nikidi

After enjoying another scrumptious breakfast buffet at Hotel Grotta, we had the morning to explore the town of Chora before our ferry to Santorini at 12.40pm.
We fist walked to the Portara of the Temple of Apollo. The view of the town of Chora in the morning light was fabulous. Then we explored the tiny alleys in the old town.We found a gem of a shop owned by a British expat which had lovely local made souvenirs..hand made sculptures, paintings and hand printed scarves. The girls picked up two silver fish sculptures for their room and I found a very pretty scarf for myself. Then we found the Archeological Museum, which held an impressive collection of Cycladic figurines and some interesting pottery. After heading back to Grotta to refresh ourselves and check out, a van from the hotel dropped us off at the pier and it was smooth sailing to Santorini.

The excitement in the ferry when approaching Santorini was catching. We went to the outdoor decks to admire the the stunning beauty of the Red cliffs with the white towns dotted along the edge..The afternoon sun made the scenery look surreal. A taxi arranged by our hotel picked us up from the port - which was great to avoid the chaos after getting out of the ferry. A10 minute ride and we were at our hotel, Kameras Apartments which was at the edge of Fira. This place was our SPLURGE of the trip..
The views of the Caldera could not have been any better from our room. The room was fine, decorated simply, the inner room with the double bed and the outer room with sofas converted to beds for the kids..An oldish spacious toilet with an old jacuzzi , a shared balcony had a private hot tub (with cold water) on our side of the balcony with a breakfast table where they served breakfast. Although our room didn't have the view on to the left side of the hotel, almost all other rooms had a view of a large plot of land with a dilapidated warehouse..which detracted from the beautiful views of the caldera. we wouldn't return here even if the room and breakfast had been fabulous, which it wasn't.

As sunset time was getting closer, so we decided to walk to Fira town to enjoy the streets and views there..It was a 2 minute walk to the main street lined with rows of tacky souvenir shops - we spotted a few pretty churches with the blue roofs..the further we walked the better the scenery and the atmosphere was..it wasn't too crowded..plenty of spaces to stop along the wall to enjoy the sunset views..We walked to the edge of firastefani (we found out later when we visited Firastefani the next day) and enjoyed the view of Fira town in the setting sun..After clicking loads of photos, we headed back to the hotel for an early night. The water was way too cold in the hot tub to get in- had some takeaway pizza (the kids had had enough of greek food by then) for dinner which was unexpectedly really good..
We inquired about renting a car from the hotel - they quoted 40$ for a day but we found that it was much cheaper online and booked a car to be dropped of next morning for 30$/day. (motorinn.gr)

nikidi

The next morning turnout to be lovely and sunny. breakfast was brought to the balcony. Very limited selection, a bread basket some lovely greek yogurt with pre-packed honey and jam sachets, instant coffee and cereal. However, the views were breathtaking so we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast..The car was dropped off on time and it was new and clean! Having our flight out of Santorini the next day at 8pm, we had booked it for 2 days to be dropped off at the Airport parking lot.

First stop today was the ancient site of ancient Thira. We drove up the mountain to the car park and explored the site which was much larger than expected an even had remains of a small theatre. Similar to Mycenaean, it was just the foundations that was left - but we enjoyed a couple of hours of walking around in the sun.

Then we headed to the black beach we saw from Ancient Thira, Kamari beach. Whilst I enjoyed a lovely cold coffee at a cafe - DH and the girls had a dip in the sea. A lot more people were sunbathing and a few swimming here. The waves were not so gentle due to increasing winds (a storm was expected the next day) and it has been a while since the girls had experienced waves and salty water in their eyes..so they decided to cut there swim short and we headed to explore one more town before heading to Oia for Sunset.

We opted for Emporio. We followed the signs for "Traditional Village” and walked around. Not sure whether it was so quiet because it was mid day or because it was off season. We enjoyed a stroll admiring beautiful buildings and churches but did not come across a single person in the village. A little too quiet again..So off we went to Oia to find the perfect sunset-gazing spot…

Oia, we thought was prettier than Fira - but still with hoards of stores lining the main street. We explored a few side streets finding some of the iconic blue topped churches and after lots of photo clicking walked to the old castle to view the sunset. We were early, so it wasn't too crowded. The views of the windmills and white buildings were absolutely gorgeous! The girls wanted some ice-cream and so we walked the tiny pathways towards the windmills and found some delicious ice-cream at a tiny cafe. Back at the old castle view point, we watched the prettily decorated donkeys coming up from amoudibay..It had really got crowded by then and we found a spot to sit and watch the sunset while the girls enjoyed their ice-cream..when the sun dipped into the clouds, we headed back popping into a few shops buying some local snacks to take back..
Dinner that night was at Roka Kafeneio Ouzeri, a beautiful outdoor setting and fabulous food. Recommended!!

nikidi

Our last day in Santorini and Greece. We woke up to strong winds and a cloudy day. It was impossible to have breakfast in the balcony so we had to have it in the room.
We decided to visit Pyrgos in the morning and come back to the hotel to check out afterwards. Pyros was beautiful..Lots ore people about and surprisingly a few small tour groups as well. There was a church festival that was happening with a small procession of children and parents. The houses , the tiny churches and the views of the surrounding area was all so pretty. We were really glad we visited Pyrgos. We headed back to the hotel to refresh ourselves and check out.

We then headed to Firostefani to explore the town. We came across the trail between Oia and Fira and walked along it to the edge of Fira town where we had walked to, on the first day when exploring Fira.
We much preferred Firostefani to Fira, quieter and prettier and would make an excellent base to explore Santorini. (If only I had researched a bit more for this part of the trip.)
The girls wanted crepes for late lunch and we googled for a Creperie.. and found “Creme De La Crepe” . We drove to Fira, parked at our hotel and walked there. What a find this place was, the most amazing crepes ever! It was absolutely worth the extra trek and we walked to a square nearby to devour the delicious crepes..
We had a quick stop to see the three bells of Fira and then drove to Amoudi Bay. We decided to drive down to the bay as it was still quite sunny and we didn't wan to get too hot and tired before our flight tonight..After exploring the amoudi bay,we grabbed some dinner and drove to the airport for our flight.

We parked our car in the parking area on side of the road leading to the Airport and left the car key inside as agreed with the rental company..we were very nervous about doing that and took a few photos as proof of parking. We had to spend an hour or so in a very chaotic crowded Santorini airport for our flight back home. Santorini was a lovely ending to the trip but I would have preferred to stay in Firostefani or Imorgvil or even Oia instead of Fira..

All in all, we had a fabulous trip to Greece and look forward to going back to explore some of the other areas we missed out on..

aussiedreamer

Thanks for a great report, I've just booked Pension Omarfi Poli in Nafplio and dinner at Kuzina in Athens.