We spent 10 days hopping around Aegean to see what the hype around Greece is all about, and we were not disappointed. Check out our itinerary (coming soon…) here if you want to build your own epic trip.

Day 0: Travel to Santorini, Greece

We left our home airport (ROA) on Saturday October 5th around 11am headed for a layover in Atlanta (ATL). We spent our 4 hour layover at The Club ATL, a priority pass lounge. Our flight to Athens took off at 5:10pm EST and we arrived in Athens at 10:45am local time. We immediately hopped on a small flight with Sky Express to Santorini.

Santorini

Day 1: Arriving in Santorini, Greece

A pre-arranged airport transfer picked us up from the airport in Santorini and took us to Hotel Villa Ilias. What an amazing place this was to stay. We booked a room facing the caldera (Junior Suite Volcano Facing), the staff were amazing and super helpful each day, and the complementary breakfast buffet was outstanding. After a long travel day, we grabbed dinner at Taverna Romantica, grabbed a bottle of wine on the walk home from a market, and went back to our room to enjoy the sunset.

Day 2: Exploring Santorini, Fira to Oia

With our first full day in Santorini, we had breakfast at our hotel and started on the most beautiful walk in on the island, a 6 mile walk along the main ridge of the island overlooking the caldera. We recommend bringing plenty of water and snacks, as well as using sunscreen and a hat for sun protection. There are no bathrooms available along the hike, and we waited until we made it to Oia to eat lunch and use the restroom. Earth Trekkers has a great map showing the route and points of interest.

If you follow the pedestrian path from Fira to Oia, you won’t want to miss these:

• Three Bells of Thira
• Anastasi Church
• Church of Christ
• Castle of Oia
• Blue Dome Viewpoints (several)
• Ammoudi Bay
  • After Ammoudi Bay, you’ll need to either call a cab or hike back up to the main roadway to catch a bus back to Fira. The bus back to Fira costs 2 euro per person and they only accept exact cash. The bus route information is described in more detail here https://santorinibus.com/.

When we first arrived in Oia, we picked up lunch at Souvlaki n’ Wrap, a gelato at Lolita’s Gelato, and then a couple of freddo espressos at Sunset Oia Cafe. Our bus dropped us off at Fira, which is a very busy and lively place. We decided we were too wiped out to explore much more and took the 15 minute walk back to quiet Firostefani. We had dinner a a lovely dinner at Onar which was outstanding. You may need to make reservations here depending on the season, but it was totally worth it.

Day 3: Catamaran and Imerovigli

We kicked off day 3 with an 8:30am pick up at our hotel to take us to the port for a catamaran outing. The catamaran took off at 9:30am and brought us back around 2:30pm. We snorkeled at Red Beach and White Beach. Lunch and drinks were provided. The staff was so friendly, and although the Mediterranean was cold during October, we had the opportunity to jump off the side of the boat and swim for a few minutes. We booked this trip on GetYourGuide. We paid $170 but with the Capital One Shopping Portal, we were able to get $43 cash back using their promotion. You’ll need to bring your passport, a towel, a swimsuit, a hat, sunscreen, and any tip for the staff.

Once we arrived back in Firostefani, we had coffee and crepes at Ilios bakery and walked to Imerovigli which is just a short 15 minute walk north on the Fira to Oia route. We skipped Imerovigli on Day 2, so we decided to check out the Skaros Rock and Akra Tourlos hikes and viewpoints. We had an amazing moussaka and Aktaion Restaurant, and picked up a delicious Baklava on the way back to our hotel at Why Not Souvlaki.

