Santorini - Private Tour

[sarar]

Can anyone suggested any private tours to take while in Santorini, as the ships excursions are so expensive?

 

Thanks

Sara

[jocap]

There may well be private gullettes waiting at the landing stage, for trips to the volcano and other islands.

Car hire/quad bikes can be organised in Fira, when you're at the top of the funicular.

Turn right at the top, and walk through the pedestrianised streets to the Cathedral, and you'll find the bus station, with buses to various resorts.

It's a very small island to get around.

Sorry, don't know the private tour firms.

Jo.

[sarar]

Thanks Jo, I expect a lot of the time we will do our own thing i.e. visit the small shops, cafes and such like. I am a part-time wheelchair user and ad my knees replaced 2 years ago and now do steps and get on and off buses.

 

Regards

Sara

[Rglad]

There is a tour office at the top of the street above the funicular near the taxi area. We walked in (a couple of weeks ago) and arranged a tour with a good sized airconditioned taxi with an English speaking driver. With four of us, it was great...100 euros. well worth it for a two hour tour of the island.

[J&Jtravelcouple]

Just take the tram to the top and walk around, enjoying the shops and the stunning views. When you tire of Fira, find the local bus station (everything is within a few blocks) and take the bus over to Oia, which is even more beautiful. It costs only a few Euros (collected on the bus) and takes about 20 mins. Oia is smaller than Fira and again all you need to do is walk up and down the small paths to see the beautiful homes, hotels and views. There are several excellent art galleries to stop at. Maybe we missed some good stuff, but I can't imagine a tour guide for these small towns.

[jocap]

Sarar, as J&J says, it's such a small island, that travelling by bus is easy. When we holiday there, we're at the other side of the island, and it only takes about 20 mins on the service bus to get across to Fira. The views are all on the Fira side; the other side of the island is very much Med. holiday resorts, though not big like the Costas! Much cheaper than Fira, but you're down at sea level, so no views. Fira will offer jewels and gold...Kamari will offer wind chimes and incense.....:rolleyes:

Jo.

[FreeSpeech]

I wish that someone had given me the advice I am about to offer you prior to our trip to Santorini.

 

"Don't do a shore tour with a guide...the island is too small and all of the points of interest are near and you will want to spend the largest amount of your time on shore in Oia"

 

Although our guide did take us to see the famous blue church in Fira...something that we could have had a taxi take us to see, we really ended up spending way too much not seeing the one village that we should have spent the most time in...Oia.

 

If your ship departs in the late evening...be sure to be in Oia for sunset...amazingly beautiful.

 

And the last bit of advise...make sure that you are in the line for the tram at least to 2 hours prior to your last departure time...we didn't (we allowed 1.5 to get down and it wasn't enough) and ended up walking down all 698 steps...and our ship ended up leaving some people...who decided to take the tram and got left behind. When we got there the line wrapped around the corner and down the long street...it was at least a 2-2.5 hour wait.

[Podie]

And allow me to warn you about something. We were on line for the tram to return to the ship. The line was long but moving well. A guy yelled across to someone in line, "They said this will take an hour and a half!" Several people left the line, and before I could go check it out, my husband and daughter said they wanted to walk down. So we did.

 

Well, the guy who yelled was one of the donkey/mule guys and we just trying to rev up business by scaring people off the tram,

 

When we arrived at the bottom after a very tiring walk, the people who had been standing in the tram line behind us were already getting on a tender.

 

So don't fall for someone yelling about how long the line will take!