On my next visit to Santorini I was not a young bachelor looking for action or a newlywed looking for a place that would make my honeymoon as memorable as the courtship. I was a middle aged dude traveling with my wife, my daughter, my niece and my mother. So instead of staying at one of the fashionable cliff side hotels whose famous names are passed around on internet travel boards we went to the small village of Akrotiri on the southwestern tip of the island and stayed at a quaint family run hotel (with AC, a bar, restaurant and two full-sized swimming pools). It was a good idea at the time because my daughter and her cousin were happy to spend their entire day in the pool and really after the first view of the caldera they could have cared less about it. I had actually played a kind of trick on them. Since we had arrived at night and then Andrea and I had gone off to explore the island the next morning leaving the girls with my mother who though not completely happy with her role as babysitter, did not know enough about Santorini to want to explore it anyway. When we returned to find the girls swimming in the pool I made them close their eyes and hold my hand while I walked them across the street to the edge of the caldera where I adjusted their position to get the best view. Then I said at the count of three open your eyes. They counted 1-2-3 and when they opened their eyes they went into shock at what they saw since they had no idea of what Santorini looked like and so opening their eyes to this view was something that was either unforgettable or could cause instantaneous dementia, like waking up on another planet. Then since I knew that they would never have an experience that would ever equal this I pushed them each off the cliff. No, I didn't. But I was pretty pleased with myself that I had bought them as close to Abraham Maslow's 'peak-experience' as they would be likely to have until they were teenagers and began experimenting with drugs many years later.

The point being, your first view of the caldera of Santorini is likely to be a peak experience so you want to do it right. Having one person lead you to the edge and then telling you to open your eyes is a good way. Our latest visit showed us another.

Caldera View

Santorini is like three islands. One side is the caldera with the villages of Thira, Imerovigli, Firastefani and Oia perched so far above the sea that it may as well be a painting. This is the commercial part of Santorini. This part of the island brings in most of the money and is completely dependent on it's image to attract the visitors. They do a damn good job. You can say what you want about the changes tourism brings to a community but it is impossible to not be impressed with the beauty of these towns and if you stay here on the cliffs it will be an experience that you will never forget. Some say that like going to the Acropolis it is an essential experience for anyone going to Greece. Well, maybe if you plan to go once and never come back but most people who visit Greece do come back or at least they wish they could. I lived in Greece for ten years before going to Santorini and it is not as if I did not enjoy myself. However when I finally did visit Santorini I understood what all the fuss was about. So even someone looking for the 'unspoiled Greece' I would have to say you might consider including a couple days in Santorini, and stay in one of the caldera side villages. They are not unspoiled but that is eclipsed by how visually impressive they are.

So knowing that, and being friends with the owner of Fantasy Travel, who was desperate to get me back to Santorini so I could stay at his favorite hotel we made plans to return. No wait, that is not exactly what happened. Actually my daughter went to Santorini with her boyfriend from North Carolina and so we sent her to the Hotel Volcano View Villas, the hotel Fantasy Travel represents. That way we could go to Ipirus or Ikaria or the kind of un-touristy places we prefer. But when Amarandi called and asked when we were coming we realized that there was trouble in paradise and we booked a flight to the island and asked George to put us in a hotel knowing he would put us in the Volcano View Villas since our daughter was there. The hotels ent a driver name Nikos to pick us up at the airport and we walked into the lobby which is on street level and did the checking in procedure. Then we followed Nick through the lobby and out the back door where the restaurant/cafe-bar and the rooms are and we were hit with the same peak-experience that I had given my daughter so many years before.

The hotel sits in a carved out area on the top of the cliffs of the caldera with a view of the entire crater, the lava islands in the middle, the large inhabited island of Thirasia in the distance, and the most beautiful sunset I had seen since, well since my last visit to Santorini. It literally took my breath away and at that moment I felt very small, yet at the same time very close to God as if it was an honor to be part of the same wonderful creation that I was seeing. The hotel rooms looked like a white pueblo village gathered in a semi-circle around a beautiful swimming pool and the guests were sitting on their porches drinking wine and watching the sun slowly go down behind the islands. I saw Amarandi and Ernie below and called her name and I have never seen her so happy to see us.

After we left our things in our room (more of a suite with two bedrooms, livingroom, kitchen, bathroom with giant jacuzzi-tub and my favorite part, a balcony-terrace with a day bed, table, a couple chairs and the same spectacular view we saw when we first walked out the back door of the hotel lobby. The terrace would get a lot of use from us and had I not felt the obligation to explore Santorini and update my website we probably would have not bothered leaving the hotel. That first night we ordered wine from the hotel bar and they brought down a carafe of whatever the local wine is that they buy in bulk and it was the best wine we had all summer to that point. The next day when a case of wine from Art Space Winery mysteriously appeared in our room I was ready to give up my job entirely and just sit on the balcony, drink wine, order food from the hotel restaurant and gaze at the view, taking an occasional dip in the pool to keep my muscles from atrophying.

Unfortunately I am the responsible type and we did rent a car so we could explore the island and take photos and we did feel the need to try various restaurants on the island, so our time hanging out on our balcony was limited to sunsets and in the three nights we spent there I don't think we consumed more than four bottles of wine in that spot with the glorious view of the sea a thousand feet below.

