My agent offered me a cheap plan for a week in Athens and another in Samos.
Noticing that Samos is not the best island I made him split this week to include Santorini and Mykonos.
Wise idea! Santorini is fabulous, and the kids will never forget the trip to the volcano.
Thira – The small bigger town
Perched on the cliffs, overlooking the sea, the town of Fira shares with the Parthenon the fame of the best known images of Greece.
The city is a show, with a climax at the sunset. Its narrow streets have some commerce tourist oriented.
Oia – The older
Hanging at the edge of the caldera, there’s a village that we didn’t visit, that seems to be the oldest in the island.
We only had the opportunity to see it from below, verifying that the slope is so abrupt, that no link between land and sea seems possible.
Kamari beach
A very good swim, with a great surprise – no sand. No sand, but no rocks, too.
The soil is so compact that we felt like in a tarmac surface – smooth but extremely hard.
With a great surf, that could be dangerous, but we found a calm sea, and everything was safe.
A ride in the caldera
The Santorini caldera is a large volcanic crater that was formed by a massive eruption around 3,600 years ago.
The caldera is roughly 12 kilometers across and is filled with crystal clear blue water, in some places with thermal eruptions. The views of the cliffs from below are breathtaking.
Climbing the volcano
The Santorini volcano is one of the most famous volcanoes in the world, with a long and complex history of eruptions, with the most recent eruption occurring in 1950.
While the volcano is active volcano, it is considered to be relatively safe for visitors.
Hiking its slopes is a tremendous adventure.
Spa in the sea
The thermal caldera is a natural hot springs fed by warm volcanic waters that are rich in minerals and are said to have therapeutic properties.
The water temperature can vary depending on the season and the weather, but it is typically around 30°C.
The mineral-rich waters seem to have therapeutic benefits for the skin and can help to ease muscle and joint pain.
Kalisti hotel and suites
Kalisti hotel and suites
We arrived at Santorini airport almost at midnight. The pilot stopped the plane, unloaded our luggage to the ground and disappeared.
At a few meters, behind a rudimentary wooden gate, there were some people, so we assumed that the driver of the hotel’s navette would be among them, and we headed there. No one!
There was a bus, and someone told us that it was the last bus to the city, so we did not hesitate.
Now, where to go?
When it seemed that we were near the center, we stopped, I left the group to take care of the luggage and went alone searching for the hotel of which I only knew the name.
I was lucky – not more than two hundred meters someone indicated the hotel, and I went there to confirm the reservation. The receptionist sighed, and asked me if I had seen the three cars parked at the door, explaining that the island was overbooked, and they were people hoping that we didn’t show. If we failed the bus, we would have no rooms.
Thus began the adventure in an island where the incomparable beauty was only paralleled by the absolute disorganization of the tourist agency, and that I tried to complete forgetting the passport in the hotel when I left.
Back home I wrote to ask them to send it to me, but it was too optimistic …
Boring trip
We made all connections in Greece by plane, except the trip from Santorini to Mykonos.
It was a very boring experience, wasting nine hours of our precious time in the sea, in a very basic boat, only with a short stop at Naxos to break the tedium.
Yachts around the islands may be one thing! A ferry is another…
Hard job
It’s a very steep and long pathway from the harbour to the city, and the mules going up and down are a very typical sight, but the dirt, smells and flies didn’t invite us.
We preferred to use the common but effective funicular that runs beside the pathway.
The guides (?) failed in all circumstances in this island, we had to manage ourselves to move around, but without difficulties, specially when leaving, when we had to carry all the luggage down to the harbor.
