Some DIY thoughts from Athens and Santorini

[Anguillafan]

We got back on July 6th, so I'm sorry for taking so long to post, but my family of four did both Athens and Santorini on our own and I thought I'd share some things I've learned. (We also did Cannes, Livorno, Civatecchia, and Salerno on our own, but I'll post those lessons learned elsewhere).

 

I loved Greece, and the only problem I had with any of the people was leaving the ship terminal in Piraeus. The taxi drivers really hassled us to take a cab for the day into Athens. Other than that, the people were wonderful.

 

Walking from the ship terminal to the metro was not as well marked as I would have liked, hence the reason I wanted to post about it. Every newstand or shop owner we inquired with along the way insisted we were headed in the right way. Everyone of them spoke English, by the way. It was pretty impressive.

 

It's very easy, although took longer than we thought. Basically you leave the terminal and keep the water on your left hand side. If you stay on the same side of the street as the water, you simply continue to walk along the water (water on your left) until you come to an overpass that crosses the street. Crossing that overpass puts you at the metro station. I'm almost positive there was no other overpass before reaching the metro. The building itself has been well described by others on various threads.

 

Returning at the end of the day we crossed the overpass and immediately got a cab. It cost between 3 and 4 euros to take us to the terminal. Fast, easy, cheap (and wonderful because we were tired).

 

In Santorini, we took the donkeys up. That was fun, although there is no guide. You just count on the donkeys. We hiked from Fira to Oia. It took over three hours, in part because it is so beautiful and there are lots of pictures to take, but also because we got lost a few times. There are a few spots on the hike that I found scary. I'd say 15 minutes in total of a 3 hour trip. I have some issues with height, but my other three family members had no trouble. I'm glad I did it, but I did find some of it unsettling.

 

We took a boat from Oia to Fira via Ammoundi, which included a trip to swim in the hot springs. It was wonderful, and that info is already on someone else's thread about "an independent trip." Ammoundi is not near the entrance to Oia from the hike. Some restaurant owner helped us out and drove us to the port because we were running late. It was a very nice gesture. We took a 3-hour boat tour, but two hours would have been fine (and cheaper).

 

I hope this is helpful. It was a wonderful cruise, and both Athens and Santorini were spectacular. Hopefully I can answer questions if anyone has.

 

Lydia

[Hlitner]

Lydia, Nice review and thanks. Please post some more details about your boat trip on Santorini. That does sound like an interesting option.

 

Hank

[Chloe1500]

Thanks, Lydia! Very interesting and helpful. I've been reading about the hike from Fira to Oia for our upcoming cruise. It's good to hear about your experiences.

[shipnc]

Hi Lydia...thanks for the timely posting! Our cruise that leaves next weeks stops in Athens and I was curious about a couple of things: was there any delay getting off the ship due to priorty departures of excursions? Did you consider taking a taxi just to the Acropolis without an all day "guide"? If so, how much would that have been? Finally, how long did it take you to get to the Acropolis via metro. Thanks for the help.

[Anguillafan]

Lydia, Nice review and thanks. Please post some more details about your boat trip on Santorini. That does sound like an interesting option.

 

Hank

 

We went with Stathis. His company is Anemos Boat Charters. Here is the link: http://www.santonet.gr/sailing/anemos-boat

 

He was prompt, very nice and very easy to deal with both working out the reservations and on the boat. The first time I tried to contact him I thought it took a long time to get a response. It turned out the website hadn't worked properly. If you use the website, you will get a confirmation that your form was received. If you don't get a confirmation, then it didn't work.

 

His boat fits 12. There were 11 of us which we put together on our Roll Call. He charged us 360 euros for three hours, although someone else, on a different date, was charged 200 euros for two hours. We also gave him a tip. He would take us anywhere we wanted to go. The key thing for us was to be picked up in Oia, and dropped off at Fira's port (which was wonderful since we just walked over to the tender from there).

 

I believe we went to Thirassia, which is an island of Santorini. It had a restaurant on it. I swam briefly off the back of the boat while we were anchored there. The water was beautiful and refreshing, and even more so after our hike to Oia. From there he took us to the hot springs where we paddled around and swam for quite a while. That water has sulphur in it, so old bathing suits are a good idea.

