Greece - Santorini

Our most recent trip was special. We went to the Greek Cycladic Islands of Santorini and Mykonos, then did a stopover in Venice. Both countries were beautiful and romantic.

Here is the trip breakdown:
Day 1 thru 4 - Santorini
Day 5 thru 6 - Mykonos
Day 6 thru 7 - Venice

Pictures did not do justice to these places, and it's really a shame that my iphone was not able to capture the beauty. I did bring a camera but didn't use it as the iphone is so convenient!

Day 1: Santorini Arrival
Our flight was delayed in Manchester and we arrived late in Santorini. Thank goodness we had lounge access at Manchester airport and I was able to watch the Royal Wedding on TV! I love watching that couple.

The flight to Santorini airport was miserable! There were four kids onboard who were all getting delirious. They took turns screaming. I felt so bad for the parents. Trip delays really can make things difficult for mom and dad.

Once we went through passport control at Santorini airport, the hotel driver whisked us away to our home for the next four nights, Iconic Santorini in Imerovigli. We were given a quick tour of our room, the Cycladic Suite, before being left to get ready for much needed sleep. Turns out, this was my FAVORITE room throughout our entire trip. I'll post more on that in a logistics post later.

Long flight, jet lag, tired

Day 2: Santorini - Catamaran and Oia Sunset

Due to jet lag, we woke up bright and early and was greeted to an amazing view of the caldera. After a delicious breakfast, we went on a catamaran ride to visit the Red Beach, White Beach, and Black Beach. After the beaches, they stopped to let us jump into the water, and served us lunch. The catamaran tour was the highlight of our trip. The group of people on the catamaran were great too!

When we returned, the weather was showing gloom and doom and threatened to downpour. We decided to brave it and do the 20 minutes walk to check out Fira despite the oncoming rain. By the time we reached Fira, it was no longer a threat and it DID downpour! We waited under some eaves until the rain lifted and trekked uphill back to Imerovigli. 

That night, we had a sunset dinner at Sphinx Restaurant in Oia. The restaurant is on a rooftop and had an obstructed but direct view of the sunset. This is the "famous" sunset in Oia. I heard that there is a castle at Oia where everyone gathers to watch the sunset. It is supposed to be so magical that people cried when the sun sets. To me, I live in San Francisco and had too many a late night sunset view at my previous job, so it was nice...but it's just a sunset. 

Breakfast view on our balcony

Wayne waiting to eat

catamaran

catamaran 2

Jumping into the COLD COLD water

We got back to the hotel, and the clouds didn't look very nice.

It threatened rain, but still beautiful

Hurry! take a picture before the rain comes 

The weather lifted just in time for the sunset

Day 3: Wine tour and sunset dinner in Imerovigli

We woke up bright and early again to another delicious breakfast. We then had an afternoon wine tour. We visited three wineries, which wasn't that memorable. However, the group of four couples was a great bunch. I gotta say, we are spoiled living so close to Napa. 

That night, we had dinner at Mezzo Restaurant. The restaurant overlooked Skaros Rock and had a direct view of the sunset from Imerovigli. The food was delicious too! This was our best meal in Santorini. 

Wine tasting by the rocky beach

Wine tasting

I had to get a picture on a cylindrical dome roof. This was at the Chromata by Galis Square (the main square in Imerovigli, I think).

Dinner view from Mezzo Restaurant

Imerovigli on our walk back

Imerovigli

Day 4: Santorini - Change of rooms and our hotel

We spent the last day in Santorini enjoying our resort. The morning was spent at our Cycladic Suite, reading and admiring the caldera view from our balcony. In the afternoon, they moved us to the Iconic Suite, which was their "most lavish room", according to their guest services supervisor, Dimitra. She is awesome by the way! 

The suite consisted of a small outdoors hot tub and another indoors hot tub. We spent that afternoon chit chatting in the outdoor hot tub and balcony. 

That evening, we had dinner at the hotel, which was pretty good! There was a most magical sunset that evening, which I managed to capture a picture of (below).

View from our first room, the Cycladic Suite

Magical sunset

Overall Impression:
If I were to do it all over again, I would add an extra day to Mykonos and subtract the last day in Santorini. Santorini is a beautiful city, and very picturesque. But I felt like it didn't have a soul. It's there for tourism, and instagram.

Some say it might be because I was in Imerovigli instead of Oia. We walked through Oia and felt like fate got it right for us and somehow we ended up in Imerovigli. I loved that town and wouldn't change the stay.

Originally, I had us booked six nights in Santorini, three nights each in Oia and Imerovigli. But our flight from Santorini to Venice got changed to arrive in Venice at 1:30 am. Thus, I had to change the itinerary to fly out of Mykonos to Venice instead. This turned out to be perfect as Mykonos was my favorite part of the trip. The island was so alive and I loved the atmostphere!

Venice is Venice. I enjoyed our time, and our hotel was AWESOME, but I probably won't return. With that said, people should still visit Venice! It's famous for a reason!