help! - how to "do" Santorini with elderly parents

[margbem]

Any suggestions on how to get the best from Santorini in September as our elderly parents will be with us. Are we best doing a ship's tour or is it easy to get a hire car? Anyone been stuck in traffic and missed the ship doing a tour on their own? The thought of the cable car queues in heat when standing for a long time troubles me!! Could have a fainting mother- in -law on my hands!!! There are 2 other ships in port that day.:confused:

[agabbymama]

I'm playing it safe with a ship's tour in Santorini and Kusadasi. I would suggest doing the same thing. Others have posted that at the end of the tour, you can stay in town or be taken back to the pier for tender to the ship. They do use a different pier for ship tours, than the pier where the gondola is.

[martyap]

We did Santorini on our own but friends used Nick's for a private tour. I believe he is also a professional photographer and takes loads of pictures, puts them on a CD and makes you a copy to take home before returning you to the ship. You would not want to do Santorini withe elderly parents on your own but you should compare private tours with what the ship offers. In Kusadasi we were 8 and used Ekol and they were fantastic and personalized what we wanted to see and do. They were also reasonable in price. Marty

[keltic]

Well it doesn´t imply too much efford getting up on the cable, unless you have to wait for a long time on the line. Summer and other ships in the bay means, sometimes long lines

[margbem]

Hi Marty

 

Thanks for your reply. Do you know what sort of price the tour of Santorini was with Nick and what his company is - is it Santorini day tours?

[trubey]

I hope that I am remembering correctly and that it was Santorini--but I had an awful experience there.

 

My husband and I had taken the ship's tour and seen all the sites. At the end, we were dropped off near where the cable car would take us back down to the water. Unfortunately for us, the tour guide had no idea that what he considered a 5 minute walk, can be a grueling experience for someone with mobility issues.

 

In this case, it was horrible. My husband was sick for two days afterwards.

 

My point in writing this is just to make sure that you leave the bus at a better location. And I am hoping that someone on this forum can say that there is a better alternative than what we got.

[martyap]

Hi Marty

 

Thanks for your reply. Do you know what sort of price the tour of Santorini was with Nick and what his company is - is it Santorini day tours?

 

I don't think any Med private tours come cheap. Some are worth it and some are not. However, I feel you get more bang for your $$$ with private tours as compared with ship's excursions and you get personalized attention. Santorini provides Kodak moments wherever you are but requires walking. We took the public bus to Oia and we're in shape and it was better than a roller coaster........For elderly parents a private might be the way to go.You can try to add another couple from your roll call and lower the pp. cost.....try...... http://www.santoriniprivatetours.com I believe the tour operator is Nikos.......Possibly others have different suggestions.......Marty