Santorini Private Tours? Recommendations please.

[WineDown17]

I have given in and decided gto do a private tour of Santorini.. I have seen tons of tours in Italy mentioned.. but never any for Antorini. Can anyone help me?

[nparmelee]

Probably because Santorini is just so easy to do on your own that many people don't bother with hiring a guide there. Is there some thing specific you want to do there?

[WineDown17]

I am really not sure. That is the problem.. And with 6 of us, I am thinking the convenience of it.....and want to be sure we dont miss anything...

[Longtime Cruiser]

My understanding is to take a donkey up to the top of the mountain. They are near the port and you dont need a guide. Also, its our first trip but I have been told and did research--do it on your own. My niece spent a week and said you can just walk around and see it all on your own. Let me know what you decide and why. Perhaps it will change our minds.

 

Enjoy

Steven

[WineDown17]

My understanding is to take a donkey up to the top of the mountain. They are near the port and you dont need a guide. Also, its our first trip but I have been told and did research--do it on your own. My niece spent a week and said you can just walk around and see it all on your own. Let me know what you decide and why. Perhaps it will change our minds.

 

Enjoy

Steven

 

If it were just DH and I, I would definitely do it on our own.. But we will have his 2 parents- one is not keen on riding a donkey, and one wont do the Gondola.. plus our 2 children.

 

As you can see it is our unique situation that may require us to shell out a few extra $$ and have a more guided tour of the island.

[tom_uk]

I am really not sure. That is the problem.. And with 6 of us, I am thinking the convenience of it.....and want to be sure we dont miss anything...

 

The main thing about Santorini is the place itself: it's an enormous flooded volcanic crater, the cruise ships anchor in the middle of it, and the towns/villages are perched on the top of the crater rim. So just get up to Thira town, find a bar or restaurant overlooking the caldera, and drink in the view and the experience. That's the most important thing about Santorini.

 

There are two main settlements, Thira & (much smaller) Oia. Thira is busy & bustling, Oia is smaller & quieter (apart from when there are 3 or 4 ships visiting... :( ).

 

There are beaches - there is the well-known Black Sand beach, as well as more traditional beaches, but they're all on the wrong side of the island (i.e. not looking into the caldera) and I don't think they're that great as beaches - they don't equal those on Mykonos, for example. There are several(?) wineries, and visiting them is reasonably interesting, but again, they're not great - wine & wine-making isn't what Santorini is about. There are some archaeological excavations at a place called Akrotiri, where the remains of a town buried by the volcano 3,500 years ago or so are being revealed, but unfortunately they aren't open - they haven't been for a few years, since one or two tourists were killed in an accident at the site some years ago. There is however an excellent archaeological museum at Thira town where the best finds from Akrotiri are displayed.

 

So that's it, really: it's a physically stunning place, and the best thing to do is simply to wander around and savour it. A local guide could probably tell you a lot of the history, etc, but you can learn that yourself. On our first visit there we took a ship's excursion to Oia & the winery and it was very good; on our second trip we did our own thing, taking a taxi to Oia & back, and that was good too.

 

The big problem at Santorini is the cable car up to Thira which has a limited capacity. Expect this to be bottleneck at any time, and if there are several ships in port, a considerable one. Doing the ship's excursion usually avoids this bottleneck on the way out - you tender to a different port, where a switch-back road comes down to the sea & you board a bus there - but you'll still have to use either the cablecar or the donkey track after the excursion is over to get back down.

[WineDown17]

What a beautiful desription Tom! Thanks!

 

Savoring the environments is exactly the way we want to spend the entire trip.. so your advice is reassuring.

 

I just see all the beautiful pictures and i feared that if we didnt know where those spots were, we would be disappointed. From what you write, the entire island is a beautiful picture!

 

Can you take Taxis? No one mentions those... That should work..

[Nora4sure]

I think that the main question would be whether or not you are the only "ship in town". In my opinion this makes a HUGE difference and influences whether you want to take a private tour or now. We knew early on, but kept checking, that we were the only ship in port on our trip last summer.

 

If you are the only ship in port that day....i wouldnt do anything other than explore on your own. With so many options, you can drive, bus, bike or taxi to many of the sights. Your cable care experience will also be more pleasant because there will be less of a wait. The Summit descended on Santorini last summer with about 2400 people and we waited 10 minutes up and about 20 minutes down at peak times. This was nothing but it was HOT in last July. We also had priority tendering but didnt really speed off the ship.

 

If you arent the only ship in town, it will definitely be more congested, but have a plan and expect waits. The way around that is to book a ship tour or a private tour. We did some research before going and thought that there were a couple of private companies that would have been great if you want to spend your money in this port. If you do a search on here about tours...there is a tour by catamaran by Capt. Ted that has gotten rave reviews on here and on tripadvisor.com. They will even arrange a land taxi tour after your excursion. We'd have done this if we were one of many in port.

 

Honestly, for us it was a way to save some money for our italian ports and expensive private tours there.

 

In all my travels...Oia, Santorini is the most amazingly spectacular place Ive ever been.

Happy travels.

Nora

[WineDown17]

Thanks Nora. I recall your posts when you returned. You seemed to really have a great time.

 

Where did you check who would be in port? I know there is a website, but if you canshare, I would appreciate it!!

[WineDown17]

I found it.. And Nora- wow.

 

We are the only ship in town on May 17th. Yeah!!

 

A week later there arer several ships...that is the difference between 2K people and 10K people descending on Santorini...

 

I am very excited now. That will be great.

[tennisobo]

We are one of three ships when we arrive in Santorini in June. One of the other ships departs at 1:00, the other at 6:00 and our ship doesn't depart until 9:00. With that in mind, I was thinking that we wouldn't get off the ship until maybe midmorning or even after lunch. Wouldn't there be fewer people queuing for the upward journey on the cable car at that time?

