The Greek island of Santorini is one of the most popular in the world. Known for its stunning sea views, gold sunsets, whitewashed homes, and beautiful beaches, it is a popular tourist destination. The island of Santorini is always featured in travel magazines and commercials enticing people to visit Greece. I highly recommend visiting this island if only for a day trip on a ferry. In the winter, I had the opportunity to visit, and the experience was amazing. No crowds to contend with made it a pleasant experience. In most cases, the sun was out by 10am and I didn't need more than a light jacket to explore the island. I still ventured to the beaches to enjoy the scenery and take long, beautiful walks, even though swimming was not possible.
The journey to Santorini is pretty straightforward. There are frequent flights from Athens, and the trip takes about an hour. These smaller airlines want you to pay for bag fees in advance online or you will be charged almost double at check-in. You can also take the ferry from Athens, but this will take about 5 hours. Because the ferry ticket isn't really cheaper and you're losing 10 hours of vacation time round trip, I'd recommend flying instead of taking the ferry. From the port, you can take a taxi or bus to the main bus station or your hotel.
As you walk through town, you will see donkeys carrying everything from luggage to people and shopping goods
A view that is unobstructed In spring and summer is very hard to come by. The island was easy to navigate during winter without running into many people. It can take a while to move through the streets here when it is crowded because many of the roads are too narrow for cars.
On the island, I had plenty of time to admire all the beautiful architecture and homes. As many of them only operate during the high season, many are vacant during this time.
In all of Greece, Perissa beach is probably my favorite. The beach has black diamond sand and is absolutely stunning. I really enjoyed walking along the entire beach at my own pace during winter because the sand can be extremely hot in the summer.