By the way, the hotel overlooks Porto Athinaos, the ferry port for Santorini and also the port where many of the cruise ships dock in the morning. Being a boat watcher I would get very excited when I woke up in the morning and saw a large cruise ship slowly sailing into the bay and then the tenders which use Nea Kamini (which means New Burnt) the uninhabited volcanic island in the middle of the caldera as a port, converge on the cruise ship like ants around a giant dead grasshopper, ferrying passengers to Porto Athinaos and picking them up later in the day or evening below Fira. I also watched the numerous ferries coming and going at all hours of the day and night as well as the small catamaran island cruises that explore the caldera.

So the point of all these images and descriptions is to make it very clear that the reason to come to Santorini is to be on the caldera, whether your hotel is perched on the edge or you just spend your time in the cafes and bars that share similar views. The rest of the island is unspectacular by Cyclades standards. You take away the caldera and Santorini falls down the list of beautiful Greek islands to maybe around #20 or so. The area between the towns and the beaches is a clutter of cheap hotels, some farms, warehouses, failed shopping centers, some light industry, about a million summer homes, and a maze of roads that will have you lost in no time if you happen to miss a sign. Not that you can stay lost forever. Santorini is a small island. You can drive from end to end in about 45 minutes. To take a taxi from the Volcano View Hotel to Fira costs about 5 euros. You can actually walk there as it is one of the few roads in Santorini that they spent the money to build sidewalks all the way into town so you can walk there and back safely.

People staying in hotels outside of the towns may find themselves in precarious situations walking down dark roads with cars whizzing by on their way to or from dinner and the bars and they should consider the possibility that many of the people in these cars are drunk on the delicious Santorini wines or even something stronger. If you stay in hotels outside of town wear white when walking at night. If you are driving home be careful of people on the road who are not wearing white. Most of the time when I get an e-mail from someone who found a "really great hotel in Fira for really cheap" the hotel is located outside of town and you take your life in your hands when you go out at night. One thing people may not factor in when they get a cheap hotel is that the distance may require them taking a taxi and that could be the difference in the cost of another hotel right in town. Then again if you are run over and killed you probably won't get charged for the hotel at all.

Fira

Fira is the capital of Santorini. On the caldera side you get one of the best views of the island and the activity level is enough to keep you entertained for hours. There are cafes, bars, restaurants, all with views and some with several levels of patios and balconies to make the most of the space they have and the fact that when there are several cruise ships sitting below the town is packed with tourists. Just walking down the street in laborious. The cafes fill up with tourists. Hundreds of them. Thousands of them. Like Leiningen vs the Ants they are unleashed on the town consuming everything in sight, stopping only to take photos of themselves with the view behind them. But the ships come and go and when they go they take the population with them and Fira can actually be a pretty nice place. If you enjoy shopping or eating or drinking or hanging out and watching the view then Fira is worth visiting for a few hours in the day or evening. The port of Fira below is where the cruise ships dock, though they don't actually dock. They just anchor and the tenders come and get the passangers and take them to the small port where they have two choices. Well three actually. The first choice, and maybe the most sensible one is to take the ski-lift up the mountain. I think they call it a cable-car but you and I would call it a ski-lift. The second choice is to go up by donkey, which is what a lot of people end up having to do because they promised their kids that they would do this to get them excited about coming to Santorini. The third choice is to walk which is done only by people who are in terrific shape and like a challange or have something to prove.

Most of the restaurants in Fira are tourist restaurants. Well probably all of the restaurants are tourist restaurants but some the tourists don't know about because they are hidden away on back streets and have only a local clientele. But these would be tourists restaurants too if they could figure out a way of getting tourists into them. But the vast majority of tourists, particularly the ones from the cruise ships, do not eat in restaurants anyway. They eat souvlakia and there are plenty of souvlaki shops around the main square and the other streets that are not on the caldera. Restaurants with caldera view are going to be expensive and though I would not say they are bad. They don't have to be good since most people will eat there once and never come back again whether the food was good or bad because next summer they will be in Brighton, or Atlantic City or even Alaska. So they serve what they believe the tourists will want and make a whole lot of money in the summer and then close in October and go on holiday themselves. The best restaurants on the island are those that are open year round for the obvious reason that if they are not good the local people will not eat there and they will cease to exist. Anyway I wrote about them in the restaurant section. In Fira Nicolas is your best option for good, simple, Greek food of the kind you might find on any island with reasonable prices and a clientele that includes locals, which is what you want. If you are in Fira for one day and you want good food and a view go to Archepelagos, housed in an historic cave building and even though the food is not traditionally Santorinian that does not make it any less delicious. Pricier than Nicolas but that is to be expected.

Many people stop for a visit at the Santorini Archaeological Museum which has artifacts mostly from ancient Thira as well as stuff from around the island from the various historical periods from the 5th Century to Roman times. It is also where I first discovered that you can photograph the exhibit, however you can't photograph a person standing next to the exhibited piece. It seemed silly to me so I asked the guard why you could take a picture of an ancient vase but not a picture of an ancient vase and a modern person? She thought about it for a second and then said never mind, do whatever you like. You don't often find this kind of flexibility in Greek museums and it should not go unrewarded so please take some time to visit the museum. It is open daily from 8:30 to 15:00 and closed on Mondays. The cost is 3 euros. There are several other smaller museums in town including the Megaro Gyzi Museum, near the cable-car entrance, which has old Santorini photos, paintings and manuscripts in a 17th Century mansion. Open daily except Sunday from 10:00 to 16:00 between May and October. The Lignos Emmanuel Folklore Museum is in a cave home and is only open in the summer from 10:00 to 14:00. Santozeum is an artist run museum-gallery cultural center open daily from May through October from 10:00 to 18:00. The Museum of Prehistoric Thira contains most of the stuff found in Akrotiri as well as other artifacts found around the island from different periods of history. It is open from 8:30 to 15:00 and closed on Mondays. If you only have time for one then that would probably be the one to see.

