Santorini Taxis: Thira to Oia

[juscrusin]

Hi,

We are thinking about doing Oia on our own, but our ship Costa Mediterranea is only in port from 7:30 a.m to 1:30 p.m. (well 1 p.m. really).

 

Are taxis readily available at Thira and Oia, or are they hard to come by?

 

Based on reading the various threads and problems with cable car lines, it would be safe for us to get back to Thira no later than 11 a.m. which doesn't leave us too much time for transport back and forth to Oia/Thira.

 

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated!

 

P.S. we considered the ship's excursion tour, but after reading it, it seems like hardly any time will be spent with Oia after you consider the fact they tender you to Athinios and drive you all the way to Oia, then after a short visit to Oia it says - back to Thira where you'll have time to walk around/shop, lunch, etc.

[Amaranthine33]

Hi,

We are thinking about doing Oia on our own, but our ship Costa Mediterranea is only in port from 7:30 a.m to 1:30 p.m. (well 1 p.m. really).

 

Are taxis readily available at Thira and Oia, or are they hard to come by?

 

Based on reading the various threads and problems with cable car lines, it would be safe for us to get back to Thira no later than 11 a.m. which doesn't leave us too much time for transport back and forth to Oia/Thira.

 

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated!

 

P.S. we considered the ship's excursion tour, but after reading it, it seems like hardly any time will be spent with Oia after you consider the fact they tender you to Athinios and drive you all the way to Oia, then after a short visit to Oia it says - back to Thira where you'll have time to walk around/shop, lunch, etc.

 

I was in Santorini in June (not with a cruise) and taxis are not difficult to find in Thira or Oia. If you're in the less busy/populated areas of the island (like at Perissa Beach where my hotel was) then it may take awhile to get a taxi.

 

In Thira you just go to the main street and hail a taxi that passes by or go to the bus & taxi hub a short walk from the Catholic church.

 

Kalispera!

[tom_uk]

Ask the taxi driver for a price for the trip before you get in: 'how much to go to X?'. In late June we paid €12 in one direction and €13 for the other, but I have heard of people paying twice that.

[Monterey Girl]

You might want to see how many other ships are going to be in port the same as your ship. That may very well impact the availability of taxis and buses on such a small island www.cruisecal.com

 

MG :)

[juscrusin]

Thanks everyone who replied! We're going to roll the dice on this one, so that we can maximize our time in Oia. There are 2 other ships in port that day for a potential total visitors of 2,900 to Santorini. The good news is that our ship of about 2,200 passengers docks 30 minutes earlier than the other ships and those same ships - Windspirit Windstar and Regent Seven Seas Navigator are leaving Santorini in the evening. So it's really our own ship that we would need to be concerned about - congestion wise.

 

Many thanks to Tom, I read all of your posts re: cable car capacity and such, it was extremely helpful! We plan on returning to the cable car facility at 11:00 a.m. - allowing for 1 hour of potential waiting for cable cars which should hopefully drop us at the tender area around 12:30 and back on the ship by 1 p.m.

 

Any thoughts on whether the above plan is realistic/doable or do you feel this is risky, after factoring in the cable car situation? Do I need be at the cable car area at 10:30 a.m.? Please share your thoughts and suggestions. Many thanks for your help, advice, and support on this one!

[tom_uk]

Many thanks to Tom, I read all of your posts re: cable car capacity and such, it was extremely helpful! We plan on returning to the cable car facility at 11:00 a.m. - allowing for 1 hour of potential waiting for cable cars which should hopefully drop us at the tender area around 12:30 and back on the ship by 1 p.m.

 

Any thoughts on whether the above plan is realistic/doable or do you feel this is risky, after factoring in the cable car situation? Do I need be at the cable car area at 10:30 a.m.?

 

Let me answer you question with a question! - how fit are you? If the answer is 'reasonably' then you have a choive: if the queues are already long at 11am then you can walk down the donkey track. I've never done this myself so I can't talk from experience, but there are posts on here about that experience. (Really I'm just trying to get a feel for whether you have alternatives or not.)

 

More significantly, I'm wondering about your idea of going to Oia. It's certainly a magical place, but I'm not sure how much you'll get from it if you're just watching the clock, and only there for an hour or so. Thira itself is also spectacular; the reason most people move on from it is because it get very crowded. But given the time you're planning on being ashore it'll just be waking up and won't be at all crowded. There's an argument in favour of just having a good explore round Thira town, then finishing off at, say, 10:45 for a coffee & snack in one of the many restaurants near the cable-car terminal from where you'll be able to keep an eye on the queue.

[dbh62ark]

Warning--When we were in Santorini in late May on the Millennium, there was a shortage of taxis. There were three large ships in town that day but only one other ship that had basically the same schedule that we had. The crowds for buses were also much larger than what we wanted to deal with, so we waited for a taxi and then took the driver up on his offer to give us a tour because we were concerned that we wouldn't be able to find one when we needed to leave Oia. It was a great tour, so we definitely did what was best for us. We had bought our cable car tickets in advance on the ship, so we had no issues, but I saw some very long lines to go up. The Millennium sailed at 11:00 p.m. from this port, but I did hear that the cable car lines were bad for those who waited to see the sunset that evening (which was a big bust on our sailing).

 

Also, I've posted this warning before, but note that since we've had the good fortune to have sailed Europe 15 times (and counting!), I've noticed that http://www.cruisecal.com is not very reliable. There are many European ships that are not listed on that site, so port crowding might be much worse in your ports than indicated on this site, and we've noticed that the past couple of years.

