Santorini Greece VLOG 5-Days in Paradise Part 1

Santorini, Greece, Santorini VLOG 2021 Ultimate 5-Day Itinerary Part 1. This video is part 1, covering arrival day, the 2nd day and half of the 3rd day. We Traveled from Mykonos to Santorini via SeaJets World Champion Jet (about 2 hours- fastest ferry! we used FerryHopper ) To the Athinios port which is not the same port as the old port where the tenders for cruise ship disembark. We had the hotel arrange a transfer from the port to the hotel, highly recommended. Parking on Santorini is tough, driving it is very hilly, and a lot of one lane streets in towns. Some travelers rent scooters (good for parking) or quads, but locals say there are crashes every day so be careful.

We stayed at Astra Suites, in Imerovigli which has the best sunset views in our opinion, and not all of the mass people at sunset in Oia. Imerovigli has some good restaurants and is walking distance to Fira, the capital, with many shops and nightlife. We highly recommend Astra Suites, we had a private jacuzzi on a private balcony. Many places have balconies with caldera views, some are not private at all, with crowds walking past, pay attention to that when booking. Only a handful of hotels in Oia have a sunset view and Oia tends to be more expensive and more crowded. Imerovigli has views of the entire caldera, Skaros Rock (right in front of our hotel!) and sunset with less crowds and a better value for price.

Day 1: We enjoyed the hotel and what it had to offer, we had dinner from the restaurant at the hotel, Five Senses (highly recommended even if not staying at the hotel), right to our table on our private balcony. We went to the hotel bar at the pool and enjoyed some good cocktails made by the awesome bartender Nikos, who is also great to talk with and can share information about the island. I think we spent the majority of the day with our jaws dropped staring at the amazing views, as awesome as the pictures and video are, it is even more amazingly epic in person, the human eye is better than any lens. One of the most amazing views, possible the most amazing view ever. Definitely the most amazing sunsets, just incredible. We then enjoyed the hot tub, our hotel is one that you could stay at and be happy, the service, the views, the food, the room all top notch, but we had to see more so...

Day 2: We took a semi-private tour with another couple from our hotel (with whom we made friends), arranged through the hotel concierge. We recommend this so you can see a good overview of the island and get good information from your driver and then decide what you want to do later. We went to 2 traditional Santorini villages, Pyros, and Megalochori, and saw the winding streets to protect from pirates, the many churches and life in the village. We went to Akrotiri in the Southwest point of the island, an ancient excavated Minoan ruins from the third century B.C., very advanced civilization, with 3-story buildings, and the first evidence of utilities / plumbing in ancient civiliations. It was destroyed and covered up in the massive volcano eruption that formed what is now the crescent shaped island and the center caldera. We also went by Vlychada and saw the beaches of Perissa in the south. Santorini used to be the party beach before Mykonos and this is the area where that is located, bars, restaurants, beach loungers. A good place to enjoy beach time, however we did our beach time in Mykonos. Vlychada is also the port where many of the sailing cruises depart, this is on the less hilly Eastern and SouthEastern part of the island. The western caldera towns are on very steep cliffs and the ports in the caldera require a car or donkeys to get up and down. We also went to a winery, Venetsanos, which has very nice wines, the climate on Santorini is good for wine. They also used to have a lot of cherry tomatoes grown on the island. We did a quick walk through of a cave dwelling and Oia. At the end we went to the hotel, joined our new friends in the hotel pool with amazing views and then went out to dinner to Anogi, recommended by 2 different locals for local type food, the food was great and the service was good. Day 3: (first half of the day): Hike to Skaros rock. This was formerly a Venetian fortress that housed about 3,000 people, you can still see the remains. Good few hour hike, some elevation, great views! Then we went back, jacuzzi and got ready for part 2....coming soon!