the blues, whites, and reds of Santorini
Trip dates: March 16, 2017 - March 19, 2017
We flew from Athens to Santorini in the evening, so we didn't land until nightfall. I was surprised by the amount of lights I saw twinkling our plane landed - I had thought the island was much smaller/less populated than it really was!
We were staying in a cave house in Oia, so our taxi from the airport dropped us off at the Post Office parking lot where we were then met by a old man with a donkey. Since we only had our small daypacks (we left our bigger backpacks in Athens), the donkey stayed behind as we made our way towards the cave houses. The cobbled streets of Oia are pretty narrow and some stretches are quite dark - good thing we had a guide!
We didn't do too much exploring that night; just admired the setting of our home for the next two nights and the glow of all the whirlpools around us. We were also entertained by a ragtag group of dogs that jumped in and out of everyone's homes as they pleased; one even decided that our porch was the best place for him to spend the night!
We woke up to a beautiful morning on Santorini - everything was so BLUE! We walked through Oia and were surprised by the amount of people that were around. It wasn't that it was crowded, but it was more tourists and people than we had seen throughout most of our time in the Balkans. There were also a lot more stores open in Oia, though a lot of the restaurants (the highly ranked ones too, bummer) seemed to still be closed for the season. We had a light breakfast before heading on our way for a day of beach exploration.
Side note - there are SO many dogs everywhere on Santorini! I don't think they are all strays, but they all run around where ever they please. Add donkeys to the mix and that explains why certain streets in Oia are so gross and many areas smell like a zoo. None of the stuff I had read about Santorini mentioned this, but the streets of Oia are filled with poop. Some are worse than others, but you should always be watching where you step! Plus, they just hose it down in the mornings, which just spreads donkey poo hay everywhere... lovely image now, huh? I would definitely think twice before wearing a long dress/skirt in Oia, and maybe bring some sneaks instead of just flip flops if you go.
We headed to the entrance of Oia, where the bus stop is, to rent a car for a day. We got a tiny little automatic car that was kinda barely staying together - we named it Squeaker because it squeaked whenever we moved. Not the nicest ride but it was kind of perfect for driving around the island on the tiny roads.
We headed to Red beach first, and it was surprisingly crowded! There were quite a number of people and cars there, plus a whole tourist bus full of Asians (of course). We walked the ten minutes or so to the beach. It was pretty easy but you should definitely wear real shoes if you do it! It's mostly rocks with some minor scrambling needed, so not fun to do in just flip flops.
Red beach itself wasn't much of a beach. It's not sand but more like small rocks that's a mix of black and red; it looked more like volcanic ash to me than anything else. The surrounding cliffs are a deep red color though, which is probably why it's called Red beach. The red cliffs next to the blue green Aegean Sea with white cliffs in the distance really make this quite a picturesque location.
Since there were a fair amount of people at Red beach, we decided to walk a bit further to try and see if we could find a more private spot. We saw some dirt paths that went up and over the west end of the beach so we followed those. Just 10 minutes from Red beach and it was much quieter but with nice views still. I think you can go further and eventually get to Kambia beach, but we didn't go that far. The scramble down to our little private beach was a little steep but it was pretty easy to get to otherwise. On the way back to Red beach and Squeaker, we saw some guy doing some naked sunbathing. So I guess it must be really quiet in that stretch with very little foot traffic.
Red beach is on the western part of the island, and the furthest point west is Akrotiri Lighthouse, which is where we headed to next. Along the way is the Akrotiri archaeological site of a Bronze Age settlement that was buried in volcanic ash. Since we had visited Pompeii and seen a lot of other ruins recently, we decided to not stop here.
We made our way along the coast to the lighthouse but found that it was fenced off. I'm not sure that you can actually go in there, but there's a path that heads up the hill and offers some nice views of the west end of Santorini and of the lighthouse itself.
By this point, it was midday and we were starving! We stopped by a restaurant that we had passed on the way to Akrotiri Lighthouse called The Good Heart. It was definitely a family run restaurant, as each of the sons waited on us at one point and we could hear the uncles or grandpas shouting (ok, just talking really loudly) in the kitchen. It was a pretty good meal of fresh, local ingredients. We especially loved their homemade tomato paste, so much that we bought a jar to go!
After lunch, we headed east to the south part of the island and figured we'd hit up a couple different beaches on the long way back to Oia. We stopped at Vlichada beach just to check it out without expecting much. This turned out to be our favorite beach on the island!
