Santorini

Day 1

If you’ve followed along our honeymoon journey up until this point, you have finally made it to the finale (part 1) of this 3-week venture! So far, we have been bouncing around Italy and the Greek islands, but Santorini was the place we wanted to spend the most time and finally get some relaxation- kinda. We spent 5 nights in Santorini at the Lemon Suites hotel which I booked through Expedia. We arrived from Paros via an express ferry at 1pm. There are plenty of taxis, ride shares, and buses waiting to take people up the side of the cliff to get to the main cities of Santorini.

We opted for one of the buses that is about €2.50 per person because it’s cheap and quick. These do fill up quickly so we had to stand in the aisle, but that was fine with us. Once we got to the Fira bus station, we had to walk uphill in the heart of Fira to get to Lemon Suites. We looked like such typical tourists with our suitcases banging around the cobblestone alleyways, but we got our exercise in and saved some money by avoiding a taxi to drop us off.

We dropped our bags and got ready for a hike to Skaros Rock. On the Alltrails app, this route is called Fira-Imerovigli-Skaros Rock. This is about a 3.5-mile hike roundtrip with 751-foot elevation gain. It is along a main path at first, but takes you to Skaros Rock, which turns into loose gravel and rock throughout the end of the route. I was a little nervous about this hike because there are signs that say it’s a risky area to be around due to falling rocks and the like. However, once we got to Skaros Rock, it was unbelievably magical to see the ocean meet the hillside of Santorini.

There’s so many pictures we took during this hike because we followed it until the trail stopped along the cliffside that took us to a tucked away church with the iconic dome-shaped, blue rooftops (more pics of this hike at the end of this article). We showered up after this hot, sweaty hike and went to dinner in the heart of Fira at Dionysos in Atlantis for Greek beer, salad, and pizza for €54.50 total. This restaurant has an incredible courtyard and open seating that serves traditional Greek food for a reasonable price.

Day 2

Our first full day started with an ATV rental from Tony’s Rent-a-Car which was just down the street from our hotel. An ATV rental costs around €40-60 for one day depending on the season, plus gas. We researched some highlights to see where we should venture to on the ATV, and our first stop was in Megalochori to see the Heart of Santorini – a natural rock with a not-so-heart-shaped hole through it that looks out into the ocean. This was stunning!! If you follow the walkway down the cliffside, it takes you to another hidden church built into the cliff.

We kept going and ended up at Red Beach, which is famous for its red sand beach and volcanic rocks. We didn’t stay here long as there is hardly anywhere to sit on the beach, but we wanted to see the sight. On one of the walking trails, a local was playing Greek music with traditional Greek instruments, which really added to the ambience. At this point, we needed to eat, so we stopped in Akrotiri at Theofanis Food Experience where I had the pleasure, again, to have a kitty jump on my lap while I ate my meal. This lunch was €55.66 for appetizers, 2 entrees, and 2 sodas.

We parked our ATV at Perissa Black Sand Beach and paid for 2 cabanas for €20 per person and ordered drinks throughout our 3 hour stay here. The black sand is HOT, but there’s wood planks to walk on in the heat of the day. The water is clear and refreshing on a hot day. Once we were ready to go, we decided our last stop was going to be Santo Wines Winery. We are not huge wine drinkers, but we heard we HAD to come here for sunset because it is situated on the cliffside with a stunning view of the ocean where the sun meets the water at sunset. We got a wine flight for €56. We finished this adventurous day at the Meat Corner in the heart of Fira for traditional gyros for €24.