GREECE
Greece
Where we stayed: Melia Athens; Nissaki Boutique Hotel; Chromata & an Airbnb.
Where we ate: Pelekanos, Santo Wine Winery
Trip Highlight: Great sights, great food, great friends
Athens
We, somehow, forgot to book a hotel in Athens which made for a bit of a hectic arrival. We did book one before we landed in Greece but had no knowledge of the area or the hotel to which we were en route. The hotel we choose, at the last minute, was the Melia Athens. The hotel was beautiful, very spacious and a great value. It had a fantastic rooftop pool that turned in to a restaurant for dinner and drinks with a view of Parthenon. We only had two nights here before our next stop, but we made the most of it and saw a few sights. One thing that caught us off guard was the amount of graffiti on everything.
In the morning, we walked from the hotel to the base of the Parthenon, taking in all the architecture and spent some time shopping. It felt like most of the walk to the bottom was uphill, so we would recommend more sturdy shoes, especially if you’re planning to visit the Parthenon. We were in flip flops, so we decided not to go up; we turned around and headed back towards our hotel. Since it was mostly an uphill walk, we did get a pretty good view of the city from where we turned back. We enjoyed dinner at the hotel before calling it an early night and spent the second day relaxing at the pool, eating room service, and getting ready for our flight our to Mykonos.
Mykonos
We were extremely excited to land in Mykonos; it was somewhere we had both wanted to visit for a long time; it was essentially a dream come true. We had a shuttle booked from the airport to the hotel, so it was a fairly reasonably stressfree arrival. We arrived at the hotel lobby (Pentinos Beach Hotel) and checked in. They then ushered us back onto the bus, and it took us up the hill and dropped us off at a seemingly random unmarked building. We were directed to a room that seemed like staff housing. There were two bedrooms linked by a small kitchen and a tiny bathroom. We looked around the room for a bit — mildly in shock. The rooms had a bed and a chair with hair on it each and could not be less like the photos on the website. There was no room menus, no phone, no water, and no hotel info or branding anywhere. The view was of some rocks (which is fine, but the website made it seem like it was on the water). Trying my absolute best to ask with a nonjudgemental tone, I asked Wilson, “hey, is this the room you booked?”. When he said no, we both breathed a sigh of relief, there had been some sort of mix up, but the relief was short-lived when we realized we were going to have to explain our disappointment in a foreign language. Our expectations and what we encountered did not match up, which is why we decided to explore other options. Aside from the very hairy chair, it was clean and seemed like it would have been comfortable. We pulled up the website to make sure that we weren’t making some sort of mistake, and we noticed a decent amount of reviews that had similar experiences to ours. We walked back to the hotel lobby (about 10 minutes) and spoke with the front desk. We did our best to remain calm despite them trying to tell us that other hotels share the website, so the pictures aren't precisely what you’re getting. I eventually asked for a refund so that we could go elsewhere, they were shocked and offered to show us a sister hotel. I requested we see the room before committing to another one of their hotels, and they lead us across the road to one of the most beautiful hotels I have ever seen. They upgraded us for $200 for the week, and we gladly took that offer.
The hotel we ended up at was the Nissaki Boutique Hotel, and it was gorgeous. When we saw the room, we were thrilled, it was a beautiful Greek-style room with a large bathroom, and walk-in shower steps down into the bedroom and a deck that looked out at the ocean and marina. The Nissaki was terrific and a highlight of our entire trip to Europe. We will return. The staff were so excellent that we stayed at the pool almost our whole stay in Mykonos. They had great drinks and food poolside; it was a hard sell to get us to explore anywhere on the island. We did rent an ATV, a common form of travel among both tourists and locals and yes, completely legal. We used the ATV to go around the whole island, we visited a ton of beaches and also various viewpoints. We went to Paradise Beach (party beach) just to check it out, it was quite bizarre, it is a club all day and night. We were going to stay for a drink, but the dancing on the table was too much for us. We went to Mykonos Town, and it blew our minds; it’s such a beautiful town to walk through. Iconic white buildings filled with neat shops, both local and designer and restaurants. Every single street we walked down was gorgeous.
