Top 10 Things to Know BEFORE Visiting SANTORINI Greece: Travel Planning

While editing our recent Santorini vlog, I discovered that there were a number of tips, suggestions and observations that simply didn't fit into the talking points of the story, such as how much cash I should carry with me, are there any vital items to pack the need to reserve? restaurants in advance where the best places to stay are what to expect at the airport and a few

things

in between if you're new to this channel our goal is to make

travel

movies where location is king, in the hopes that you can find inspiration for your next vacation If you are also looking for

things

to do on this beautiful island, check out our full

travel

vlog which I will link to below.

This is the suitcase monkey with 10 things to make the most of your visit to Santorini first. to talk about the things you'll need to

know

before you get there and then I'll talk about the things that will help you once you're there, so the first question is where should you stay and for me it starts with two different options. Do you want to be in the heart of the action, meaning everything is on your doorstep, but at an extra cost and more noise, or do you want to be outside of the main cities in a more relaxed environment.

Does anyone want to stay in a windmill, energy generating buildings, apart from living? Off the beaten path is usually cheaper, but may require additional travel time for us. We wanted to be right in the thick of things, so that meant that between staying in Fira and ear and spoiler alert, we ultimately decided to be fairer and for a couple of reasons. mostly practical as I am a very practical man, much to my wife's disappointment, compared to ear fira it is the more central of the two so if you are traveling around the island you will generally be halfway to your destination before you have even arrived. started second if you are going to use public transportation.

Fira is the main terminal on the island which means it goes everywhere, whilst coming from the ear you may often need to change buses at the Ferris station later on transport to have a bit of balance, however the El The main benefit I could see from staying here during Fira is that it is arguably the more picturesque of the two and definitely has more of that classic Santorini sunset location. Knowing that your bed is just around the corner means that coming home is much easier when Compared to Ferrer, below, how many days should you stay? We opted for four nights, which worked great for us, but we could have potentially had an extra day, if anything, if you really want to explore everything Santorini has to offer with a little extra relaxation. seven nights would be ideal and although four nights gave us a full day in both ear and fira, a more relaxed day of hiking which I will also cover later and a final day touring our favorite places again, take a look at our full version.

The Santorini vlog covering everything we did during those four days in terms of the best time to visit the peak being July and August which is the hottest time, the most expensive and easily the busiest, the months in between Both sides can therefore be an excellent option and so we visited in mid June which was still busy but not overwhelming. December and January are in the top ten as far as temperature, with more chances of rain and more chances of places being closed, crowds will be thin and prices will be at their lowest once you've decided everything.

We will board when you arrive. One thing I wish I had

know

n beforehand is to book your favorite restaurant in advance. If you really have your heart set on a particular dining spot, be sure to talk to them. The day of or the day before to secure your table, we saw some great reviews about places you could enjoy the sunset from, but it seems like everyone else had too the first day we went here, they were completely booked out so We ended up booking the next night and enjoyed this incredible view as a reward. The same thing also happened to us on day 2, when we wanted to eat at Mela Teeny In-Ear, but being the number one restaurant on TripAdvisor we had little or no chance of doing so. sit down without a reservation and quickly While on this topic, my three favorite restaurants we visited were mochi, a sushi place with an incredible view of the caldera, which was perfect for lunch.

Rast Oni which is again split over several levels with great views for the sunsets and the Perea tavern which had its back to the sun but we had a really tasty Greek starter to share and this amazing fish dish which was prepared right in front us. All the links below on the topic of paying for things we found with acceptance. Credit and debit cards are a bit hit and miss in general, although most places accept cards, some smaller stores outright denied them. However, we had three mysterious occasions where technical difficulties meant your payment device wasn't working, so it's always good to have some cash.

