Santorini, Greece

London was a fun city to check out but we were ready to be less touristy and relax on the gorgeous Greek island of Santorini! In order to get there, we had to wake up at 4:30am and  drive an hour to the London Gatwick airport. We were commenting along the way that we should have gotten more sleep thinking we were going to have more than enough time to spare….that is until we got in the airport and saw the longest check-in line we’ve ever seen in our lives!

After spending over an hour in line and hardly moving, we started to think we were going to miss our flight. Thankfully, at the last minute they called out all the people on our flight to come to the front of the line to check in. Thank God! But unfortunately, we got a really annoying associate who charged us baggage fees that were nearly half the total ticket price. Insane! Oh, and then we realize we didn’t get seats together…again. What the heck?

We rushed through security, wolfed down breakfast and boarded the plane. We noticed that nobody was sitting in a row behind me and the flight attendant said Marshall and I could move there so we could sit together. Yay! When the drink cart came through the aisle, we realized that the associate had actually given us premium seats and we got unlimited alcoholic beverages. Woop woop! Guess he wasn’t such a bad guy after all. It was way too early to drink alcohol, so we just kept asking for more bottles of wine and mini alcohol bottles and shoved them in our bag for later. Major score! We made sure to recoup every cent of our astronomical baggage fees. Haha!

After a four-hour flight, we arrived at the Santorini airport and jumped in a shuttle to our hotel in the town of Fira. As we were driving, I was thinking this place looks nothing like pictures I’ve seen but trying to remain optimistic. We pulled up to the back side of our hotel which I still didn’t recognize. We then walked down a steep staircase, turned the corner and saw the most stunning white buildings and gorgeous water view! Now that’s what I’m talking about!!

Our driver led us to our room which had a private patio with a dinner table, sunning bed, and a plunge pool. But wait, there’s more! We opened the door of our room which felt like a guano covered majestic cave and saw rose petals scattered on the floor in the shape of a heart. So romantic! We continue walking toward the bathroom and saw a disco ball hanging from the ceiling. Party in the bathroom! Then we see stairs to the left of the bathroom that led to our private underground cave pool which also had a disco ball hanging above the pool. Looks like we’re having a pool party for two! This was seriously the most unique and luxurious hotel we’ve ever stayed at!

We immediately put on our swimsuits to soak in our outdoor plunge pool that overlooked the calderas (large volcanic craters that looked like rocky islands). Not long after we started to realize what an amazing experience this was a complementary bottle of champagne and an array of fruit were delivered to us poolside. Ultimate luxury!

It was getting nearly time for our dinner reservation, so we freshened up and started walking down a stone path along the water. We stopped a few times to take pictures of various scenic shots (just about every step) before making our way to a restaurant overlooking the ocean called Onar. We started with a cocktail and just soaked in the view below and watched a cruise ship sail off into the distance. We eventually ordered dinner which was just as amazing as the view.

The sun was about to set and Santorini is known for its world class sunsets. We walked over to a bar close to our hotel that had a perfect view point. We had the bar to ourselves which meant the bartender could be our personal photographer. Oh yeah! We were craving something sweet so we continued walking to our hotel and came across Confetti Café which had a wide variety of intricate desserts. We picked out a chocolate mouse and a few macaroons to take back to our room. As soon as we got to our room, we put on our swimsuits and brought our dessert down to our cave pool. We cranked up some upbeat tunes and enjoyed our very own dance pool party! Good times!

The following morning we woke up to a gourmet breakfast delivered to our outdoor patio. The mini pancakes with chocolate and crushed nuts on top were amazing! As we sat there sipping our coffee we planned out our day. We had heard that the best way to explore the island was on an ATV so we scheduled one to be dropped off at our hotel at 9am. We had a little time to kill before it arrived so we walked over to a nearby coffee shop to get a frappucino. Their version was espresso shots with sugar shaken over ice. Not exactly what I had in mind, but it definitely wasn’t amongst the worst I’ve had in our travels.

Once our ATV showed up, we jumped on and headed to the west side of the island. A few miles down the road we saw a sign that said ‘great picture view’. We figured we’d stop to see if it was worthwhile. It was actually an outdoor bar near the edge of a cliff that overlooked the ocean randomly off the side of the road. Definitely unique and picture worthy! We grabbed a drink and enjoyed the view and more great conversation about what we’ve experienced together over the last ten years and what we were both looking forward to in the next few years. We’ve had an incredible life together and look forward to more exciting and ridiculously unique times to come.  

Once we snapped out of our love bubble, we jumped back on our ATV and continued driving around the outer perimeter of the island. We made a few quick stops at Santo Winery, Akrotinir Lighthouse and Red Beach. By that point we had worked up an appetite and thought a beachfront restaurant would be the perfect place to stop for lunch. We grabbed a spot on the sand that had two bean bag lounge chairs. We both ordered pasta and I ordered a delicious espresso shake. After taking a few sips I spilled my entire shake all over our table. Dang it! Marshall picked up our table and carried it down to the ocean and dunked it in the water to rinse off. Wouldn’t just asking for a wash rag have been easier? Lol!

