Here is the long-awaited post for the ultimate and complete handbook to SANTORINI Island!!
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| Sunset Captured in La Maison Restaurant |
FYI, I went to Santorini in May 2016 and through this post I will share with you all my experiences and tips so you can avoid all the tourist traps and make the most out of of your trip!! YASS!
Santorini
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| Image from Santorinibikesrental.com |
Transport
Santorini is not a super huge island, and on my last trip there I commuted around the island with either public bus or taxi. Bus fee is super cheap (1.8 Euros & you have to pay inside the bus) while taxi is quite an expense comparing to the bus, however, is still affordable if you share the expense with your friends (8-30 Euros). Both transport takes you to all the tourist destinations of Santorini, but with taxi, obviously you can stop wherever you desire.
For bus, there is a schedule to go to each city at a specific time, it is posted on each bus stop, so to ease your scheduling on each destination simply take a picture of the schedules and remind yourself of the time. On the other hand for taxi, it is quite difficult to get them if you are not in Fira (Capital of Santorini) so I suggest you to have the taxi company number first just in case you need them.
Depending on how long you are staying in Santorini and with how many people you're commuting with, you might want to share to rent a car to ease your travel between cities rather than wasting your time waiting for bus or taxi. It's quite affordable, it's approximately 35 euros per day for manual cars and 45 euros per day for automatic cars. However just keep in mind that most of the cars do not have GPS so bring your maps or turn on your Google Maps!
Accommodation
To minimize the fuss, we stayed 3 nights entirely in the same hotel in Fira area called, the Volcano View Hotel. At first we were intrigued because the website page is so nice and it is claimed to be a 5 star hotel so we decided to book the standard sea view room fo around 120 Euros per night. It has all the looks and design of a 5-star property, however the service does not reflect the number of stars. The staffs are typical lazy, ignorant staffs, wi-fi in our room is so bad, our bathtub keeps on flooding and the breakfast was so blagh..
The view from our room though..was so beautiful, overviewing the caldera ocean, the room was clean and housekeeper changed our towels and linens everyday, there's two pools and massage if you want to. But yeah, I guess we were out of our minds when we thought we could get 5 star lux service for 120 euros (lol).
Moreover, they provide shuttle to and from the airport and they also have scheduled van to drive guests to Fira city centre so it was a plus for us since we didn't rent a car. Overall stay was maybe 5 out of 10.
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| Admirable View from the Breakfast place |
Anywhere in Santorini is basically an opportunity for a photo shoot. HAHA for real. It is beautiful. Even the streets and the markets were like an attraction to me because it's so unique and so picturesque.
- Fira (read: Thira)
- Ypapantis Street: central shopping street where you can find dessert shops, jewelry, cafes, restaurants, good views, bars and nightclubs!
- There's even a department store with H&M if I'm not wrong. TIP: for girls, don't forget to purchase yourself an authentic Grecian style sandal - not only that they're cheaper but they're also up to the trend now teehee!
- TIP: the good nightclubs and bars in Santorini only exist in Fira
- Follow the crowd and you'll get yourself into the village where the streets are super pretty (picture time!!).
- The three iconic blue domes that you see in all the posters of Greece can be found here! TIP: we asked the shopkeeper where it is teehee!
- Oia castle: the highest point in Oia where you can get the classic Greece houses and ocean panoramic shots (cakep banget ga bohong). Oh! and you have to spend your sunset here as well. Go earlier as it will be packed with sooo many tourists and their huge ass cameras.
- If you have time and energy, go the extra mile (literally) approximately 400 steps down and return to Ammoudi Beach area. Go down from the castle turn left and go all the way down. Once you reach, the reward is you'll get so close to the ocean and you'll find many oceanfront restaurants serving fresh seafood with damn good view. (recommendation in the next segment *wink*)
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| Breathtaking View from Oia Castle |
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| Behind the scenes HAHA! |
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| Oia Castle Packed at Sunset |
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From my Instagram @megalimantaraa |
3. Kamari Beach
- This beach is not a sandy beach instead it is filled with small pebbles
- There are plenty of gazebos for two facing the beach
- It's not a party beach, it's more of a chilling beach where people just sleep and do tanning. While for me, I eat.. the fried finger food accompanied by iced nescafe is da bomb!
- TIP: for photo shooting this place is also very recommended to take ootds or antm wannabe pictures (LOL!) as it is not too crowded at that time meaning there's not a lot of attention given to whatever you're doing or how much pics you're taking teehee!
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| ANTM Photoshooting #wetried #wehadfun |
- Imerovigli is a less quiet village comparing to the above destinations. It radiates purity and serenity. The iconic Greece alleyways can be perfectly shot in here.
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| No edit needed... |
I'm sure many of you who travel would want to maximize the whole travel experience not only through seeing good scenery and staying in good hotels but also, to eat excellent food!
Well I'm here to recommend you some of the culinary highlights that I absolutely enjoy during my trip to Santorini.
FIRA
- Lucky’s Souvlaki – BEST GYROS EVER – try the pork gyros! Located in the centre of Fira, near the taxi station
- Corner Crepes – Good for brunch, they have good waffles & pancakes too! Try their greek coffee instead of their filter coffee, trust me.
- Pelican Café – Cutesy café, it looks picturesque from the outside but I didn’t try the food though.
- Naoussa Restaurant – very nice seafood restaurant in Fira! Make sure to get their shrimp spaghetti! I suggest lunch upstairs for a nicer view.
- TANGO Cocktail Bar – such a nice outdoor cocktail bar, with good drinks and good view.
- BubbleTale – bubble tea café but not tapioca more like popping boba, its highly refreshing!
- Chillbox Yogurt - frozen yogurt with endless toppings to choose, very good during the hot weather
- Taverna Katina – Must eat!! Located in Ammoudi Beach with quite a struggle to go there (200 steps up and down though). Ssuper recommended! Lobster spaghetti & sangria, great view. Better to RSVP. TIP: You will get a complimentary greek yogurt + honey here, it was so damn good.... omg.
- Lotza Cafe – The only dessert café in Santorini. Quite good cakes & Good view!
- Almira Restaurant – one of the popular restaurants in Kamari, RSVP if possible, located like 10 mins walk from the centre. TIP: Although it's chargeable, buy the bread, it's different than other restaurant's, with olives and greek yogurt sauce (?) If i'm not mistaken but it's so good.
- Rocka Café - good for chilling with nice view
- La Maison Restaurant – It is like a small experimental, molecular restaurant and serves really high quality food for an affordable price. We really did not expect that kind of quality and service in Santorini, I guess it's our luck and the restaurant's really deserve a round of applause for it. Dayumnn. Please RSVP and get the window seat and be there before sunset! Such nice food whatever you order, although limited menu choice.
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| Sea Bass (I forgot with what sauce but It was so delicious..) |
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| Steak of Beef with Truffle Powder - excellent and tender dish, it was so beautiful, we cried eating it |
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| Peach - Jasmine Ice Cream with Vanilla Crumble, Peach Jelly and Peach Mousse <3 <3 |
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| Hazelnut - I forgot whether it was a cake or not but there's coffee mousse and chocolate caviar. #BOMB |
More Santorini restaurant suggestions by Dave
If God is willing, I really really want to visit Santorini again sometime in the future with my hubbie?? LOL and maybe visit Mykonos as well to see the beaches! and go to parties and chill.. Greece is indeed a paradise for everyone just to escape our hectic lifes and enjoy the unlimited view of the royal blue ocean, clear sunny skies and just have a great company around. I hope that you guys too, can have a lovely holiday in Greece just as I have experienced!
Happy travels! xx
Mega
megalimantara@gmail.com
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