As for hotels in Fira for my purposes and probably yours, the Volcano View Villas was as close as I wanted or needed to be. Like the Volcano View Villas, the most impressive hotels are generally located outside of town for the obvious reason that to create an impressive hotel with a swimming pool, cafe, restaurants and so on you need a lot of land and the cheaper the better and there is simply not a lot of cheap land in the middle of a popular tourist city like Fira. If you are interested in an actual villa, the kind with a kitchen, caldera view and your own personal swimming pool then I suggest the Volcano View VIP Villas.

The Petit Palace Hotel and the Caldera's Liliam Villa are both in the same area as Volcano View Villas, a five minute drive or half hour walk (on an actual sidewalk) to the center of Fira. If you want to be right in Fira expect to do some climbing instead of horizontal walking. On the high end side the beautiful 5-star Aigialos Luxury Traditional Houses have a peaceful and quiet location with amazing views of the sea 5 minutes walk (or climb) to the town centre. One of the best managed hotels in Santorini, the Tzekos Villas offer an excellent option for those who want a quiet hotel, easy access to the town and its night life, and a splendid view of the volcano and the sea, with a swimming pool of course. If you are looking for a bargain with a view and can live without a pool there are a few choices. Caldera Studios offers Cycladic-style rooms with unobstructed views of the Aegean Sea, the volcano and the famous Santorini sunset with doubles for as low as 100 euros. The Kavalari Hotel is even cheaper and offers rooms and apartments.

But if you are looking for more choices in and around Fira you can look at Booking.com's Fira Page and adjust the search to find exactly what you want and at the price you want to pay and in most cases book it without a cancellation fee should you change your mind.

The next two towns are Firostefani and Imerovigli both which are walkable from Fira on a footpath along the caldera (no I did not do it) or by public road by car or bike. Both are much lower key than Fira and because they are not as easily accessable to the shiploads of tourists most of the people you will see here are staying in the nearby hotels or coming to eat at a particular restaurant (like Ginger: the sushi restaurant we ate at in the restaurants section). The taxi from Volcano View Villas cost 7 euros to the entrance of Firostefani (which means the point at which the cars can go no further) and you can walk in either direction and find restaurants and bars and some shops. There are several beautiful hotels in Firostefani including the Ellinon Thea Hotel which is recommended because the entrance is at street level and so there are no steps to climb and yet it has caldera view, which is not that common and very useful for people who have difficulties with steps. For those willing to spend a little more the Dream's Luxury Suites combines 5-star villa-style one hundred year old houses each with its own terrace with a swimming pool or jacuzzi overlooking the caldera. Remezzo's Villas has a swimming pool a great view and takes pride in its American-style breakfast. Click for more hotels in Imerovigli and hotels in Firostefani

Oia

Many people e-mail me and say that they want to stay in a quiet village and so they have booked a hotel in Oia. By Greek island standards Oia is not a quiet village. It is not even a quiet village by Santorini standards. What Oia is, is a very photogenic town, a maze of small shops, restaurants and cafes, almost all with spectacular views of the rest of the island and the caldera, and the remnants of a counter culture community from back in the day when Oia actually was a quiet village. There are a couple notable restaurants in the town, like the Golden Chef's Hat award winning 1800 restaurant which is in a beautiful restored 19th century mansion on Oia's main street which serves Santorini inspired dishes using local products and has an outstanding local wine list. Also Ambrosia serves a Greek infused menu that has unique flavors. Both restaurants are of the 'special occasion' category but I am guessing that for many people being in Oia will be a special occasion. Ochre is known for its sunset views and hundreds of wines from all over the world, though if you are in Santorini and not drinking Santorini wines there is something seriously wrong with you. For a more typical Santorini meal there are several fish restaurants in the small port of Amoudi just below Oia which you can reach on foot ot by car. Dimitris and Katina were the two most highly recommended by our friends on the island and if you go down for lunch there is a nice area to swim just beyond the seawall.

The main street of Oia has plenty of tourist shops and some pretty nice galleries, some of which have big signs that say 'No Photo' which is pretty stupid when you consider that every photo that gets posted on Facebook is an advertisement for the island or whatever shop or gallery the photo is of. Actually if there were not a sign that said 'No Photo' I would have taken some photos and advertised the gallery for free. But being petty or paranoid should not be rewarded so the gallery will remain unnamed (since I did not even dare to take a photo of the sign) and instead I will write about my biggest discover in Oia which was Atlantis Books, on the road to the Kastro. For those who love those X-pat book shops like Sheakespeare and Sons in Paris or Robinson Crusoe in Istanbul, you can add Atlantis Books to your list of bookshops to visit before you die. I think it is the most creative use of space that I have seen, at least in a book shop, not to mention the best selection of used and new English language (and other) books in Greece, particularly books about Greece or written by Greeks. The staff was friendly, in other words they said I could take photos, and the clientele was interesting and it was the kind of place you could hang out for hours while the rest of your family wastes their time buying tourist stuff or trying on bathing suits and summer dresses. Anyway it is a pretty cool place and they have different events and it is well worth visiting and certainly worth a link to even if they don't link back. See Atlantis Books

For those just visiting Oia with no interest in books, shopping, drinking or eating walk to the end of the village (sea on your left) until you see signs for the Kastro and you will be rewarded with a spectacular view of the caldera (what else) and the village of Oia itself and even a glimpse of the port of Amoudi below. If you have a camera this is probably the best spot to be and you can take a dozen or so photos without anybody realizing you took them all from one magical spot and not from all over the island. The Kastro, known as the Skaros, is actually an old Venetian castle, that is people from Venice and not from Venus. As this is a windy area you will notice a number of windmills, some of which have been turned into houses and rental units and probably none of them being used to grind flour. Also don't miss the Maritime Museum, established in the 1950's and the nearby Weaving Mill where you can buy woven products as well as traditional canned and bottled agricultural products.

