Wheeling and Dealing in Santorini

No Reservations

We pull up to the port of Santorini with no reservations. We’re hoping that we’ll find a better deal on accommodations by simply just showing up at the port and haggling a little bit with the hundreds of hotel and apartment owners. As we step off of the ferry we’re bombarded by these hotel hawkers yelling at us asking “Where do you want to stay?”. “Fira, Oia, Perissa”, they call out excitedly.

I step up to talk to a guy trying to advertise his hotel in the capital of Fira. He explains that his hotel is just two streets back from the famous “caldera” view. “Only 40 Euro per person” he says. I tell him to take a hike and all of a sudden a man steps into our circle and says “Why not try Perissa?”. I take a quick look at his brochure and after talking with him for a few minutes I feel that he’s somewhat trustworthy so we decide to spend the night at his place which is supposedly a two minute walk from the black volcanic sand beach known as “Perissa Beach”. I’m also thinking that we’ll check out the rooms first and get the free ride from the port to Perissa. If we don’t like the rooms, we walk down the road and find something else!

Katefiani Villas

Once we arrived at Katefiani Villas we were very surprised to find that everything that he advertised was true and it was even better than we expected for the price. The price was only 30 Euro ($36 USD) per night for a double room with private bathroom, air conditioning, TV, refrigerator, and a nice private balcony with some pretty nice views.We came to Santorini hoping to find something less than 50/Euro per night, so 30 Euro to us was a great deal!

The next morning our new friends Nick and Jess from Colorado showed up in Santorini, but only for one day before they take off to the island of Milos. Since they only had one day to explore Santorini, our plan was to  explore as much of Santorini as we could by scooter and that’s exactly what we did.

We rented scooters from a shop nearby our hotel called Moto Manos. The owner wanted 15 Euro per day for the scooters but I talked him down to 10 Euro (about $12 USD). My bargaining skills are pretty good after spending a month in Egypt. After some small paperwork the bikes were ready to go.

First stop; Fira, the cliff side capital of Santorini with views that look over the caldera. It’s filled with all sorts of shops, restaurants and hotels that range from 35 Euro to 1000 Euro per night depending on the location.

We made a quick pitstop in a small shop that was offering free wine tasting and ended up trying a few wines along with a vicious shot of Absynthe. Let me tell you, there’s nothing like a shot of Absynthe at noon time to wake you up.

Next stop, Oia! We drove the entire southern coast of Santorini on our way to Oia and it was one of the coolest rides I’ve ever been on. We tore through the twists and turns along the coastline until we reached the home of the most beautiful sunsets in the world!

If you’re headed to Oia for sunset, you need to make sure to get there early. I mean at least 1.5 hours early. If you can imagine, most people travel to Santorini just for the sunsets alone so be ready to experience crowds of people coming from all over the island to see this spectacle. We set ourselves up with a nice spot on a rocky ledge and enjoyed a bottle of wine and a loaf of bread with olive oil as we waited to experience what everyone had been talking about.

The sunset at around 8:50PM and it was as amazing as you’d expect it to be. It was a great moment for us on our trip and I don’t think it’s something we’ll ever forget. To share the experience together with our new friends made the day that much better.

For more photos of our travels to Santorini, check out the Santorini Photo Album