Our DIY Santorini Report

We recently visited Santorini as part of our Princess cruise in early October, and I thought I would share some DIY tips and some points-of-interest for photographers wanting to add some of the world-famous Santorini photos to their personal collections.

Santorini was by far, one of the highlights of our trip and one of the most exotic locations I’ve ever visited. It’s unique geology and architecture make for a stunning location that is a photographer’s dream.

Maps:

While there seems to be a lot of hoopla about Apple’s new map app in iOS6, I have to say that Google Maps has nothing on Apple when it comes to Santorini. Not only is there no street view available, but very few businesses are located correctly, if it all, and even the satellite view is terribly over exposed for most of the urban areas of Santorini due to the white buildings.

So, I’ve taken some time to mark some points of interest, and a couple of great restaurant stops on Google maps...

My Google Map of Santorini

If you’d like to take your Google Map with you for offline use on iOS, I highly recommend Cartographer in the app store. It’s a gem for travel. You can plot all your points of interest on Google Maps using your computer and then easily store them for offline use on your iOS device. It’s my essential travel map app.

Getting up the cliff

As most people know, there are only a few ways to get up to Fira from where the tender’s drop you… take the gondola, a donkey, or walk up the same switch-back path as the donkeys.

On the day we were in Santorini, we were the first of only two large ships to anchor in the bay, which means crowds were relatlively light compared to what I heard was a high of eight different ships on some days. :eek: As a result there wasn’t much of a line for either the donkeys or the gondola, but we opted for the donkey ride. :D

Now, while the animals are universally referred to as donkey’s they are almost certainly mules. They are large animals and equipped with saddles/stirrups and appropriate saddle blankets. I didn’t witness any abuse or mistreatment. The cobble-stone path up is at a modest grade and it takes about 15 minutes.

Here’s a pic of my GF on her mule at the base…

The mules pretty much make their own way up the path sometimes doddling and sometimes competing with a fellow mule for lead position in the group.

Overall, I think it’s a memorable way to get up the cliff for 5-Euro while offering a small taste of history. Having said that, I completely understand the viewpoint of those who don’t want to see the continued use of pack animals here so lets please leave that debate for other threads where the subject has already been discussed at length.

Whatever route you take to the top, you’re rewarded with your first of many stunning vistas…

Our plan and itinerary

Our objective was to explore Oia (pronounced "Ia") first, then find the famous church in Firostefani on the way back, followed by a visit to Santo Winery for some pictures of the caldera, and then end up back in Fira where we could spend the rest of the day shopping until it was time to head down and back to the ship.

Transportation

There are basically three ways to get around the island… take a tour, rent an ATV (bike, car, etc.), or take the public bus. Since we wanted the ultimate in flexibility, we opted to rent an ATV from Markos. It cost 20-Euro for the ATV and another 10-Euro in gas. There are several ATV rental options on the main road and just one block west of the main road in Fira. Markos is convenient and affordable. Here’s the website with information on pricing and location…

Link to Markos ATV Rentals

Parking in Oia and at Santos is plentiful and free. The traffic wasn’t bad and the great thing about an ATV is that’s very easy to pull off if you have impatient traffic behind you or aren’t sure where you’re going.

Oia

In Oia (Ia), you have endless photo opportunities, but one of the most famous shots is perhaps this one, which I’ve marked on my Google map (see first post for the link)…

We had a glass of wine and relaxed for a bit at Terpsi en Oia which has perhaps one of the most stunning views in all the world (also marked on my map)…

We did some shopping and sight seeing around Oia. I must have taken dozens of stunning photos like this…

If you walk to the far west end of town around the point, you’ll see more stunning scenery and an old wind-mill…

Firostefani

On our way back, we tried to find the famous church that you see in a lot of Santorini photographs…

It’s not exactly easy to find. I’ve marked it on my Google map. Basically, you have to turn off the main road between Fira and Oia into Firostefani and work your way to the point I’ve marked on the map where there is some parking and a nice overlook.

Alternatively, if you’re walking to Firostefani from Fira along the main path that follows the cliff top, you’ll come to this church after about 15-20 minutes… but you may not recognize it from the front as it has a yellow façade with red ironwork fencing and the blue dome isn’t visible.

With that famous photo added to my collection, we decided to have lunch at a restaurant we passed looking for the church… Mama Thira’s Tavern which has a stunning patio view, good service, reasonable prices, and great food. (Again, marked on my Google Map above)

Link to Mama Thira Restaurant

Santo Winery

Next we got back on our ATV and passed back through Fira and headed to Santo Winery which offers another unique view of the caldera…

After a short pause at the winery, we headed back into Fira, gassed up the ATV at the gas station shown on the map, and returned the rental vehicle to Markos.

Fira

We then strolled and explored the great selection of shops in Fira and took more photos of the amazing architecture and landscape from there before having a cold beer overlooking the Gondola before finally heading down to tender back to the ship.

