Corfu, Katakolon, and Santorini

[Tablet]

My family will be cruising in July 2007 and stopping at each of the islands on consecutive days. Will have approximately 10 hours per port except for Santorini where we will have 15 hours. Can we see these islands on our own or do we need a guide?

For people who are familar, do you have any recommendations regarding the best way to use our time during each of the stops?

I've read through most of the threads that are related and got some good ideas, but would appreciate if anyone had a good day trip recommendation.

Have tried to contact 2 different tour guide recommendations from the site and can not get anyone to answer my request.

Thanks to anyone who had a good day-long experience and is willing to share.

[LILynn]

Hi

 

We did a Med cruise this past September and stopped in each of those ports. I am glad to share with you what we did.....

 

In COrfu we rented a car with another couple that we met in advance on CC. We did not rent the car in advance - we rented it at the car rental agency that is in the passenger terminal when you get off the ship. It cost us about 90 euros for the day for an automatic car. It was very easy to navigate around the island - and we had no problems at all. We went to Paleokatritsa (sp???). First we drove all the way up to the top - what amazing views. After we came back down we parked the car and went to the beach. We rented chairs/umbrellas and relaxed. The water was great - warm and calm and I spend a lot of time in the water. Bring water shoes - the sand is not as "sandy" as back home. We also took a boat ride - it was 15 euros per person I think around the island. The boats were leaving right from the beach and the ride lasted about 30 minutes. It was really cool - we went into these little caves and the water was amazing - we really enjoyed this. We had gyros on the beach and just relaxed. This was one of our last ports and we really needed a day like this. I am so glad we did this. We headed back to the port in the late afternoon and dropped off the car - piece of cake! I had never done anything like this before and would not hesitate to do it again.

 

Katakolon - we did the ships tour in the morning to Olympia - it was very interesting. Our guide was very knowledgable. It was very crowded there but we really got to see a lot and the history was so interesting. In the afternoon we walked around the town - just a couple of blocks long with a bunch of little shops and restaurants. I have to say that the prices here were the best of any of the ports we were in. Items that we had seen in Mykonos, Athens and Santorini were a lot less here. For example - I saw a macro mosaic charm that I fell in love with - in the oother ports it was 500-700 euros after bargaining. Here it was 350 euros when I first asked how much. It was the exact same charm by the same artist. Gold prices seemed better here as well. I bought lots of gifts to take home here. I was not expecting this town to be as nice as it was so I was really suprised.

 

Santorini

 

We did the ship tour here - Santorini in a nutshell. I am glad we did this tour - there was a lot to see on this island. Most of the people that we met on the ship that did not do a tour just wound up walking around in the town. I loved Santorini and would go back again in a minute. We saw the black sand beaches, Oia (a charming little town with amazing views of the Med), luch at a taverna - I was suprised how good and authentic Greek it was considering how many people were being served, an old (from the year 1000) Greek church, and finally we were dropped of in town.

 

We had the trip of a lifetime on our cruise and I am sure you will too....enjoy!

 

Lynn

[Miss Jolly]

We are travelling on HAL Rotterdam for 39 days with our two teenage children and are looking for days to break up the heavy museum type days.We will be in Corfu 3rd September - my daughter's 14th birthday. We would love to take her jetskiing in Corfu but can't find out anything about it. Would you know where we could do this and how we could get there? Do you need to hire a car to get to the beach or can you walk/use public transport/taxi. Any advice is welcome - thank you.

Jennie

[Tablet]

LILynn:

 

Thank you VERY much for the wonderful insight and tips. The car rental sounds ideal. I was thinking about the ship excursion in Katakolon and Santorini but was concerned about the masses of people. We are on a ship that carries about 1850 people. They even warn you on the ship excursion page about the density and crowding at Olympia.

 

Other than Olympia, however, there doesn't appear to be much to do/see on Katakolon. Did you do a half-day or full day tour in Santorini?

 

Thanks again for all your helpful information.

[herenthere]

Thanks Lynn for your info on these ports. We are thinking of driving in Corfu, and I'm trying to decide whether to prebook a rental car or get one when we arrive (as you did). It was good to hear that it worked out to rent when you got to the island. We're also thinking about self-driving Santorini. Any thoughts on that idea?

