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

while editing our recent Santorini vlog I found there were a number of tips suggestions and observations that just didn't quite fit into the story talking points such as how much cash should you bring with you are there any vital items to pack the need for booking restaurants in

advance where are the best places to stay what to expect at the airport and a few things in between if you're new to this channel we aim to make travel movies where the location is king hoping you might just find your next holiday inspiration if you're also looking

for things to do on this beautiful island take a look at our full-length travel vlog which I'll link to below this is suitcase monkey with 10 things to get the most out of visiting Santorini first up I want to talk about things that you will need to know

before you arrive and then I'll get onto the things that will help you once you are actually there so the first question is where should you stay and for me it starts with two distinct choices do you want to be in the heart of the action meaning everything's

on your doorstep but with extra cost and more noise or do you want to be outside the main towns in a more relaxed environment does anyone want to stay in a windmill power generating buildings aside living off the beaten track is usually cheaper but can require extra travel

time for us we wanted to be right in the thick of things so that meant it was between staying in fira and ear and spoiler alert we ultimately settled on fairer and for a couple of reasons mostly practical ones since I am a very practical man much to

my wife's disappointment compared to ear fira is the more central of the two so if you are going to be travelling around the island then you were usually halfway to your destination before you've even begun second if you are going to be using public transports fira is the

main terminal on the island meaning it goes everywhere whereas coming from ear you can often find yourself needing to change buses at Ferris station more on transport later for a bit of balance however the main benefit I could see of staying in here over fira is that it

is arguably the more picturesque of the two and definitely has more of those classic santorini sunset location knowing that your bed is just around the corner means getting back home is a lot easier when compared to Ferrer next how many days should you stay for we opted for

four nights which worked great for us but potentially we could have had one extra day if anything if you really want to explore everything Santorini has to offer with some extra relaxation thrown in then seven nights would be ideal and while four nights gave us a full day

at both ear and fira a more relaxed excursion day which I'll cover later also and a final day of milling around our favorite spots again take a look at our full-length Santorini vlog which covers everything we did over those four days in terms of the best time to

visit the peak is July and August which is the hottest time the most expensive and easily the busiest the shoulder months on either side can therefore be a great option and so we visited in mid-june which was still busy but not overbearing December and January are in the

early teens temperature-wise with more chance of rain and the more chance of places being closed the crowds will be scarce and prices at their lowest once you've decided on all that let's get into when you actually arrive one thing I wish I'd known beforehand is to book your

favorite restaurant ahead of time if you really have your heart set on a particular dining spot be sure to speak to them the day of or the day before to secure your table we saw some great reviews for places you could enjoy the sunset from but it seems

so had everyone else the first day we went here they were completely full so we ended up booking the next night and we're treated to this awesome view as our reward we also had the same thing happen to us on day 2 where we wanted to eat at

Mela teeny in-ear but being the number one rated restaurant on TripAdvisor that we had little to no chance of sitting down without a reservation and quickly while we're on this subject my three favorite restaurants we visited were mochi a sushi place with an amazing view of the caldera

which was perfect for lunch Rast Oni which is split over multiple levels again with great views for the sunsets and Perea tavern which was facing away from the Sun but we had a really tasty Greek starter to share and this amazing fish course which was prepared right in

front of us all links below on the topic of paying for things we found the acceptance of credit and debit cards to be a bit hit and miss overall although most places accepted card a few smaller shops flatly denied them we did however have three mysterious occasions where

technical difficulties meant their payment device wasn't working so it's always good to have some cash as a backup there are a few ATMs dotted around in the more populated areas so you won't ever have to sell your body for some feta cheese unless of course that's what you're

into but overall have enough cash for maybe a meal and a shopping trip per day where your plastic is not accepted and that along with your card should easily see you through next up is cost and this is really just so you have the best expectation as with

everything you can always find expensive or cheaper eats wherever you go but overall I would say compared with other European cities we've been to Santorini ranks around the higher end of costs but mostly not at insane levels to throw out a few real-world examples these two lattes came

to ten euros as a take away an evening meal soft drink could be 4 euros a starter around 8 euros mains anywhere from 10 to 20 euros on average so I suggest if this is something that concerns you use a filter on TripAdvisor and you'll be just fine

one important thing to mention when it comes to packing is to not underestimate the power of Santorini Sun this was us after climbing the 300 steps from a moody Bay in the afternoon heat we traveled in late June which although isn't the hottest time to go with probably

the hottest late 20s that I've ever felt and I found myself shadow hunting just for a bit of respite and I'm also not ashamed to say I often find myself drawn into the many boutiques not only for their creative displays but for their lovely air conditioning so definitely

be prepared with a good hat clothes that breathe sunglasses and plenty of water I would also recommend a good pair of walking shoes you will probably be doing lots of it but there are also a number of unexpected steps dotted around my scuffed shoes were either evidence of

surprising stairs or a sign of fatigue there are a number of options you have in terms of getting around Santorini first I'll go through a quick overview of the ones we didn't use but have some research on and then what we finally chose ourselves the two main taxi

ranks are again based in ear and firer both near the bus terminals there may be a weight sometimes but despite this it is obviously the most expensive but simple way to get around your hotel can often help you with this also a second popular option is to rent

either a car scooter or quad bike this obviously works best when staying outside of fear and air since parking is easier we also walk past loads of places advertising them so it could even be booked on a whim to help getting to that hard-to-reach location it's probably the

best way of getting around and seeing all of Santa Rooney's multicolored beaches smaller towns lighthouses and ancient ruins personally speaking when I think of riding a quad bike all I see are the headlines silly English youtuber tragically dies after road accident and that my friends is why we

chose option C which was the bus without repeating what I mentioned earlier the most important good news is that for one euro and 80 cents you can get to pretty much anywhere and because we were staying near the bus terminal it was even easier the buses are of

good quality they take cash only and tickets can only be bought on the bus itself there are a number of downsides however the buses can easily reach capacity and we saw a number of occasions where passengers were left waiting at the bus stop because of this again the

benefit of staying near the first stop when we always got a seat except for our late-night return from here where we were stood crammed into the exit steps Santorini's airports is incredibly small for the number of passengers wants them to go through it maybe we just saw them

at their worst and it's not like this all the time so please comment below with your own stories if you have them but for your return flight I would suggest getting there with plenty of time to spare there was a massive queue snaking 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 overwhelmed places to grab some food and drink now there isn't much you can do with this information apart from managing your expectations for this

busy end to your trip on arrival into the airport we'd booked a taxi through hopper which I'll link to below we've used them on a number of holidays and generally found everything to go as planned it cost us 30 pounds for a return trip to and from the

airport which for us worked just fine you can as alluded to before get the local bus for one euro 80 cents which will go straight to firer so that would be the cheapest option I would also strongly recommend you spend a day on a Santorini excursion again there

were loads of shops all offering pretty much the same packages and you can also book them easily through your hotel but overall I'm pretty confident there will be something in there for everyone trips to historical sites beach days boat trips helicopter rides wine tastings it's all in there

we opted for the popular volcano tour with hot springs swim which was good fun and I suggest to check it out in my full-length Santorini vlog which covers all of this in more detail if you think there's something I missed please share your knowledge in the comments below

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watching suitcase monkey