Our DIY Santorini Report

[VirtualRain]

VirtualRain, we're heading to Santorini as well in a few weeks. Just curious how you got the great contrast in your shots. Are you using a polarizing filter?

 

Yes. That's part of it. The lens and post processing are also important to maximizing contrast. I posted a full essay on this earlier in the thread. :)

[midwestchick]

Hi VirtualRain,

I was looking at the ship's tour and then someone on our RC has this planned....I will copy and paste it for you and see if you think I will see enough on this excursion...definitely want to spend more time in Oia than the ship offers.

Oh, and the cruise it web site is not always correct...the Azamara Journey is also there in Sept. when we are but it's not listed. :rolleyes:

 

 

Imerovigli Village:

 

Located at the highest, most central part of the caldera, with possibly the best views anywhere on the island. It used to be the best spot to look out for pirates.

Oia Village:

 

Recognized as the jewel of Santorini, best location to look at the famous sunset. Here you will enjoy the panoramic view of caldera, the volcano, Thirassia Island, and the rest of Santorini looking back toward Fira.

Ammoudi Port:

 

Tiny charming port with a very small beach in the caldera at the foot of Oia with clear blue green water andoffers several excellent fish restaurants with local food.

Wine Museum:

 

An extraordinary natural cave, 6 meters below ground and 300 m. long. You will taste local wines and view semi-mobile and still life figurines, accompanied by audio guides and sound effects.

Mountain of Prophitis Ilias:

 

The highest point of Santorini (586 meters). You can actually see the whole shape of Santorini.

Red Beach:

 

Soaring red lava cliffs which drop right to the sandy shore and into the clear blue sea, make for a majestic setting and one to enjoy.

Lighthouse of Akrotiri:

 

Built in 1892. The views from its cliff top position are simply breathtaking, looking out across the caldera and the Aegean Sea!

Panagi Episkopi Church:

 

One of the most important Byzantine churches of the island. Built in 1100 AC and survived the invasions by the Venetians, the Francs, the Russians, the Turks and even the frequent earthquakes.

Pyrgos Village:

 

Formed by traditional houses built all around the Venetian castle, and the small streets follow the shape of the hill.

[VirtualRain]

Hi VirtualRain,

I was looking at the ship's tour and then someone on our RC has this planned....I will copy and paste it for you and see if you think I will see enough on this excursion...definitely want to spend more time in Oia than the ship offers.

Oh, and the cruise it web site is not always correct...the Azamara Journey is also there in Sept. when we are but it's not listed. :rolleyes:

 

 

Imerovigli Village:

 

Located at the highest, most central part of the caldera, with possibly the best views anywhere on the island. It used to be the best spot to look out for pirates.

Oia Village:

 

Recognized as the jewel of Santorini, best location to look at the famous sunset. Here you will enjoy the panoramic view of caldera, the volcano, Thirassia Island, and the rest of Santorini looking back toward Fira.

Ammoudi Port:

 

Tiny charming port with a very small beach in the caldera at the foot of Oia with clear blue green water andoffers several excellent fish restaurants with local food.

Wine Museum:

 

An extraordinary natural cave, 6 meters below ground and 300 m. long. You will taste local wines and view semi-mobile and still life figurines, accompanied by audio guides and sound effects.

Mountain of Prophitis Ilias:

 

The highest point of Santorini (586 meters). You can actually see the whole shape of Santorini.

Red Beach:

 

Soaring red lava cliffs which drop right to the sandy shore and into the clear blue sea, make for a majestic setting and one to enjoy.

Lighthouse of Akrotiri:

 

Built in 1892. The views from its cliff top position are simply breathtaking, looking out across the caldera and the Aegean Sea!

Panagi Episkopi Church:

 

One of the most important Byzantine churches of the island. Built in 1100 AC and survived the invasions by the Venetians, the Francs, the Russians, the Turks and even the frequent earthquakes.

Pyrgos Village:

 

Formed by traditional houses built all around the Venetian castle, and the small streets follow the shape of the hill.

 

That sounds like a great itinerary... If you're there for a week! :D

 

Honestly, I don't know how they can fit that all in. I think you know my thoughts on this. I'd trade it for a day spent lingering in Oia and Fira (Likely for a fraction of what they're charging you for this).

[jdvmd]

Such a beautiful report! Thank you!

[pinkroses]

Hello Virtual Rain!