 

So, for just under 33 euros per person, we had a guaranteed way to get back to Fira, a fun boat ride, and an opportunity to swim in Santorini. Our biggest problem, as I mentioned originally, is that the port below Oia was not near the entrance to Oia from the hike, and we didn't have enough time to eat and get to the port. I think if we made it a 2-hour cruise, and scheduled it at 3:00 instead of 2:00 the boat cruise would have been long enough, and we would have made it on time with less stress.

 

Lydia

[Iamrc]

We went with Stathis. His company is Anemos Boat Charters. Here is the link: http://www.santonet.gr/sailing/anemos-boat

 

He was prompt, very nice and very easy to deal with both working out the reservations and on the boat. The first time I tried to contact him I thought it took a long time to get a response. It turned out the website hadn't worked properly. If you use the website, you will get a confirmation that your form was received. If you don't get a confirmation, then it didn't work.

 

His boat fits 12. There were 11 of us which we put together on our Roll Call. He charged us 360 euros for three hours, although someone else, on a different date, was charged 200 euros for two hours. We also gave him a tip. He would take us anywhere we wanted to go. The key thing for us was to be picked up in Oia, and dropped off at Fira's port (which was wonderful since we just walked over to the tender from there).

 

I believe we went to Thirassia, which is an island of Santorini. It had a restaurant on it. I swam briefly off the back of the boat while we were anchored there. The water was beautiful and refreshing, and even more so after our hike to Oia. From there he took us to the hot springs where we paddled around and swam for quite a while. That water has sulphur in it, so old bathing suits are a good idea.

 

So, for just under 33 euros per person, we had a guaranteed way to get back to Fira, a fun boat ride, and an opportunity to swim in Santorini. Our biggest problem, as I mentioned originally, is that the port below Oia was not near the entrance to Oia from the hike, and we didn't have enough time to eat and get to the port. I think if we made it a 2-hour cruise, and scheduled it at 3:00 instead of 2:00 the boat cruise would have been long enough, and we would have made it on time with less stress.

 

Lydia

 

Just wanted to thank you for this information. Was very useful.

 

Judi

[Indybeachgal]

We just got back from our cruise and DIY in Athens. We decided to take a taxi to Acropolis to try and beat the crowds and did fine with the driver. He did want to take us around the whole day but we politely told him no and just drop us off at the Acropolis which he did. At the end of the day (it was in the 90's) we could have taken the metro but found a very nice taxi driver who believe it or not took us back to the ship for 10 euro! (near Thissio was our start point). He and my husband had this great discussion about their country. His son was a police officer and it was very interesting to hear his prospective. Greece had some of the nicest people I met on our Grand Mediterranean Cruise. We had a great day walking the city from the Acropolis and Ancient Agora (used Rick Steve Free Europe Audio Tour App on our Iphones/Ipods) to having lunch in the Plaka then walking to Syntagma Square and on through the National Gardens. We then saw the the Panathinaic Stadium (modern olympics) and around the Zeus Temple and back to the Theater of Dionysos. We wer pretty hot and tired by the end of the day (hence the taxi so we didn't have the long walk after the metro and we were in Terminal B). My daughter is a photographer and loved taking pictures of the everyday life in Greece.

[Hlitner]

Lydia, Thanks for posting the detailed info of your boat trip. It might come in handy in the future for us and others we might advise.

 

Hank

[VirtualRain]

We got to the donkey line and paid the man 5 euros per person. Shortly after we paid, he got into a shouting match with the man who had just brought a bunch of donkeys down the hill. The two men were fighting loudly in Greek while the 20 or so cruise passengers just watched. I thought it was actually going to come to blows, but, of course, I have no idea what the fight was about. Let's just say that it didn't occur to them to handle the customers, and none of us said anything or had a clue what to do. Eventually they decided to stop fighting and to start loading us on the donkeys.

 

Anyway my son (16) and my husband went first. There are no reins, but there is a metal bar on the saddle to hold onto. I think they probably do slap the donkeys to get them started, but I don't remember that clearly. My husband and son's donkeys, and some woman's donkey decided to race. Apparently the three donkeys went as fast as they could all the way to the top. The donkeys were very competitive.

