Hi steemit boys and girls !
I had an opportunity to visit and explore this enchanting volcanic island in Greece so I decided to share it with you.
Easiest way to travel to this island is obviously by plane but I like a bit longer and more interesting ways of travel like by car, so I decided to plan our trip accordingly. I booked ferry and accommodation on the island and went on a trip a day earlier so we could explore Athens as much as time allowed us.
Of course, cause it was our first time in Athens, our main point of interest was famous Parthenon located on the hill overlooking Athens. Experience was special because you could feel "history" walking on the marble floor and looking at those mighty pillars.
The pathway is pretty steep and we took about 15 minutes to go all the way to the top. I must admit with the sun at it's peek hours it wasn't a breeze but it was worth it. Be sure to carry some water with you, you will need it.
Greek dog !!! Guardian of the ancients !!! :D :D :D
When we went down we visited part of the old Athens town and I'm sorry that I didn't photographed more than I did so that part is not covered best. Anyway it's not the main subject of this story so I believe you will not take that as a mistake :D
Ferry ride was scheduled at early in the morning and it took about 1 hour to board all the passengers and vehicles. Ferry is one massive boat that can take 1000 passengers and I don't know how many vehicles. It's a fast moving one so you can't go outside and enjoy sea breeze. Trip lasted 4 hours and 15 minutes and you don't have much to do except visiting some shops and dining bars on a deck.
We docked on an island called Ios before we docked Santorini port Fira and here are some pictures I could take from the ferry.
After 4 hours and 15 minutes we docked at Santorini and continued our ascent on top of the caldera. By the way, Santorini is shaped as a half moon cause it's the edge of a massive volcano called Thera that erupted and made havoc in Bronze age. More of this subject on this link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoan_eruption
Here are some pictures of the volcano center photographed from caldera.
The island is pretty small. It' about 18km from coast to coast and it's easy to go everywhere with quad rentals that are around 40 euros per day.
I even found some photos of me cause I was main photographer on this trip and didn't have a chance to be on the other side of the lens :D
There are many amenities on the island and one of them is main city Fira where you can even ride a donkey from old Fira port to 350 meters top of the city thru narrow stone walking paths. We didn't tried that unfortunately so I can only mention it here.
I can just say, donkeys smell, but they are cute :D
Here are a couple of photos from main city.
The island is "polarized" from the tourist perspective. Main tourist, well I will call them more like villages, are on the caldera edge and they are Fira, Firostefani, Imerovigli and Oia. Those are the places that you see on all postcards and commercials from this island. Speaking of that, they are also most expensive places. The most expensive hotels are on caldera edge but you can also find some nice apartments with decent prices.
The other side of the island is coastal with beaches with tiny black volcanic stones (can't say its sand but picture explains) and there are couple of villages that are not so expensive like Perissa, Kamari and Vlychada.
I must also mention that there is a beach with white sand and also a tourist attraction Red beach. Name kinda explains the color as you can see in the photo. By the way, path to the beach is "nature built" so take plenty of water and everything else you need to protect yourself from the sun cause there's no shade. Can't say I was impressed though, it's ok to see is all I can say.
This beach I can recommend to visit. It's called Eros beach and has a bar that is very nice.
By the way, beaches are scattered all across the island so renting a quad is a must.
And now we are coming to the point of visiting Santorini. Be stationed at 350m above sea level where wind breeze makes you enjoy the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen. It's said that from Oia are the most beautiful sunsets but I found that wherever you are on caldera edge it's pretty much the same. I can just say that 3 out of 10 days we were going to the beach for a couple of hours only to find that caldera view is all that you need on Santorini. We were in hotel called Iliovasilema suites and I must say it's a beauty. Actually I can say 90% of the hotels on caldera edge are pretty much the same so whichever one you pick you won't make a mistake.
Here are some photos that will describe what I was saying and I hope I helped anyone that is interested in visiting this really special place.
Great article!
Thank you :)