Travel Guide: Santorini, Greece [Part 3]

So, in Part 1 and Part 2 of my Santorini Travel Guide I took you sightseeing, now what's the final stop? FOOD. Well, food, transportation, weather and hotel. But Food is pretty much what you need for fuel to see all those sites, so we'll start with food first!

WHERE TO EAT IN SANTORINI 

LA PAREA

Fira, Santorini, Greece, 847 00

€€
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
5/5 Stars

My sister and I spent a day & an evening in Santorini and when we asked the driver for the evening what the best place to eat was he answered without hesitation this place. And, when I tell you my mouth was in heaven at this place, I'm not even exaggerating here.

Now, of course you can't go to a place to eat and NOT get Greek Salad. Something that surprised my sister and I was the Feta Cheese. You know how usually when you get a Greek Salad there are pieces of feta? So, in Greece that's not actually how Greek Salad works. Their Greek Salad is styled with a feta cheese block.

Now, let's get to the main meal. So I actually never tried Octopus before, but the way it was described on the menu had me and my sister gravitating towards it. There was just the right amount of crunch to it 10/10 would recommend getting this if you find yourself in Santorini anytime soon. It comes with a side of grilled red & yellow peppers, zucchini slice and a hot pepper (ya girl loves a good spice but not in public because hello tears from eating the hot pepper. So, that hot pepper stayed chilling on that plate.)

I have good news too, they have a website! And on the website they have the menu there. 

And, the best part is that it's pretty nicely priced. 

Grilled Octopus: 14.50€ [enough for two people to share]

Greek Salad: 7.50 €

SKALA RESTAURANT

OIA, SANTORINI

Oia, Kikladhes, Greece 84702

€€

⭐⭐⭐⭐
4/5 Stars

In Travel Guide: Santorini [Part 2] I mentioned I opted out of viewing the sunset in Oia at the Castle because I didn't have a chance to eat all day. So, this is where this food place comes in! From this place, I ordered Calamari stuffed with cheese (not sure which one, sorry!!) and peppers. This was a very heavy/filling meal. It's the type of meal where you feel you need to walk 3 miles to fully digest. So although it tasted amazing, it's a bit on the heavier side. If you want something filling but light I'd opt for a standard fish. My sister ordered the fish and they even gave her a plate to put all her bones in (which is y'know great because who wants their bones getting in the way of everything else on the plate).

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DESSERT

Lolita's Gelato

Oia, Santorini, Greece

Oia, Kikladhes, Greece 84702

€
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
5/5 Stars

When I was on my day-tour, the tour guide said this specific gelato place was the best in all of Santorini. So, once I walked off my stuffed calamari above, I walked straight into Lolita's Gelato. The tour guide mentioned that the best flavors to try are the Pistachio & Hazelnut!

I just wanted to show you guys the sign they had above because I was straight up laughing for 20 minutes:

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TRANSPORTATION

There are two types of transportation:

Take a private mini bus from your hotel to town - 10€

Take a taxi from town to your hotel - ? 

{we were told by the hotel that the price largely depends on the driver}

There are two sides of Santorini - The Mountain side & the Beach side.

My hotel was on the Mountain side and for my sister and I to go to town - Thira - it was 10€. That is the standard price, there is no price inflation during different times of the day. Once you're done, you just call the number back and they come and pick you up. 10€ going and 10€ coming back.

Now, something I saw a lot of tourists do was get on a bike/buggy and explore the island that way. Now, I would have loved to do that except the road was extremely bumpy and the road loops around constantly. Knowing myself I would have turned a loop and found myself down into the sea. Also, my mom told me specifically (because she knows who I am and I love adventure) not to ride the bikes/buggies for my own safety. 

Funnily enough, I then saw this boat sign and UH MAMA DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT DRIVING A BOAT

My sister kind of wasn't on board because to her we would have re-created the Titanic even though there wasn't an iceberg in the sea.

Weather

Now, if you couldn't tell by Part 2 of my Travel Guide, Santorini is WINDY. I'm not talking light wind, I'm talking this is Mary Poppins flying weather. So, when choosing what to wear just make sure it's something the wind can't play with too much!