As for hotels in Oia you have a lot of choices as some of Santorini's most popular hotels are here. Katakies consists of 21 suites, studios and rooms all with terraces and dramatic sea views and individually furnished in a stylish way with Greek island antiquities and of course has a swimming pool which is important if you love to swim and don't feel like driving for half an hour to go to the beach. Perivolas is a 5-star hotel, with an infinity pool with magnificent sea view, in 17 private houses in restored 300 year-old caves. Canaves Oia Hotel provides luxurious accommodation in spacious suites and rooms beautifully appointed with antique furniture and art objects, and of course, a pool. These hotels will cost an arm and a leg but if you have an arm and a leg to spare then why not? Otherwise staying down below at Amoudi Villas will cost a lot less and you will be closer to the sea. Expect to pay a lot if you are on the caldera and if you are not paying a lot you are probably not on the caldera. If you are looking for something inexpensive try your luck on Booking.com's Oia page.

Other Towns in Santorini

There are a number of inland towns and these are mostly agricultural and light industrial, or at least they were until the tourist boom hit Santorini. Though they don't really fit the classification of 'unspoiled villages' they are as unspoiled as you will find in Santorini and probably for most tourists as unspoiled a palce they will see in their lifetime. The town of Pyrgos is in a heavy wine producing area and there are several wineries nearby including Santos which sits below the village, on the caldera, and Hatzidakis, a small winery that is on the road to the church of Profitti Ilias where you will also find the most spectacular view of the island itself, not just the caldera. Pyrgos is a typical white Santorini-style Cycladic village with a maze of narrow streets with steps that lead up to a Venetian Castle (Kastro) which until the earthquake  in the mid-20th century was inhabited by aproximately seventy families. On the way up you will pass two churches, one from the 10th century called the Theotokaki of Koimisis and the larger Panagia of Kasteli which was built in the 16th century. Look for signs to Penelope's Cafe and you will have found one of the best hole-in-the-wall restaurants on the island, a secret I am only willing to divulge because we went there and it was empty and had perhaps the best home-style meal of our visit.

There are a couple more tavernas in the square which probably don't need any advertising since most tourists who stop in Pyrgos go there for at least a beer or a soda. Next door to the smaller one, a cafe actually is one of the best and most interesting traditional food shops on Santorini with the simple yet efficient name of Santorini Products. Inside there are shelves full of Santorini wines from all the wineries, their local Canava ouzo, a shelf of raki-tsipuro or tsikoudia in lethal looking unmarked bottles, and even some Santorini micro-brew beer. You will also find jars full of sundried tomatoes, capers, traditional goat cheese in vegetable oil, the famous Santo canned Santorini tomatoes, as well as fresh Santorini tomatoes some grown in pots right outside. There are fresh eggs, local herbs and spices and even Santorini fava, eggplant and tomato seeds packaged to take home with you. The store is also full of local traditional artwork that is far more interesting than anything you will find in the tourist shops of Fira and Oia, all done by the owner A. Karamolegos who is happy to answer your questions about the products in the store or about Santorini in general.

On the northeast side of the mountain that Pirgos is on and really appearing to be the same town is Exogonia which is known for a few important reasons. There once were as many as ten wineries in the village which were destroyed in the earthquake, their ruins scattered around the village. But there are three remaining wineries which include Roussos which has been open since 1846, Argiros Winery which is probably the highest rated wine on the island by American and European wine lovers and publications, and my favorite Art Space Winery which not only makes delicious and inexpensive wines but the underground caves and cisterns have been turned into something of a wine museum and art gallery and is one of the places that should be included on any visitors list of things to do, especially if you are a wine lover since he produces in such small quantities you will be lucky to find it anywhere else on the island. One place you will find it though it in the excellent Metaxi Mas, a Santorini-Cretan restaurant which will probably be the best food you will eat on the island, if not a good portion of your life, also in Exogonia.

Other traditional villages include Megalohori, an agricultural village that is also home to Gavalas Winery in the center of town and Boutari Winery on the outskirts. The largest village in Santorini is Emporio, on the road to Perissa, a traditional village whose construction is centered around two Venetian castles and the 16th Century Panagia Mesani church. There are eight windmills from the early 19th century on the hill of Gavrillos, which also has Byzantine ruins. If you follow the signs to Vlichada you will pass some Hellenistic tombs carved into a mountain and eventually end up on one of the most impressive beaches where there is a restored tomato factory, now a private residence I think, though it has a cafe attached to it. There are a couple tavernas, one on the sea and two above it which overlook Santorini's marina where the Catamaran sailboat tours leave from.

Unless you rent a car exploring Santorini will be difficult on your own. If you are arriving for the day on a cruise ship and want to see more than Fira, Oia and the ruins of Akrotiri then I suggest you contact Dimitris at Ocean Wave Tours and he can show you the island, and probably after reading this you will have a pretty good idea of what you want to see. For more detail on these and other villages there is a Santorini Guidebook which comes out every year that fits in your pocket, as well as Santorini Today, both of which are very informative and can be found in various locations around the island including in your hotel.

