After our few days in Mykonos, up next was Paros. Greece has a fantastic ferry system that makes it easy, and mostly cheaper, than flying to each island. One thing to note is that Greece Transportation often goes on strike and ferries will halt for an entire day at a time. This did happen twice while we were in Greece, but thankfully, on days we were not utilizing the ferry. For this reason, you must remain “flexible” and check the news often.

We booked our ferry tickets through Sea Jets for $119 ($59.50/person), and the ferry takes anywhere from 40 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes depending on which ferry you get. We arrived to Paros at 12:20pm and had a 10 minute walk to get to our Airbnb. We utilized this day to catch up on laundry, hike, and find local dinner. Paros felt very authentic and local, not very touristy at all. It is much quieter than Mykonos or Santorini because it does not have the party scene that those islands do and it does not draw as many tourists because cruises don’t dock here.

Paros Airbnb price: $182.41 for 2 nights

Though we were only in Paros for 2 nights, it left a lasting impression (which I will discuss further in its own dedicated post). We took another ferry from Paros to Santorini for $118.50 ($59/person) on a SuperExpress ferry- this ferry is much faster and has less stops than a typical ferry. Because we took the faster ferry, it cut the typical 4 hour ferry trip down to 1.5 hours. We arrived to Santorini at 12:55pm and found a local charter bus that takes you to the main bus station in Fira for about €5/person, which is the town where our hotel was going to be.

Up until this point, we had been staying at countless Airbnbs through Italy and Greece. We both agreed on splurging to have a larger bed, nice shower, larger room, and a balcony with a personal hot tub since we would be spending the most time in Santorini. We stayed at the Lemon Suites in Fira – 100% recommend! After the 5 nights in Santorini, we were winding down the trip to Athens, which is where we would be flying out of to get back to the states. To get to the airport, we used the same local charter bus system for the same price. We flew RyanAir to Athens for $221.48 ($110.74/person).

Santorini Hotel price: $1,294.15 for 5 nights

We landed in Athens at 12:55pm and took a taxi from the airport to our Airbnb in Spata. The location of our Airbnb was not convenient to downtown Athens, but we wanted to be closer to the airport. Spata is a great location if you are wanting to be near the airport because downtown Athens is a hike to get to the airport. As someone who stresses about getting to the airport, staying in Spata made me feel a lot better.

Getting to downtown Athens from Spata was slightly confusing and irritating. We used the local bus to get us to the closest train station, but the times the buses came was very unpredictable and unreliable so we eventually relied on taxis. The taxis were not cheap but, for convenience sake, it was worth it. After 2 nights in Athens, it was time to wrap up our trip. We flew out of Athens at 6am to Munich for an 8 hour layover before finally making it back to Newark.

Athens Airbnb price: $148.51 for 2 nights