 

My donkey followed the man in front of me (another cruise passenger). My daughter (19) and a slightly younger boy ended up behind us. My donkey did whatever the donkey in front did, so we slowly made our way up. My daughter's donkey would stop a lot, so I was soon separated from her. I could have gently kicked my donkey and made him pass the one in front of me, but then I would have been completely alone, so the donkey and I just followed the slow poke in front of us. At some point the operators sent a slew of donkeys down the hill (on their own). It felt a little like a stampede was approaching (but not actually dangerous). When they reached the boy my daughter was traveling with, his donkey turned around and started heading down the hill with the pack. Luckily he was laughing, and eventually through kicking, I imagine, got his donkey to head back up. My daughter said it was one of the funniest things she ever saw.

 

The path is wide, and the cliff wall is on one side. The wall on the other side is as high as the donkey. While they sometimes go near the edge to "look over" it's too high for any part of them except their snout. Unfortunately, for the passenger, you are higher than the wall (since you are on the donkey). When my donkey went to "admire the view" I just looked at the cliff side until the donkey got bored and moved on. When we weren't near the wall, I enjoyed the view immensely.

 

The whole experience was really fun. If you think you'd like to do it, you absolutely should. We laughed about our respective experiences the rest of the day.

 

Lydia

 

Thanks Lydia... sounds like a ton of fun.

[Anguillafan]

Hi Lydia...thanks for the timely posting! Our cruise that leaves next weeks stops in Athens and I was curious about a couple of things: was there any delay getting off the ship due to priorty departures of excursions? Did you consider taking a taxi just to the Acropolis without an all day "guide"? If so, how much would that have been? Finally, how long did it take you to get to the Acropolis via metro. Thanks for the help.

Indybeachgal clearly has more info on the taxi than I do. I think the metro (we changed trains to get off on the red line at Akropoli) took about 30 minutes.

 

There's no delay for excursions when you are docked, which you are in Athens, as opposed to a tender where excursions go first. Interestingly our ship was scheduled to dock at 6 am, and they didn't allow passengers off until just after 7. That was the longest delay from arrival time to getting off the ship that we had. It had no impact on us as we were planning, and, in fact, did get off the ship at 7:15.

 

I thought Athens was terrific, and much cleaner than I expected.

 

Lydia

[cruznqueen]

Loved your story abut the donkeys. I would really like to try them when we get there in September. Do they have a weight limit?

 

Plus, about how long was the walk up?

 

Thanks,

Mary

[shipnc]

How much did the cab ride just to the Acropolis cost? Did you pre-negotiate the price or was the fare based on the meter? It seems like this is the best way to get a jump on the crowds at the Acropolis. Thanks for sharing.

[Tenn4ever]

We got to the donkey line and paid the man 5 euros per person. Shortly after we paid, he got into a shouting match with the man who had just brought a bunch of donkeys down the hill. The two men were fighting loudly in Greek while the 20 or so cruise passengers just watched. I thought it was actually going to come to blows, but, of course, I have no idea what the fight was about. Let's just say that it didn't occur to them to handle the customers, and none of us said anything or had a clue what to do. Eventually they decided to stop fighting and to start loading us on the donkeys.

 

Anyway my son (16) and my husband went first. There are no reins, but there is a metal bar on the saddle to hold onto. I think they probably do slap the donkeys to get them started, but I don't remember that clearly. My husband and son's donkeys, and some woman's donkey decided to race. Apparently the three donkeys went as fast as they could all the way to the top. The donkeys were very competitive.

 

My donkey followed the man in front of me (another cruise passenger). My daughter (19) and a slightly younger boy ended up behind us. My donkey did whatever the donkey in front did, so we slowly made our way up. My daughter's donkey would stop a lot, so I was soon separated from her. I could have gently kicked my donkey and made him pass the one in front of me, but then I would have been completely alone, so the donkey and I just followed the slow poke in front of us. At some point the operators sent a slew of donkeys down the hill (on their own). It felt a little like a stampede was approaching (but not actually dangerous). When they reached the boy my daughter was traveling with, his donkey turned around and started heading down the hill with the pack. Luckily he was laughing, and eventually through kicking, I imagine, got his donkey to head back up. My daughter said it was one of the funniest things she ever saw.