Beach Towns

The beach towns of Perissa(photo) and Kamari attract to their black sand beaches, thousands of suntanned boys and girls with perfect bodies. I remember hearing of these marvels of nature (the sand, not the tanned bodies). Black sand to me was like white whales or purple mountains majesty. Something that was considered beyond special and had to be seen to be believed. What the tourist guides don't tell you about black sand which would be fairly obvious if I had thought about it is that it's hot as hell. On a summer's day you cannot walk from your towel to the sea without your flip-flops. You can look down the beach and see the heat rising in waves off the black sand and the shore is lined with flip-flops, waiting like patient dogs whosemasters have gone for a swim. In the most popular areas, the places that are lined with beach beds and umbrellas where loud Euro-disco-pop blares out of beach-cafe speakers they have put down wooden sidewalks that can get you from the road to the sea and even a row or two parallel to the sea so you can reach your umbrella. But if you want to be away from the crowds you will most likely need your flipflops to make it to the sand without feeling like one of Tony Robbins' unsuccessful firewalkers.

Perissa and Kamari are full of restaurants, bars, cafes and shops. There are supermarkets, campsites and even some kind of water park or mini-golf for kids in Perissa (I am not the kind of travel writer that investigates these things in great detail). Both Kamari and Perissa have diving centers where even if you are a beginner you can get lessons and do an actual dive and maybe find an ancient vase placed there for you to see, or an old fishing boat that was sunk when the EU paid the Greek fishermen to destroy their boats and do something else for a living. On the way to these beaches you pass through towns like Megalochori and Emborio which are agricultural communities that held out til the last minute before only slightly giving in to tourism, where you can still find restaurants that are filled with mostly Greeks.

You will find that staying in a hotel in Perissa or Kamari will enable you to do two things. The first is to swim regularly, and in the sea, not in a pool, though many of the hotels will have pools. The second thing is save a lot of money which will enable you to spend more money on food in areas that restaurants are actually cheaper than in the main villages on the caldera. If you have a car it is no big deal to get in it and drive to Fira or Firostefani or even as far as Oia for dinner or to have a drink and watch the sunset. I would suggest that if you are on a budget then you should consider looking into hotels in Kamari and hotels in Perissa. There are a couple other beach towns but in my opinion these may appeal to people from places where they don't have internet and you don't have any idea what it is like until you get there and by then you probably don't have enough money to go somewhere else. I don't mean Perivolos which you can think of as just an extension of Perissa so you can look into Perivolos Hotels too if you are bargain hunting.

If the idea of staying in Red Beach or White Beach or any other color beach forget about it. There is nowhere to stay and if there were you probably would not want to stay there. But they are certainly beautiful places to go and swim. Monolithos and Exogialos face the north (northeast actually) and when the wind blows from the north you can be walking down the street and run over by a windsurfer or impaled by a beach umbrella. Of course for that reason you can get a lot of hotel for almost nothing in Katerados though you may find yourself isolated and feel like some kind of misfit. Still if saving money is of utmost importance then you probably don't care. The same goes for Hotels in Monolithos and if nothing else it is close to the airport.

The beach at Vlichada is also pretty spectacular and there are several good fish tavernas within easy walking distance and a restored old tomato factory on the beach that just looks amazing. The Notos Therme and Spa is located above the marina and has an outdoor pool with pool bar, and spacious rooms with views of the sea. On the more economical side is the Villa Michalis which has an outdoor pool surrounded by sun beds, umbrellas and a poolside bar and features free Wi-Fi. The benefits to staying here are the fact that it is relatively untouristy, yet on the sea, with most of the buildings being summer homes. The restaurants are inexpensive and good, the beach is rarely crowded and if you keep walking you don't even need your bathing suit. You will need a rental car though if you want to see the rest of the island or have a night or two in one of the caldera towns and it is only a fifteen minute drive to Fira. Another plus is that the Catamaran Caldera Cruise leaves from here so you can explore the caldera from the sea.

Akrotiri

Akrotiri is known of course for the famous ruins from the Minoan period. The actual village of Akrotiri is not as well known and that is for a number of reasons. The main reason is that the road to the archaeological site does not even go through the town. Tourists see the site and then head for the next spot on their itinerary or else to the beach. Very few go to the village. So on the island that is probably the most popular tourist destinations in Greece there is a village with many of the qualities of a remote island. You will still see poorly spelled signs outside of restaurants advertising mousaka, Greek salad and fresh fish, but these are generally small family run restaurants with home-style cooking, mixed with the dishes they think the tourists want, and being a basically agricultural village you should expect to find fresh vegetables, especially tomatoes in season, and the meat may come from the family farm. The same goes for the hotels, most of which were actually built on the family farm so if for example you ask for fresh goat milk with your coffee you may actually get it.

There is not much to see in Akrotiri town. People go about their work. They are farmers mostly or engaged in some kind of craft. Probably many of the people work in hotels and restaurants around the island. But it is a quiet village and enjoyable to wander around in. There is an old fortress at the top of the town which was destroyed during the earthquake in 1956. This was the site of the town and instead of restoring it they rebuilt the town below the fortress. You can still go up and wander around. From the top of the village you can see the caldera of the volcano and miles of grapes. In fact you can see most of the island.

In my opinion the narrow section of the island which contains Akrotiri has the two best beaches (Red Beach and Vlichada), some of the best (and cheapest) tavernas, and is close enough to the popular Perissa and Perivolas beaches too. Within the volcano crater is Caldera Beach which you get to by going down a series of switchbacks from the top of the caldera til you reach the bottom. It is not a popular beach and not a bad one, however  when the wind blows from the north probably every napkin and empty water bottle that has blown off a restaurant table in Oia or Fira ends up here.

