Santorini is one of those destinations that people dream about for years. I, of course, was one of those people. I had photos of the famous Oia posted all over my Pinterest from the day I started pinning. It was hard to stop taking pictures of Santorini because every corner was a beautiful photo op.
What I didn’t expect was how beautiful the rest of the island was. We actually ended up staying in a nearby town, Fira because it was much cheaper and still easily accessible to get to Oia.
If you’re planning on visiting Sanotirini I would highly recommend you tour the entire island. I couldn’t believe how much there was to offer, and the views in some of the spots we visited were unbelievable. It took about a full day to tour the entire island but we were back just in time for dinner.
Of course, a trip to Oia is an absolute must. I do highly recommend going first thing in the morning. On one of the days we traveled to Oia we got there at about 9 am and the streets were basically empty. It was fantastic. I found later in the day as it started to get crowded, the main spots for photographs were swarmed with tourists. It was unbelievable – at one point there was a line up just to take photos at a certain spot. We were traveling in low season as well which made me wonder why anyone chooses to go in the height of summer.
The one place that surprised me the most on the island was the very small city of Emporio. The buildings reminded me of somewhere in Morocco (not that I have been there… yet) with the small alleyways and architectural style. The city itself was almost enclosed as you couldn’t get a car in between the streets and it was very quiet. Our tour guide told us that most people use their homes there as vacation homes instead of full-time homes.
All in all the island was stunning and not somewhere you’d want to miss. Plus, it was not hard to get some stunning photos of Santorini. 3 days was the perfect amount of time for us to see the sights while still having enough time to relax and enjoy the warm weather.
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