 

The path is wide, and the cliff wall is on one side. The wall on the other side is as high as the donkey. While they sometimes go near the edge to "look over" it's too high for any part of them except their snout. Unfortunately, for the passenger, you are higher than the wall (since you are on the donkey). When my donkey went to "admire the view" I just looked at the cliff side until the donkey got bored and moved on. When we weren't near the wall, I enjoyed the view immensely.

 

The whole experience was really fun. If you think you'd like to do it, you absolutely should. We laughed about our respective experiences the rest of the day.

 

Lydia

 

Lydia, I don't know if we will do this or not but you just made my day. I laughed all the way through your post.

[searoses]

great story about the donkies!! reminded me of riding one down into the grand canyon as a teenager. i was a very competent rider but that donkey terrified me and i was sure i would be hurtling over the cliff any second!! my husband wants to walk the trial. i will not be !! lol

[Anguillafan]

Loved your story abut the donkeys. I would really like to try them when we get there in September. Do they have a weight limit?

 

Plus, about how long was the walk up?

 

Thanks,

Mary

I don't know if there's a weight limit. I think the ride took somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes.

[jjhob]

Hi Lydia...thanks for the timely posting! Our cruise that leaves next weeks stops in Athens and I was curious about a couple of things: was there any delay getting off the ship due to priorty departures of excursions? Did you consider taking a taxi just to the Acropolis without an all day "guide"? If so, how much would that have been? Finally, how long did it take you to get to the Acropolis via metro. Thanks for the help.

We were in Athens in July. we reserved with Star group taxi in Athens. It cost 25 euros per couple. We had 2 taxis of 4. They picked us up at the port and then dropped us off at the Acropolis just before 8 am.They then picked us up at a designated place at 1:30. They gave us their phone number in case we wanted more or less time. I found it very reasonable, quick to get to the acropolis, and worry free! It was over 40 degrees celsius the day that we were there!

[poops]

We went with Stathis. His company is Anemos Boat Charters. Here is the link: http://www.santonet.gr/sailing/anemos-boat

 

He was prompt, very nice and very easy to deal with both working out the reservations and on the boat. The first time I tried to contact him I thought it took a long time to get a response. It turned out the website hadn't worked properly. If you use the website, you will get a confirmation that your form was received. If you don't get a confirmation, then it didn't work.

 

His boat fits 12. There were 11 of us which we put together on our Roll Call. He charged us 360 euros for three hours, although someone else, on a different date, was charged 200 euros for two hours. We also gave him a tip. He would take us anywhere we wanted to go. The key thing for us was to be picked up in Oia, and dropped off at Fira's port (which was wonderful since we just walked over to the tender from there).

 

I believe we went to Thirassia, which is an island of Santorini. It had a restaurant on it. I swam briefly off the back of the boat while we were anchored there. The water was beautiful and refreshing, and even more so after our hike to Oia. From there he took us to the hot springs where we paddled around and swam for quite a while. That water has sulphur in it, so old bathing suits are a good idea.

 

So, for just under 33 euros per person, we had a guaranteed way to get back to Fira, a fun boat ride, and an opportunity to swim in Santorini. Our biggest problem, as I mentioned originally, is that the port below Oia was not near the entrance to Oia from the hike, and we didn't have enough time to eat and get to the port. I think if we made it a 2-hour cruise, and scheduled it at 3:00 instead of 2:00 the boat cruise would have been long enough, and we would have made it on time with less stress.

 

Lydia

I am planning a cruise for next September -- this is where I'm stuck: is it worth it to book a cruise based on being in Santorini for sunset? There is only one cruise that stays that late and I'm just wondering..... thanks so much....

(this is my first time on this site and I'm happy to be here)

[travelpeon]

We also went with Stathis aboard Anemos and Anemos II.