As for the ruins of Akrotiri, the roof to the site has been restored and it is open for business again. If you are wondering why Akrotiri needs a roof and the other archaeological sites don't it is because the ancient town of Akrotiri is the actual town, made of mud-brick and preserved for centuries, while the other sites are pretty much just the foundations of temples and some important buildings and anything else that was not carted away to be used in the construction of churches, buildings and walls if not ground into powder and used for whitewash.

As for staying in Akrotiri you have a few choices. Many years ago we stayed at the Villa Mathios which is a very nice hotel for not a lot of money. It has two pools, no caldera view though since it is across the street in what used to be a field of grapes. We were treated very well though I have heard some complaints of a clash of cultures which can happen when people who were once simple farmers build a beautiful hotel and have to learn how to run it. But I have to say they treated me well and I had a lot of fun there and the hotel restaurant was pretty good for a hotel restaurant. Right next door the Hotel Kalimera is owned by the uncle of the man who owns the Villa Mathios. I don't know if they get along but for years I sent people here with no complaints. If you want a pool and a caldera view though you have to cross the road to Avant Garde Suites which has pretty reasonable rates for a 4-star hotel. If a pool is not essential and a view is the Hotel Kokinos Villas has triples for under 100 euros even in August. You want cheaper? The Hotel Goulielmos has doubles with caldera view for 40 euros in August. Keep in mind that you will want a car if you plan to go to Fira for your nighlife because besides dinner and drinks there is not much happening in Akrotiri, though if you are only spending 40 euros a night for a room for two you can probably take the money you save and take a taxi home if you miss the last bus from Fira. For more choices in the actual village of Akrotiri see Booking.com's Akrotiri Hotels and you may find something even cheaper. Villas in Santorini are for the most part expensive but the Papalexis House, owned by the Hotel Kalimera is affordable though difficult to find availability.

Santorini Archaeological Sites

There is more to Santorini of course then the bars, restaurants, views of Thira, the quietness of Oia or the beaches and nightlife of the outer coast. There are the ruins of Akrotiri which some claim is evidence that the people that once populated the island may or may not have been the civilization of Atlantis. The first trace of the city was discovered by French archeologists after an eruption of the volcano in 1866. Professor Spyridon Marinatos later unearthed the rest of the city which was preserved by volcanic ash. Marinatos was killed by a fall on the site and he is buried among the stones to which he had devoted his life. Since the ruins are mostly of mud brick the site is covered to shelter it from the elements. You should get here early because once the tour buses arrive it becomes a slow process. But not too early. The new hightech roof they put over the site meant to withstand earthquakes and the wildest storms collapsed on its own three years ago and has only recently been replaced.

There are the ruins of Ancient Thira on a mountain between the beaches at Kamari and Perissa which are best visited in the early morning before the sun has gotten too hot. The terraced ruins that overlook the sea date back to the 3rd century BC and the Ptolemies, with also the remnants of Hellenistic and Roman civilization.

Many of the artifacts found in ancient Thira and Akrotiri can be found in the Prehistoric Museum in Thira which you can find by asking directions from anyone.

Galleries and Wineries in Santorini

When you get to Santorini you may notice endless fields of grapes. If you know grapes you will be surprised at the way they are grown on the island. They don't have them in arbors but they are low to the ground in baskets which are actually made up of the stems or stalks of the vines themselves. They don't water them either since there is very little water on the island. The grapes and the other crops are watered by the dew. There are a number of large wineries on the island that have tours all day long that include wine-tasting and food. Most people go to the larger wineries which are well advertised in the hotels and around the island. There are also wine tours that you can book through agencies in Athens where you visit all of them. We took the advice of Jorg at Thirak Tours and visited Art Space Gallery and Winery in the small village of Exo Gonia. In fact we did more than take his advice. He drove us there. Art Space is a winery built in 1830. It was also a processing center for the incredible Santorini tomatoes. It is owned by Antonis Argiros, whose great-great or great-great-great grandfather built it and it is now a gallery as well as a winery. You won't find the massive equipment that you will find at the bigger wineries but you will find some pretty good art in a fascinating setting and at the end of the tour you sample Antonis wine which in my opinion is excellent. I bought 2 bottles but the two girls from Texas who were staying at the Villa Mathios with us bought about 6 apiece. See Santorini Wines and Take the Art Space Tour

The Volcano of Santorini

I can't help but to keep coming back to the volcano because even sitting at my desk writing, it looms in the back of my mind like a sleeping giant. And it is asleep , not dead. It's an active volcano that erupted in 1956 and may do so again one day though perhaps not in our lifetime. Proof of the life that still exists within this giant hole filled with water is the island of Nea Kamini in the center of the bay which emerged in 1707. Next to it in the older island of Palia Kamini you can take hot mud baths, usually an indication of something brewing beneath the surface. You can reach these two islands by excursion boats.

Across the bay is the island of Thirasia which is actually the other rim of the volcano and was once part of the same island as the rest of Santorini. Though it is mostly agricultural, as Thira once was there are hotels, tavernas and the island capital the village of Manola on the top of Thirassia's caldera that faces the cliffs the main island. You can come here by excursion boat from Amoudi or with a car on the small car ferry that goes to Porto Athinaos a couple times a day since just about everything that is not grown on Thirasia has to be brought here by boat. For hikers there are trails between the settlements and their black sand beach has won the EU Blue Flag for cleanliness. With fish tavernas around the island selling inexpensive fresh fish, Thirasia is a nice way to get away from the commericality of Santorini without actually leaving Santorini. By the way the name Santorini means Saint Irene or Agia Irini which is the name of the small church above the port in Thirassia. In the old port of Korfos, reachable on foot down many stairs, or by donkey are some fish tavernas that are visited by fishing boats who sell their fish here.