Hotel

Nautilus Dome Hotel

Address:

Sgia Irini

Santorini

THEIR WEBSITE

I loved how spacious the room was - I was sharing with my sister and there were two beds, a closet, and a little section with a mirror before the bathroom where you can stand to see if everything looks okay before you're out the door. Also, just to note! The bathroom in my room did not have a bath, just a shower - just incase you're a bath lover I just wanted to give a heads up!

What I loved:

- The people at the receptionist desk were really kind and even when I had WAY too many questions, they answered all of them.

- The room was nice and spacious, we had leg room to actually maneuver around the room which was great because what I don't love are rooms that are teeny tiny and don't have any room to walk inside.

- THE VIEW. See below and you'll see why I wrote that in Caps Lock:

- Since this hotel was on the mountain side, what was great was that there was a pool right in front of the hotel. Although obviously if you're in Greece you want to go to the Sea, the pool was nice if you just wanted a nice evening in to relax and go for a quick swim before calling it a day.

- There is a convenient store about 1 minute away by walk! 

- It was a small but nice selection for breakfast - they had great sunny side up eggs & fruit. When in Greece eat all the fruit, it tastes amazing!

What I didn't love:

Places to eat were all in town - Thira. Which meant that in order to get any sort of lunch/dinner I had to take a bus to town. I would have much preferred there to be a few places to eat nearby in walking distance.

SOMETHING A LIL EXTRA 

THIRA

So, I kind of didn't know what to call this section. You may be wondering where this photo was taken:

also yes those are pineapples on my hijab/scarf 

This was taken in Thira. If you want to take a similar photo / go to the same exact point, when you get to Thira, follow this path right up:

You'll see a church in about .5 seconds. Right across there's this area to see the sunset.

I'll just leave you with this tip for this area:

There are a lot of people, so getting a photo of just you in it will be difficult. What you don't see in this photo is a selfie stick trying to make it's way into frame.

So, I think if you really want to get a nice photo and there's someone in your way, ask them politely to move a bit to the side until you've taken your photo OR wait until they're done. Everyone generally speaks a few words of English, so you should be fine if you ask them to step a bit to the side for you to take your photo.

AT THE HOTEL

At the hotel I stayed at, there was a little roof section you can walk up to. On that roof my sister and I watched the sunrise. I spoke a lot about sunset, but sunrise is honestly just as beautiful. Though, please wear glasses because that sun will great brighter and brighter before you know it!

OIA

So, do I have any cliff lovers here? Well, I should say Cliff-jumper-lovers here. Although I didn't get to, one thing Oia has is a cliff to jump off of (y'know, safely into the water).

Here is a blog post I came across that details how exactly to get to said cliff & safety tips!

Cliff Jumping in Santorini, Greece

Another thing to write on your list of things to do in Oia is riding a Donkey. This is probably not what you expected me to write, but a few people in my tour group spent the evening on donkeys and it sounded like so much fun! 

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I genuinely wish I had more time for cliff jumping & riding a donkey - though seeing as Santorini took 3 Parts for me to discuss it in all it's entirety, if I had an extra day something is telling me this I would have a 5 Part Santorini Travel Guide instead of just 3 Parts.

I really hope you enjoyed reading this last part of my Santorini Travel Guide. This travel guide for Santorini (all three parts) took me a lot longer to write out than I thought it would. I didn't realize I did so much until I was writing everything down + giving tips on each location!

I visited 2 more islands Paros & Mykonos however since I was on a boat for both I don't have much sightseeing to give tips on. So, it'll just be a Travel Guide on Hotels in Paros + Mykonos & places to eat dinner & dessert.

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also ps. I can't tell you how happy I am that I have one Travel Guide left, I've missed writing crash courses & reflection posts. Don't get me wrong I love writing these Travel Guides. I actually wouldn't have ever written them if over on Twitter people didn't respond when I asked if it would be helpful to write about what I did + tips.

 These guides have been a massive step outside of my blogging comfort zone + I love helping others - so any tips I would have loved to know, I'm writing them down to help others get a better picture of where they may be planning a vacation.

Crash Courses & reflection pieces are what I love the most to write though, so I'm really excited to get back into writing my crash courses & reflection posts.

OK SORRY FOR MY LONG EXIT OUT OF THIS POST SEE YOU IN MY TRAVEL GUIDE FOR PAROS & MYKONOS! 

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