We felt we spent the right amount of time on Santorini for our first time, but here are some other recommendations we didn’t make it to:

• Restaurants: Let’s Eat, Mama Thira, Nauossa, Fanari restaurant, Athenian House, Kapari Wine Bar, Avocado, Pelican Kipos
• Sunset Spots: PK cocktail bar, The Wine Bar, Three bells of Fira, Volkan on the rocks
• Other things to do: Drive or bus to beaches, Akrotiri archaeological sites, Santo Wines

Day 4: Travel to Naxos, Greece

After checking out of our hotel at 11am, we grabbed another quick cash withdrawal from the ATM and hopped into our pre-arranged transfer to the port. The Seajets Champion 2 Jet whisked us away from Santorini to Naxos in just over an hour. The booking process on Ferry Hopper was a breeze. We made sure to check in 48 hours prior to the ferry departure, and we arrived at the ferry terminal about an hour early. Once in Naxos, we strolled the scenic 20-minute walk to Spiros Hotel, where our superior suite with a sea view, hot tub, and breakfast included was waiting for us. After settling in, we grabbed a quick lunch at Yasouvlaki before treating ourselves to dinner at Su e Giu Italian. We picked up a bottle of wine from Le Sommelier on the way back to the hotel to enjoy in our private hot tub as the sunset. The gentleman at Le Sommelier was extremely helpful even though we are definitely not wine experts, and he helped us pick out a bottle we both really enjoyed. We fell in love with Greek wines on this trip and learned a lot about wines and wine culture.

Day 5: Exploring Naxos City

We started our first full day in Naxos by going to Trata at Agios Georgios beach where we were provided with 2 cushioned beach bed-style chairs and 2 towels for $30 per person. We stayed there from about 10am to 2pm and enjoyed a lunch in their cabana. We headed back to our hotel to freshen up, picked up some coffee and pastries at Sitari Bakery, and began exploring Naxos City in the late afternoon. We started by walking through the Old Town Market below the city center castle, and passed by the statue of Aphrodite on our way to the Temple of Apollo at sunset. We stopped for a lovely dinner on our way back to our room at Taverna Naxos. All of the best dinner spots are right on the water in Naxos, and it seems you can’t go wrong with which place you pick for any meal of the day.

Day 6: Exploring Naxos Countryside

We had our hotel set up a car rental for us so we could drive into the Naxian countryside on Day 6. The car rental cost us $52 for the day including the insurance, and $11 for gas. The stations are full service which is a little bit of a change-up from the US. On our road tirp we stopped at the following places:

• Temple of Dionysus (managed grounds and museum, very interesting)
• Panagia Drosiani Church (an old church with 2 nuns guarding it, requesting small donations)
• Moni (a cute village on a mountainside on the way to the Profit Elias viewpoint)
• Profit Elias (amazing viewpoint of the entire island at an old church)
• Chalki Village (lunch at Paravas, coffee and pie at Dolce Vita)
• Temple of Demeter ($4/person) (managed grounds and museum, very interesting)
• Beaches along the southwest side of the island:
  • Alyko Beach, Hawaii Beach, Plaka Beach, Agios Prokopios Beach

We would recommend this day trip for anyone looking to experience Greece off the beaten path, meet some locals, and learn a little bit about the history of Greece (before you learn a lot of history in Athens). If you’re looking to skip any of these things, you may not need to visit all of the beaches (we just stopped by each one, it being October they were not busy and it was a little cold to swim anyway) and the Panagia Drosiani Church was a cool 6th century building but probably not worth the hassle of dealing with its keepers.

When we got back to Naxos City, we went back to Trata to sit by the water until the sun went down. We freshened up back at Spiros Hotel and capped the night off with pizza from Amici.

We feel like we saw what Naxos had to offer, but there were so many restaurants that we wanted to try but didn’t:

• Oasis, Elliniko, Hurmas, Baco, Scirocco Cafe, Barozzi Naxos

Day 7: Travel to Athens, Greece

Before our check-out, we headed back to the Old Town to take pictures before the city was awake, and stopped by the Archaeological Museum (free). We checked out, headed to lunch at Cafe Lotta, and waited for our 2:45pm ferry to Athens.

We arrived in Athens around 7pm and headed toward the Piraeus metro station. Buying a ticket for the metro can be a little confusing, but our Airbnb hosts provided us instructions and Google Maps was helpful as always. We hopped on the M3 blue line and took a 30 minute train ride to Monastiraki. Monastiraki square was bustling when we arrived. Our Airbnb apartment was only 5 minutes from there, we dropped our bags off and grabbed burritos at Taco Loco Athens before calling it a night.