That concludes my DIY report for Santorini… let me know if you have any unanswered questions and I’ll be happy to try and answer. :)

WOW! I thought I was excited about our stop in Santorini before! But now, I am positively STOKED! Your photos are awesome!! Thanks so much for all the details on your itinerary! I think I will just steal the whole thing!! Sounds like a perfect day! Just one question - how long did this take? Our stop in November is short - only 6 hours! Can we do all of this in that time?? Thanks again!

Thanks for the review, your pics are fantastic!

Fantastic Pictures

Did have any problems with 2 people on the ATV

WOW! I thought I was excited about our stop in Santorini before! But now, I am positively STOKED! Your photos are awesome!! Thanks so much for all the details on your itinerary! I think I will just steal the whole thing!! Sounds like a perfect day! Just one question - how long did this take? Our stop in November is short - only 6 hours! Can we do all of this in that time?? Thanks again!

Thanks! We were there for about 8 hours but spent at least a few of those chilling out on a patio, so you could absolutely do all of this in 6 hrs and still take a break. It's only about a 15-20 min drive to Oia from Fira and not even 10 min. From Fira to the winery. It's all pretty compact.

Fantastic Pictures

 

Did have any problems with 2 people on the ATV

Thanks. Not at all... The ATVs are designed for 2 and come with a convenient lockable compartment on the back to stow your stuff while driving or put your helmets while stopped.

Gorgeous Photos!!!

I showed them to my husband and he demanded to know why our upcoming cruise didn't stop there. Now to hit him up for another.;)

Fantastic!!! Subbing so I can remember this for next spring :-)

Thank you so much for sharing. Everyone tells me Santorini is gorgeous and your photos make it look absolutely breathtaking.

My dh wants to ride the donkeys up, so he especially liked that photo.

Also thanks so much for the map - its very kind of you to share. We have pretty much the same type of day planned, except for the winery since we'll be with our teens.

Your photos are unquestionably the best traveller photos of Santorini I have seen. Especially impressive are both the resolution and depth of focus. Would you mind sharing any tips at to how you captured these images? Did you use any filters?

Again, these pics are remarkable -- and add to the anticipation of our trip!

Your photos are unquestionably the best traveller photos of Santorini I have seen. Especially impressive are both the resolution and depth of focus. Would you mind sharing any tips at to how you captured these images? Did you use any filters?

 

Again' date=' these pics are remarkable -- and add to the anticipation of our trip![/quote']

 

Thanks very much... It's taken a lot of research, trial and error, and investment of time and money in gear to achieve this level of photography. Ultimately, however, it helps to have well lit, beautiful subjects to shoot. I think even a camera phone could produce nice images from a day in Santorini :D. In fact, one of the pictures I posted is from my iPhone. It should be pretty obvious which one it is.

 

At any rate, I think the final output is a combination of a few things... good quality gear, shooting with the right light and picking a good composition with appropriate settings, detailed post processing, and good quality hosting.

 

For gear, I have a Canon 5D Mk III which besides being very high resolution, has very good dynamic range (ability to capture detail in the bright highlights and dark shadows). The lens is also reasonably high end (24-105 f4 L) so it has good contrast and sharpness as well. I shot these with a circular polarizer filter on the lens which acts to improve contrast and saturation and reduce glare on water and plants.

 

There's no substitute for shooting with good light. My pics of Santorini would have been far less interesting if it was overcast. I was fortunate to have good sunlight but of course, shooting during the golden hour at sunrise or sunset is always ideal. Trying to find angles where things are lit the way you want helps a lot. When travelling this often means getting lucky or trying to do your best to work with what you've got at the time as you can't afford to come back the next day if the light isn't just right.

 

Composition is also important... using the rule of thirds, having an eye for a good photo, knowing when to zoom out or when to zoom in, and being able to have the patience or luck to get a good capture. For example in the windmill shot, I was simply lucky to have a sailboat in the perfect spot in the frame in the distance. In many cases, I'm waiting for several minutes for other tourists to clear out of my way to get a shot without people in it. This takes more patience than most people have. I tend to take a lot of different shots too, knowing most of them will end up in the virtual trash. In Santorini, I probably took 200 photos that I later narrowed down to these 10 or 12.

 

When I say shooting with the right settings, for most of these shots, that means using a narrow aperture like f11 to provide a broad depth of field ensuring as much of the foreground and distance is in focus. It also means taking a few shots and checking the histogram to ensure it's properly exposed so that there are no blown highlights or crushed shadows. And, it also means shooting RAW instead of JPEG to ensure I have the most information to work with in the next step.

 

Then when I get home, one of the most important steps is post-processing which many people won't bother with but I feel is as important if not more, than any other part of the process. I use a combination of Apple Aperture and NIK plugins to enhance the photos to get the most out of them, which usually includes maximizing the dynamic range (drawing details out of shadows and highlights), adding some local contrast to bring out detail, some selective saturation to important colors, and a touch of sharpening to finish up. A lot of this is necessary when shooting RAW and less important when shooting JPEG (since most camera's will do a lot of this as part of the in-camera processing), but the advantage of shooting RAW is that you control the processing and with the right tools can apply it selectively to different parts of the photo so there is often a lot more you can do with shadows and highlights to create post-card quality photos. Shooting RAW and doing your own processing is analogous to having your own dark room in the days of film.

