Kalimera! Santorini (or Thira in Greek), the dreamy island, the perfect honeymoon destination, the postcard spot, is definitely a place you have to see someday. I’ve been daydreaming about Santorini for quite a while, but knowing that it is quite expensive, I only kept it in my dreams. But this summer my Santorini dream finally came true. After finding some good flight and accommodation deals in April, I thought I could finally go to Greece and make Santorini my graduation trip destination. I know most people choose it for their honeymoons, but who said you can’t go there with friends, family, for a graduation trip or whatever occasions you might think of? It’s true there are many couples so you might feel a bit lonely if you go solo, but you can still enjoy the beauty of this island by yourself as well.

Now, I would like to share my 5-Day Itinerary in Santorini, in case you are also daydreaming about this wonderful island and need some ideas for your trip, but you are on a budget like me. You can make your Santorini dream possible as well if you start organizing early enough! I organized my July trip in April (flight tickets and accommodation) and I got some pretty nice deals.

Keep in mind that July is one of the busiest and most expensive seasons for Santorini and for Greece in general, so even a local recommended September for a trip there when the crowds lessen and the prices also go down. So you might consider going there in September instead of July. I chose July this time, but I want to go back for sure, so next time, September it is!

How to get there?

You can get there by plane or ferry from Athens. I chose to go by plane, as Ryanair had some good prices from Bucharest-Athens and then Athens-Thira (Santorini). Roundtrip per person with cabin luggage, all taxes included and reserved seat was about approximately 186 Euros. The only shortcoming for this Ryanair flight was the long layover in Athens (about 15 hours), so you have to book accommodation in Athens as well, but if you are like me and want to see a bit of Athens as well, then this is for you.

Accommodation

First of all, I wanted something in the main town, Fira, if possible close to the airport but also close to the town center. After a lot of research on booking.com, I chose Ifestos Villa. 4 nights for 2 persons in July was 522 Euros. They provide transportation from/to the airport for a tax, but it is quite useful if it’s your first time on the island and don’t know how to get around there.

• The villa has a great location, close to the center of Fira but still far enough to be quiet at night. There are two roads that get you to the city center, one with beautiful landscapes and one with many shops around. You can always choose a different one. Both take a 10-15 minutes’ walk.
• A nice breakfast is included so you can start your day with a dose of energy before setting off to exploring the island.
• They also have a nice pool and the room has everything you need for a pleasant stay.

They provide a fair quality-price deal, so if you are on a budget, like me, and cannot afford the expensive caldera hotels then this villa is a great choice.

Ok, now that we got there and we have our accommodation, what can we do on the island? We didn’t plan much in advance and actually went in with the flow, also depending on how tired we were or what we felt like doing. There are so many experiences you can have on the island, I think anyone can find something they like. Here is my itinerary idea if you are on a budget, want to see beautiful places, want to do some sports, and want to take great photos. Hope you’ll like it!

Day 1-Fira

Athens-Fira arrived in Fira at around 8 am, couldn’t check in until  11 am so after having breakfast, we explored the town in the morning. Found the bus station and made an idea about the places where we wanted to go. Later in the day, went to see the amazing sunset in Fira, looking for the best spot from where to watch it from and then had dinner at the best restaurant in Fira, and even in Santorini in my opinion, Salt&Pepper.

 

Day 2-Beach day

After a tiring first day, what about a relaxing day at the beach? You can find some really unique beaches in Santorini, the Red Beach, the White Beach and the Black Sand Beach. Take the bus from Fira to Akrotiri for the Red Beach (one-way trip per person=2 Euros) and then walk from the bus station to the Red Beach (about 15 minutes). Get prepared with comfortable shoes because it can be hard walking to the beach and also don’t forget your sunscreen as it is really easy to become as red as the beach itself!

 

 

From the Red Beach, there is a boat you can take to the White and Black Sand Beach for 5 Euros per person, round trip. I really recommend this as you get to see all of these three beautiful beaches, and can spend as much time as you want on each of them (well until around 17:30 pm when the last boat leaves). We spent most of our time on the Black Sand Beach because it was the most spacious out of them and found beach chairs there. I recommend having lunch at Taverna Glaros, located on the way to the Red Beach. They had a great menu for two at 25 Euros, with yummy fish, Greek salad, and Santorini wine. Nostimo!

 

Day 3-Hiking day

A great experience to have on the island, if you are a bit adventurous, is to hike from Fira to Oia, the second main city of the island and the most visited one! Even if you decide to stay in Fira, if you are in Santorini, a trip to Oia is a must as the two famous churches you see on every postcard from Santorini are located there. Starting early in the morning is a great idea as it can get pretty tough by noon. The views you will get along the way are definitely worth the effort!

 

The hike is supposed to take about 3-4 hours, but for us, it lasted 7 hours… Because we took waaay too many photo/water/snack breaks and didn’t rush at all haha. I liked the fact that there weren’t many other people doing this hike so we felt a bit like the island was ours (but also felt a bit lost at times…). By the time we arrived in Oia we were literally dead… so couldn’t really enjoy the city (which was also too crowded for our taste).

 

Day 4-Pool day

After a super tiring hiking day, a day by the pool was needed. Most accommodations in Santorini have pools, so you might want to relax during your time there and gain energy for the following day.

Day 5-Oia

Since we didn’t properly manage to enjoy Oia, we came back there on our last day. Found the two famous churches that appear in every postcard of Santorini. Although most churches in Santorini are blue domed, these two became famous due to their location, you can admire them from above, with the sea behind and beautiful caldera buildings around. Sadly there is a private property there so can’t really get close to them, but just finding them made me feel like I reached my goal of coming all this way to Santorini to see the famous view with my own eyes.

 

So what did you think? We didn’t do any tour, we were told at the hotel about some available options such as Volcano-Hot Springs, Luxury cruises some bus tours and others and although the hot springs tour was tempting at first, in the end, we chose to organize our days on the island by ourselves. We were told that 5 days is quite uncommon for Santorini, as most people who go to Greece usually do island hopping and spend only 2-3 days in one place. But even though we had more just for this island, I still felt like it wasn’t enough. Our itinerary was a bit hard-schedule so we got to see a lot but there are still places to be discovered, which only makes me daydream about going back to Santorini someday.

Thanks for reading! Efharisto 🙂