Greece 2014 - I cant say enough about the country and how good it is and people in it. I could definitely live here. One of the things that you notice straight off the bat is how helpful the people are. In most places you buy some sort of service and generally once you pay you get treated differently. I.e. they move onto the next person to try and get the next dollar, but not in Greece. As an example, we rented a scooter and got the normal how to use it tour. Then after we returned it, they asked us if they could take us back to our hotel. Even though they had only a two seater car - Nat and I managed to squeeze in and get driven back. Every time you meet someone they are so eager to help you. Reminds me of my experience in Thailand. The most helpful people and good looking too. One thing I did notice tho - all the retail stores and services are run by Greeks only :) The views in Santorini are breath taking - really! The scenery is absolutely fantastic. We stayed in the north part of the Island (Oia or Ia) and in the southern part (Akrotiri). The northern part is very white and condensed as far as accommodation goes. Everything is off the cliff. The difference between paying $5000 per night and $100 is just the type of room you get - but almost everyone gets the same awesome view. So if you are going just for the views like most people are, you may as well get the cheaper option. Everything is within walking distance. One thing you will notice that every house seems to have built a church also. I have not seen so many churches in my life. Very nice. The center of the island is Fira (Thira I believe). This is the main capital. Also very much recommend staying here. This is where all the shopping, restaurants and nightlife is. Very busy, but if you want to experience that type of life then this is the place to be. Absolutely beautiful. We spent the day there and loved it. As a side note if you want to buy gold, this is also the place to be. The southern part of Santorini is literally a village with two restaurants and a road to the main capital Fira. We stayed here for two nights. It was absolutely beautiful. We wanted to have some beautiful views, and this was it. Absolutely stunning. As far as transport goes - it is best to rent a scooter or a quad bike. You can get from north to south in about 40 minutes. As far as tours go - I would very much recommend taking a tour of the ancient civilization excavation in Akrotiri and the sunset cruise. The ancient civilization museum is very interesting it shows how people lived 5 to 6 thousand years ago on the island. And let me tell you the design of the houses hasnt changed much in that time. The cruise was comprised of a nice bbq lunch, swimming, volcano tour, swimming in hot springs above volcano, and of course the sunset which was amazing. Food in Greece is absolutely fantastic. Almost everything is grilled. Mostly seafood. Absolutely fantastic and very tasty. Must try the octopus and lobster :) As you can expect their specialties are seafood - Fresh seafood :) Some things we learned from the trip to Greece is that we should always book return flights to another country in the afternoon or late at night so that we can get to airport in time. We had a flight booked out of Athens to France early in the morning which meant that we had to go from Santorini to Athens a night earlier. Booked the hotel too far from the airport so ended up costing us a lot more than we bargained for. Take the bus everywhere its much cheaper than taxi. It was $2AU from north part of island to south with bus - but it was around $40 euro with taxi. Buy luggage transfer online and not at counter at airport. Very expensive. Book as many guided tours as possible. Well worth it. Now we are in France... :) Au revoir
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 10:33:20 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015