One way to visit Thirassia and to explore the islands and cliffs of the caldera is by excursion boat, most of which typically take you to the Nea Kamini and back. For a longer all day trip with a lot more exploration look at the website of Santorini Sailing which does catamaran tours leaving daily from the marina at Vlichada.

I had a dream once of Santorini erupting. I had not been there in years but in the dream I was on Sifnos and we saw the plume of smoke and I had the sensation of major change that one gets in a hurricane or when he looks out the window and sees tanks in the square across the street. Even as we talked of what we were witnessing we could see stretched on the horizon the line of boats as the first refugees from Santorini came, seeking shelter from the earth's upheaval.

Since there were no human remains found in the ruins of Akrotiri, it's a good indication that the inhabitants of Santorini knew what was coming and took off for safer ground. But did they make it? It is believed that when the volcano erupted in the 14th century BC it caused a tidal wave that destroyed the cities of Minoan Crete. That is quite a tidal wave and the eruption was perhaps the biggest cataclysmic event within human history (so far). It was this explosion and the disappearance of about 84 sq kilometers of land that has led many people to speculate that Santorini was the island of Atlantis which of course attracts all sorts of people looking for clues as to who we are and where we come from and perhaps where we are going.

For all Santorini has to offer, it's fine beaches, active nightlife, restaurants, excellent wines (the volcanic soil and climate make the island one of the best places to grow grapes in the world): it is the volcano that is the true star of the island. Take it away and all you have is another island with tomato balls. The black sand beaches, the wine, the raki are all by-products of the explosion that destroyed life on Thira and created in it's place a destination that offers what few others do, that is not only fun but profoundly dramatic in scenery. I don't think you could go to another planet and be more impressed then you will be when you see the caldera of Santorini for the first time.

Santorini Nightlife

There is certainly plenty of nightlife in the beach towns but the true romantics stay in or near Thira and get back there from the beaches with plenty of time to shower, take a short nap and then walk to one of the bars that line the volcano for a few drinks and to watch the sunset. These are the types of places where friendships are made since you are all sharing the same remarkable experience. It is an experience that heightens one's awareness of nature and his own place within it. It's a sense of awe combined with the relaxation that comes from the drink you have and the knowledge that there is nowhere you have to be. It's also a great place to meet girls (and boys).

Some of the tavernas on the beach will have bouzoukia on weekend nights for the tourists, advertising 'Greek Night' on posters around town. In general the thing that most people do when they go out at night is have a drink somewhere with a view and then go somewhere to eat so you should check my restaurants page. If you are seeking live Greek music, played by Greeks, and sung to and danced to by Greeks you can try Kyra Nikis which is about a ten minute walk from Fira and Niki's son and his band play live Greek music. Reservations are advisable so call. ( 22860 25146) Kyra Nikis is on the main road between Fira and the airport. Santorini has its share of big clubs with flashing lights and kids dressed to kill dancing til 6am and also smaller intimate bars and pubs, all of which you can find in local tourist info magazines like Santorini Today which are left in all the hotels on the island. If something big is happening then there will be posters around town. On Friday night the Wine Museum, which is actually the Koutsoyannopoulos Winery have every Friday from June to October a night of wine, food and entertainment with live music, Greek dancing, and unlimited drinking. They also provide transportation to and from your hotel. The cost is 55 euros a person and you can get more information or make reservations by e-mailing: (info@wine-museum.info) or phoning from your hotel (22860 31322).

The  most popular places are in Fira, overlooking the caldera, for example Franco's Bar, declared one of the best bars in the world by the great authority on what is fun, Newsweek Magazine, is known for its classical music at sunset. People who want to hear Greek music go to Club 33. The Koo Club has a large outdoor area and plays progressive, mellow, house , trance and Greek music. The Highlander is the island's only Scottish bar and has happy hours early to get people in the place early but the fun does not really get started til after midnight, like most of the bars in Santorini. There are lots of others, some of which host parties with international DJ's which are advertised on posters all over town. Keep in mind that for the most part bars in Santorini, especially popular ones, are expensive and some of the people who work at them are jerks, for example bouncers who hit first and bounce later or owners and staff who have been in the business too long and have made way too much money and may have picked up some nasty habits along the way. If you are young and your objective is to get trashed, stay out all night and maybe get laid, you will probably meet people with similar interests. But you can probably be around a bunch of drunk stupid people in your home town so why do it here?

Weddings and Honeymoons

In Santorini getting married is an industry, like making wine or selling souvlakia. For that reason it is one of the most popular places in the world to get married and you can find floral arrangers, wedding photographers, hotels, restaurants and even wineries all offering wedding services. Of course getting married in a foreign country is not that easy when you are making all the arrangements yourself, not to mention the paperwork involved to make it a legal marriage in Greece so most people opt to do it through an agency that handles all the details. My suggestion it to take it to the next step and do it through a Greek travel agency that offers weddings so not only will all the details of the wedding be handled by experts but also the travel and hotel arrangements will be coordinated and all the guests, not to mention the bride and groom will all be on the island before the wedding begins. In the summer of 2010 during a 24 hour ferry strike a young bride to be was crying because she was missing her own wedding. It was a sad story but completely avoidable since travel agents know long in advance when there will be a ferry or any kind of strike and will make arrangements so that weddings guests and participants will be on the island before the strike, by any means possible. The only way a young bride on her way to her Santorini could miss her wedding is if she did not know there was a ferry strike and just went down to the port expecting to get on the ferry along with the other people who did not know there was a ferry strike. Not that ferry strikes are that common but the point is that it is stupid to spend all your money on a wedding planner and then miss the wedding because you booked the ferry tickets and hotel on your own. So my advice is to go with the wedding packages. The travel agents use the same people who advertise their wedding services on Santorini and they just keep the whole thing coordinated so everyone shows up and has somewhere to stay. See Fantasy Travel's Wedding Programs

