Oaia Santorini Village Tour questions

Hi-First NCL cruise, first European time too :)

Has anyone done the above tour with NCL? It seems as if they tender you to directly to a bus so you don't do the cable car/donkey/walk up to Fira then they bus you to Oaia giving you a bit of a tour, leave you on your own to explore then take you back to Fira where you can take as much time as you want then you take the cable car down. Does that sound about right?

The tour is listed as a 3 hour trip leaving at 2:30, since we're in port until 10pm that should give us lots of time to get dinner in Fira I'd assume?

We like just walking around and seeing things-it will be all new to us after all.

Any restaurant recommendations in Fira?

Thank you!

We did this tour last summer and loved it. You will be put on a special tender that takes you to the waiting bus where you will travel to Oia. It is a beautiful little village and you are given quite a bit of free time to tour on your own and do some shopping. There is great shopping and lots of photo ops here.

Then you go to Fira for free time and you will have plenty of time to eat as well as do some more poking around and shopping. When you get off the bus they willl give you your cable car tickets to go back down.

There is a great restaurant just past the cable car stop (continuing up the hill) called The Flame at the Top of the Mountain. We ate there and watched the sunset. The owner kept bringing us dishes on the house to sample and gave us big bottles of water for our trip back to the ship. (The NCL staff frequent this place and it is not touristy).

I will tell you the donkeys smell really bad you can seriously smell them when they are coming and are a couple of blocks from you. We did the cable car on the way down and loved looking at the lights of the village and seeing the ship all lit up as well.

Hi-First NCL cruise, first European time too :)

 

Has anyone done the above tour with NCL? It seems as if they tender you to directly to a bus so you don't do the cable car/donkey/walk up to Fira then they bus you to Oaia giving you a bit of a tour, leave you on your own to explore then take you back to Fira where you can take as much time as you want then you take the cable car down. Does that sound about right?

 

The tour is listed as a 3 hour trip leaving at 2:30, since we're in port until 10pm that should give us lots of time to get dinner in Fira I'd assume?

 

We like just walking around and seeing things-it will be all new to us after all.

 

Any restaurant recommendations in Fira?

 

Thank you!

Have you thought about taking the local bus to Oia? The bus terminal is close. Our family of four went three years ago for less than $3 each way for all of us.

Walked around Fira, caught the bus to Oia, spent several hours there and had lunch, came back to Fira. Walked around some more, took the finicular back to the ship where a lovely Greek buffet was set up poolside. Went back to Fira for the famous sunset and finally returned to the ship.

Hi-First NCL cruise, first European time too :)

 

Has anyone done the above tour with NCL? It seems as if they tender you to directly to a bus so you don't do the cable car/donkey/walk up to Fira then they bus you to Oaia giving you a bit of a tour, leave you on your own to explore then take you back to Fira where you can take as much time as you want then you take the cable car down. Does that sound about right?

 

The tour is listed as a 3 hour trip leaving at 2:30, since we're in port until 10pm that should give us lots of time to get dinner in Fira I'd assume?

 

We like just walking around and seeing things-it will be all new to us after all.

 

 

Thank you!

We cruised in the Med on the Gem in July 2010. DW and I did the Oia and Winery excursion, while the remaining 8 in our group did Santorini on their own.

The winery is nothing special, except that you get to go back and drink as many samples as your like. More importantly, the winery building is located in a wonderful place on the edge of the escarpment and you can see both sides of the island. The winery is located in the south part of the island up hill from the docking (not the same dock as where the cable care and donkeys are).

After the winery, we drove to Oia up the eastern side of the island, spent time seeing Oia, then on to Fira, where we were given a cable car pass to get down to the dock. It turned out to be a great tour and day.

The other eight never left Fira. It took them a while to get up the escarpment, some taking donkeys, some cable car. I know others have taken the bus and/or taxis, but our 8 gave up trying to find the bus and could not find a taxi. It was July and the island was crowded.

I think our tour was well worth the price. Santorini is a special place and you should make the most of your time there.

Any restaurant recommendations in Fira?