I was talking to my parents about taking the donkey ride in Santaroni. They said that the donkey ride is dangerous. They heard that alot of people get hurt riding them. Is that true? Anyone have experience with this? I have 2 kids coming with us (9 and 14 years old).

Sometimes if the donkey is not watched carefully, especially if the handler is working it too much on a hot day, it will attempt to get you off its back by trying to scrape you off against a wall as it walks up the steps or along a path. It's not something that happens all the time, but it does happen. I've seen some pretty badly scraped legs from this.

Personally, I think it's cruel to use the animals in this way. Some of the handlers whip them and poke them with a stick that has a nail in the end to keep them moving. If they need to do that while you're on its back, it should tell you that the animal is not happy and it could be a signal that they might try to scrape you off.

We were on a VERY small cruise that stopped in Santorini. My husband elected the donkey ride. (I took the lift!) He was the focus of a lot of humor from our group since his donkey balked all the way. However, nothing was hurt but his pride.

Hi

My wife and I took the donkey ride. It was a huge laugh!! I found the animals to be really docile and they plod along very slowly. I found the handler treated them OK. Fortunately I did not witness any cruelty. The donkey did scrape me against the wall from time to time - it was pretty light and I just lifted my leg and shouted to the handler. My opinion is that this is not an experience the kids should miss out on. They'll love it!

I took the donkey ride many yrs ago, (1976 to be exact!)while my husband elected to walk. It only cost 50 cents US at that time, so you can see how long ago it was. There was no lift then. I don't remember it being particularly frighening and if it was, I am sure I would have remembered. I have a bit of a fear of heights and being on a donkey trudging up a hill would have been my undoing! My husband's recollection of walking up from the port were that the donkeys were running back down to the port so fast to get more passengers that he was dodging the donkeys. He said it was very unpleasant, especially with his heavy backpack and all the other stuff we were carrying as well. (I had a backpack on, so the poor donkey was carrying more than just me, but the extra weight of the pack, too. Poor animal!) I, too have heard since that there have been injuries, but know of none personally.

It's Santorini. No, I didn't take the donkey ride, but I watched others taking it. I remember thinking that I might prefer to walk up, if the donkey could carry the luggage.

unless you are a light small person with a walking disability, i find it totally unnecessary to burden these exploited animals with unnecessary weight.

i would not feel bad for a horse/ mule, but, they obviously cost more and eat more, so they are not a good econmic choice for the owner.

let the kiddies ride, but frankly.. it really is animal abuse IMHO for the adults.
(even a heavy case weighs half of what most adults do).

I don't ride horses because I'm pretty sure they don't want me to. That said, we were in Santorini, the donkey guy was calling to us and, well, when in Rome....Husband and I rode donkeys. They raced downhill. Mine was stretching his neck out to be the first around the corner. Sure it was lots of laughs, my stomache was cramping from a combo of fear, disbelief, and laughter. Don't think I'd put my kid on one of those nutbar donkeys.

He,he,he I would have loved to have seen that Trishiad! Actually that's a point - we rode our donkeys uphill so they weren't in a rush to race each other. Maybe give the kids a ride uphill rather than downhill.

Oh Trishiad, wish I could have seen that! My favorite photo ever is of my best friend, at age 14, looking incredibly dorky with pigtails and cat-eye glasses, on the back of a donkey in Santorini. Her facial expression is a combination of terror, embarrassment, and resignation that is priceless.

I went a few years ago and nagged my huband to do as the romans do....I admit that going UP was much more fun. Going down was much too bumpy and made me sick. The other donkeys kept bumping into my legs so I had to be careful. My husband walked and was making fun of me the entire way down as I tried to pretend I was enjoying the ride. It was so bumpy that the battery from my camcorder fell off. Luckily hubby was there to retrieve it.

My kids did the ride up last year and they thought it was a hoot. My wife and I enjoyed the cable car. When the kids got to the top we had lunch and the kids kept some bread and fed the donkeys !! Melissa my kids were 13, 11 and 11.

Thanks for all the responses. My kids really want to ride the donkeys. Is there any way that the donkeys and people can fall off the path?

No, not unless the donkey bolts and runs wild. There's a wall along the cliff side of the steps that would prevent anyone from falling over.

The whole experience for me was terrible. First of all I was told not to control the donkey with the reins, to just let the donkey go up on his own. I wasn’t paying attention and an old man that was walking ahead of me had fallen and my donkey was about to walk over it him. If I hadn’t taken the reins he would have.

As we walked up the hill the donkeys slipped on each step because of their metal shoes on the cement. I also remember having to use my foot to push away from the wall or my leg would have been smashed again the wall. I was scared to death the entire trip up.

When we got to the top we had to wait in line and couldn’t get off until it was our turn. A boy that held onto my donkey took a stick that they control the animals with and stuck it in the donkey’s ear. Of course I told him to stop it, but he just smiled. If I thought it would have done any good I would have complained to the authorities. I doubted they had an ASPCA. It didn’t seem like any of the employees spoke English or would have cared anyway.

I didn’t ride the donkeys down because I was so afraid of them falling up the hill and saw how they ran down. I doubt they were running to see who got there first, like it was a game or something. I think they probably don’t get any water until they came back down the hill. Why else would they want to hurry to have someone ride on their back again?

While I walked down the hill (I’m afraid of heights so didn’t take the tram) I had to hide behind an electrical post each time the donkeys ran past me or they would have ran me over.

It was a very disturbing event and I too think it’s a very cruel thing that is happening to the donkeys there. I would not ride them again. It’s dangerous for the donkeys and for the riders. It still makes me sick to think about it.

I rode the donkey's in Oia, we were dropped of by our excursion boat and it really was not an option for my father to walk up all those stairs. The donkeys we had were in good shape and beleive me I'm anal about this stuff I hit a man in Spetses for taking a whip to his horse, I tried to show a man in Zakyinthos how to care for an obviously lame horse. If your children have never ridden I would be a little concerned there is no helmet for them and if they fell it would be a hard landing. Our donkey's were quite frisky and trotted briskly up the hill the handler followed some distance behind when we got close to the top the donkeys stopped on their own, the handler cracked a whip in the air the donkeys turned around and ran back down the hill riderless. Our donkeys had no bridles on therefore no bit or reins at one point my husbands wanted to pass mine and I leaned over and grabbed him by the halter and guided him to the side he was very agreeable. So overall my experiance was a positive.

I did the donkey ride up the hill on Santorini several years ago on my birthday. As I remember, I was sure I would fall off and be trampled on dung covered cobblestones as the men kept whipping the donkeys to go faster all the way up. All in all, a once in a lifetime experience. Took the cable car down.