Day 8: Exploring Athens, Greece

We booked the Athens Food on Foot Ultimate Tasting Tour through greecetravelplanning to kick off our few day stay in Athens. We met our tour leader at the base of the Acropolis at the Acropolis metro station at 930am. We love doing food tours in new cities as it’s a great way to learn the food scene, the history, and new people all at once. We tried lots of traditional Greek food including salads, pies, coffee, and of course baklava. The tour takes you to Monastiraki Square, Psyri (Little Klook), Plaka (Ermou St, Anafiotika), Monastiraki Sunday flea market, Varvakios Market if it’s not a Sunday. The tour finished with a smorgasbord of Greek food at The Kyklamino. We were back at our apartment around 1pm and decided we’d take on part of the Acropolis in the afternoon.

The Acropolis and Ticketing System

We started at the Acropolis Museum which was $15/person. The museum is amazing and we learned a lot. We stopped for ice cream at Patisserie Artemis before we entered the Acropolis at the Acropolis metro station and began the ascent to The Parthenon. We started around ascent around 5pm, hoping we’d be at the top around golden hour and sunset. We bought tickets for the Acropolis online prior to our trip. The tickets were $31.50/person which include all of the Acropolis and other historical sites around Athens including the Ancient Agora, Hadrian’s Library, and the Roman Agora. The only timed entry you request on the ticket is for The Acropolis. This article from Earth Trekkers was very helpful for us. After we took some photos on top of the Acropolis at The Parthenon and other temples at the top, we walked around to Areopagus Hill and Philopappos Park. The staff started closing down the Acropolis area during sunset, so be aware of how much time you might want to spend up there.

We hiked back down and headed to So So Ramen for dinner. We went back to our Airbnb and decided we had some more energy left, so we headed to Ciel, a cool rooftop bar with views of the Acropolis.

Day 9: Exploring Athens, Day 2

We started the day with breakfast at Folk right near our room, then we headed to the National Archaeological Museum. This museum was focused wholly on archaeology and it was so cool to see all of the artifacts and statues preserved and recreated. On our way out we got coffee across the street and walked back to our hotel. We stopped for lunch at Arcadia and then spent the afternoon walking around the other ancient sites near the Acropolis and included with our ticket. We went to the Ancient Agora, Hadrian’s Library, and the Roman Agora. We decided to skip the others included with the ticket: Temple of Olympian Zeus, Kerameikos, and Aristotle’s School. With the ruins, it was very cool to see the excavated sites, but we would suggest doing some research on each place before you go so you can appreciate the history a little more. There aren’t a lot of informational postings or brochures like they have at museums, so the research is important. After all of the walking, we needed to grab some gelato at Davinci. We had a quick stop at the Airbnb before we had a dreamy dinner at Pame Tsipouro Pame Kafeneio, where we tried to order all of the best traditional Greek food we had so far on the trip, all with a view of the Arcopolis under the stars.

Other Athens restaurant recommendations we didn’t get to try:

• Avli, Feyrouz, Falafafellas, Souvlaki Kosta’s, Kosmikon, Stone Athens, A for Athens, 360 Cocktail Bar, Aerides Plaka Restaurant, Saita, Restaurant Scholarhio

Day 10: Departure from Athens

We had a 1pm flight shceduled back to the Atlanta International Airport. We woke up and had an early breakfast at Just Made 33 and then hopped on the 60 minute train ride on the M3 blue line to the Athens airport.

We had so much fun in Greece. We thought we had a well-balanced trip for our first time in Greece, getting to see Santorini, slowing down a bit on Naxos, and then exploring the ancient city of Athens. We learned a lot about Greek history and culture, had a chance to sit on the beach and take in the mediterranean, and ride a Catamaran into some of the most beautiful places in the Aegean. We can’t wait to go back to Greece one day.