Our Itinerary:
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Santorini, Greece
 Athens Bus Station to Fira, Santorini via
Iraklio, Crete
We had decided that the best way to travel
to Santorini would be by taking a ferry from
Piraeus (Athen's port) to Iraklio, Crete
(also known as "Heraclio") and
then change to a ferry to Santorini. Our
rationale was that this somewhat circuitous
route allowed us to avoid spending a day
on the slow ferry from Piraeus and avoided
an expensive hotel room in either Athens
or Santorini. The Piraeus to Iraklio ferry
takes about nine hours but leaves at 9 p.m.
and arrives around 6 a.m. -- plenty of time
to catch the late morning fast boat (two
hours) to Santorini. The fare is €84
per person, double occupancy for a cruise
ship quality outside cabin (no balcony).
We noticed the Kato Patissia subway stop
after the Agios Constantinos to Athens bus
rounded the corner on its way to the bus
station, so we took note of the way and reconfirmed
the route with a ticket agent at the bus
station. After a ten minute, slightly uphill
walk, we returned to the subway station and
bought tickets for the port in Piraeus (€0.70).
The tickets must be validated (time stamped)
on the platform before boarding the train,
which arrived soon after for the forty minute
trip to Piraeus. A pleasantly unexpected
sight was a glimpse of the Temple of Hephaistos
glowing golden against the black sky on the
left side of the train after the Monastiraki
stop.
The port of Piraeus is huge and consequently
it is important to know which gate to use
to find your boat. The gates run from E1
to E12, with the subway station nearly opposite
gate E5. We did not know where to find the
Minoan Line's Knossos Palace until we checked
with one of the many travel agents encircling
the port and learned it was at gate E3. Ships
are big, and it took about fifteen minutes
to walk the distance of two gates (hint:
we didn't encounter any barriers inside the
gates, so you can save some time by entering
at any gate and walking along the inside).
As with Hellenic Seaways, we had booked our
tickets over the internet directly from the
ferry company to avoid the agent's commission,
so we quickly located the Minoan ticket office
directly across from the boat (inside the
gate) and then dodged the loading trucks
on our way onboard.
 Large ferry ships like the Knossos Palace
welcome early boarding, which allows you
to enjoy the amenities such as restaurants,
bars, a disco, and even a pool. However,
because of the schedule and the trouble we
had locating the boat, we arrived just before
departure. The staff onboard was courteous
and the cabin to our liking (it was the one
place in Greece we could flush toilet paper).
The boat departed promptly, and we settled
in for a nice dinner (€17 for two people
with bottled water) in the restaurant (you
have two choices: cafeteria style or waiter
service of the same food). After arranging
for a wake up call, a slightly delayed checkout
(we had three and half hours between boats
in Iraklio), and calling for extra blankets
(room temperature is not adjustable), we
settled in for the night.
Everything went according to schedule, and
we waited out the remaining time between
ferries in the small and not very comfortable
passenger terminal. There, we also picked
up our prepaid Hellenic Seaways tickets (€31)
for the trip to Santorini. Our boat to Santorini
was similar to the ferry from Agios Constantinos
to Skiathos (another Flying Cat), and it
left on time and made its first stop at Santorini.
 The port in Santorini is called Athinios
and consists of a parking lot, a few restaurants,
and ticket agents, all clustered at the foot
of a very high cliff. The public bus (KTEL)
meets the ferries and for €1.60 takes
you nearly straight up to the top of the
cliff and on to Fira (also called "Thira"),
the main town on the island. The bus station
is located on the southeast end of the town,
within ten minutes of most points in the
center of town.
Accommodations generally divide
into two
categories: those with caldera
views and
those without; and those that
are hotel rooms
and those that are studios with
cooking facilities.
Before the volcano blew up, Santorini
was
a single island; afterwards,
the center flooded
and created a series of island
encircling
new land masses in the center.
The dramatic
views look inward at the caldera
(which means
"volcanic crater")
and rooms with
such a view are dramatically
more expensive
than those with an Agean view
(to the east
of Santorini) or no view at all.
A balcony
to sit on ups the price further.
Much of
the west side of Fira clings
to the side
of the ridge, which necessitates
a staircase-like
arrangement of hotels and rooms.
These rooms
are up against the cliff on one
side and
look outward to the caldera on
the other.
The farther down the hill, the
less impressive
the view and also the more steps
up and down
to and from the center of town.