 

Does this sound like a good plan, or are there other considerations I'm not aware of?

 

Thanks for any help.

[waiting2retire]

We were one of three ships in Santorini last year, but we arrived at noon and left at 11:00 p.m. The other two ships arrived and left much earlier, so we were the only ones using the cable car both ways... no waiting at all!

 

There were 9 of us travelling as a group, all in our late 40s and early 50s. Some of us took the cable car and some took the donkeys. We wandered around Thira for a while, then had lunch at a charming little restaurant, not overlooking the caldera, but excellent just the same. We considered renting scooters (they are everywhere and cheap!), but some of us got a little carried away with the ouzo at lunchtime, so decided a bus would be safer. We found the bus station and took a bus to Red Beach. The bus ride itself was very scenic and interesting, and we wandered around Red Beach for a couple of hours.

 

We then took the bus back to Thira and changed buses to go to Oia. Now that is an adventure :eek: Some of the roads are pretty narrow climbing to the cliff where Oia is located. Oia is a walking town and is just a stunning and quaint as all of the pictures I had seen of it. When we got there, we chose a restaurant and made reservations, but some of our group were concerned about the timing getting back to the ship in case the cable car was busy, so we didn't stay for dinner. That was a shame because we made it back with a few hours to spare, and missed the famous Oia sunset :(.

 

We were able to do all of this on our own because of the research I had done here on CC and other websites. I felt I had been there before I even left home. So, even though there are a lot of you, and varying ages, if you do some research, there is no need for private tour. Have a great time!

 

Bonnie

[nparmelee]

Even if you do a private tour, you will need to get up to Fira either by donkey, funicular or walking. The only way to avoid that for the way up is to take a ship tour which tenders to a different location where the busses are met. Even then, to get back to the ship, you will need to go down by donkey, funicular or walking. The funicular is against the side of the hill and does not swing out at all so if its a fear of height that has that person not wanting to use it, many here have said it was not bad once they did it.

[tom_uk]

I've posted a number of images of Santorini on another cruise site. Unfortunately, Cruise Critic no linger allows direct links to that other site, so I've included (below) a link to a page in my blog which contains onwards links to the image locations. Look at these links in my blog page:

a) 'Santorini 2006 on Galaxy' - our first visit, images from Oia & Thira;

b) 'Santorini 2007 on Galaxy' - the second visit, more of the same;

c) 'Santorini Cablecars 2006' - the first three images give you a perspective of the whole cablecars/donkey path thing.

 

Here's the link to the image URLs.

[tooalto]

Since you asked for private tour recommendations in your original post, here's mine. We'll be in Santorini for the second time next October and will again be using Nikos of santorini Day Tours. He's excellent, lots of fun and a professional photog. who gives you a CD of pictures he took of you and your party. Very reasonable for a long tour and he'll tailor it to what you want to do. Comfortable air-conditioned vans and no fuss about maps, roads, driving etc. So much fun hearing all the little things only a native can offer.

[jmlh]

On our first visit to Santorini we also used Nikos. We really enjoyed our day and saw so much of this beautiful island. I love to review the CD of the photos that Nikos gave us. Beautiful memories.

 

Last summer, we did Santorini on our own. Took the cable car to the top and walked to the bus station. It was very crowded so we took a taxi to Oia (shared with another couple we met on the ship). We spent most of our time in Oia - walked around, shopped, had lunch and admired the stunning views. Grabbed another taxi back to Fira and walked around there before taking the cable car back to the ship.

 

Whether you do a private tour or 'do it on your own' you will have a wonderful day. Enjoy:)

[Fblack]

Forget the donkeys. Just take the cable car. We were there and the cable car lines were huge. Yet they go fast. Took us 20 minutes even with those long lines.

[WineDown17]

Since you asked for private tour recommendations in your original post, here's mine. We'll be in Santorini for the second time next October and will again be using Nikos of santorini Day Tours. He's excellent, lots of fun and a professional photog. who gives you a CD of pictures he took of you and your party. Very reasonable for a long tour and he'll tailor it to what you want to do. Comfortable air-conditioned vans and no fuss about maps, roads, driving etc. So much fun hearing all the little things only a native can offer.

 

Thanks to both of you for this recommendation. I will definitely check it out. i also appreciated the info on the funnicular.

[PBtravel1]

what web site I could check to see whether there are other ships in port?

Thank you

[WineDown17]

what web site I could check to see whether there are other ships in port?

Thank you

http://www.cruisett.com/ships.php

 

Look it up by your ship. That was the easiest way.

[scifigrl]

that is a terrific website - thank you for posting the link

[WineDown17]

Just paying it forward.. I found it from another poster! :)

[the4ofusandallourfriends]

The thing about Santorini is the caldera view and the view is best seen from the smaller but much nicer village of Oia. IMHO, Thira was a letdown and a bit dumpy. I was glad we stayed in Oia.

 

If you can get a cab to Oia, spend some time there, shop, have some lunch or a drink and enjoy the views. It is breathtaking. Then ask your cab to take you down to Ammoudi Bay which is just below the village of Oia. There you can walk around the wharf, see where the Sisterhood of the Travelling pants movie was filmed, and walk along the pier, follow the path past the restaurants and there is a swimming spot. You can swim to a little island right there and see the wonderful views of Santorini from below.

[rockedge]

What was the cost of the taxi to Oia and back to Thira?

[HangtownGal]

Santorini actually has a 5-line HOHO at a very reasonable price. That's what we're planning on doing May 14th.

 

http://www.santorinismartbuses.com/

 

Carole