4-day Itinerary for Santorini
4-day Itinerary for Santorini
Santorini is a small Greek island, not that far from the mainland. Even with its size, it has plenty to see and experience, attracting people from all around the world with its beautiful views of the white houses on the hill, an amazing sunset in the background. Have you also always wished to walk the streets and live out your Mamma Mia dream between the iconic houses, blue roofs and pink flowers? Read all our tips here!
When we were younger we saw pictures of Santorini online. That’s when we knew: we want to go here one day. Obviously, we were only 14 so it was not happening, BUT when we were finally old and mature enough to go we immediately booked our tickets to Santorini. Okay no, all jokes aside, we said we wanted to go for three years and at some point, we were like: no more excuses, we are finally going to Santorini. So in the summer of 2022, we packed our bags and flew to this beautiful island in the Mediterranean Sea.
Flights + Accommodation
We went from August 15th until August 19th in 2022. Transavia is the only company that flies from the Netherlands to Santorini, so we had to book our tickets through them. These dates were simply the cheapest, so that is when we went. Besides, we went with four girls and it is impossible to find dates that everyone is available. I am sure other times are also amazing to visit Santorini, so do not limit yourself to August as this is often the hottest and most expensive month.
On the 15th we flew from 7:20 - 11:45 from Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS) to Santorini Airport (JTR)
On the 19th we flew from 10:55 - 13:55 from Santorini Airport (JTR) to Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS)
Our flight tickets were €363 in total per person. Again, August is an expensive month to travel, so this was the cheapest we could get. For us, it was cheaper to fly back from Mykonos to Amsterdam, but we chose not to do that.
When we arrived in Santorini we took the bus to Fira city center. This bus was €2 and is about 10 minutes. We stayed in Fira and we highly recommend it! Fira is in the middle of the island and from there you have excellent bus connections to the other parts of the island. Oia itself seems like a logical choice, but there are way more tourists making it more busy and expensive, while Fira is just as beautiful. Besides, party life in Fira is better than in Oia, so another reason to stay there.
​
Our accommodation was called Villa Anto. From the bus stop, it was a 15-minute walk to the villa. The villa is run by the most amazing woman who has traveled a lot too. She can tell you all about Santorini and she makes sure you have a really pleasant stay. Do note, the pool is smaller than you think, but still nice to have a day at the pool or to cool down. The header of this article is actually from their backyard! Visit their website here.
​​
In total, we paid €145,80 per person for four nights. There are cheaper options on the island, but as we did not have a car and were relying on the bus and walking, we wanted to stay close to the city center. You can rent a car, but we did not have the money for that.
Day 1
It was cold and dark outside. Four girls gathered at 2 am in the middle of the night to take the train that would get them out of this place. But the train did not show up because it is NS. So that was a pity, luckily one of the parents was still awake and was able to drive us to Schiphol. As the whole summer long it was literal craziness at Schiphol Airport and people were waiting for over 6 hours to go through security, we did not want to risk anything and arrived 4 hours prior to our departure time. Big mistake, because security took only 15 minutes and all the shops were closed and obviously we did not bring any breakfast with us.
After waiting 4 very long hours we got to enter the plane and our journey to Santorini began!
We arrived around noon in Santorini, stepped outside in the hot air and waited for the bus that was nowhere to be seen and did not arrive on time. Well, I guess we’re in Greece. We took the bus to Fira Centre. From there it was a 15-minute walk to our apartment. When we arrived at the apartment we packed our stuff and laid in bed for a couple of hours like girls do when they just arrive on the vacation they have been planning for years. As we did not bring any water with us and you cannot drink the water from the sink in Greece, two of us went grocery shopping, while the others kept sleeping (je hebt werkpaarden en sierpaarden as they say in Dutch). We did all of our groceries at Sklavenitis, which is located at one of the main roads of Fira. After we filled our bellies and kept up with our dehydration we were ready to bring ourselves to the pool outside and lay there the rest of the day.
As we did not have a kitchen in our accommodation we had to go out for dinner every day. Lucky us, because we love going to dinner. We went to Pelican Kipos for the sole purpose that it looked cute. HOWEVER, the food was very good too and the staff was super kind. Noëlle really wanted sweet wine because she is a child when it comes to her tastebuds. The wine lady (we’re sorry, we don’t know the word for it anymore) did not understand what sweet white wine was, so dry wine it was. A lot of the wine is local and they have a lot of wine tastings that you can do! We didn’t do it, because it was expensive, but if you have money we recommend this! After we filled our bellies we walked around the streets of Fira for a bit, which are still very lively in the night. As we were extremely tired from doing nothing all day, we decided to keep our party night for another time. We walked home and went to bed peacefully.
