James Went To Santorini

Gosh not another holiday. But also, gosh not another post to write that nobody will read anyway – this is about my little adventure to Santorini.

Well, it was more my sister’s adventure for her birthday, and I tagged along.

Santorini is not cheap. Which isn’t what my bank balance needed two weeks after going to Helsinki and Stockholm.

But it is sunny. Quite hot and sunny. Which is what I needed after a mostly cloudy and cool holiday – though of course it was also very warm in the UK the weekend I flew out.

Why Santorini?

I guess most people wouldn’t expect me to go to Santorini and neither did I.

I’ve only ever been to Greek islands twice, once I stayed in Ayia Napa in Cyprus – yes I hated it, and then it was something like 40’C every day (44’C one day). Hell.

And I’ve briefly been to Corfu, though that was only so I could get the ferry to Albania.

So Santorini is kind of moon shaped, with a volcano just to the west of it – it used to be one contiguous island before a volcano erupted on the old island of Thera around 3,500 years ago, and hence it is now a series of islands.

You could probably best call it a volcanic archipelago.

It is a small island – with around 15,000 permanent residents, and about that amount of influencers waiting in a queue for a photograph in some spots.

Where We Stayed

So I said it once, and I will say it again – Santorini is an expensive island.

Though some parts are more expensive than others, notably Fira (the capital) and Oia (the place with the most influencers).

We stayed in Kamari, which was right next to the mountain where the ancient city of Thera was, plus it had a beach, albeit with black sand.

There isn’t much to do in Kamari, other than walk up a mountain, go on the beach, eat or drink. Oh and the usual tourist shops though slightly more upmarket because it is Santorini.

I don’t enjoy doing beach. This one is more annoying than normal with the massage woman harassing you every 2-3 minutes if you want to spend €50 (I give you good price) on a massage.

But I do enjoy doing mountain.

What To Do In Santorini

Well the most enjoyable thing I did was walk up a mountain. But it wasn’t only the view…

Or just the general fun and enjoyment of walking up a mountain for around 90 minutes (it was actually relatively easy).

But there was a full-on ancient city on the top there.

I’m generally not that bothered about pre 20th Century history, but it was quite mesmerising on top of there, to think about how people lived 3,500 years ago. On top of a mountain.

We also went to an underground wine museum not far from Kamari, which was hilariously bad.

And yes, the wine was…questionable too.

Though Tony Blair had visited some years ago, so clearly I was in good company.

Fira & Oia

We also had adventures to Oia – which is where all the influencers are queuing to get a photograph…sooooo 2025.

Oia is pretty, but also quite boring – there are people going everywhere on tiny little paths, and it’s twice the price for a beer as elsewhere in the island.

Literally “hello cruise ships give us your money” kind of place. Not for me.

Fira, I had more appreciation of – firstly I could get a decent NEIPA to drink, plus we accidentally timed our trip with the annual celebration of the volcano, yay volcano, with a drone show, and then they try to set the volcano off with some fireworks.

Plus you can get a pretty decent sunset view in Fira too.

Beer In Santorini

So there’s lots of Mythos for sale. Mythos, Fix and Alfa were the choices at most places, though you could get some foreign lagers too, and I managed to procure the last Erdinger from one bar.

But also Santorini has it’s own brewery, Santorini Brewing Co.

They do sell their pale ale in quite a few places, though after a while I was a bit bored of it – it is more of a US West Coast kind of beer…ish.

Craft beer did exist in Fira, in a little bar called Assyrtico, which had a fine choice of IPAs in cans – expensive at around €9 a bottle, but very enjoyable. Plus you could kind of watch the sunset through the doors.

There was also a pretty good beer choice at Pelican Kipos, where we ate later the same evening.

But is Santorini the ideal place for a craft beer lover? Absolutely not…it’s way behind the times.

Eating In Santorini

The food didn’t really impress in Santorini either – especially in the resort we were staying, Kamari, where it was often very basic.

However, it was often ridiculously friendly and welcoming – sure they wanted our money, but also it still felt like warm, welcoming service. Every restaurant in the world wants your money, but some really want to serve you too.

It was quite easy to get a nice, fresh Greek salad though:

One place I tried a Greek dish at was Kapilio Tavern Santorini in Fira – chosen because it had a high rating on Google Reviews, and most restaurants serve the same meals, give or take.

Moussaka was my choice.

I’d never had moussaka before, and probably won’t again – I should like it, I love aubergine, and I could taste the parmesan (or similar) on top but the texture was wobbly, and…don’t know…I just didn’t take to it as a dish.

Also there’s no way that restaurant would score a 4.9 out of 5 on Google Reviews in London. Though it did have good views.

Pelican Kipos was probably the best place we ate at, and the only one I’d recommend.

Basically lamb shank in a pot – none of the better restaurants we went to sold lamb kleftiko so this was as close as I came to another Greek national dish.

And despite the usual Santorini restaurant problems of 500 things on the menu, most of them being the same as every other restaurant, it was a good experience, they had good wine (probably not from the wine museum we visited), and a beer list – granted it didn’t get any more exciting than the usual Belgian imports or the Santorini Brewing Co, but either is an upgrade on Mythos.

The place that probably should have been the best restaurant, Metaxi Mas, annoyed me.

We shared the baked asparagus for starter, which was pretty stunning.

But before I’d finished my starter, my main arrived.

WTF? This isn’t Zizzi.

It was a struggle to get through all those potatoes, which is like triple the amount as I’d want, but I don’t like food waste.

The meat was pork tenderloin in feta sauce, but it wasn’t especially tender.

Plus there were cats everywhere, we were constantly on edge, expecting them to jump on our table. A decent enough meal, but annoying.

Ahhh Mango

Yeah, Santorini wasn’t massively my kind of place, but I still had a super time.

Beer, wine, sunshine. Plus it was still a celebration of my sister’s 40th birthday How could I not have a super time?

The people here are super friendly, the ancient city I loved, the sea is warm. It also felt really safe – like you could leave your apartment door open and everything would be fine.

Yet the things that would make this a really super place weren’t quite there for me, particularly the basic food, and all the restaurants serving all the same dishes. Some more places to go walking/hiking would have been good, other than the one route over the mountain.

Plus it is a really expensive place – the taxis in particular are an absolute rip-off, though the same applied in Cyprus when I went there many years ago.

It wasn’t especially cheap to fly there – around £220.00 return with EasyJet, I think I paid, and around £80.00 a night for an apartment nearish the sea. You could easily spend a lot more money than I did on accommodation, especially in Oia with a jacuzzi on your rooftop.

So not my favourite place, but right now on yet another cloudy day in England, I wouldn’t mind going back to Santorini for a beer in the sunshine.