Because buildings
are low to the ground, hotels
in the center
of town generally have no view,
and those
on the east side, where the ground
begins
to gently slope down, only have
some open
ocean views to the east.
Studios Caldera
 We arranged through the internet to stay
two nights in a "double" (a hotel-like
room rather than a "studio" with
cooking facilities) at a place called Studios
Caldera, which was advertised as ten minutes
from the center of town on the caldera side
for €130 per night. We followed directions
that had been emailed to us, found the main
church, and started descending the eastern
cliff along paved steps and sloping walkways.
About 90 steps down, we found our hotel and
was escorted down three more stories to our
room.
The room was clean (though plainly furnished)
and the views from the shared balcony were
outstanding. To the right, we could see the picturesque town of Ia and,
close by us, the donkey path and cable cars
leading from Fira down to the cruise ship
and excursion docks far below. In between,
we watched the tenders and excursion boats
making their trips as well as an occasion
cruise ship; in the distance we spotted the
slow ferry back to Piraeus as well as the
Flying Cat heading on to the other islands.
While the sunsets were attractive oranges,
the real treat was the illuminated town at
twilight.
Vladimir, an engaging man who tended the
rooms and spoke excellent English, welcomed
us and made several recommendations for dining
in the area.
Ia
 Our first afternoon, we took the bus (€1.10)
from the bus station for a short ride to
Ia, a town perched on a cliff at the north
end of the island, for an unforgettable visual
treat. The buildings were even prettier than
those in Fira -- their whitewashed rectangles
occasionally interrupted by the blue dome
of a church gave the town a fantasy-like
appearance that became, rather than the caldera,
the main attraction (see photo to the right).
Nikolas
Our first night, we ate at Nikolas. We had
a short wait for a table, but once inside
found the food mediocre and the service approaching
brusque.
Kamari
Our second day, we set out late in the morning
for the fifteen minute ride (€1.20)
to the beach at Kamari and the archeological
site at Ancient Thira. Unfortunately, our
guide books were wrong, and, like all other
archeological-related places, it was closed
because it was Monday. We also learned that
Ancient Akritiri was still closed because
of a roof collapse, with no clear date as
to when it will reopen. We spent a few minutes
examining the black beach (black from the
volcano) before deciding it seemed more like
dirt than sand and that the beach was very
pebbly. We caught the bus back to Fira and
explored the town.
Naousa
For dinner the second night,
we visited Naousa,
a restaurant at the northern
end of the town's
center. It's upstairs, open dining
area was
pleasant and the food and service
more appealing
than the night before at Nikolas
.
Ancient Thira
 Our third day, we were up early and caught
the bus to Kamari again in order to see the
ruins of the ancient city of Thira. Two blocks
north of the Kamari beach bus stop we arranged
a roundtrip van ride from a travel/rental
agency for €8 per person to take us
to the top of the mountain (trips start at
9 a.m. and leave hourly, and pick-up is two
hours later). The site was very windy and
not well restored, but the views were excellent.
We spent about an hour and forty-five minutes
exploring the site.
Return to Iraklio
Our plan was to return to Fira,
see the Archeological
Museum and then catch the 4:30
bus to the
port for a 5:25 ferry back to
Iraklio. When
we got back to the Fira bus station,
we found
that the 4:30 bus had been cancelled
and
the next earlier one was at 2:30.
We raced
through the museum (€3)
in about five
minutes because we found little
of interest,
picked up our luggage from the
hotel, and
started the tough baggage-laden
hike back
up the hill and on to the bus
station, where
we caught the bus for the port
(Athinios,
€1.60).
Because the ferry to Iraklio
was nearly full
when we booked it several weeks
prior, our
seats were not together, so we
decided to
check with an agency at the port
to see if
we get seats together. We learned
there that
our ferry had been cancelled
because of high
winds (which explains why there
was no 4:30
bus). We decided to fly (€110)
on Sky
Express, a small commuter plane,
in order
to keep to our original schedule;
otherwise,
we could have taken the nine
hour slow ferry
back to Athens that afternoon,
but we would
have missed our Iraklio to Piraeus
ferry
and were uncertain if we could
get a refund,
we would have arrived very late
in Athens
and had to find our way around
while dragging
our luggage, and we would have
had to pay
for two additional nights in
Athens.
We took the next bus back to
Thira and a
second bus to the airport (€1.10),
where we waited in a small waiting
area for
our flight aboard a twenty passenger,
twin
engine propeller plane before
a twenty-five
minute flight to Iraklio. |
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