We were devastated to leave Mykonos; it was such a fun and unforgettable experience. Marika was dreading the flight because these quick flights came with a fair amount of turbulence, and to fly to another island, you must first connect back to Athens. Flying to Mykonos from Athens was extremely turbulent; these flights go straight up and straight down with not much time to get to cruising altitude. With our connection back in Athens, it was going to be an all-day ordeal to get to Santorini. Wilson surprised Marika with a helicopter flight from Mykonos straight to Santorini, one of Wilson’s best surprised to date.
Marika is tough to surprise. She always seems to figure out what I am planning, even our proposal — she knew about it. I had to put together so many lies to pull this off. First, I told her the flight had been delayed. Then the car company was delayed for the helicopter, so I had to make up another lie about being delayed. Marika was starting to panic about missing the flight and asked why don’t we taxi to the airport. I can’t remember the exact lie I made up, but it was about how there’s no gate yet because of how small the airport was. I convinced her it was best to stay put. The car did eventually arrive but I didn’t realize that the helicopter pad and the airport weren’t close at all. When driver drove us past the airport and Marika started to get worried thinking we’re getting kidnapped. We finally arrived at the helipad and took off from there. Marika still isn’t sure if the flights or potential kidnapping are more stressful. We had a fantastic experience; it was such a smooth and comfortable ride. It was a thirty-minute, very scenic helicopter ride.
Santorini
Santorini was a blast. We rented a car because it’s a large island with lots to do. We also weren’t aware of the ATV situation before booking the vehicle. We stayed at the Chromata in Thira (Fira). Thira (central island) was beautiful, tons of shops, restaurants amazing sunsets. The Chromata was such a nice hotel, the staff were excellent, and there were so many spots to take in the view, including our room and our little private entryway. We had dinner at the Chromata one night and had the most incredible pistachio risotto paired with fantastic wines.
We spent some time in Oia with the iconic white buildings with blue roofs. We also visited the windmills and spent time wandering the beautiful, picturesque streets. It is a bustling area, but we got their early and walked around before the crowds emerged. We ate at a great restaurant called Pelekanos in Oia, Pelekanos is a place we will not forget. It had a great view of the water, we happened to be there at sunset, and fantastic pita, and tzatziki. Everything we ate there was incredible. Parking in Oia is minimal for vehicles, so if you’re comfortable and can, we’d recommend the ATV’s you can park them anywhere.
We had some friends of ours join us for the second half of the Santorini portion, and as you can probably guess, we had a blast. We rented an Airbnb on the south side of the island in a town called Akrotiri. We rented a cozy villa owned by a hotel that was branching out into the Airbnb business. Because of this, we got to enjoy the hotel amenities. Breakfast was one of those amenities it was delivered to us every morning at a time we discussed the day before. It was a Sunday spread, enough for ten people, for the four of us, they had housekeeping every day and access to the hotel pool (they were down the street) if we desired. It was a beautiful side of the island, a lot of really cool cliffs and a lot quieter. Sunsets and sunrises from anywhere on this island were always fabulous. Perissa, (another town in the south) has the black sand beach with plenty of bars, beach clubs and restaurants across the road. Most parts of the beach you’ll want to rent a beach chair for a couple of euros; when you do, they have food and drink service from the local restaurants.
We also highly recommend checking out Santo Wines Winery. It’s located just south of Thira and has an incredible viewpoint, though there are no shortages of views or sunsets, this one was remarkable. Their wine tasting for two might be better suited for four or six people, though if you’d like Marika and Kaila’s same experience — two is perfect. They give you 30 wines to try and no less than a 4oz pour in each glass. (you see where this is going?) All the wines were incredible, although after glass six, who knows. Santo Wines does also have food available, but Marika and Kaila requested McDonald’s.
On one of our days, we went on a catamaran sunset tour, which was probably the most incredible experience ever. It was an all-day adventure on the catamaran. We got to hang out on the hammock-like nets of the catamaran, and we got to swim and snorkel in the Mediterranean Sea (which I can only describe as float-ie). The boat stopped for a fantastic sunset dinner on the water. We saw so many sights on that tour like the hot springs and Red Sand Beach (which is quite the hike to get to). It was, by far, one of the most relaxing boat tours we’ve ever been on and we would highly recommend budgeting for something like that. Our Airbnb host booked it for us so it might be worth checking with your hotel concierge to see if there are any deals.
Our entire trip was incredible and travelling with friends made it even more so. If you ever get the chance to a. travel with friends and b. go to Greece. Take the opportunity; you won’t regret it.