My Big Fat Greek Vacation: Santorini

To get to Santorini, we took a plane from Rhodes. Once arriving, we were driven to the town of Oia by a car provided by our Airbnb host, George. I highly recommend staying in Oia, with its breathtaking views, aesthetic blue and white coloring, and amazing restaurants. (https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/13584834)

From the moment you step foot in Santorini, you can feel the peaceful and serene atmosphere around you. The whole place is perfectly picturesque so make sure to have your camera ready.

The highlight of our trip to Santorini was the clifftop hike from Fira to Oia, which was roughly three hours. I recommend starting early before it gets too hot and definitely bring water. The views from the route overlooking the Aegean Sea were stunning and we came across various sites such as the Skaros Rock that we opted to climb, a small hidden church, and even a few pups!!

After our long hike we rewarded ourselves with an outing to Domaine Sigalas winery. To our mistake, we thought we could walk there, but in actuality you need to take a car. Once seated with a view of the vineyard, we tried 10 different wines and then chose a glass for ourselves. We also ordered grape leaves and fava beans. Santorini is known for their fava and now I understand why.

Santorini is also home to stunning beaches such as the Kamari black sand beach and the Red Beach (Kokkini Paralia). Even if it's not quite warm enough to swim, they're both still definitely worth a visit. We were able to easily get there by public bus.

Now sure, we did a lot of active things while in Greece, but we definitely did a lot of eating as well. So I'd like to dedicate a section to talk about a very important thing... food.

Karma was a restaurant with an amazing atmosphere. It's located on a backstreet of Oia and has beautiful outdoor seating, great service, and even better food and wine.

If you want the best, not overpriced gyro of Greece, definitely make a stop at Pito Gyros. It's a short distance from the bus station and has great vegetarian options as well as traditional meat gyros. We chose to get takeout and eat it on our balcony.

As I wrote about in a previous post, a breakfast in Greece cannot be complete without a cappuccino freddo. And at SKIZA Café, it's also not complete without a chocolate banana crepe.

Since we were lucky enough to be in Greece for Greek Easter, we got the chance to witness celebratory fireworks from the rooftop of another amazing restaurant, Melitini. They had especially delectable baklava, potatoes, and Yellow Donkey beer.

One of the most important things about Oia is that it is known for its mesmerizing sunsets so make sure to head to the small cliff where everyone gathers to gaze at the beautiful view.

I would recommend staying in Santorini for at least 3 days, which is how long we were there, or longer. There is so much to be explored on this island and also so much time to be spent relaxing.