Making the most of our short time in Santorini

[Szt]

I need advice. We are taking our cruise in October and arrive in Santorini at 1:30. There are 4 of us and none of the shore excusions offered really do what I want to do. So I was going to book a private tour through Viator. But the private tours meet in Fira which means we have to get up somehow. I am worried that if we are not on a excursion through the ship it will take forever to get a tender and then we will have to wait in the cable car line. How much of our short stay will that eat up? We may be able to take a ferry to Oia. But we still have the issue of getting off the ship after all the tour groups. We could book an excusion through the ship to get us to Oia, then get private transpostation to the other spots. Would that work? 

The sights I'd like to see are Oia, Akrotiri, Emporia and I heard about a fish spa thing we could do. We are in port till 10:00 but for me it's all about great photos so after I don't care. 

I am also curious, can I get good photos from the ship? Can we get sunset photos from the ship?

[julig22]

From the ship, last October, telephoto lens.  Not great but gives you the idea - I believe I was on the starboard side.

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Here’s a memory you’ll remember for many years to come, if you’re up to it. We walked UP the donkey trail in July, all 662 steps, when we were on a Princess cruise there. You’ll see a variety of people walking down it after taking the tram to the top, but only the most adventurous walk UP the trail! 😂

[annmarz]

All I can add is that for me Akrotiri was a spectacular site - well worth visiting. 

[debenson0723]

I just did this in November.  It's not as daunting as you make it seem.  Get your tender tickets early and get off the ship as soon as possible.  You do NOT have to wait for all the tour groups to get off first. We were off the ship and on top before our private tour guide got there, which gave us a few minutes to shop. We had a wonderful day all over the island. He took us to the other side and the top of a monastery, with the clouds rolling in underneath us...truly one of those 'is this really my life?' moments.  We went back to Fira for cocktails and appetizers, watching the sun go down...there were very few people there. As soon as it got dark we took the cable car back down and were there in plenty of time to eat dinner on the ship. It was an unforgettable day.

[Treasure Hunter]

My opinion. Take a basic tour through the ship and like Rick Steves leave the tour. The tour will get you to the top and show you the special view and a church. Wander through the back streets of Fira and have dinner at one of the lovely restaurants carved into the mountain. You will find them by the empty doorways that only show the blue sky and sea. Don’t try to do everything. It will be a magical day.

[casofilia]

If you are interested in "things ancient" the archaeology at Akrotiri is a must.

 

We were lucky and had a whole day on Santorini; pity you have an afternoon/evening.   Our day included a meal, a real Greek occasion.

[Homosassa]

10 hours ago, Treasure Hunter said:

My opinion. Take a basic tour through the ship and like Rick Steves leave the tour. The tour will get you to the top and show you the special view and a church. Wander through the back streets of Fira and have dinner at one of the lovely restaurants carved into the mountain. You will find them by the empty doorways that only show the blue sky and sea. Don’t try to do everything. It will be a magical day.

If you leave the tour, make sure that you tell the tour guide. Otherwise there will be a group of irritated people waiting for you to show up to go on to the next stop.

[Treasure Hunter]

Yes of course!

[Hlitner]

Lots of unknowns here.  The tender operation is somewhat dependent on the cruise line, but all the ships do use large shore-based tender services.  How fast one gets off any ship is dependent on the policy of that specific ship (it helps to have some kind of priority).  The tenders for ship excursions go to a different port than the tenders for the independents.  As to the lower cable car line, that will depend not only on the OP's ship but also on any other ship that might also be off loading at the same time.   As to the OP's plans, keep in mind that when you talk about Fira, Oia and Akritori you are moving all over the island (it is quite a distance out to Akritori.  Moving around the island takes time.

 

The idea of finding your own private transportation from Oia is very risky.  Taxis do not generally hand out at Oia so you would need to get lucky and grab a taxi that might have brought some other folks to Oia and is looking for another fare.  On the other hand, you might find yourself stuck in Oia for some time (there is a regularly scheduled public bus back to Fira).   In terms of meeting private tour guides and private transportation (be it a taxi, rental car, etc), Fira is the center of just about everything.

 

You can certainly get some photos from the deck of your ship.  In fact, the best sunset I have ever experienced at Santorini (we have been there about 2 dozen times) was from the deck of a cruise ship.  As the sun was setting the light that reflected off the cliffs/hills of Santorini took on an eerie almost golden glow.  It was truly a spectacular moment (we were actually in a hot tub at the time).  As to taking photos from the island, you will get lots of amazing shots (which look the same as everyone else's spectacular shots.  Oia has some of the best locations for photos as you look back towards Fira.