 

Last but not least, you need a photo hosting service that doesn't butcher the quality of your photos when they are converted to JPEG and posted online. Facebook is among the worst for this (although they have new "high quality" albums that seem to do a better job now). I use Zenfolio which preserves a lot of the sharpness even when converting the images to highly compressed JPEG images.

 

So that's it really. :o

Thank you so much for sharing your fabulous pictures. If our day is half as pretty as yours we will be smiling from ear to ear.

Thank you too for the extremely helpful map. I'm going to use that map for sure, so please let it up, lol.

PS. The donkey looks well fed. :)

Oh you have totally gotten my even more excited for our trip next September on the Ruby! You have captured it so beautifully. Thanks for sharing!:p

Thanks for the photo tips!!

Thanks so much for posting your comments and the great photos. Your comments are very helpful and I am showing everyone in the family the photos you posted. I visited Santorini about 35 years ago and have always wanted to go back. Your photos remind me why!

Yes, thank you for sharing your wonderful photos! I'll leave my camera at home and just enjoy yours!

Is the mule trail really too gross to just walk? I know this is completely subjective. We have experience with livestock so I don't think it will bother us at all but I've heard horror stories about the condition of this trail so I don't know what to think.

Yes, thank you for sharing your wonderful photos! I'll leave my camera at home and just enjoy yours!

 

Is the mule trail really too gross to just walk? I know this is completely subjective. We have experience with livestock so I don't think it will bother us at all but I've heard horror stories about the condition of this trail so I don't know what to think.

Thanks for all the kind words (from everyone) on the photos.

I didn't pay too much attention to the condition of the trail, I was too busy watching the views and enjoying the ride. :o

Great review and photos.

Keith

Wow, what beautiful pictures! I can't wait for our arrival in May, 2013. Can you please tell me if you felt the DIY worked out okay or if a tour would be better?

Thanks for the photos and the camera info. We were in Santorini in June and after returning home I regretted not upgrading to a camera that was better than my Canon point and shoot.

Luckily we also had a bright and sunny day so the pictures are good but missing some of the vivid colors and details I recall.

Any one taking photos in Santorini should make sure they have extra memory cards as the picture opportunities are endless. I would take a picture of a building or the coastline and then walk around a corner to find an even better view.

At any popular location in Europe during the summer months my biggest challenge is taking a picture free of other people posing for a shot taken by someone else.

I often wonder how many times people around the world are looking at my face in their vacation photos ;-)

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Wow, what beautiful pictures! I can't wait for our arrival in May, 2013. Can you please tell me if you felt the DIY worked out okay or if a tour would be better?

Sorry, I missed this question earlier... the old DIY vs. tour debate. I think this is almost a religious debate here on CC.

Personally, I think DIY vs a tour is a personal preference no matter what port you're in (and Santorini is no exception). You can get a lot out of either. Personally, I can't stand tours. Of course, that means I have to do research before I go anywhere otherwise I have no idea where I'm going or what I'm seeing. So if you like to plan, like to research, and like to be on your own schedule, there's no substitute for DIY. So to answer your question, I make sure all my DIY expriences work out OK because I invest the effort in research before I go to guarantee that.

On the other hand, if you're tolerance for risk is low and you're not much into preparation and prefer to be chauffeured around and have a guide explain things you might otherwise miss (even if you're well prepared), then a tour is absolutely for you. You probably know what kind of vacationer you are, and my opinion or anyone else's is not likely to sway you. ;)

Wow! Amazing pictures and wonderful details of a DIY in Santorini. Please tell me (if you know) if there is a weight restriction for the donkeys. My husband is 6'5" and 270.

Thanx so much!

Cruising the Crown to the Med on Nov 17 for 12 nights!

Wow! Amazing pictures and wonderful details of a DIY in Santorini. Please tell me (if you know) if there is a weight restriction for the donkeys. My husband is 6'5" and 270.

Thanx so much!

 

Cruising the Crown to the Med on Nov 17 for 12 nights!

Thanks. I don't want this thread to turn into a "don't abuse the mules/donkeys thread" so if you want to discuss this please use one of the numerous other threads on this subject. But the short answer is that a mule can safely carry about 20% of its weight, or about 200 lbs in the case of a large mule. So while I didn't see any posted "limit" he should probably plan on taking the Gondola.

Ditto all the other complements. Those pictures are fantastic! As striking as the blue and white colors are, I especially like the photo of the hillside houses with a splash of pastel colors. Brings back pleasant memories of a beautiful place.

I also would vote this stop as a DIY. We took the local bus from Fira to Oia and that was part of the adventure. There is a bus that also stops at the winery. I think the winery is family friendly and as I recall you could order non-alcohol beverages and snacks. The tiered outdoor terraces provide ample seating with spectacular views not to be missed.