The Quick Facts
* Stayed at Kirini Suites and Spa in the northern (and less
hectic/touristy) town of Oia
* Ate at some wonderful restaurants
* Took a sunset cruise around the island
* RELAXED!
The Good
* Stunning views
* Sunsets
* Time to relax!
* Our hotel, Kirini Suites, which did a wonderful job ruining
all other hotels for us for the rest of our life
The Bad
* Certain places, at certain times, can be overrun with
tourist traffic from visiting cruise ships
Meryl Streep. Sir Richard Branson. Rafael (the soccer
player, not the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle).
Donaldson. Such is the long list
of illustrious guests at the hotel we selected for our stay in Santorini. And that should tell you all you need to know
about the hotel experience we had during our stay.
A quick two hour ferry ride from Crete and we arrived at
Santorini. Santorini and its adjoining
smaller islands are what remain from a larger landmass/volcano that exploded in
1600BC; the volcano essentially “blew its top off” allowing the sea to rush in
and create the crescent-shaped island we have today. The explosion was so big, in fact, that it is
theorized that the resulting ash traveled to Crete and contributed to the
demise of the Minoan civilization. Santorini
is also rumored to be the mythical island of Atlantis.
After a quick orientation to the hotel, we settled into our
room which had the following view:
The priority for our stay in Santorini was doing
nothing. Except eat. Over the course of our four days in
Santorini, we ate at some wonderful restaurants, including:
* Sunset Taverna – a fish house set on the water
on the Ammoudi Beach
* Ambrosia -- Mediterranean food with outstanding views
* Metaxy Mas – a village tavern in the town of
Pyrgos that turns out exceptional food
One of the best features of our hotel was the breakfast,
served poolside, which seamlessly merged into relaxing mornings spent at the
pool while enjoying the stunning views of the caldera and Cliffside that are
the hallmarks of Santorini.
We did manage to do things.
One afternoon we set out for an afternoon sail that took us to the
neighboring volcanic island, and provided for some wonderful views of Santorini
as well as those classic Santorini sunsets.
We also spent a day touring the island, visiting the ancient
city of Akrotiri, which is the “Pompeii of Greece” and succumbed to the great
volcanic explosion that created the modern-day island, the black beaches at the
south of the island, and one of the many wineries on the island.
While Oia can be quite crowded during the day and certainly
at sunset, we got up early one morning to take a walk through the time to try
to experience the village as it once was, before the tourism. What we found were villagers trying to live
life like they’ve always had: going to church, kids going to school, taking care of their houses. It
was a peaceful way to experience an old Greek fishing village.
No people! A rareity for Oia streets...
I got a frappe, which in Greece is an iced coffee. Delicious!
Finally, one of the highlights of our stay in Santorini was
one of the wait staff at the hotel, Arturo.
Arturo worked the pool, starting by serving breakfast and then
responsible for taking care of you during the day: towels, food, drink,
etc. Except Arturo does none of
that. Instead, he is photographer to the
stars (and by stars I mean hotel guests like us). Popping from guest to guest with a “I take
picture”, complete with direction and tips on when and how to capture the best
light. Here is some of his best work. We have a video where he directed Carrie to look glamorous while flipping
her hair, unfortunately my non-tech saavy self can't figure out how to get it working on this blog. Too bad, because his distinctive “yeeeessss”
can be heard at the end of the video.
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