Can we sightsee on our own in Santorini

[Macknt]

My boyfriend and I like to sightsee on our own instead of being tied to a group departing so early. Can anyone advise if this is possible? Are there taxis? Will we need a ride to see the beach and see the scenic hilltop homes etc? 

Edited August 16, 2019 by Macknt
Added more info

[Hlitner]

4 minutes ago, Macknt said:

My boyfriend and I like to sightsee on our own instead of being tied to a group departing so early. Can anyone advise if this is possible? Are there taxis? Will we need a ride to see the beach and see the scenic hilltop homes etc? 

I have been doing it for about thirty years :).  Or course you can do your own thing, just like you can in nearly any port!  How you do it depends on your own agenda.  If you want to explore a lot of the island you could simply rent a car in Fira and drive just about everywhere.  My favorite beach is called "Red Beach" and can be accessed with a car and a short hike.  Drive around the island and you can see homes wherever you please.   There is a lot of online info regarding the island including maps, suggestions, etc.  

 

If you prefer to use taxis you can find them at Fira (there is a large taxi area near the bus station).  But taxis are expensive  (just a short ride to Oia can cost 25Euros).  There is also an island bus system but the buses do not run as frequently as many would prefer.

 

The biggest problem with doing Santorini on your own is just getting ashore and up to Fira.  The cable car can only move about 600 per hour (in each direction) which is not much when you are on a large cruise ship and/or there are multiple ships in the harbor at the same time.

 

Hank

[clo]

2 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

Or course you can do your own thing,

We were using the ferries not a cruise.  We rented a car and were there for a few days.  I think that's the easiest and I don't remember it being stupidly expensive.

[navybankerteacher]

You can get around on Santorini on your own, but you need to plan and allow time to get back - especially if there are a couple of ships in and thousandsmilling about.  I was first there in 1996 -one of about 659 passengers on the only ship in that day - we went up to Oioa (sp ?) and felt some stress about getting back to the tender pier because there were no taxis. We fortunately ran into another couple who had arranged a pick-up and they gave us a lift.  

 

Two later trips were mob scenes - one we went on a group tour of the archeological site, and the other we just stayed on board because there were three ships in — with at least 6,000-7,000 passengers waiting to get up and down that cliff.

 

A classic case of a truly lovely spot essentially destroyed by the cruise industry.

[GUT2407]

Haven’t done a ships tour in about 15 years

[clo]

2 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

A classic case of a truly lovely spot essentially destroyed by the cruise industry.

This.  One of those places I would never return to.  Since we were on the ferries we could visit other islands which we totally enjoyed.

[Hlitner]

8 minutes ago, clo said:

We were using the ferries not a cruise.  We rented a car and were there for a few days.  I think that's the easiest and I don't remember it being stupidly expensive.

Ahhhh, now you are getting into an entirely different part of travel.  If one prefers to island hop then there are many options (which have nothing to do with Cruise Critic).  As to the cost, on Santorini you can book low cost accommodations or you could choose to pay over $1000 per day for a lovely place in Oia with your own infinity pool.

 

Hank

[clo]

41 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

Ahhhh, now you are getting into an entirely different part of travel.  If one prefers to island hop then there are many options (which have nothing to do with Cruise Critic).  As to the cost, on Santorini you can book low cost accommodations or you could choose to pay over $1000 per day for a lovely place in Oia with your own infinity pool.

 

Hank

Here was our view at our little studio on Paros.  This is the kind of thing in my neophyte opinion that would be dang near impossible to do on a 'real' cruise.  And was the best of our Greece experience.

[Hlitner]

22 minutes ago, clo said:

Here was our view at our little studio on Paros.  This is the kind of thing in my neophyte opinion that would be dang near impossible to do on a 'real' cruise.  And was the best of our Greece experience.

 

[Hlitner]

You are preaching to the choir :).  While we love to cruise (and do it often) we also love independent land trips.  When our DD asked for some suggestions for a trip (cruise or land) we convinced them to split a vacation between Corfu and Santorini (using a ferry between the two islands).   DW would tell you that she cannot imagine going through life without having spent quality land time in France and Italy.  We love visiting those places on a cruise, but enjoying a nice romantic dinner in Paris or Florence is the kind of thing that does not happen when you are on a ship.  Our ideal trip combines both a cruise (or more then 1 cruise) with some independent land time before or after the cruise or perhaps both!

 

By the way, if you are really in love with the Greek Islands you might want to look into doing a small yacht cruise (not much more money then a mass market cruise).  There are some companies such as Variety Cruises that offer such options and it is a truly different kind of experience :).   Jumping off the bow of your boat to swim into Shipwreck Beach (Zakynthos) where you are along with perhaps 30 shipmates...is quite an experience.

 

Hank

[OzKiwiJJ]

Instead of going up to Fira take the ferry around to Oia. The ferry leaves from the tender wharf area and the ticket includes transport up the hill from the wharf and the bus back to Fira. Warning: allow up to two hours (at least) to get the cable car back down to the tender wharf unless you're prepared to walk down the donkey trail.

 

I think the ferry companies may also run trips around to beaches but I'm not sure on that.

[clo]

10 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

While we love to cruise (and do it often) we also love independent land trips. 

I know this is a cruise site but I like to think that it's a broad enough site to discuss other things.

[ontheweb]

We did Santorini on our own. And we got lost. We somehow stumbled upon a museum that was in a cave. We took the tour with one other couple. The presentation was done in English for us and Greek for the other couple. Afterwards we asked the museum person where we were showing him out HAL map. He laughed and said we were off the map. He tried, but failed, to get us a taxi, but then pointed out a shortcut back to where we would be on the map and DW wanted to go (beach).

 

The funny thing is that it is one of the two things I still remember from Santorini. (The other is doing the climb, something I would never do again but am glad I did.)

[ducklite]

9 hours ago, Hlitner said:

I have been doing it for about thirty years :).  Or course you can do your own thing, just like you can in nearly any port!  How you do it depends on your own agenda.  If you want to explore a lot of the island you could simply rent a car in Fira and drive just about everywhere.  My favorite beach is called "Red Beach" and can be accessed with a car and a short hike.  Drive around the island and you can see homes wherever you please.   There is a lot of online info regarding the island including maps, suggestions, etc.  

 

If you prefer to use taxis you can find them at Fira (there is a large taxi area near the bus station).  But taxis are expensive  (just a short ride to Oia can cost 25Euros).  There is also an island bus system but the buses do not run as frequently as many would prefer.

 

The biggest problem with doing Santorini on your own is just getting ashore and up to Fira.  The cable car can only move about 600 per hour (in each direction) which is not much when you are on a large cruise ship and/or there are multiple ships in the harbor at the same time.

 

Hank

The buses run in a hub and spoke system from Fira and at least once an hour (most are very half hour during the day).  Each trip is about $2 US per person for budgeting purposes.

 

Very easy to get to the bus station in Fira from the top of the hill.  You'll buy your tickets at the window there.  The buses pull in and the destination sign on the front of the bus will show where it is headed, if you are concerned, just verify with the driver as you board.

 

lf you go to Oia, there is a very convenient general store adjacent to the bus stop (not a tourist shop) that has almost anything you could ever need from toothpaste to cereal to shoelaces to packing tape. (I know the latter from personal experience!)

 

 

 

 

[navybankerteacher]

When you get right down to it, the way to see the Mediterranean by ship is to do it on little ones (called ferries) - which take you from port to port, or island to island, and plan to spend  as many nights as you want to really “do” the ports that interest you.  Most Med cruises are just 21st Century versions of “If Today is Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium”.