Mediterranean Trip Day 8: Sunny in Santorini!

Welcome to beautiful Santorini - the land of white windmills, blue domed churches, insta-worthy photo spots, and a fascinating history! Read more to learn all that this volcanic island has to offer.

Good morning from Santorini! Today most excursions left our ship early, but we did slept in, enjoyed a light brunch, and left to tender from our ship to the island at noon. Interestingly, the port at Santorini is too small for the cruise ships, but the water in the harbor is too deep for them to anchor, so they have to run their engines every so often to 'hover' in the same spot. Our tender to the island was quick and simple and dropped us off in Fira. However, to get anywhere worth going, you have to take a quick but steep cable car up the cliffside which costs 6 euro per person one-way.

At the top, we were surrounded by cute souvenir shops, restaurants, and beautiful views. We met up with a private guide at the top and I would certainly recommend this option if you have the choice. Since most people come for the iconic views of Oia, it can be incredibly crowded with cruise groups and tourists; but with a private guide, we were able to see some lesser known and equally beautiful parts of the island and go to Oia during the least busiest time.

Anyways, upon meeting with our guide, we drove over to the South side of the island which is less touristy and first stopped at the Red Beach. This beach has stunning deep red cliffs due to the iron content of the stone. There is a classic Santorini white church with cute bells *photo stop* that stands out against the red cliffs and beautiful views and the water is crystal clear. Although it is beautiful, please heed the warning signs posted at the beach that tell you NOT TO SWIM. Santorini is very earthquake prone and has frequent small ones and occasional large ones due to this and the natural instability of the cliffs, the beach has had several landslides in the recent years (some reported to have killed tourists) and locals think that another part of the cliff that did not come down in the last collapse is due to crumble soon. For these reasons, the Red Beach is a great photo spot but not a place to enjoy a beach day.

Next, we hit up another aptly named beach - the Black Beach - which is known for its striking black sand beaches. The beach is completely free although you can rent chaises and mini cabanas from various restaurants. To be honest, you probably want a chair or good blanket of some kind because just by walking on the beach with my sandals on my feet were practically frying off due to the incredible heat of the black sand.

Now it was time to go to Emporeio, one of the villages on the South side of the island! Although I didn't know it, this would be one of my favorite parts of Santorini and has some of the most unique colored doors that make the perfect photo backdrop. Walking through the town, we saw charming narrow streets and learned the history of Santorini's classic white buildings:

Traditionally, local people lived in cave homes that were 3-4 stories high and started underground. These homes had a single room and were made out of dark-colored volcanic stone and pumice that is abundant on the island. They were painted white on the inside to make it appear brighter and they are temperature regulating. All the local people live inland in 8 main villages with the 'rich men' typically building above ground or on the cliffside - somewhere the locals would not live due to the potential for earthquakes, and particularly not now after the catastrophic earthquake of 1956. So how did the classic white homes of Santorini come to be? Well, in the late 70's when tourism to Greece picked up, people would come from Mykonos to see the volcano on Santorini and be disappointed with the dark volcanic stone homes of Santorini, so wanting to attract tourists, they simply painted their cave homes white and people renovated the insides to make hotel rooms. All this is to say, it was the tourism industry that shaped the look of Santorini - not Santorini itself that brought in the tourism. Now, even dark, un-renovated cave homes in Oia sell for millions of dollars.

Enough history, back to the village. Pirates were a threat in the past, so many villages were built inside of a castle structure and contained hundreds of cave homes built on top of each other. The narrow winding streets behind the castle walls made it easy to confuse and trap the pirates in the past, but today those streets are still alive and locals live in the homes. Many village cave homes are available as Air BnB's and some combine 2-3 cave homes to have more space for their families.

Then we went to another village called Megalochori to view more local houses and stop for lunch at a local grocery where we got a selection of Baklavas, a greek salad, and a small cheese bread. After, we drove up to a high point next to an old closed monastery for the panoramic view of Santorini before finally making our way to Oia.

Oia is typically very busy, so our guide was sure to take us during the least busy time, after 2 until 6:30. We went at 4:30 and it was quite easy to get around although it was still congested in the small corridors. In Oia we saw the gorgeous white and blue cave homes that are now turned into luxury hotels and villas. Along the main street of Oia there are many restaurants and shops, but if you go through one of the many small allies, you will end up on a road that runs parallel to the main street and has excellent food and shops for a much more reasonable price. We walked all the way to the end of the main street of Oia before getting back into the car as the streets began to fill up with people coming in to watch sunset.

This is when our guide took us to Thira, a place just a bit higher up than Oia with the same white buildings and windmills, but just much less crowded. This was a perfect place for pictures and had beautiful blue domed churches. There are also many nice white cave home hotels and villas here just like in Oia, but the benefit here is that you get much more privacy (since everyone can look down on and into the villas in Oia). Thira would be a better alternative place to watch sunset to avoid the crowds and have a peaceful evening. It is also where you can take photos in 'flying dresses' where the photographers throw the trains of long dresses.

Finally it was time to head back, so our guide dropped us in the shopping center near the cable car and we shopped around for a bit and of course... got gelato! Be sure to leave enough time for the cable car on the way back down because we had to wait in a 25 minute line due to everyone trying to get down and back onto their ships at the same time. After tendering back to the ship, we got ready for dinner at the french restaurant on board before turning in for the night.

Hopefully my tips for avoiding the crowds and finding the best photo spots were helpful! Head over to my instagram @Always_Paris for more of my adventures and I will see you tomorrow in Mykonos!

Always,

Paris