It's a really long stretch of beach and very quiet. There were only a handful of people there. The beach is mostly sand, though depending on where you are, the texture changes a lot. Some parts were a little rockier but some other parts were super soft sand. The best part about this beach though is the rock formations along the cliffs. They were so cool to look at and very unique; I absolutely loved this beach!
We drove by Perivolos beach and Perissa beach before finally heading back to Oia. Perivolos beach was just a long stretch of beach; it seemed to have more amenities with lots of shops and restaurants across the street. We saw quite a few people hanging out and drinking a cold one there. Perissa beach is known as the black sand beach. Yes, it had black sand, though it didn't seem that much darker than the sand at Red beach. Nice enough beach but nothing too special/unique about it. We stopped to snap a couple pictures and then continued on our way.
After a relaxing day of exploring beaches, we headed back to Oia with time to catch the sunset.
Sunset in March was around 6pm so we grabbed a jacket and headed out around 5ish to try and find a sunset spot. We walked by the Byzantine castle ruins first - this is the most well known spot for sunsets on Santorini. It is so famous that it seems like everyone from the whole island comes here for sunsets! We didn't see that many tourists in Oia, or the rest of the island all day but come sunset time, it got sooo crowded the closer you got to the castle ruins. An hour before sunset and we saw a fair amount of people already staking out spots!
Since Eric and I really dislike crowds, we decided to venture out further. We saw from the castle ruins another ruin further down, so we tried to head there. We didn't end up finding that, but we did find a beautiful meadow that gave us some gorgeous shots at sunset. It was just past the windmills of Oia, along the main road. It was a shame that it was all construction on the shores below there; otherwise, it would have been a great spot!
As the sun was on its final descent, we headed towards the windmills to try and get a different view. There were a couple others with the some idea, and we all sat/stood along the white balconies as we caught the final rays of sun.
Once the sun actually set, most of the crowd at the castle ruins had dispersed so we took the opportunity to check it out then. It offers that very classic view of the sun in the distance, with the blue and white buildings of Oia in the foreground. So if you're looking for that specific photo, then you should go early and stake out a spot at the castle ruins for sunset. Otherwise, there's plenty of other areas in Oia if you just keep heading west, where you'll still get great views!
Dinner that night was souvlaki to go from Pitogyros. We got one each of chicken and pork and it was way too much food! We wish they had gyro meat available but they had already run out. The souvlaki was pretty good, but lacked the crispiness that we liked. Pitogyros' tzatziki sauce was delicious though! We found that all the tzatziki we had in Greece was soo much better than at home, must be the local ingredients that make the difference!
The next day was another beautiful day on the island. We had heard that the weather in March can be iffy (hence why it's still considered offseason) but we got really lucky while we were there! We took advantage of the nice day and went to Skaros rock and then hiked back to Oia. Since we have a ton of pictures from that hike, we have a separate post about the Fira to Oia trail.
Before heading out, we grabbed lunch at Family Greek Souvlaki. We got a Greek salad and one gyro each of pork and chicken. The food was decent though the tomatoes were not the best that we'd had.
When we finally got back to Oia from our hike, we were so hungry that we decided we should grab dinner somewhere with a nice sunset view. We were recommended a restaurant in Ammoudi Bay called Katina's that seemed really good so we were pretty excited to sit down, get some food, and catch the sunset. We made our way down to Ammoudi Bay (the steps are right by the Byzantine castle ruins) and when we got down there, we realized that nothing was open! Nothing! There were some people doing construction down there, and some shuttles waiting to take the people on the sunset cruises back and that was it. To say we were disheartened is quite an understatement!
We were exhausted and hungry, but we figured we better make the trek back up the stairs before the sun went down completely (so that we would still have enough light to avoid all the poop on the streets). We took in the views for a little bit and then grudgingly trudged the 230+ steps back up into town, with many many breaks in between! What an absolutely exhausting let down to end our long day!
Since we didn't find a place to eat in Ammoudi Bay, we ended up going to Blue Sky, a restaurant that was recommended by our cave house host though the TripAdvisor reviews were lackluster. We should have listened to TripAdvisor - this was probably one of the worst meals we had in Greece and was a sad way to end our time in Santorini.
The next day, we caught a ferry early in the morning to head to Milos. So to recap, Santorini is bigger than expected. Besides just kicking back and relaxing, there's probably enough to keep you busy for a couple days. It's not really a beachy island, but there are several different and unique types of beaches to be explored (seriously, go to Vlichada).
Oh, and the sunsets are pretty nice, as you would expect. I don't know if they're the most amazing sunsets that you'll ever see though. We actually enjoyed the sunsets in Milos much much more... stay tuned!
