4 nights in Santorini, 7 nights in Crete - Need some input
Jul 18th, 2019, 09:58 PM
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4 nights in Santorini, 7 nights in Crete - Need some input
We just booked a last minute two week trip (including travel) to Santorini/Crete. Looking for some feedback and recommendations on things to do and a little help on how we should plan our time in Crete.
Santorini: 4 nights
We will be staying in Imerovigli for all 4 nights. So far were planning to do a hike and dinner cruise, the rest of the time is a blank slate. We got a nice room with a caldera view, so 1-2 days might just be more alot of relaxing.
- Any must see sights while were in Santorini? restaurants?
- To go from Santorini to Crete, is a ferry the best way? Is booking in advance recommended? Is there a certain company we should book with? Do ferries only go to Heraklion?
- Are phone plans with data fairly cheap to get?
Crete: 6 nights
- We haven't done much planning for Crete yet.. As were only there for 6 nights, sounds like we should be concentrating on one part of Crete and seems like most suggest the West?
- Is it easy to do day trips if we stayed at 1-2 cities for the most part?
- Any must see beaches/gorges? hikes? Museums? Boat tours/dinners?
- What's the best way to travel from city to city? or city to essentially anywhere like a beach, hiking spot, etc. (eg. rent a car, driver, ATV quad or scooter)
- We fly out from Heraklion on our last day, so ideally it would be best to end there the night before as we have an early flight.
One of our main issues we're trying to sort out for Crete, is how to spend our days and where we should stay each night. Our flight back home is an early morning one from Heraklion. In hindsight, might have been better to try and fly out from Chania, so that way we could start in Heraklion, make our way to Chania and fly out afterwards. Anyways, given that we are now flying out from Heraklion, would you recommend starting our Crete trip in (or around) Chania, then work our way back to Heraklion? This is assuming the west part of Crete is what we decide on, were pretty open to suggestions.
Thanks for any input.
Santorini: 4 nights
We will be staying in Imerovigli for all 4 nights. So far were planning to do a hike and dinner cruise, the rest of the time is a blank slate. We got a nice room with a caldera view, so 1-2 days might just be more alot of relaxing.
- Any must see sights while were in Santorini? restaurants?
- To go from Santorini to Crete, is a ferry the best way? Is booking in advance recommended? Is there a certain company we should book with? Do ferries only go to Heraklion?
- Are phone plans with data fairly cheap to get?
Crete: 6 nights
- We haven't done much planning for Crete yet.. As were only there for 6 nights, sounds like we should be concentrating on one part of Crete and seems like most suggest the West?
- Is it easy to do day trips if we stayed at 1-2 cities for the most part?
- Any must see beaches/gorges? hikes? Museums? Boat tours/dinners?
- What's the best way to travel from city to city? or city to essentially anywhere like a beach, hiking spot, etc. (eg. rent a car, driver, ATV quad or scooter)
- We fly out from Heraklion on our last day, so ideally it would be best to end there the night before as we have an early flight.
One of our main issues we're trying to sort out for Crete, is how to spend our days and where we should stay each night. Our flight back home is an early morning one from Heraklion. In hindsight, might have been better to try and fly out from Chania, so that way we could start in Heraklion, make our way to Chania and fly out afterwards. Anyways, given that we are now flying out from Heraklion, would you recommend starting our Crete trip in (or around) Chania, then work our way back to Heraklion? This is assuming the west part of Crete is what we decide on, were pretty open to suggestions.
Thanks for any input.
Jul 18th, 2019, 10:17 PM
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What to see and do really depends on your interests, so you'd do best to get a good guidebook or two. I found the Michelin Green Guide particularly useful for Crete and Santorini. And if you haven't already seen it, you might find some useful information in my trip report -- I began in Crete and moved on to Santorini from there.
With Gratitude for a Glorious Solo Month in Greece
With Gratitude for a Glorious Solo Month in Greece
Jul 19th, 2019, 04:28 AM
#3
The western area of Crete is where you want to spend time. Stay in beautiful Chania. We spent two weeks there and never ran out of places to explore.
Go to Heraklion to leave Crete by ferry, visiting ancient Knossos there too.
Rent a car for Crete. Beaches- Falasarna, Elafonisi. You need a good guide book. Consider driving over the mountains, park in Chora Skafion, take a ferry to Luotro. There is so much to visit in Western Crete.
You have too much time on crowded Santorini, take away one night, add it to Athens which I don’t see listed. Perhaps you have been there before?
Go to Heraklion to leave Crete by ferry, visiting ancient Knossos there too.
Rent a car for Crete. Beaches- Falasarna, Elafonisi. You need a good guide book. Consider driving over the mountains, park in Chora Skafion, take a ferry to Luotro. There is so much to visit in Western Crete.
You have too much time on crowded Santorini, take away one night, add it to Athens which I don’t see listed. Perhaps you have been there before?
Last edited by HappyTrvlr; Jul 19th, 2019 at 04:36 AM.
Jul 19th, 2019, 08:54 AM
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As kja points out, what to do really depends on your interests.
Here's what we enjoyed last June:
We hiked from Imerovigli to Oia and then explored Oia and walked down to Ammoudi Bay for lunch which was nice.
We did a wine tour with Santorini Wine Adventure Tours. It was one of the highlights of our trip. Led by a sommelier, we visited three different wineries.
We did a catamaran cruise, though I wish we had planned a boat trip on a smaller boat with less people. We went with Sunset Oia.
We hiked out to Skaros Rock which is directly in front of Imerovigli.
We spent one day at "41" on Perissa Beach, the black sand beach. Although Santorini is not known for its beaches, we enjoyed just lazing around and enjoying the water and watersports.
In terms of restaurants, we enjoyed the following for dinner:
Mezzo in Imerovigli: great views of the caldera, delicious food.
Metaxy Mas near Pyrgos: delicious food, very reasonably priced compared to other restaurants at which we dined
Avocado in Imerovigli: such friendly staff, good food
Athenian House in Imerovigli: a splurge but the views and the food were phenomenal.
Ouzeri in Fira: huge selection, very good food
Here's what we enjoyed last June:
We hiked from Imerovigli to Oia and then explored Oia and walked down to Ammoudi Bay for lunch which was nice.
We did a wine tour with Santorini Wine Adventure Tours. It was one of the highlights of our trip. Led by a sommelier, we visited three different wineries.
We did a catamaran cruise, though I wish we had planned a boat trip on a smaller boat with less people. We went with Sunset Oia.
We hiked out to Skaros Rock which is directly in front of Imerovigli.
We spent one day at "41" on Perissa Beach, the black sand beach. Although Santorini is not known for its beaches, we enjoyed just lazing around and enjoying the water and watersports.
In terms of restaurants, we enjoyed the following for dinner:
Mezzo in Imerovigli: great views of the caldera, delicious food.
Metaxy Mas near Pyrgos: delicious food, very reasonably priced compared to other restaurants at which we dined
Avocado in Imerovigli: such friendly staff, good food
Athenian House in Imerovigli: a splurge but the views and the food were phenomenal.
Ouzeri in Fira: huge selection, very good food
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