After finishing lunch, we drove back to our hotel to get ready for an evening on the town. I had a fun evening planned for us that consisted of dinner and a Greek wedding theatre show. We drove our ATV to a town about fifteen minutes away where we had reservations at a lovely water view restaurant called Metropolis. I ordered an espresso cocktail to sip on as we waited for our dinner to arrive…which I later realized was a BIG mistake.

We had an hour to kill between dinner and the show so we walked next door to a well-known hang out spot called PK Bar. It was super windy so we found a table in a covered area. Unfortunately, smoking is allowed in bars in Greece and the people right next to us were chain smokers. We couldn’t understand how anyone could survive in there, so we immediately went back outside and found a loveseat facing the water. Luckily there were blankets outside to snuggle under as we enjoyed the sunset.

Once the sun had gone below the horizon, it was time to make our way to the show a few blocks away. We were shown to our table right at the front and quickly realized the audience was soon to became part of a Greek wedding. The actors made their way around the room saying hi to everyone as if we were relatives of their family. There was a lot of singing and dancing throughout the evening and they even asked members of the audience to join them during some songs. They tried to get us to go on stage, but we were exhausted from such a crazy day… and didn’t want to show them up with our crazy awesome dance moves.  Toward the end of the wedding we all got to throw plates on the stage which is a Greek wedding tradition. Pretty entertaining! It was 11:30pm and the show still hadn’t ended. Our attention span had reached its max so we secretly snuck out the back door.

We walked a few blocks back to our ATV to find a car had parked right behind us blocking us in. Just wonderful! There was also a wall on one side of us and a van on the other so our only chance of getting out was to try to drive the ATV in front of the van to other side of it since there was quite a bit of space in front of the van. Only one problem, on the other side of the van was a curb and a big drop off about 4 feet from the van. We thought if we got super close to the van we might be able to squeeze through. That is until our wheels locked with the van and wouldn’t move any further without taking off a side panel of one of the vehicles. Now we were really stuck! Welp, looks like we’re walking back to our hotel…at midnight…all up hill….in flip flops…after such a crazy day! We took off chuckling as we looked back at the ATV not having any idea how we were going to return it in the morning.

We couldn’t remember exactly where our room was, but we happened to stumble upon the reception office which was hidden and pretty far from our room. We told the receptionist that helped us order the ATV what had happened and that it was basically conjoined with a random van in the next town over. She looked at us stunned and told us we needed to call the police. I’m like “what are they going to do? Airlift it out?” Marshall laughed, tossed the keys on the table and told her when the ATV owner comes by in the morning to collect his vehicle, just hand him the keys, explain what happened and say, “good luck!”. We all just laughed and then the bell boy showed us back to our room. We never did hear anything about that ATV, so we assume there’s either an ATVan driving around somewhere or they were able to figure it out how to disjoin them.

That night, I laid in bed all night trying to fall asleep. Marshall woke up at 8am and I had still not fallen asleep. Uhhh! It then occurred to me that I had several coffee drinks throughout that day which probably equated to like eight espresso shots. I’m someone who needs a solid eight hours of sleep so I felt like death. We had until noon to check out and go to our next hotel so I continued lying in bed until check out but still couldn’t fall asleep. OH WELL, gotta power through! We packed up our stuff and took a shuttle to the next hotel about twenty minutes away in the city of Oia.

We checked into La Perla Suites which was another gorgeous hotel overlooking the water with an outdoor hot tub. I figured I might as well eat lunch while I’m half awake and then try to take a nap. So we had a couple pizzas delivered to our room to much on. By this point it was nearly 2pm which meant I had already wasted most of our last day in Santorini. However, I still needed a nap to get through the rest of the day. Luckily, I was able to get a solid hour of sleep once I turned the TV onto some random Greek news channel. After a couple hours I woke up and knew I didn’t want to waste any more time so just said ‘screw it!”.  I put on a dress, braided my greasy hair and threw on a hat. Off we went for our last night on the town.

We strolled through the streets of Oia, the most famous town in Santorini known for all its white buildings with blue dome roofs. I found a beautiful scarf and a Christmas ornament that we collect from each company we visit. All of a sudden gelato was calling my name. The owner of the scarf store recommended her favorite gelato place, so we navigated our way to it. We sat on bench to relax and people watched as we savored our delicious gelato.

Once it was time for our dinner reservation, we meandered our way to the restaurant Lycabettus. As we walked down a steep staircase, we saw this stunning restaurant on the edge of a cliff with surrounding sea views. They first brought us an array of bread and flavorful olive and butter spreads. Then our super unique cocktails arrived. Marshall’s was like a fruity punch with various garnishes spruced out the top and mine had hints of chocolate, orange and cinnamon. Heavenly! When our food came, it looked like it should have been on display at an art exhibit. The meat was so tender and was drizzled in the most flavorful sauce. This place was a little pricey but well worth every penny!

The sun was about to set after we had licked our plates clean. We ran through the little town to find a nice viewing spot and found a crevice between buildings to get a peekaboo view the last few seconds of the sun setting. I was still tired and relaxing in our hot tub at our room sounded mighty nice. So that’s exactly what we did for the remainder of our evening. Santorini was the most beautiful and romantic city we’ve ever been too! We’d highly recommend this place for a honeymoon, anniversary or just a romantic couple’s getaway.
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Tomorrow we’re headed to Stockholm, Sweden, our final destination on this trip!