Greece in 10 days
Greece!
If you’ve ever watched The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants I’m sure this country has been on your list of places to visit! Ever since this movie I’ve dreamed of meeting a Greek boy on the cobblestone streets of Santorini!
Finally my dream came true when I visited the country for 10 days! There’s lots of islands to explore – with only a short time I chose to visit Santorini, Mykonos, and Athens!
Santorini
The first place we went to was Santorini! We arrived by plane and stayed on the island for 4 nights! We chose to stay in an area called Messaria. It’s right by the airport (which is nice because the cab to/from the airport was super cheap!) It’s cheaper than Oia and situated in the center, which made it easy to explore the whole island! We stayed at Hotel Eucalyptus. The workers are AMAZING and go way above and beyond. They messed up our booking so they upgraded us and gave us breakfast each day for free!
Fira was a 10 minute drive from where we stayed. Fira is personally my FAVOURITE place on the island – much less busy than Oia and still had amazing restaurants and views! There was lots of little shops down all the tiny streets – I spent tons of time just wandering through them and purchasing greek things! The restaurants here are a little less steep in prices compared to the much more popular Oia, so I would recommend eating here instead!
The best place to watch the sunset is at ‘The Three Bells of Fira’ . There’s signs everywhere pointing you where to go! Once there you’ll get amazing views like this!
Oia is obviously a must do as well! The highlight of this town is the sunset – so make sure if you’re going for that you arrive early enough to get a spot to view it! It’s insanely busy here at sunset – you won’t be able to move at all! The view is DEFINITELY worth it though! We went one night right at sunset and hated the craziness, so we went back the next day in the afternoon and LOVED it. Since it’s so hot mid-day the streets were essentially empty! This was awesome because we could finally take some pictures with no tourists in them!
My favourite thing to do here was just walk the streets and take pictures! Restaurants and shop here are overpriced (compared to Fira) so if you want to go for a fancy dinner I would suggest going to Fira instead!
We rented an ATV while on the island – I would definitely recommend this – the public buses are very busy and they don’t run that often/late.
One day we went to explore all the famous beaches on the island with our ATV! There’s 3 main beaches – Red beach, White beach, and Black beach! They’re all very different but definitely worth a trip to see them! Our favourite beach to relax on however was Monolithos Beach – it was way less touristy!
The final day we chose to do an excursion with a company called Sunset-Oia!
Mykonos
Our next stop was Mykonos! We took a ferry from Santorini to Mykonos – took about 4 hours and was pretty pricy.. but much more comfortable than a plane! Once in Mykonos we took a cab to out hotel – we stayed at a place called Orpheas. We stayed in a private penthouse room it was gorgeous! And super cheap!
The first day we took a bus to the beaches! We went to the famous Paradise Beach and had some cocktails – the vibe there was super fun – there was a live DJ and everyone was dancing! It was a little too crowded for us though, so we went to a different beach called Platis Gialos which was a lot quieter! One thing we hated about Mykonos – all the beaches were filled with chairs that you had to pay for – there was barely any bare area of sand to lay down on your towel.. such a money grab! Since we were beach hopping, we didn’t want to pay the fee, which unfortunately made the beaches less enjoyable. If you have more time I would definitely recommend staying on the same beach during the day so you get your moneys worth out of the chair rentals!
The next two days we walked around the town of Mykonos – got lost about every 10 mins (the alleys are super confusing!). The streets are gorgeous – we took a lot of photos around every corner! Our favourite thing to do was get gyros and gelato to go and eat it on the rooftop of our hotel room!
Athens
From Mykonos we took a plane to Athens! The Mykonos airport is super small… not one I would recommend. It had about 10 chairs (I’m exaggerating) and 2 flights at the same time, so everyone had to stand around for hours waiting for their flight – wouldn’t do that again! I would definitely recommend taking a ferry instead 🙂
Once in Athens we brought out luggage to our hotel – we stayed at the Parnon Hotel. I wouldn’t recommend it – it was just okay.. and a little far from all the attractions of the city!
The first day we had in Athens we went to the Acropolis! The walk up itself is gorgeous – you get panoramic views of the city!
Our favourite thing to do while in the city was to have a drink at one of the rooftop bars! We went to 360 degree Cocktail Bar – beautiful views of the acropolis and the drinks were delicious!
The next day we walked around the city, had a lot of gyros, and prepared for our long flight home back to Canada!
Overall Itinerary:
Day 1: Arrive by plane in Santorini. Explore Messaria and Fira.
Day 2: Explore the island by ATV – Visit Red Beach, White Beach, and Black Beach.
Day 3: Drive to Oia and see the sunset.
Day 4: Do a catamaran excursion.
Day 5: Take the ferry to Mykonos. Relax on the beaches!
Day 6: Walk around Mykonos town.
Day 7: Explore the town again.
Day 8: Fly to Athens.
Day 9: Explore the Acropolis.
Day 10: Walk around the city – fly home!
Thanks for reading
xx Steens