At your suggestion, we rented a car in Santorini and will ride the donkeys to the top! So we jump in the car and drive to Oia first ending in Fira? Our ship is in port with another, the Wind Star, from 7:00 am until 6:00 pm. We would like to lunch at the restaurant you did. Did you have reservations, or just went? I copied your maps as well. Is there any other advice you can offer? Thanks so much!

[VirtualRain]

Hello Virtual Rain!

At your suggestion, we rented a car in Santorini and will ride the donkeys to the top! So we jump in the car and drive to Oia first ending in Fira? Our ship is in port with another, the Wind Star, from 7:00 am until 6:00 pm. We would like to lunch at the restaurant you did. Did you have reservations, or just went? I copied your maps as well. Is there any other advice you can offer? Thanks so much!

 

Hey, great stuff. In any port, I always head to the furthest point I plan to visit first and then work my way back. It's just a wise way to ensure you don't run short of time while far away from the port/tender... so yeah, I would head to Oia first thing... Explore that in the morning and then head back and stop at Mama Thira restaurant for lunch, spending the remainder of the afternoon in Fira.

 

We didn't have or need reservations at the restaurant, it wasn't that busy.

 

Good luck, enjoy!

[pinkroses]

Hey, great stuff. In any port, I always head to the furthest point I plan to visit first and then work my way back. It's just a wise way to ensure you don't run short of time while far away from the port/tender... so yeah, I would head to Oia first thing... Explore that in the morning and then head back and stop at Mama Thira restaurant for lunch, spending the remainder of the afternoon in Fira.

 

We didn't have or need reservations at the restaurant, it wasn't that busy.

 

Good luck, enjoy!

 

THANKS! I am afraid I will want to live there!!!!!

[RockeyBullwinkle]

awesome post and pictures.. I have bookmarked this and your other DIY tours. We are planning to purchase a new P&S for the trip and wondered if you had an opinion comparing the Panasonic Lumix ZS20 vs the Canon PowerShot SX260? We really need something that will go into a shirt pocket or purse.

 

We have already reserved an ATV from Markos and I'm working on getting the wife to ride the mules up.

 

thanks for any help.. Mike & Sally

Edited June 4, 2013 by RockeyBullwinkle

[VirtualRain]

awesome post and pictures.. I have bookmarked this and your other DIY tours. We are planning to purchase a new P&S for the trip and wondered if you had an opinion comparing the Panasonic Lumix ZS20 vs the Canon PowerShot SX260? We really need something that will go into a shirt pocket or purse.

 

We have already reserved an ATV from Markos and I'm working on getting the wife to ride the mules up.

 

thanks for any help.. Mike & Sally

 

Good stuff. I'm not intimately familiar with those two cameras, but from what I understand the Panasonic has an HDR mode which could be a killer feature. The key weakness with any digital camera these days is dynamic range, and that's what HDR tries to address.

[BeTheRainbow]

Thank you for taking the time to post this. Great information and it definitely gets me so excited about our upcoming stop at this port!

[RockeyBullwinkle]

Good stuff. I'm not intimately familiar with those two cameras, but from what I understand the Panasonic has an HDR mode which could be a killer feature. The key weakness with any digital camera these days is dynamic range, and that's what HDR tries to address.

 

 

thanks, I don't expect to get anything close to the quality of your pictures.. just hoping for solid snapshots.

[cdwolf85]

This is the best DIY I have seen! Two places to stop for wine in one day :) the photos are amazing and we are going to hopefully follow this exact plan when we are there September 6th. We get into port at 7am with 3080 people on our ship the ruby princess, and another ship arrives at the same time. Hopefully it won't be too crowed to get up the hill!

[mommamd]

Thanks for the great pictures. Now to get someone to photoshop me into your pictures!!

[DreaAST]

Just wanted to say thanks for posting the google maps. I used your santorini and corfu ones last week! They made getting around simple! So thank you!

[cdwolf85]

Just wanted to say thanks for posting the google maps. I used your santorini and corfu ones last week! They made getting around simple! So thank you!

If you just used this last week how did the timing all work out. We will get the ATV at 8am and back on the ship by 6pm. We wanted to relax at the winery for a bit and then see the town too. Will we be pressed for time? any tips on using the map?

[DreaAST]

If you just used this last week how did the timing all work out. We will get the ATV at 8am and back on the ship by 6pm. We wanted to relax at the winery for a bit and then see the town too. Will we be pressed for time? any tips on using the map?

