Swiftly following on from our time in Oia and Fira, we woke up bright and early for our early morning pick up by George from Santorini Tours.
The tour was bespoke and so no concrete plans were made without speaking to us first.
Having just been to Oia and Fira, we pretty much said we’d like to see the other places around the island that perhaps most tourists didn’t get to see (along with other places that we perhaps might have missed off our list).
I have to admit, it was REALLY nice to have someone else in charge of not just the itinerary but also in charge of getting us around the island along – all while providing us with all the important (and interesting) details on the places we visited! Brilliant!
First off we started in a village called Megalochori, as you can probably tell from the photos, it was a sleep little village and our first taste of a proper Santorini village without the huge hordes of tourists milling around.
We got out of the car and went for a little wander around the village…
Next up, we headed up to Profitis Ilias (Prophet Elijah) mountains which has a monastery bearing the same name (i.e. Profitis Ilias (Prophet Elijah) Mountain). The mountain is the highest point in Santorini and the resulting views from the top here were pretty brill! You’re so high that your ears actually pop on the drive up there.
The monastery was also pretty great to visit – this is a tourist hot spot so there were LOADS of tourists around. There were also lots of women in wedding dresses (who didn’t seem to have just left or to be going to a wedding) taking photos up here… Then again, I recollected at this stage seeing this quite a lot in Oia and Fira…
Next up was the village of Pygros.
This village was a lot bigger than Megalochori but that just means there are even more places to explore! This village is another tourist favourite on the island (and understandably so!)
We then left Pygros and headed over for a wine tasting! (Woohoo!!!) I’d been so distracted all day that I didn’t realise how hungry I was getting! The wine came with some of the tastiest breadsticks I’ve ever had – it’s more like a crumbly cookie than your run of the mill breadstick. It went down a treat with the wine, cheese and olives. The wine and snacks pricing weren’t included with the tour but it was pretty reasonably priced especially as it’s shared (which is great unless you’re planning on leaving the winery blind-drunk!).
Not only did we get more wine than you can shake a stick at but we got some pretty darn impressive views across the island and the Caldera (the mini island in the middle with the active volcano bit).
Of course at this stage we to stop for a group photo with George…
And off we went to our next stop, Firostefani which I guess is quite like Oia and Fira (which are chock-a-block with hotels) but like quieter version of those two. It was quite the picturesque scene here…
We left Firostefani for our final stop – the market village of Emborio. The village is not really a market anymore but back in the day, this was a busy centre of trade. Now, it’s more of a sleepy little village… It was nice to just have a lazy little amble across the village, stopping every now and again to pet a dog or cat (not me – Georgia), I’d always advice against petting stray dogs as you never know if they’re nice of vicious though the dogs and cats here seem pretty friendly to be fair…
And with our tour done, we headed off home feeling fully accomplished and somewhat surprised by the vast amount of knowledge we’d gained on life in Santorini.
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