 

Have a great trip,

Donna

[Suzy Q]

We just returned from the Med. On Santorini, there was another ship in as well as ours and a third was arriving at 1PM. We tried the bus but it apparently was too early (9:40AM), so we caught a taxi which we shared with another couple at 15 eiros each way--easy to find. Both towns were crowded even that early. Headed back to ship early afternoon and cable car line was somewhat long but moved quickly. The donkeys make their presence known. As our tender approached the island, another passenger observed, "I don't think this place is really "dootie" free.":)

[Andym]

I don't think that you will have a problem with taxis in Fira, there always seems to be plenty about, you may on the other hand have a problem in Oia, it can become very quiet and the taxis may not be about. I'd be a bit worried regarding your timescales and think that as a previous poster has said, perhaps just spend some time in Fira this visit and enjoy the experience rather than being worried about the time.

 

Andy

[juscrusin]

Many thanks to everyone who shared their experiences and thoughts on this subject. I really appreciate it, because it helped us to arrive at a sound decision - which is to take the ship's shore excursion tour to Oia.

 

Being an avid photographer and wanting to explore Oia, I thought there would be sufficient time to do it on our own, but considering everyone's feedback and the extreme time constraints, additional time to tender to shore, combined with the cable car problem - that the conservative thing to do will be to take the ship's tour.

 

For one thing, I've read in another thread that for Costa Mediterranea, the earliest tender to shore, will be 8:30 or even could be as late as 9:30 which is already 2.5 hours into our 5.5 hour stay at Santorini. After reading Joyce and Tim's experience of walking down the donkey trail, that was not an option! I've included thread below for others to reference this story.

 

I'm glad to hear that Thira is not "chopped liver" and that it has its own scenic beauty. Thanks again to all for your wise counsel!

[juscrusin]

Oops, forgot the link. Very informative, this one.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=327172&highlight=costa+victoria+3%2F27

[ShipsandDipper]

If it makes you more secure in your decision, I was going to relate our experience, which was there were almost NO taxis in Oia on our day in mid-May. We waited for more than 40 minutes amidst an increasingly desperate crowd of people and saw two taxis the whole time. Those two taxis were swarmed immediately upon sight. We called for a taxi and they said one was coming, but they wouldn't even take our name, and we were sure that it would also be swarmed. We kept moving farther and farther out from the bus depot to catch whatever taxi appeared. About an hour before last tender, we were still in Oia.:eek: Seriously, we only made it back at all because a woman with a minivan and a driver scooped a bunch of us up and got us back to Thira (we had to sprint down the donkey path and got to shore about 10 minutes before last tender). I later heard from our friends who took the bus back a little earlier in the afternoon that there was a huge overflow crowd for the bus as well.

 

We loved Oia, but next time I go to Santorini on a cruise ship, I'm having double contingency plans on how to get back to Thira in a timely manner.:D

[juscrusin]

If it makes you more secure in your decision, I was going to relate our experience, which was there were almost NO taxis in Oia on our day in mid-May. We waited for more than 40 minutes amidst an increasingly desperate crowd of people and saw two taxis the whole time. Those two taxis were swarmed immediately upon sight. We called for a taxi and they said one was coming, but they wouldn't even take our name, and we were sure that it would also be swarmed. We kept moving farther and farther out from the bus depot to catch whatever taxi appeared. About an hour before last tender, we were still in Oia.:eek: Seriously, we only made it back at all because a woman with a minivan and a driver scooped a bunch of us up and got us back to Thira (we had to sprint down the donkey path and got to shore about 10 minutes before last tender). I later heard from our friends who took the bus back a little earlier in the afternoon that there was a huge overflow crowd for the bus as well.

 

We loved Oia, but next time I go to Santorini on a cruise ship, I'm having double contingency plans on how to get back to Thira in a timely manner.:D

 

Wow! That is really living on the edge! Thanks for the reassurance.

 

Even now that we are taking the ship's shore excursion,

I'm beginning to wonder if Costa will even guarantee that the "ship will not leave with out you" when you sign up for their excursion. The reason I say that is because their tour still drops you off at Thira, essentially leaving you on your own to catch the cable car back down to the tender area. They can't possibly monitor or manage all of their passengers this way. Well it should be an interesting experience......

[juscrusin]

If it makes you more secure in your decision, I was going to relate our experience, which was there were almost NO taxis in Oia on our day in mid-May. We waited for more than 40 minutes amidst an increasingly desperate crowd of people and saw two taxis the whole time. Those two taxis were swarmed immediately upon sight. We called for a taxi and they said one was coming, but they wouldn't even take our name, and we were sure that it would also be swarmed. We kept moving farther and farther out from the bus depot to catch whatever taxi appeared. About an hour before last tender, we were still in Oia.:eek: Seriously, we only made it back at all because a woman with a minivan and a driver scooped a bunch of us up and got us back to Thira (we had to sprint down the donkey path and got to shore about 10 minutes before last tender). I later heard from our friends who took the bus back a little earlier in the afternoon that there was a huge overflow crowd for the bus as well.

 

We loved Oia, but next time I go to Santorini on a cruise ship, I'm having double contingency plans on how to get back to Thira in a timely manner.:D

 

Wow! That is really living on the edge! Thanks for the reassurance.

 

Even now that we are taking the ship's shore excursion,

I'm beginning to wonder if Costa will even guarantee that the "ship will not leave with out you" when you sign up for their excursion. The reason I say that is because their tour still drops you off at Thira, essentially leaving you on your own to catch the cable car back down to the tender area. They can't possibly monitor or manage all of their passengers this way. Well it should be an interesting experience......we'll still have to keep an eye on the cable car lines, but at least only one way we'll deal with it!