[tom_uk]

We're also thinking about self-driving Santorini. Any thoughts on that idea?

 

You certainly can arrange car hire on Santorini, but where would you go? Santorini is much smaller than Corfu or the mainland (obviously!) at Katakolon. I know people do talk about the 'black sand beach' and the wineries, but to be truthful if you haven't been to Santorini before, the principal attractions are Fira town itself and the smaller village of Oia. You might well find it easier to use the bus, or a taxi to get to & from Oia (which is not many miles from Fira in any case) if you wanted to go there. Other than that, just wandering around Fira town is the thing to do. There are the wineries, and you could visit one of them, but I'm not sure about the combination of driving & wine tasting! We went to one and we were only there about 45 minutes: the point of the visit is to persuade you to buy some wine.

 

If you're into archeaology then there would be one other big attraction and that's Akrotiri, but unfortunately it's currently closed to visitors following an accident in which a tourist was fatally injured, and I don't know when the site will reopen. This used to be a staple of cruiselines' excursions, and being in a different part of the island (and some miles away) would indeed be a good destination for a trip in a hire car. But (as I say) it's currently closed.

[franu]

Although it was many years ago when I visited Santorini, the best memory was our visit to Akrotiri. This archeological site stands out in my mind for the fact that I was able to more fully understand the daily life. The other reason was the corrugated roof protected us and everything from the sun shining on us. This was much more comfortable.

 

At some point it was closed and I do not know if it has reopened. I hope it has.

Fran

 

Sorry, I just read tomuk's posting saying that it was closed.

[LILynn]

Tablet - We did the full day tour in Santorini. The last stop was Fira and we had some time to walk around (lots of shops) before taking the finicular back down to the ship. One word of caution - we had to wait a good hour for our turn to get on the finicular so give yourself plenty of time.

 

I was on this trip with my mom (poor DH had to stay home...) and neither of us wanted to drive in Greece. But we met another couple on the ship and they were up for driving - we were lucky that there was an automatic car available. If you know you are OK with driving then I would try and reserve the car in advance. It was really easy - I would not hesitate to drive in Corfu now that I have seen it.

 

Lynn

[Tablet]

LILynn

 

Thanks again for the helpful insight. Since my fender bender with a rental in St Thomas I have been a bit bashful about renting a car in foreign lands. Maybe it's time to try again.

 

Thanks again for the help with Santorini. I want to be sure that with the tenders, and potential wait time on the finicular, that we will have enough time to see what we need to see.

[e-cruiser]

LIlynn

I would also like to drive to Paleokatritsa while in Corfu.

How was the drive? Long, sceanic, difficult?

Thanks for your response.

[LILynn]

ecruiser

 

Paleiokatritsa was so pretty - I know you will really enjoy it. The car rental place gave us a map and marked the route for us - it was really easy. It was not very scenic - you could be anywhere when you are on the main road and I don't think it took us very long to get there - no more than 1/2 hour if I remember correctly. When you get there, there is a road that you turn off on to go all the way up to the top of the mountain. The views were incredible - the weather was perfect that day and you could see forever.

 

Enjoy

 

Lynn

[KT32]

The drive to Paleokastritsa is lovely - a great opportunity to see a bit more of the island. I remember it being relatively easy and well-signed. There's also a good beach at Glyfada, but it was much more touristy/less picturesque.

 

Also a trip to the Achilleon is another idea to catch some beautiful scenery. I seem to recall the Bond movie For your eyes only was filmed in Corfu and has several scenes at the Achilleon.

 

Santorini: Wine tasting is a good idea as is a visit to Amoudi, just below Oia. Its an amazing place at sunset. There's also an archaeological museum which displays some of the finds from Akrotiri, if the site itself has not reopened. If you want to try beaches, both Kamari and Perissa have black sand beaches and are nice for a swim.

[dileep]

Lynn:

 

Do you have the name and contact info for the car rental agency in Corfu? Did they have mini vans too? We may have 6 people in our group.

[KT32]

We rented from Budget which is across the street from the Port terminal.

 

NEW PORT

132 THEOTOKI STR.

CORFU, 49100 GR

Location code CF7