Last year we spent some time in Greece, and somehow I ran out of steam when it came to Santorini—both of the energy it took to blog about the whole trip, and for the city of Santorini itself. I might have been a little quick to judge, and we did only spend two nights on the island, but they were enough to make me not really want to come back. Santorini is beautiful, I’ll give it that, but as the last stop on our Greece trip, it felt like a facade. The city is rife with tourism. If you don’t mind that, then you’re in for a treat, because the city is gorgeous with incredible views of the Aegean Sea everywhere you look.

We had booked some very luxurious accommodation which we had credit for due to our trip being cancelled in 2020 because of COVID. Unfortunately, by the time we re-booked, prices shot up, so we had to pay extra, and it felt incredibly expensive. Many other options in Santorini were expensive, too. We tried to make the most of our accomodation because of this.

After we arrived we took some time to look around Oia, near our hotel, and see some beautiful views of the island.

On our first night we caught up with my friend Pauline again because she made a last-minute decision to visit Santorini while she was also in Greece. We were amazed by—and I didn’t get a photo of this because it was near impossible—the moon rising over the island, shaded in red because the sun was still setting even though the sky was dark. It was an incredible view.

The following morning I was very keen to try and see the sunrise from our hotel, but we were staying in Oia, and its location made seeing first light quite difficult. The sky was incredibly blue and it was bright by the time I saw the actual sun.

After eating breakfast at our hotel, we headed out as early as possible to do the famous hike from Oia to Fira. I read details about it on the Santorini Dave website and it does give a lot of useful information, tips, and photos. The one thing I had to disagree with was the quote from a passionate hiker that this was the best hike they had done not only in Santorini, but in their life.

To this day I’m not entirely sure what hike has blown my mind, but Cradle Mountain was a wonderful hike even though we happened to get shit weather, and I may be purely biased by our hike to the top of Monemvasia. The Oia-Fira hike was beautiful, with beautiful views everywhere, and it was challenging enough, but I feel like it’s a big claim to say it was the best hike in my life. 🤔 Let me get back to you on this one. I won’t refrain from sharing the gorgeous photos though.

Although we were prepared, and left as early as we could, it got hot very quickly. We had a couple of snacks on hand. I really wanted to attempt to hike Skaros rock when we walked past, but even though it looked close, it would add about another two hours onto our entire hike.

We got close enough to get some photos. I thought it would provide an incredible view, and The Common Wanderer has a detailed post about it, but it looks like it could still be somewhat dangerous to climb because of the lack of safety features.

We spent some time looking around Fira but it was very crowded and after some time, most of the shops started to look the same and targeted at tourists. We moved away from the main pedestrianised streets and found a spot to eat tacos before getting a bus back to Oia, and having a much-needed rest and a dip in the pool. The hike was about ten kilometres and had taken us just under three hours to do. I think that having sturdy shoes is pretty important as there were some steep areas with gravel/loose rocks, and you want to make sure you have a good grip on those areas. Apart from that, there were not too many steep hills or steps. If you are reasonably fit you will be alright.

There were not a lot of places to eat that weren’t touristy, so we ended up eating dinner at a restaurant on the main street. It was still pretty good though. We had a little walk around Oia the next morning to suss out what it was like before crowds arrived. A very different place, I’ll tell you that! Also, most of the shops were closed.

It was great to experience Santorini, but as I say about other places that I visit and don’t love—I’m not in a hurry to visit again.

Other posts about this trip:

• 48 hours in Dubai
• Beautiful, historic Athens
• Nafplio, Greece—and visits to Ancient Nemea, Mycenae, and Epidavros
• Hiking to a magical view at Monemvasia’s peak ⛰️
• Driving around the Mani Peninsula in Greece
• Hiking the Menalon Trail from Vytina to Nymphasia
• Mykonos, the “party island” where we relaxed instead.
• Hiking the “real Naxos”, and multiple views of the Portara

Many thanks for reading! 💙