Santorini: a magic island on the Aegean See

Those of you who regularly visit my blog know that I recently have been to Greece. More specifically, I visited two Greek islands: Mykonos and Santorini. I briefly wrote about the first one in my post called The best restaurants in Mykonos, so today it’s time for a post about the second one, i.e. Santorini.

Santorini: a wonderful place on earth

I already knew that Santorini is beautiful, but only after seeing the island with my own eyes, I realized that the opinions about it are not exaggerated. A small – only about 96 km2 – volcanic island in the Aegean Sea has been attracting tourists from all over the world for years. I will not describe it in detail – you will find everything you need to know about it on the Internet. Rather than that, I will give you a few pro tips and briefly describe the places I had the opportunity to visit.

A few pro tips

If you are going to rent a car or quad bike, take into account that the local gas stations close at 10 p.m. There are also places where there are no stations at all – for example on the way to Oia and in Oia itself – so you must have a full tank.

You can also travel around the island by taxis – it is obviously more expensive than in Poland, but one sure can afford it. For example, a trip from the airport to Imerovigli (7.5 km on average) costs around 20 euros.

It is also worth remembering that we are still battling Covid-19: if you would like to go to a club, be sure to check what restrictions are in force.

Where to stay?

During our visit to the island, we stayed in two places: Imerovigli and Firostefani.

In the first place, Isa and I stayed at Villa Lukas – it’s an absolutely amazing place. At our disposal we had a beautiful apartment with a terrace, a jacuzzi and an amazing view of the sunsets. Nearby, there was also a smashing restaurant called The 5 Senses. It is a very elegant place with a top chef. We went to the local Buddha Bar for a drink, which I don’t think I need to describe to you;)

In Firostefani, on the other hand, we had the opportunity to stay at the Tsitsouras Collection hotel, which I tag in this post because it is really an incredible place! These luxurious apartments are located in a restored building from 1780, which during its more than 200-year history was a school, a post office and a private home. It was here where celebrities such as Gianni Versace or Nicolas Sarkozy stayed.

Our apartment was called The House of Porcelain and it stole our hearts as soon as we entered it. We were captivated by the view of the sea and the beautiful antique porcelain plates hanging everywhere on the walls. But not only the building and its surroundings impressed us – also top service, excellent cuisine and breakfasts served on the terrace even until 1 p.m. (!).

Santorini is famous for many tourist attractions, but I would like to recommend you three of them:

a visit to the town of Oia – although a bit crowded, it is still worth going there and watching one of the beautiful sunsets; it is also worth taking a stroll along the main street – basically the only street in the town – where there are many shops and pubs;
a visit to Thira – this is the official Greek name of not only the island of Santorini, but also of the unofficial capital and the largest town; it is so beautiful that it took me several hours to walk through it, because every now and then I stopped to take a picture;
catamaran trip from 3 p.m. to sunset – one of the best experiences we had; we feasted on fresh seafood grilled to perfection; plus beautiful views, including the local volcano, the sea and the sunset.