As a backup, there are a few ATMs dotted around the more populated areas, so you'll never have to sell your body for some feta cheese, unless of course that's what you're into, but you generally have plenty of cash for perhaps one meal and one shopping trip per day where your plastic is not accepted and which, together with your card, should allow you to easily go through the next cost, and this is really so that you have the best expectations, since with everything you can always find expensive or cheaper meals wherever you go. but overall I'd say that compared to other European cities we've been to, Santorini is on the higher end of costs, but mostly not at insane levels, to throw out some real world examples, these two cafes with milk cost ten euros to take away and dinner, the soft drink could cost 4 euros, the starter, around 8 euros, the main dishes, between 10 and 20 euros on average, so I would suggest that if this is something you If you're worried, use a filter on TripAdvisor and you'll be fine.

One important thing to mention when it comes to packing your bags, don't underestimate the power of the Santorini sun. This was us after climbing the 300 steps from a moody bay in the heat of the afternoon we traveled at the end of June, which although not the hottest time to go, is probably around 20 degrees. that I have ever felt and found myself reaching for shades just for a bit of respite and I am also not ashamed to say that I am often drawn to the many boutiques not only for their creative displays but also for their lovely air conditioning, so definitely be prepared with a good hat, clothing that breathes, sunglasses and plenty of water.

I would also recommend a good pair of walking shoes. You'll probably do it a lot, but there are also a series of unexpected steps scattered around my worn shoes that were either evidence of surprising stairs or a sign of fatigue, there are several options you have in terms of getting around Santorini. I'll quickly go over the ones we didn't use first, but do some research and then what we ultimately chose ourselves. The two main taxi ranks are again at Ear and Firer, both close to the bus terminals. Sometimes there may be a peso but despite this it is obviously the most expensive way but the simpler way of getting around the hotel can often help you with this, it is also a popular second option.

The option is to rent a car, scooter or quad. This obviously works best when staying out of fear and air, as parking is easier. We also pass many places that advertise them, so you could even book on a whim to help get you there. close location, it's probably the best way to get around and see all of Santa Rooney's multi-coloured beaches, smaller towns, lighthouses and ancient ruins, personally speaking, when I think about quad biking all I see are the headlines, silly youtuber Englishman dies tragically after the road. accident and that friends that's why we chose option C which was the bus without repeating what I mentioned before the most important good news is that for one euro and 80 cents you can get almost anywhere and because we stayed near the bus terminal it was even easier the buses are of good quality they only accept cash and tickets can only be purchased on the bus itself there are a number of disadvantages however the buses can easily reach their capacity and we saw several occasions where passengers were left waiting in the bus stop because of this again, the benefit of staying close to the first stop when we always got a seat, except for our evening return from here where we were crammed on the exit steps.

Santorini airports are incredibly small for the number of passengers you want. to get them through, maybe we just saw them at their worst and it's not like that all the time, so comment below with your own stories if you have them, but for your return flight I would suggest arriving with plenty of time to spare. There was a huge queue that snaked all the way outside just to get into the building and through security once inside there were no seats and barely any floor to sit on and with only two places overwhelmed to get some food and drink now no there is too much to do.

What can I do with this information, other than manage your expectations for this busy end to your trip, upon arrival at the airport we booked a taxi through hopper which I will link below, we have used them on several holidays and generally We found everything to go as planned it cost us £30 for a return trip to and from the airport which for us worked very well as mentioned before you can take the local bus for one euro 80 cents which will go straight upon dismissal, so it would be the cheapest option. I would also highly recommend spending a day on a Santorini tour again.

There were many stores offering pretty much the same packages and you can also easily book them through your hotel, but overall I'm pretty sure there will be something. there for everyone trips to historical sites beach days boat trips helicopter rides wine tastings everything is there we opted for the popular volcano tour with hot spring bath which was a lot of fun and I suggest watching it in my full Santorini vlog , which covers all of this in more detail If you think there's something I missed, share your knowledge in the comments below and give us a thumbs up to help us spread the word If you're looking for inspiration on where to travel next, hit subscribe . button to join our growing community and check out our other full travel vlogs until next time thanks for watching suitcase monkey