BuffaloGirl

I'm not sure what I'm doing, but here is my original thread (I hope it posts correctly):

Santorini + Naxos + Athens - not sure where to spend an extra day

Thanks to everyone who gave advice in that thread. It was all very helpful.

I will start out by saying that we LOVED GREECE!. Beautiful country. Beautiful people.

I'll begin with the preliminaries:

We live in Buffalo, New York but departed from Toronto. It's only a 2 hour drive from home and we got a direct flight on AirTransat for under $700. Flying from our home airport included a layover and an additional $800 - $900. We drove up on Saturday for a Sunday flight. We could have left home early in the morning on day of departure but we decided to spend the night near the Toronto airport. This way we could sleep in a bit and not worry about possible border problems. I had heard good and bad things about AirTransat, but I have nothing but good to say about them. I would definitely fly with them again.

We were a group of five adults traveling together. Me, my husband, his sister, her boyfriend, and a close friend to all of us. We have all traveled together before, so all went well.

Our flight left Toronto at 2:10 p,m.and we arrived in Athens at 7:10 a.m. We had a flight to Santorini at 11:10 a.m. It all went without a hitch. Our driver was waiting for us at the Santorini airport and he took us on a hair-raising ride to our villa. It wasn't his driving so much I was worried about. He was quite professional. I saw many buses and other vehicles/scooters decide that stop signs were optional along the way. A representative and bag handler met us at the top of the stairs and brought us to our villa.

Aqua Vista Hotels (Villa Dakoronia) ran our villa. Valentini was the person I communicated with and she was absolutely wonderful! It was a lovely villa. The first floor had a queen bedroom, living room/kitchen area, and a bathroom. The upstairs had a small bedroom and another bathroom (plus an upper balcony). The upstairs area was a bit tight, and the stairway was hard to navigate. Your best bet was to climb down backwards. It had an outdoor pool and patio area that overlooked the caldera. One person had to sleep on the futon and said it was not the most comfortable. The views were amazing. It was located on the main pathway between a small church and the Irini Cafe just outside of Fira. I really, really wanted to stay in Imerovigli but it didn't work out.

Santorini was truly beautiful. I am dealing with major jet lag even though it has been 4 days since returning home, so I will end for now. I will share my thoughts about the island tomorrow.

Villa Dakoronia | | In Santorini