 

Hank

[wineoclock]

18 hours ago, annmarz said:

All I can add is that for me Akrotiri was a spectacular site - well worth visiting. 

I loved Akrotiri. Oia is a must & we stayed near there for 10 days on a land trip - was about a 10 minute walk. Spectacular. Watch the sunset from Oia if you can. It’s truly magical. 

[donaldsc]

Sunset at that time of the year is 18:42.  If you dock at 13:30 by the time you get off the ship and to where tours actually start in it will be at least 14:00.  That hardly gives you any time at all to do any significant sightseeing before it gets dark and since your major desire on Santorini is photography you are not likely to get good pictures in the dark. 

 

You want to see Oia, Akrotiri, Emporia and a fish spa thing in your 4 1/2 hours of daylight.  This just will not work.  Check out distances and times on Santorini on Google maps where you will find that you are planning to go from one end of the island to another and the total time that you will be spending on the road going from place to place is about 1 h 40 minutes leaving you less than 3 hours total sightseeing time for the 3 sights plus the fish spa.  Hardly worth it.  Pick just one place and enjoy your stay as much as you can on Santorini instead of running all over the place.

 

I just can't see why ships even bother to do port stops like this when they are so inadequate.

 

DON

 

 

 

 

[cruisemom42]

Take the fish spa off your list -- those are everywhere. No need to waste your precious time in Santorini doing one.

[marazul]

Plan on Oia and Akrotiri first. They are at opposite ends of the island. Go to Emporio if you have a good amount of time left. If you only have less time, stop at Pyrgos instead.

 

And skip the fish spa.

Edited September 13, 2022 by marazul

[annmarz]

14 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

Take the fish spa off your list -- those are everywhere. No need to waste your precious time in Santorini doing one.

I agree!

[roomba920]

We opted for a beach day. That way we got off the ship on an early tender and get on a bus up to the top and to the beach for just $50 for both of us. From there we can leave early on a local bus to Fira.

[ilovesalchows]

On 9/17/2022 at 12:07 AM, roomba920 said:

We opted for a beach day. That way we got off the ship on an early tender and get on a bus up to the top and to the beach for just $50 for both of us. From there we can leave early on a local bus to Fira.

I am planning on this same excursion next summer for the same reasons.  Let me know how it went!

[roomba920]

 

On 10/13/2022 at 4:52 PM, ilovesalchows said:

I am planning on this same excursion next summer for the same reasons.  Let me know how it went!

I wish I could. Sorry for making my comment sound past tense. That was our plan, but it didn't go as we would've liked. Norwegian didn't inform us until we were onboard that they had flipped the itinerary around and dropped a port. They also changed the length of time that we'd be in some ports, including Santorini. We had dinner reservations for sunset, but NCL shortened our day in Santorini to 3:30 pm, so no beach or sunset dinner for us...and no more NCL too.

I truly hope you have better results.

Edited October 20, 2022 by roomba920

[Bellablue]

On 9/10/2022 at 10:39 PM, debenson0723 said:

I just did this in November.  It's not as daunting as you make it seem.  Get your tender tickets early and get off the ship as soon as possible.  You do NOT have to wait for all the tour groups to get off first. We were off the ship and on top before our private tour guide got there, which gave us a few minutes to shop. We had a wonderful day all over the island. He took us to the other side and the top of a monastery, with the clouds rolling in underneath us...truly one of those 'is this really my life?' moments.  We went back to Fira for cocktails and appetizers, watching the sun go down...there were very few people there. As soon as it got dark we took the cable car back down and were there in plenty of time to eat dinner on the ship. It was an unforgettable day.

I would love more info on your private tour.  This sounds like the exact day we want to have!!  Thanks!

 

[debenson0723]

2 hours ago, Bellablue said:

I would love more info on your private tour.  This sounds like the exact day we want to have!!  Thanks!

 

Santorini Road Trips is who we used.  We had a list of sites we wanted to see but also let our tour guide make suggestions while we were on the van, as he knows the area better than anyone. They were great to work with and our driver was awesome. 

[Wishing on a star]

Did you especially like your driver?  If you did, did you catch his name?

I want to try to book a private tour where we know who might be our tour guide for the day.

[fearfulflyer]

We chose to walk down the steep path as the line for the cable car was so long,  we were hassled at the start of the path by locals who demanded we hand over our cable car tokens,  they were very angry and kept shouting at us and followed us, in the end we capitulated. Unfortunately it was the donkeys quitting time,  about 60 donkeys came stampeding up the path at maximum donkey speed, they were taking no prisoners as they obviously knew it was tea time, we were forced to climb onto the narrow wall to avoid being crushed, frightening , although I do smile about it now. Had to have all our clothes laundered,  donkey cologne not a great favourite 😄