takemewithu

We will be in Santorini next week, arriving around 8 pm. We have 2 full days and 3 nights and are staying in Fira. Should we rent a car in one of those 2 full days? We will probably skip the museums and akrotiri since we only have 2 full days and we will be going to Athens, the Peloponnese and Delphi later in the trip so plenty of opportunity to see other ruins. We would like to visit a winery, though. Thanks to all for your input.

mariha2912

Answer on this depends on you. Other than visiting a winnery what else you plan to see/do on the island?

You can see public bus schedules here:
http://ktel-santorini.gr/ktel/index....ble-summer-eng

brotherleelove2004

For such a short visit renting a car for at least one day makes the best sense. If you live outside the EU be sure to bring an International Driving Permit with you. If you live in No. America you can pick one up at your local AAA/CAA office, no test or membership requried.

takemewithu

possibly visit other parts of the island ( other than Fira and Oia ), if there are interesting places to see there? Thanks Mariha.

takemewithu

Thanks Brotherlee. We are from the US, and indeed have secured an International Drivers Permit, as we have been well advised on here :=). Thanks as always for your input. Any interesting places you might recommend to see in the "back" side of the island? can't wait to try the sweet cherry tomatoes and cucumber!!!

mariha2912

BLL is THE person to ask about everything Santorini, but for what it worths, the way I see it, generally speaking, nearly always a car provides maximum flexibility to explore around. And might be advisable in a limited time frame if you try to fit in a lot...BUT I usually rely on public transport and I find it not as limiting as people believe.
My Santorini visits are no exeptions to this, there is a very decent bus system. You could easily connect from Fira to Perissa and/or Kamari for example, spend a few hours and been dropped off by a winnery on return. You could then take an afternoon bus to Oia for a nice dinner.

Odin

My preference and suggestion would to be rent a car. For such a short trip, I would not want to wait for buses nor conform to their schedule, however good. Cars can go to places that buses do not. Rent a car, look at the map and follow roads around the island and stop at places that are interesting to you. Pick the car up at airport a 8pm then return it to the airport at the end of the stay.

sahera

In my opinion, it depends on what and how much you would like to see in these two days. Certainly the autobus network connects the most important and tourist places but if you would like to tour all the little island, I think it's better to be indipendent and rent a car; maybe it could be better rent a scooter, since some narrow roads! I suggest you not to lose the wonderful sunset in Oìa. There you could find, also, as a means of transport, some little donkey they are used to go down and up from the little port.

Odin

First, they are not little donkeys. Little donkeys are not going to be able to carry the weight of a tourist up and from from the little port. They are mules. I do not encourage anyone to take mules as a means of transport.

sahera

Hallo Odin, ok they could be mules. I don't know very well the difference, sorry for my fault! It's something typical and I've seen people who took them, maybe just to try this experience... It was just a nice memory of the trip connected to "means of transport". Bye!

greg

It depends on where you are going. Wineries are usually out of the way requiring a car or a taxi. However, Boutari winery is between Fira and Akrotiri and is trivial to visit by bus.
There are one-way activities where a car is useless.
Fira to Oia walk. How to do handle the return part?
One way all day yacht cruise from one part of island to another. Cruise operator provides included transportation from your hotel.
If you want to eat a sunset dinner at Amoudi, you would likely to walk more by driving your own car. You park on the side of the road.
I would also mention that what you see in Akrotiri is not what you see in Delphi or Acropolis or Peloponnese. The later consists of public structures, temples, theaters, baths, stadiums, etc. Akrotiri captures a common people's village with many of their belongings remaining intact in situ. You do not find this kind of ruin in Delphi. The best of the frescoes from Akrotiri are kept in Museum of Ancient Thira in Fira as well as in National Archaeological museum in Athens. A similar ruin would be Herculaneum or Pompeii but not Delphi or Epidaurus.

brotherleelove2004

Please DON'T ride the poor abused donkeys! If you knew how badly they're treated you would be disgusted.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/438...-Daily-Express

takemewithu

Thanks to all of you for your input. We might rent a car for just one day, on our 2nd full day. Instead of picking up from the airport, I'm thinking of just renting from an agency in Fira unless this plan is prohibitively expensive. I'm open to the idea of renting from an airport rental agency upon our arrival at around 8 pm. This plan will mean we have to rent for 3 days ( assuming the agency counts 1 day from pick up time ). This plan will save us $$$ in airport transfers which will probably pay for 1 day of rental. What are your thoughts on either plan? Do,you have any car rental agencies you can recommend either from the airport or in Fira?

takemewithu

Forgot to mention, our flight to Athens on our 3rd day is at 10:30 am. So if we will be renting from the airport, we will return the car at around 8-8:30 am. From ATH airport, we have booked a rental for 10 days to drive to the Peloponnese, Delphi and Meteora. We have a cancelable reservation from Enterprise Car Rental thru Kemwel. I thought we got a decent price of $238, all in for 10 days.

brotherleelove2004

Check Tony's Rent a Car and Spiridakos Rent a Car.

takemewithu

Thanks Brotherlee, I'll check both.

takemewithu

Quick update....we did rent a car and drove from the airport to our hotel in Fira. We're very glad we decided to rent a car because for our short stay, we were able to get around and see a lot of out of the way places. We would not have been able to see as much if we had placed ourselves at the mercy of the bus' schedule. Santorini is a very driveable place, parking was never an issue for us-maybe we got lucky because we didn't go in the summer peak season. We had dinner yesterday at this great restaurant in Exo Genia, Mataxi Mas which we could have probably only gone to by taxi if we didn't have a car.

Thanks to all of you who helped us with planning this trip. We are into our 4th day as of this posting. I will write a short report upon our return and will try to answer questions on here if anybody needs any quick or latest info on the places we have visited so far. We will be in Nafplio for the next 5 nights, picking up another rental car from Athens airport as soon as our plane from Santorini arrives.

Having a great time in Greece. Great food, nice cool weather, and very friendly and hospitable people.

mariha2912

Thanks for the update, Enjoy Nafplio!