 

The timing worked well for us. However, we didnt go to the winery bc we don't care for wine. Instead we just drove around the island and stopped at some windmills and the black beach on the opposite side of the island from Oia. Our ship was docked noon-8pm. We had to get tender tickets around 9:30am and I got us boat 2 so we were off ASAP. We rode the donkeys to the top and rented the atv and drove to Oia. We stopped for some pics on the way then spent probably 2 hours or so in Oia. Would've been longer if we ate but I'm a way picky eater so it's just easiest for me to grab snacks along the way. Then we explored for awhile and turned the atv back in around 6 to spend some time in Fira. We took the last tender at 7:30 back to the ship. So I'd think you will be good time wise because you have more time then we did even.

No tips on the map really. I used an app called my places and those maps saved in there and the place I wanted to go to I pressed on and it opens in google maps on my phone. In santorini I really only used the map to find the atv place and the blue domed church over look.

Have a good trip! This was my favorite port out of all 6 cruises I've been on.

[cdwolf85]

Thanks! How long did it take you to get over to the black beach from Oia, we were hoping to add this in. What was the name of the beach that was closest?

[DreaAST]

The black beach is the whole coast opposite of Oia. But as you drive to Oia you will see where that coast is. Alls you need to do is from Oia is take one of the roads down the hill to this main road that runs along the coast. So about 5 minutes from oia to the black beaches. There are plenty of pull offs that you can walk down to the water. There was an actual resort over by the airport. That's where I went to the water. You can also find some lava rock around. I loved the black sand because it looked like it had glitter in it. I wish I could give you road names but we kinda just drove and looked at google maps to see what roads connected.

[DreaAST]

I just looked at a map. Looks like the beach spot closest to Oia is called paradise beach. Then the next spot is cape coulumbo. You will easily be able to add this in.

[cdwolf85]

Where you able to get google maps without a wifi connection?

 

 

Send from device_name using Cruise Critic your_app_name App

[DreaAST]

I was because I bought a data package before we left home. It was $25 for 100mb (or gb I get confused with this stuff) of data. Using google maps eats it quick tho. I had to renew 3 times during the week and I just used the service to use maps, email checking and to post a few pics quick to Instagram. I have Verizon and an iPhone so my phone has the SIM card built in. Some devices you have to buy a SIM card or something.

[ROSEBERRY]

VirtualRain, thank you very, very, much. This information will be so valuable to us, when we visit Santorini in Sept.

Like you, we like to do DIY tours and I thoroughly enjoy doing the research beforehand.

 

Cheers,

Kathy.

[cdwolf85]

As I have said we are planning to do almost this exact itinerary, but we are very worried about the amount of time. We were thinking of renting a car with another couple which would be cheaper than an ATV for each one of us, but I was wondering about parking and getting around the island in a car. Would that be hard? Is it easy to find parking for the ATV, but maybe harder with a car? Can you get closer to each sight faster with an ATV? Can you go much faster on the roads there in a car? Any thoughts would be appreciated!

[VirtualRain]

As I have said we are planning to do almost this exact itinerary, but we are very worried about the amount of time. We were thinking of renting a car with another couple which would be cheaper than an ATV for each one of us, but I was wondering about parking and getting around the island in a car. Would that be hard? Is it easy to find parking for the ATV, but maybe harder with a car? Can you get closer to each sight faster with an ATV? Can you go much faster on the roads there in a car? Any thoughts would be appreciated!

 

I think a car is better on all accounts except cost and maybe open air fun factor. There's plenty of parking and no accessibility options. I would do that too with a few people. Even for couples I saw SMART car rentals that looked like a good option but I don't know how they compare cost wise to an ATV.

[doctrd]

awesome post and pictures.. I have bookmarked this and your other DIY tours. We are planning to purchase a new P&S for the trip and wondered if you had an opinion comparing the Panasonic Lumix ZS20 vs the Canon PowerShot SX260? We really need something that will go into a shirt pocket or purse.

 

We have already reserved an ATV from Markos and I'm working on getting the wife to ride the mules up.

 

thanks for any help.. Mike & Sally

 

I have the ZS20 and absolutely love it. Had 3 previous models of that same series.

 

Here are the features I like:

Fits in my pocket!

Great zoom capability with excellent image stabilization.

Nice wide angle is great for those interior shots.

Fully manual for exposure if needed.

HDR, panoramic mode, even 3D photos (if have a 3 D TV)

High megapixel count.

GPS (just watch battery life, get some extra batteries)

 

I have many of my photos on large canvases in my office, and people always ask what kind of camera I have. They are amazed when I tell them it's a point and shoot....