 

Recap:

 

Tender-

Celebrity Silhouette tender line was that morning and 8 am tender start. I lined up over 45 minutes before ticket hand out and had no issues getting 21 tender tickets in group 14. We waited a bit at the Martini Bar for everyone to show up. Our tender number was called while we were waiting but we just went downstairs when everyone arrived, approximately tender 20+. There was some queueing in the Grand Foyer for about 10+ minutes before we could walk down to the tender area (we were told waiting in the foyer is safer than waiting in the tender area, so the queue is kept upstairs)

 

Trip over-

Tender to Fira old town and Captain Stathis and his son were waiting in the Anemos and Anemos II motorized boats right at the dock a short 2-3 minute walk away. They helped everyone board. Anemos has bench seats and some are in the shade at the back, but best to bring some sunblock. Anemos II had some shade in the front. It took about 30 minutes to get to Ammoudi and Stathis had arranged for a shuttle from a local tour company which could fit 22+ people up the hill to Oia. We had a bit of traffic at the dock in the morning so had to wait about 10-15 minutes to get a docking spot. Captain Stathis suggested pick up at the pier around 12:15-12:30 instead of noon to give us a bit more time and we were fine with that. Once both boats emptied, we got on the shuttle and it was a quick ride up to Oia. It arrived right around 10 am and the town was relatively empty of cruisers from 4 ships. The boat transfer was 120 EUR per boat which is quoted for 10-12 passengers.

 

Do bring the printed agreement to the shuttle price and ask the Captain to confirm (write an additional note on it or something). The shuttle company wasn't clear as to what price we were quoted so they called the Captain and then me. Luckily, I had a cell phone available but I know some don't travel with cell phones.

 

Time in town-

People did their own thing. Some of the restaurants on the main strip were serving food but the places we stopped at were either closed or only serving drinks (PitaGyro and Melitini respectively). Cruise visitors started showing up around the end of 10 am and after that, walking towards the right of the parking area was quite crowded.

 

Return trip-

We met up at the shuttle office across the street from the drop-off point at noon. They had a shaded porch where we could wait for our party. Our van and driver had been changed to a smaller 9 person van and it required three trips to drop off at the pier. Each of us paid the driver upon boarding for the full shuttle trip (10 EUR pp) as I felt it better for him to manage based on who got on the van than collecting it myself and paying at the dock. Honestly, either way would probably work.

 

This also meant that the boats were just filled based on the order of arrival as only one dock was available. Anemos II had 11 people in it going out and 8 people going back. Anemos I had 10 people going out and 13 coming back. Captain Stathis was fine with this. Both boats left Ammoudi around 12:20-12:30.

 

We had a two hour sightseeing sail with a stop of a swim for our return trip. He took us past an island which only had a few restaurants on it and up over to the original hot spring for a swim. Some chose to swim and jumped off the boat. Others stayed on the boat and enjoyed the scenery. It was about a 20-30 min stop. The scenery was nice and the breeze very welcome after a hot and crowded morning in Santorini. Anemos and Anemos II docked back in Fira old town at the bottom of the hill.

 

Each family paid the Captain of their ship while he was trying to hold the boat to the pier. Don't know why they didn't tie up fully? I paid last, having put down the deposit. If I did this again, I'd probably collect payment when the boat neared the dock to spare the Captains all the tugging. There was a bit of tugging while I waited for him to check if the count was accurate since other families tipped before we added our own payment at the end. Captain Stathis was nice about it all (it looked about right). I told him to send me an e-mail if anything was off and I'd settle via PayPal. A quick wave and he was off again.

Cost per hour was 100 EUR so 200 EUR per boat. Our group chose to add the cost of the two boats together and just divide by person count, so adults and children paid the same and tipped at their discretion.

 

We walked just a bit back over to the tendering area and were back on the ship in no time since Silhouette had been given the first anchoring slot that morning. It was the closest to the pier.

 

Anemos and Anemos II-

My boat lingo isn't that great, but they're motorized boats with awnings. Anemos is a bit larger than Anemos II. They're not luxury craft but quite serviceable as fishing charters or smaller sightseeing boats. Santorini does have upscale boats and charters which include a meal but the price was right for Anemos and they were willing to split the charter up instead of having a solid block of several hours. Captain Stathis' communication was prompt, patient, and easy to understand. His son captained Anemos II and mentioned his mom was from the U.K. It is nice to support a family business.

 

We had a great time and were happy with the excursion. From the feedback so far, it seems like the other families also had a nice time. It was fantastic not having to wait for the cable car as four ships were in that day. We heard some stories during dinner about the cable cars that made us even happier.

Edited September 7, 2014 by travelpeon