Santorini is of course a popular destination for honeymoons too, in fact most people who get married here spend their honeymoon here as well because where are you going to go that is more beautiful than Santorini? Again it makes sense to use a Greek travel agency for your honeymoon because if you book on your own, pasting together hotels and ferries in what you hope will be a flawless honeymoon experience that will forshadow the beauiful life you and you betroved will spend together, what if it isn't? What if  there is no ferry on the day you thought there was and you read the schedule wrong or they changed it? What if the caldera view hotel you booked on-line can't find your reservation and is full and send you to the hotel down the street with a view of the gas station and the disco across the street? This is your honeymoon and what happens on it could affect the rest of your life so you want it to go perfect, or if it does not go perfect you at least don't want it to be your fault if it isn't.

By using a professional Greek travel agency to book your honeymoon you are basically insuring that nothing goes wrong and if it does go wrong it will be fixed before you or your spouse even know about it. Honeymoon programs that are offered by the travel agencies are time tested and usually run like clockwork and are not just carbon copy stamped out honeymoons on spectacular Greek islands, but itineraries that can be tweaked to suit individual tastes, needs and constraints. For honeymoon programs visit Fantasy Travel's Honeymoon page and also visit my Honeymoon in Greece page.

For suitable if not spectacular hotels to stay in on your honeymoon I suggest the Volcano View Villas, the Volcano View VIP Villas, Caldera's Lilium Villas, and the Tzekos Villas all with caldera view, swimming pools and excellent service and in the case of the Volcano View a restaurant/bar which will enable you to not have to leave the hotel if you don't want to.

Shopping

Santorini is a shopper's paradise. That is if you associate buying stuff with being in heaven. Sadly most of the stuff you can buy in the Plaka and Monastiraki in Athens, like jewelry, ceramics, fake Greek art, worry beads, and so on, is sold here in the shops of Thira and Oia at higher prices so that when the cruise ships pull into Athens most of the passengers are tapped out and their largest purchase is a souvlaki or a postcard of the Acropolis, unless they bought that in Santorini as well. That being said, besides the normal tourist junk Santorini is full of one-of-a-kind boutiques and galleries and interesting shops that sell local arts and crafts and things that you wont find in Athens, unless they have become so popular that they have a branch there as well. There are over 40 jewelry stores, most of them on the main street in Fira which is how it got the name 'Gold Street'. Though they say 80% is handcrafted most of those hands are in factories and many of the factories are not even in Greece. Handcrafted does not mean handmade. Much of the handcrafted stuff is also cast which is technically handmade since a hand poured the gold or silver into a mold that was created from an original handmade piece to create thousands of copies that look handmade that only a jeweler or someone who really knows jewelry would know was cast. So your unique piece of jewelry may have been ordered in bulk out of a catalog by the shop. If you are looking for unique pieces that you are not going to experience the embarrassment of running into someone wearing the exact same piece at the office Christmas party you want to ask if it is handmade. That is not to say if you love a piece that you should not buy it because it was handcrafted rather than handmade. If it speaks to you then buy it. Personally I would suggest looking for the small shops owned by individual or several jewelers as a cooperative. If a shop is pushing Pandora and expensive watches save it as a last resort after you have exhausted the shops with original and ancient Greek and Byzantine designs.

Oia and Fira have several small boutiques with clothes by original designers and there is no shortage of gift shops that have original pieces, some made locally, that will enable you to return from Greece with something other than evil-eye keychains and Ouzo Power T-shirts. In Firostefani, Art of the Loom sells authentic wooden objects from the textile factories of the 1950’s that have been turned into art pieces and in some cases practical items, as well as jewelery, paintings, and crafts made by local artists, some well known and others not so much. Oia has four art galleries exhibiting paintings by known and unknown Greek and international artists, as well as several fashion boutiques and Atlantis Books, probably the best international book shop in the Cyclades.

There are several stores selling traditional good from the island, my favorite being Santorini Products in Pyrgos where you can buy anything from Santorini wine to Santorini tomato seeds, as well as original art and crafts. Art Space winery is also a gallery full of original paintings, some by popular Greek artists, others by artists who one day may be popular. One of the best gifts you can bring home with you is the Santorini wine, particularly those that are not available in your home country. When you visit the wineries they can tell you which wines are exported and who carries them which will enable you to avoid the heavy lifting. For those wines you taste that you can only get in Santorini, the wineries will package them so you can carry them home with you without breaking them. We took a dozen bottles of wine that were wrapped and padded by the winery, bought a cheap hardshell suitcase and insulated it with clothing to further protect them, and then flew to Athens, drove to Pireaus, took a ferry to Lesvos, drove to the small mountain village of Vatousa and wheeled them ot the top of the village on cobblestone streets, and we did not break one bottle. Other more durable gifts from Santorini would be the tomato seeds, white eggplant seeds, local Canava ouzo, a bottle of Santorini Raki (or two is even better), or some of the delicious pickled and canned goods you can find in the shops selling traditional products.