Santorini - escape from parenthood 😉

In March I started to think about the summer vacation. I knew that we will spend couple of weeks in Estonia, but you never know what the weather is going to be so I also wanted to book a trip to south Europe. I was thinking about different Greek islands and in the end decided to go to Santorini. It also happened because my mom agreed to watch Nolan during our trip. Santorini is not really a destination to go with a small child. It is doable but I do not think we would have enjoyed it that much. I have been dreaming about going to Santorini for long time, so it was about the time to make it happen. Of course it was also cheaper to go without the kiddo.😀

Oia

I checked all kinds of flight rotes and in the end decided to go with Finnair from Estonia with a connection flight in Helsinki. This also enabled us to stay a week in Estonia before and after the trip, so Nolan would have time to get used with the grandparents. My friend with her husband also joined which was great! 😊

Oia - white building and blue roofs

TRANSPORT

We arrived to Santorini on Saturday evening. We had also luggage checked in so it took some time to get them. We shared the rental car with Helen and Siim. Luckily Siim was the driver. I believe that we would not have rented a car if it would have been just me and Kevin. Mainly due to the fact that we are not that confident drivers in a new place. At the same time it was quite convenient to have a car especially since we did not stay in the main "sunset" areas. And automatic car makes life much easier and of course smaller better in terms of parking and the streets are pretty narrow. On the positive side the speed do not get much higher than 60 km/h. Some people also rented the ATV or scooter. It is quite windy in Santorini so I would still prefer a car since then it is also opportunity to enjoy the AC.😁 We used the car mainly in the evening to go enjoy the sunset and have dinner. 

Perissa volcanic beach - water shues recommended

I also read that there is a public bus in a island. I saw people standing in the bus stops, but supposedly you never know if there is space and when the bus will come. Especially if it is around sunset time where all the people in Santorini go to watch sunset mostly in Oia or Fira. 

Mums learning to pose without kiddos 😂

ACCOMODATION

I googled quite a bit about what area to stay. Oia and Fira are the main touristic places that Santorini is famous for. There you can see the sunset and they have the famous white houses with the blue roofs in there. The main minus is that there are no beaches and most hotels have no pool or very small one since the space is limited. Of course the value of the money is also insane and could stay a night in Maldives for that price!😅 In the end I choose Perissa that is basically the only bigger beach area in Santorini. The sand is though volcanic (black) so the water is not crystal blue. There are many hotels with different price level along the beach and the water is pretty nice so I was pretty happy we stayed there since swimming is one of my priorities when travelling to the south 😉

The Heart of Santorini

I chose the hotel from booking.com. I filtered the hotels with swimming pool and good reviews and then picked the one with best price, Anezia Villas. The aim for us was not to have the Honeymoon vol.2 so we were less picky about the hotel. The one we stayed was a bit old but clean and everything worked so pretty good value for the money. It was a short walk from the beach. I also liked the pool. We usually spent some time by the pool during mornings before heading to the beach for the noon.

Hotel pool

FOOD

The food was not included in our hotel, so for a breakfast we went to the local bakery and got some fresh bread and orange juice and that every morning! 😀 Lunch we had usually at one of the tavernas in Perissa beach together with Siim and Helen. If you ate the lunch in the taverna then you could have the sunbed with umbrella for free so it was pretty convenient. The prices were not so bad, cocktails were about 10 EUR and plate with meat/fish with fries and salat cost around 15 EUR. The plates were pretty big. I am not a real foodie but fish was nice and fresh and the Greek salat tasted delicious.😋

Cocktail time - can a bigger slice of watermelon stand? 😅

To enjoy the sunset we also went to more fancier places that were also more pricey. Let´s say that still not as much as in a good restaurant in Copenhagen. For the sunset time and view it is actually recommended to book the table way in advance before even arriving to Santorini. Maybe at the same time when booking a hotel✌️. In Fira and Oia the prices to eat out are higher in the restaurants but in Oia, that is the capital, there are also many cheap street food places with good prices and food is delicious. 

Beach time

After dinner shisha in Perissa

ENTERTAINMENT

Catamaran trip

Since we had rented the car we only booked one boat trip to check out Santorini from the water. There are trips available for all kind of price level. At first I wanted to book a trip so that we could enjoy the sunset but they were already sold out so instead I went for the daytime one and with limited number people. There was max 20 people in the catamaran and it was very nice and clean with unlimited drinks and the lunch was great. We did couple of spots for swimming and snorkeling (equipment include to the price). In terms of snorkeling there is not much to sea. 

Boat selfie

We saw both the famous white and red beach. It is also possible to go visit them through land and ferry taxi, but they seemed quite small as such. The trip cost about 150 EUR. The pick up was around 10 am and we got back around 15. It was pretty nice to experience the "rich people" life in the catamaran. I am though not the boat person.😀 It was windy but luckily the catamaran did not shake that crazy. The wind was nice in that way that otherwise it would have been quite hot on the boat.

Our Catamaran

White Sand Beach

Oia & Amoudi Bay

The main entertainment in Santorini is ofc the Sunset that equals with a rock concert if you see how many people will come out to enjoy from around the island and the drive cars back! One evening we went to watch sunset in Oia that is considered the main place. We also walked around to enjoy the views before the sunset. We also walked down to the Amoudi Bay and then back up. It was quite of the exercises under the sunshine. Plus you need to watch out that the donkey shit would not fly into your mouth.😂 The best sunset place is advertised to be by the Castle of Oia. We went there to get the spot about 1 hour before the sunset and it was already full of people. Something to be aware of when going to take all these "Instagram pictures" is that it is pretty windy so pick the right clothes if you do not want all tourists to see your underwear - lol.😅

Famous Oia sunset

We game back to Amoudi Bay for the sunset dinner during the last evening in Santorini. This time we chose to get down there by car. The dinner place was quite booked during the sunset time. Something to be aware of is that you cannot see the full sunset to the water down there but it is still a nice atmosphere to eat, and food was fine too. The craziest thing though was to get out there with the car. At first it was not much parking places but in the end cars were even parked in 2 rows. We were lucky that nobody had parked us in and Siim was a good driver to get us out from there. So in the end maybe the donkey ride by the stair to Oia would be faster.😉

Amoudi Bay - up you can see stares to Oia

Travel grew enjoying the last dinner

Fira

I actually liked Fira more than Oia. So if I will return to Santorini for my "sweet 50" with lot of money, I will probably stay there. As mentioned before Fira is the capiatal of Santorini so there are many shops with souvenirs and food places with different price levels. The view is also as good as in Oia. For one evening we went to eat in one of the fancier restaurants in Imerovigli during the sunset time. It is much more enjoyable to enjoy the sunset by sitting and eating in the restaurant, just need to book the table in advance. 

Sunset with money experience 😀

The sky was even more incredible after the sunset 

And more sunset pictures 😀

Wine tasting

One evening before the heading to the sunset dinner we also made it to the wine tasting in one wineries on top of the Santorini. The view from there was great so could have even eaten dinner there. According to the reviews the tour to the winery was nth special so we just sticked to the tasting part. Santorini wines are not really the best and mainly white wines but I think it was still worth tasting and it was not that expensive either. 

Wine tasting with snacks

In total we stayed in Santorini 4 full days (the trip was in total 6 days, but on arrival day we arrived for the dinner and on the departure day we just had breakfast) and it was about enough I would say. The only think that we could have done was the hike from Fira to Oia, that will wait for the next visit.🌞

Fira ❤️