Previous Trip Notes:
A Delayed Honeymoon: Part 9 – Conrad Dubai & Royal Jordanian Business Class (DXB > AMM > ATH)
A Delayed Honeymoon: Part 8 – Al-Maha, Starwood Luxury Collection
A Delayed Honeymoon: Part 7 – Park Hyatt Dubai
A Delayed Honeymoon: Part 6 – Maldives to Dubai
A Delayed Honeymoon: Part 5 – Park Hyatt, Maldives
A Delayed Honeymoon: Part 4 – Getting to the Park Hyatt Maldives
A Delayed Honeymoon: Part 3 – Hyatt Capital Gate, Abu Dhabi
A Delayed Honeymoon: Part 2 – EY130 First Class
A Delayed Honeymoon: Part 1 – Baltimore > IAD, & Etihad Lounge
We landed in Athens with about a 3-hour layover before taking our flight to Santorini. Booking the flights on Aegean Airlines was somewhat of a collision of worlds. Just a couple years ago it was possible to earn Star Alliance Gold membership by earning 20,000 Aegean Miles in a year, and at one point they gave new sign-ups 4,000 free points. For a period of a couple months, it seemed like a no-brainer, so I began crediting my United Airlines flights to Aegean. Then I took a hiatus from flying (or at least from paying for flights). That left a number of “orphaned” miles in my Aegean account, and just enough for one round-trip ticket between Athens and Santorini. The second ticket was fairly cheap at about $200. It’s a very quick 45 minute flight, and we spent out time waiting for the flight in the Aristotle Onassis Lounge (which we had access to using my American Express Platinum card).
The flight was uneventful and we landed when it was pitch-black. We grabbed a taxi at the airport to head to Heliotopos, a quaint hotel in the Imerovigli region of the island. It was pretty chilly and the rain had luckily stopped just before we landed.
We were starving and after getting settled into the room went to the restaurant in Heliotopos which was literally carved into the mountain:
Heliotopos Restaurant
Each room is unique, as the hotel descends down over the mountain slope. Our door opened to a living room on the top level:
Living Room at Heliotopos
There was also a balcony on the top level:
Balcony View at Heliotopos
Balcony View at Heliotopos
The hallway down to the bedroom and bathroom was tight:
Room at Heliotopos
The room was quaint, but the radiator was buzzing and the view from the windows stunning:
Bedroom at Heliotopos
After dinner we fell fast asleep early and woke up with the sun. Although it was cool, the views were downright stunning:
Santorini, Greece
Santorini, Greece
Santorini, Greece
Heliotopos offered complimentary breakfast back in the cave, which was filling enough to last until lunch:
Breakfast at Heliotopos
We decided to set off and hike down part of the island:
Hiking Santorini, Greece
Santorini, Greece
Santorini, Greece
Santorini, Greece
Santorini, Greece
Santorini, Greece
Santorini, Greece
Santorini, Greece
Santorini, Greece
Santorini, Greece
Santorini, Greece
Santorini, Greece
Santorini, Greece
Santorini, Greece
Santorini, Greece
After hiking down the island from Imerovigli to Fira, we jumped in a cab to Akrotiri – a Minoan settlement that was destroyed in the Theran eruption around 1600 BC:
Akrotiri – Santorini Greece
Akrotiri – Santorini Greece
Akrotiri – Santorini Greece
As the island seemingly shuts down in the winter months, we asked the cab driver to meet us back after about an hour and a half. It didn’t quite take us that long to walk through, so we set off and walked around the island for a bit:
Red Beach – Santorini, Greece
Red Beach – Santorini, Greece
We headed back to Fira to grab lunch, and found a quaint little restaurant. The owner was the only one there, and couldn’t have been friendlier. She brought out some Ouzo shots – of course NSPwife couldn’t partake given NSPpeanut, so I had to do double-duty in order not to offend. The meal was great, and NSPwife particularly enjoyed her octopus:
Lunch – Santorini Greece
Lunch – Santorini Greece
Lunch – Santorini Greece
Lunch – Santorini Greece
Lunch – Santorini Greece
We hiked back up to our hotel and relaxed for a bit. One thing that we were extremely excited about was watching the sunset, and while there are a number of locations around the island to watch it, Oia is supposed to be one of the best. We called a taxi (by the way, taxis are not cheap on the island), and headed a bit north. We exited the taxi and walked through a number of small side streets to get to the coast. Unfortunately it was quite cloudy, but we managed to capture a bit of the sunset:
Sunset – Santorini (Oia), Greece
Sunset – Santorini (Oia), Greece
Sunset Watching – Santorini (Oia), Greece
Sunset Watching – Santorini (Oia), Greece
Sunset Watching – Santorini (Oia), Greece
We took a cab back to Fira to have a final dinner in Santorini. We were exhausted by time we got back to Heliotopos and just crashed. The airport in Santorini is, as expected, quite small:
Santorini Airport
Sunset Watching – Santorini (Oia), Greece
There was a duty free shop as well as a bar; however, the bar was closed for the season:
Santorini Airport
We had to take a bus to the airplane:
Santorini Airport
JTR > ATH
We were on our way to our final destination, Athens. It had been a whirlwind week…Washington D.C. to Abu Dhabi to the Maldives to Dubai to the desert back to Dubai to Santorini and finally Athens. Santorini was great, and beautiful, and everything that every travel web site says; however, I would highly recommend going in the spring/summer, both to enjoy the outside with warm temperatures, but also given that much of the island closes up during the winter.
Goodbye Santorini
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