Top 10 Things to Do in Santorini

Doors of the Cyclades

While on my honeymoon in Greece (see my honeyblog part 1 HERE and part 2 HERE), I became obsessively drawn to the beautiful doors I kept seeing everywhere. I literally could not pass a door without snapping a picture. I compiled my faves into a little Instagram photo project I hashtagged #doorsofthecyclades. :D (To answer your question, yes. I am weird.)

Santorini Doors

Naxos Doors

Naxos has the ultimate door - the giant marble Portara. 

Mykonos Doors

To The Moon! (Honeymoon in Greece: Days 5-9)

I'm back for the next installment of my honeyblog. :) (You can click HERE to see my post for Days 1-5.) After 1 night in Athens and 4 nights at the incredible Aenaon Villas in Imerovigli, Santorini, we moved to Ikies Traditional Houses in Oia.

Le sigh. The view of Oia from Ikies is seriously breathtaking. You are situated at the end of town, so you can overlook the entire village. It's straight out of a postcard. Oia is everything the internet promised it would be!

We stayed in the Winemaker Suite at Ikies - it's one of the honeymoon suites and it did not disappoint. I loved our blue door. The terrace was the highlight - so amazing. Tons of room to spread out and gaze at the caldera.

The staff at Ikies is so incredible - they went out of their way to make our stay perfect. They helped us find great excursions during the day and made us dinner reservations every night. They are wonderful.  One day we went on a sunset cruise with Santorini Sailing - this was a 5 hour trip and absolutely worth the money. We did the semi-private cruise. There were 4 other couples on board and we had a great time. The views were spectacular. 

One day we hiked down to Amoudi Bay and had lunch at Dimitris. (As you can see in the picture at the bottom right....no sea creature was safe.) Then, we walked over to the little swimming "hole" that you see in the top picture in the collage below. In order to get there, you have to walk across this little stone bridge.  It was not not terrifying. #worthit

I am obsessed with this little boat and the colors of the water. Siiiiiiiiigh.

We went to Kamari Beach, which is beautiful and has a fun little boardwalk area.

We visited the Domaine Sigalas winery to sample the goods. They were very good. 

Oh and we ate. If you go to Greece, you may discover there is no food left. We ate Greece. My apologies. Hands down, our best meal was at Kyprida in Oia. Holy balls. It was unreal. Get the tasting menu. It's like 10,000 courses and they are all finger-licking wonderful. Also, go to Scala for the cheese and olive croquettes. Oh my *$*%*#@! word, the croquettes. The croquettes. 

The rest of our time was well spent ogling the views and wandering through charming Oia. I'd read a lot of forums and blogs about Santorini and a lot of people seem to think that any more than 3-4 days in Santorini is too much. Holy cow. We could not disagree more. We stayed 8 nights (4 in Imerovigli at Aenaon and 4 here in Oia at Ikies) and if we could think of a business that we have the skills to open that would thrive there, we would stay forever.

Landscaping by Dr. Seuss!

I'll be back soon with part 3 - Naxos!

To The 'Moon! (Honeymoon in Greece: Days 1-5)

To the 'moon! The honeymoon that is. After the wedding (the beautiful, amazing, can't-believe-how-freaking-perfect-it-was wedding), we packed our bags for the Greek Islands. Ahem, packed CARRY-ON bags. For two weeks. We are pretty pleased with ourselves for pulling that off. 

Itinerary:
1 Night in Athens
4 Nights in Imerovigli, Santorini
4 Nights in Oia, Santorini
2 Nights in Naxos
2 Nights in Mykonos
1 Night in Athens

Our first stop was Athens. After a long-haul flight with a layover in Munich, we were glad we'd chosen to spend the first night at the airport Sofitel instead of trying to go straight to Santorini.

We took the metro to Monastiraki Square, which was really beautiful. There was a crowd around a drum circle - I do love a good beat. In the middle, you can see the Acropolis lit up.
We didn't have to wander far before finding a good spot to get our food on. We ate at Tepina, in a pretty outdoor courtyard area. I do enjoy a nice al fresco meal (I am my father's daughter).  When we go back to Athens at the end of our trip, we'll have the better part of the day to explore the Acropolis and poke around some more.

fter dinner, we had our first Greek adventure when the lights went out on the train home. We were told we had to exit because the service to the airport was "finished" for the night. Uhhhhh....jigga what now? (We still think this was at least 30 minutes early, but it doesn't much matter what we think.) So we found ourselves 4 giant escalators underground, in a near-empty subway station, "somewhere" in between Athens and our hotel. We channeled our inner intrepid little travelers, and made it home safe and sound (in a cab).

The next morning, it was time to hop a flight to Santorini - my dream island!

We were so excited about our first hotel, the Aenaon Villas in Imerovigli. You know how sometimes, you've looked at so many pictures of a place that once you get there it's actually a bit of a let down? THIS IS NOT ONE OF THOSE TIMES.

Holy balls.

This place is unbelievable. Stick a fork in me and call me done, because it can't get better than this.

 Afte

Some more pics from Aenaon. It's hard to believe it's real. So $%&*#@! beautiful.

One day, we hiked from the hotel to Fira. The view was pretty incredible the entire way. 

I saw this shirt in Fira, which felt appropriate.


More to come...
Read Part 2 {here}!