My friend and I will be spending four days and four nights in Santorini in late June. We are both in our early 20s. We are interested in boat tours, beaches, possibly a wine tours, shopping, etc. We are staying at Anna Pension in Santorini, Karterados. I am trying to plan our day to day activities and was looking for suggestions of anything we should schedule or plan ahead of time.
Thanks!
This map will help you orient yourselves: http://www.santorini-web.com/map.pdf
Santorini has an excellent bus system. There's a bus that passes through Karterados on the way to Kamari Beach in one direction and to the main village of Fira in the other. http://ktel-santorini.gr/ktel/images/pdfs/ktel.pdf
Find the Santorini forum on www.tripadvisor.com and click on "Things to Do" in the green strip at the top of the page.
There are so many fun things to do, I'm sure other people have great suggestions too, but here's some things we did that we enjoyed. The main walkway in Oia has fun shops for jewelry and clothes and some nice places to grab a drink along your way that overlook the caldera. While you're in Oia, you can hike down to Ammoudi Bay which is absolutely beautiful and has some good taverns to eat at. The sunsets there are absolutely amazing if you stay the whole day but also extremely crowded with tourists so just be aware of that! We also toured Santo Winery which is beautiful and fun, http://www.santowines.gr/en/. The Red Beach on the southern part of the island was so pretty and relaxing, but often is "closed" due to rocks falling but that doesn't seem to stop anyone. We went on a day it was closed but it seems to be more like enter at your own risk. Pelican Tours(http://www.santorini-sailing.gr/) has some fun boat tours. We took the caldera sunset dinner cruise and loved it. For our trip we rented a car since we had a lot of places we wanted to visit, but I don't think that would be necessary. Have fun and enjoy the stunning views of the caldera, we absolutely loved Santorini!
We were just in Santorini for 5 days in April and it was wonderful. We rented a car through Santorini Easy Rentals for 25 euros/day. They dropped the car off at the airport but will drop it off at the port if you are arriving by ferry. There are several wineries on Santorini and it was fun checking them out - Santo Wines is the largest (and most crowded) but there is also Koutsoyannopoulos Wine Museum and other small wineries that are more family oriented. We also stopped by Yellow Donkey for a beer tasting which was fun too. Our favorite thing on Santorini was the sunset catamaran trip that we took with Caldera Yachting Co. It's a 5 hour trip that takes you sailing through the Caldera, stopping for a brief swim and then dinner on board which was wonderful. Watching the beautiful sunset as we sailed along could not have been more spectacular. The captain even entertained us by playing his uke after dinner. Ammoudi Bay is a must-see. We drove down to it but you can also walk down many steps from Oia to reach it. The Ammoudi Fish Tavern has excellent food featuring local caught fish and octopus. The shopping in Fira was good as they are many places to compare prices and get the best buy.
We just returned from Greece, where we spent 3 nights in Oia, Santorini. I cannot encourage you enough to go see the Art Space gallery which is actually on of the oldest wineries on Santorini which still makes wines according to long held standards. What is unique is that two of the caverns have been converted into art gallery displays. When we walked in and our guide, the owner and son of the original winery founder, turned on the lights my jaw dropped - it was so unexpectedly beautiful. He then offers to show you "his art," the wine. For 5eu he gives you a tasting. We were lucky to get there when hardly anyone else was around, on a Friday. He said on Saturday they would be crowded. The second place that is a must see is Ancient Akrotiri. We had just come from Athens and after seeing the Acropolis my expectations for seeing more ruins were low, however they have done a remarkable job with this site. We also visited Fira and it was a little off-putting with traffic/crowded streets, but once we got out and wandered the shops it was enjoyable. We ate at Ouzeri, which you have to walk up some steps to see, and really liked it. Most of our info came from Lonely Planet's Greek Islands book, since we only had Rick Steve's Athens and the Peloponnese book. The manager of the villa we stayed at recommended taking a 5 hour boat tour to Thirasia Island and it's hot springs but we didn't have time. I agree with walking down to the Bay of Ammoudi but be aware that you cannot actually see the sunset from the restaurants, at least not the sun actually setting into the water. Also, we got down there at 6:30 (sunset was at 8:30), and all the harbor side tables at all of the restaurants were reserved. We ate and then walked around to a rocky edge where we could see the entire sunset and the lighting from there was spectacular. The walk back up is daunting but they have donkeys if you want a ride!
We just returned from Greece, where we spent 3 nights in Oia, Santorini. I cannot encourage you enough to go see the Art Space gallery which is actually on of the oldest wineries on Santorini which still makes wines according to long held standards. What is unique is that two of the caverns have been converted into art gallery displays. When we walked in and our guide, the owner and son of the original winery founder, turned on the lights my jaw dropped - it was so unexpectedly beautiful. He then offers to show you "his art," the wine. For 5eu he gives you a tasting. We were lucky to get there when hardly anyone else was around, on a Friday. He said on Saturday they would be crowded. The second place that is a must see is Ancient Akrotiri. We had just come from Athens and after seeing the Acropolis my expectations for seeing more ruins were low, however they have done a remarkable job with this site. We also visited Fira and it was a little off-putting with traffic/crowded streets, but once we got out and wandered the shops it was enjoyable. We ate at Ouzeri, which you have to walk up some steps to see, and really liked it. Most of our info came from Lonely Planet's Greek Islands book, since we only had Rick Steve's Athens and the Peloponnese book. The manager of the villa we stayed at recommended taking a 5 hour boat tour to Thirasia Island and it's hot springs but we didn't have time. I agree with walking down to the Bay of Ammoudi but be aware that you cannot actually see the sunset from the restaurants, at least not the sun actually setting into the water. Also, we got down there at 6:30 (sunset was at 8:30), and all the harbor side tables at all of the restaurants were reserved. We ate and then walked around to a rocky edge where we could see the entire sunset and the lighting from there was spectacular. The walk back up is daunting but they have donkeys if you want a ride!
Please DO NOT ride the poor abused donkeys! If you don't want to walk the steps from Amoudi back up into Oia the restaurants will call you a taxi. The fare is only €5.
