Santorini almost always comes up when you are looking for an idyllic honeymoon spot. Scenes of people in pools looking out over the caldera have become synonymous with ultimate couple luxury. We had originally short listed Santorini as a potential site for our own honeymoon but in the end we decided it would take too much travel to get there from the location of our wedding, Barbados. Years later, after Little Person arrived, I decided that I would finally tick Santorini off of our list and was challenged with planning a relatively inexpensive but comfortable trip where we could hopefully experience all that Santorini had to offer.
My first decision was to skip staying on the cliffs overlooking the bay. As scenic as these locations are they have quite a few downsides. The first one is that access is quite difficult. If you are planning on holing up in your hotel room for the full length of your trip, this would probably be less of a problem, but this is not and will never be our holiday style so the daily trekking to get in and out of the hotel was not something I wanted to experience. Furthermore, those fantastic views come with an equally fantastic price, and though views from a hotel room are nice, if you can simply walk and get an equally fantastic view from a public area, then that money can be spent on something else. The last thing that staying away from the cliffs gives you is related to my second decision and that is the ability to park a car.
Many people who visit Santorini use taxi services, buses or tours to get around the island. This can restrict your flexibility when trying to get to some of the more obscure places such as Ancient Thera and my experience when travelling with a baby is that flexibility is your greatest asset. As such I decided to hire a car for the full duration of our trip to Santorini which was four days. This was a decision I was very happy with since we could move around at a schedule of our own choosing and get to every place we wanted to visit.
My third important decision was to stay in Fira. Many travellers choose Oia or Imerovigli when they visit Santorini due to their relative attractiveness and quaintness. The advantage Fira has over both of these places is its central location so if you are trying to visit Akrotiri, for example, you don’t have to drive the entire length of the island. Oia is especially problematic, in that traffic into it tends to be incredibly heavy throughout the day, so using it as a base really doesn’t work. It is also right at the northern tip of the island.
Finally the time of year you travel is also quite an important factor. Santorini has a low season over winter when most places are closed. Then shoulder season is April, May, September and October when most migrant workers have returned, some shops may not have reopened as yet but the weather should be reasonable, pretty much perfect for exploring. The high season is over summer and the weather is at its most ideal and the crowds and prices reflect this. I chose to visit right at the end of March, the tail end of winter. This meant that whilst some places were closed it did not have an overly negative effect on our trip. Most importantly we avoided the hordes of both on island and cruise ship tourists who descend on Santorini pretty much every day over summer. It was lovely to be able to go for walks and to feel at times that you had the island to yourself. We could also see all of the hotels getting ready to open and I still don’t think I have ever seen so many cans of white paint in my life.
Driving allowed us to split our trip into themed days
Our first day was focused on exploring the lengths of the cliff, walking along the rim of the Caldera from Fira to Firostefani and back, driving up to Imerovigli, then finally visiting Oia.
On our second day we visited some of the various archaeological sites around the island, which was really enjoyable. Ancient Thira in particular was fantastic with its incredibly dramatic location at the top of a road with numerous switchbacks.
The third day was designated beach and wine day. We started with the beaches in the morning. Due to when we visited it wasn’t bathing temperature, but it was nice to see the varying beach colours and rock formations at the beaches. The afternoon we drove to several of the wineries that were open and had tasting, allowing us to stock up on some grape based souvenirs.
On our last day, we visited the main museum and went for a hike to Skaros Rock. This gave us a really good flavour of all that Santorini has to offer.
We ended up having a fantastic time in Santorini and are very pleased we went. We felt as though we were able to enjoy just what makes the island special without breaking the bank. If you are considering a trip I definitely recommend it and hopefully some of the following tips will help you.
Tips
- If you are a carnivore, then Santorini is a great place to visit. There are some amazing gyros and they are fantastic as well as inexpensive.
- There is a Lidl supermarket on the island which is a great place to stock up on snacks and drinks. It is located just south of Fira away from the Caldera.
- Spend some time exploring, the attraction of Santorini will always be the Caldera, but there is so much more to see, from the beaches, to scenic villages and historical sites. It is all incredibly scenic and worth considering.
- We already mentioned that we went wine tasting and I highly recommend this. Many people go to Santo Wines as part of a tour and get large flights of wine. I would suggest trying lots of different wineries and a couple wines at each, you never know what you might find.
- Research cruise ship schedules. Santorini port can get very busy, and on a particular day more than ten thousand people can turn up, this can make those picturesque streets quite claustrophobic and turn the hunt for the perfect shot into a bit of a bunfight. Even if you can’t completely avoid cruise tourists, plan to be away from Fira and Oia on days with the highest number of cruisers.
