work and could switch into holiday mode.

I didn't really know much about Santorini, until LB told us that it was a popular place with 'influencers'. All we knew on booking the holiday was that there was a direct flight from Luton airport and that it was supposed to be a very pretty island. Several people had said to me in the lead up that they'd like to go there, but to be honest, it wasn't a place we'd planned on visiting, it was just a very lucky, randomly chosen holiday due to the convenience of the flights.

We'd booked a lovely villa with a pool, situated on a hillside on the eastern side of the island, but close to the two main towns that holidaymakers visit, Fira and Oia. A lot of cruise ships visit the island and they get up to 10,000 visitors per day/week, can't remember which, but it is a huge number for an island of 16,000 or so inhabitants.

Our villa was built in the style of the old windmills that you see around the island. Here's a couple of pictures:

It was a lovely villa, which accommodated our needs for the holiday. It was up a steep hill, so a car was a must. We spent a lot of time at the villa enjoying the pool and the outdoor and indoor space. It could be quite windy on the hillside, but this made the heat much more bearable. The wind did get a bit more extreme at times though, towards the end of our stay. 

The heat in the Greek Islands is my all time favourite kind of heat, dry but punctuated with sea breezes. Talking of the sea, as you can see from the photo, we had a fantastic view of the sea too. It was so relaxing to have breakfast outside in the morning and look out at that view. 

There was a lovely little beach bar and restaurant a couple of miles down the road which served very good food. We ate there twice and the service was very good. I didn't count calories all holiday, as I needed a complete break from it. I ate lots of meat dishes and just enjoyed eating a bit of everything.

The sunsets that Santorini is famous for occur on the western side of the island, but here we got great sunrises and I managed to catch one, one morning:

We did, of course, go to see the sunset too, but avoided the very crowded viewpoints in the two towns I've already mentioned, instead choosing to catch it from a hiking trail between the two:

We did visit the towns of Fira and Oia. Fira was the more commercial of the two with many tourist shops and crowded streets filled with visitors. We enjoyed walking around and there is a cable car to take you up from the port there, as the cliff is very steep. We didn't go down to the port though. 

We did visit the Museum of Pre-History here, which was very interesting and contained artefacts found in a very important archeological site on Thira (the main island of Santorini) at Akrotiri. This site is supposed to date from Minoan times (2000-3000BC) and was buried under volcanic ash following an eruption thousands of years ago.

Another day, after spending the afternoon on the Black Beach, a black volcanic sand beach not far from the archeological site, we visited Akrotiri, where you can see the buildings that have been unearthed. It was very interesting, especially after having previously visited Crete and Pompeii. The buildings were very sophisticated considering how old they are.

One day, we also visited Oia, which is a very beautiful town. We began our visit by entering into this church in the main square, which had very ornate decoration inside, which we were not able to photograph, but it was incredibly beautiful. 

From there we walked through the lovely cobbled streets and down the many steps to the harbour, where we caught this little ferry to the island of Thirasia. 

This is a much smaller island, with a very traditional and simple way of life. The ferry was so affordable at 1 euro each way. The crossing was a little rough going, but was fun.

Once there, we got a taxi to a little village where we had lunch in a restaurant and then returned to the ferry terminal where there was a little beach. We laid on sunbeds there, paddled in the water and watched the activity of incoming ferries and water taxis before catching the last ferry back to the main island. It was a lovely afternoon and we were so glad that we went. Here's a picture of Oia taken from the ferry: 

You can see how high above the port the main town is and how far we had to walk down to catch the ferry. We got a taxi back up to the car park, as there was no cable car here, just donkeys or your own feet to carry you. The town is very beautiful though with some lovely shops and restaurants, but gets very busy at sunset and through most of the day in high season. 

Between the towns of Fira and Oia is a hiking route. It is a very beautiful and scenic route with fantastic views. One day OH and I went along part of it, he running, me walking, as it was quite hilly in parts and uneven under foot. The views were amazing, and as you get into Fira some of the hotels and villas are so beautiful, if a little exposed to the path, which many people walk. I thoroughly enjoyed this walk and here's a few photos from it:

We also visited the traditional village of Megalohori, which had free underground caves you could visit underneath the houses. This village was apparently abandoned after the most recent volcanic eruption in 1956, but has in more recent years become re-populated. It is a very pretty village, but very steep in parts.

There was also a beautiful botanic garden and music and mythology centre here called the Symposium, where we stopped for a drink in the shade of beautiful mulberry trees. They do workshops here too.

We had a very special holiday on the island. The food was good and the people very hospitable. There was probably much more we could have done, but we did enjoy what we did see and also made sure to make plenty of time to just relax. It has definitely left me with the urge to visit many more of the Greek islands in the future.