​
​
Day 2
Before we went to Santorini we looked online for nice things to do and one of the recommendations was to hike from Fira to Oia. Spoiler alert: This was not nice to do.
While this was a little bit the fault of our poor time management, we also overestimated our physical abilities. It all started when we wanted to wake up very early to be able to hike before peak sunshine. We woke up at the grand time of 10:00 and did not leave the house until noon. As you can imagine it was already getting hot and we knew it would be a tough few hours. We are not losers, so we decided to go anyway. On the way to the starting point of the hike, we lost one of our soldiers as she got sick overnight and did not think she would make it until the end of the hike. This was a very smart decision, she indeed would not have made it until the end of the hike.
For an in-depth, detailed journey of our hike read our article: Hike Fira - Oia. In this article, we tell you everything you need to know about this hike and how to prepare (please prepare better than we did).
After 5 excruciating hours of hiking in the burning sun, we finally made it to Oia. During the whole hike, we saw a total of 2 other people who were as crazy as us to do the hike at 13:00 when the sun was the hottest. When we arrived in Oia we treated ourselves to the delicious drink in the first restaurant that we saw. Our lost comrade was found again in Oia and with the four of us we enjoyed this small city. Although I have to say, ‘enjoy’ is a big word, we were sweaty, in ugly clothes, tired, thirsty and hungry so we did not have the time of our lives. After wandering the streets it was time for us to eat, so we dared ourselves to find a restaurant (which is an extremely difficult job with four girls). After thoroughly analyzing all the possible restaurants and multiple fights we decided to go with the best possible option: Gyros. While we imagined a fancy dinner next to the cliffs, with views of the sea, this was one hundred percent the tastiest option we could have chosen. After our delicious Gyros, we walked to the bus stop of Oia, to take the bus back to Fira. We decided to wait at a random place on the sidewalk and lucky for us, the door of the bus stopped right in front of us, so we did not have to wait for the next bus as it was very busy at the bus stop. When we arrived back in Fira we walked home and had the best sleep of our lives.
​
Day 3
We forgot to mention one thing we did yesterday, which was looking for a boat tour before we started our hike. Again, choosing is not one of our good characteristics, so maybe that is also why we started our hike at 14:00. Anyway, fast forward to today, we were able to choose a boat tour and it was time to go there. Before our hike yesterday, we saw these super cute hats that we NEEDED to buy, so before our boat tour, we went into the city center to buy them. Then we returned to our apartment because the boat tour company picked us up there. The boat tour company we went with was Sunset Oia Sailing Cruises Santorini which was €104 per person. This included a pick-up service, a 4-hour sunset cruise including swimming time and snorkeling, BBQ, and free drinks. When we arrived at the harbor we could enter the Catamaran and I think there were around 20 people on the boat. We sailed passed the beautiful coastline of Santorini and stopped for a few swims. As Santorini is a volcanic island, the water is very warm in a few places. We snorkeled at a few stops and saw some fishies, and at the end of the boat tour, they provided us with a barbecue while the sun set in front of us. After the tour, they safely returned us home and it was time for us to get ready to go out!
​
Yes yes, this was the night. We were ready to explore what party life Santorini us had to offer. We actually only got one recommendation, which was Murphy's. In order to enter the 'club' you first had to order a drink at the bar, so a bucket of sex on the beach for us it was. When we finished our entree ticket we went upstairs. To be honest, was this the littest party ever? No. but we did have fun and the vibe is good during Santorini at night.
Day 4
Because we had such a wild night yesterday, we had sleep in of course. When we woke up during noon or something we moved ourselves to the pool, pet the kittens that were walking around and tried to keep up with our tan. The only thing we had on our planning today was to explore Fira with its cute streets and go out for dinner, so our morning was very, very, chill.
​
After we put on our nice dresses, curled our hair, and got ready for two hours we were ready to hit the city. The streets of Fira are so cute and they have lots of boutiques with pretty dresses and nice jewelery. Of course we had to buy a dress ourselves, so we changed out of our old dresses and got into our new ones for dinner.
​
We had dinner at Volkan on the Rocks. This restaurant is exactly what you expect of a Santorini restaurant. Amazing views, cutest looks, and good food. And lots of wind, we literally flew from the cliff and had to hold onto our food for it to not fly away. BUT besides that, it was an amazing experience and we can really recommend to spend your last night here!
Day 5
This was our last day in Santorini. As our flight was at 10:55, we had to wake up quite early. We checked out, walked to the bus, arrived at the airport and got home! Bye byeeeee