SANTORINI
Ahhh, welcome to Santorini, a beautiful island in the Aegean Sea that is part of the Greek archipelago. Santorini has delicious food, and small beautiful towns that are nestled into the mountainsides overlooking amazingly blue waters. Santorini was a way for us to “reclaim our mojo” after going, going, going for a solid month.
In the past month, we had early wake up calls, flights to catch, sunrise game drives, and long, full day tours. Here, we took it down a notch. We got to explore on our own, wander around the narrow, cobblestone streets, duck into souvenir shops, and dip our toes into the chilly water. I think this was a much needed, restful break!
We spent most of our time exploring the small towns of Oia, Finikia, and Perissa.
Oia is probably the most famous and touristy town in Santorini. There are many restaurants and shops all along its winding, narrow streets. Oia is also the best place to watch the sunset. We enjoyed looking out over the sea and watching the sky cast a magnificent pink and purple glow onto the whitewashed buildings. In Oia, we enjoyed getting lost on purpose, and wandering off of the main road down little alleyways.
Finikia is a very tiny town only 20 minutes outside of Oia. This is where we stayed — in a cave! In Santorini, Cycladic cave stays are very common. It was so cool! Finikia is way less touristy, no souvenir shops and only 3 restaurants. It is a residential neighborhood, with only a couple of boutique hotels. What I loved about Finikia is that there are no cars or motorcycles allowed to pass through the neighborhood. The narrow, winding pathways between homes are only for pedestrians. We enjoyed lots of peace and quiet, which gave us several nights of great sleep!
One afternoon, we took the public bus to a little beach town called Perissa. Perissa is laid back, with a couple beach bars and cafes, no hasslers, and very few shops. We relaxed with homemade lemonades on this black sand beach, only going waist deep in the chilly sea water! The whole afternoon we read our books and stared out at the vast Aegean sea.
I think our whole family can say that we had some of the best Greek food in Santorini! Reese tried tzatziki (and loved it!), I tried pork gyros (more on that later), and we got to indulge in fresh and healthy food! After coming from India, Africa, and Egypt where we had a lot of meat and not many fresh salads, we were excited to have farm to table meals, enjoying fresh veggies and meat. We also devoured pita, hummus, and tzatziki. We went to two restaurants that stood out for me, Pito Gyros, and Lefkes.
Pitogyros is a traditional Greek grill restaurant in Santorini that serves plenty of grilled meat and delicious sandwiches. My favorite dish is a pork gyro pita. SO GOOD!!! This fresh and warm pita is stuffed with pork, tzatziki, tomatoes, onions, and french fries! Yum!! This restaurant is so good that we ended up going there twice.
Lefkes is one of the few restaurants located in Finikia. We went here for dinner one night, and ended up sitting outside. The staff was super friendly and offered us blankets because it got pretty chilly when the sun went down. The food warmed us up, too! I ordered mushroom risotto and the waiter said it was a favorite among guests. It was definitely a favorite for my taste buds! It was super rich and the truffle was so prominent. I couldn’t finish all of it!
Santorini is a beautiful island. We got to chill out, and after three full days in paradise, where we ate well, slept well, and enjoyed gorgeous weather, we felt refreshed and ready for the next leg of our trip. I would love to come back someday and explore the island some more!
