Akrotiri Ruins and Oia

[Casey2]

Due to the horror stories I have heard about tendering in Santorini, we are interested in taking the RC excursion to the Akrotiri ruins and Oia. The tour is 4 and a half hours long. Does anyone know how long is spent in each place? Does this sound like enough time to see the two places?

Edited November 16, 2016 by Casey2

[CruiseIreland]

We did a similar tour with MSC in September but ours included a quick lunch, with wine, at Santos winery which has fabulous views over the caldera. Our tour was also 4.5hrs. After arriving at Oia, we had about 1HR 15m. Drove to Akrotiri and spent about an hour there. Our tour guide gave us a guided tour of the ruins which are under a roof. Lunch was rushed, tapas and very small glasses of wine but the view was terrific. One of the reasons we booked our first ever ship tour was that we were bussed back to the port to catch our own tender back to the ship, no cable car! Overall, it was very good. Akrotiri ruins are in poor state, no Pompeii!

[Casey2]

Do you feel that you had enough time at Akotiri and Oia?

[CruiseIreland]

Do you feel that you had enough time at Akotiri and Oia?

 

Yes, Oia is a fabulous photo opportunity. Our guide walked us to a viewpoint overlooking the caldera and just a few metres from the famous blue domes. Other than the photo opps, l didn't need too long in Oia. As I said above, the ruins at Akrotiri were a bit 'meh'. More time at the winery for photos and browsing the shop would have been nice. For us, avoiding the queue for the cable car made it worth it!

[VMax1700]

The ruins at Akrotiri were extremely interesting (when compared to viewing red beaches/black beaches or whatever). An hour is not enough time to view if you hire a guide for the information. The fact that the ruins are covered by a roof and has walkways and regular steps make is very easy to view, no matter how hard the sun is shining!

[cruisemom42]

Akrotiri ruins are in poor state, no Pompeii!

 

The Akrotiri ruins are about 1600 years older than those at Pompeii.

[Got2Cruise]

Due to the horror stories I have heard about tendering in Santorini, we are interested in taking the RC excursion to the Akrotiri ruins and Oia. The tour is 4 and a half hours long. Does anyone know how long is spent in each place? Does this sound like enough time to see the two places?

 

 

 

We did this tour. We were glad we took this tour. We were fascinated by Akrotiri because our guide pointed out all the amazing things we were observing and also some history about Santorini's geological history. Then onto Oia, our goal was to have a lovely lunch with an amazing view, which we did. Plenty of time to sip wine and enjoy the view of a lifetime. Also if you're a photo buff, Oia is where you want to go.

 

Then back to Fira, and plenty of shopping if one is interested.

[Hlitner]

We assume your tour will take you to Akritori (first) and most likely go to Oia as the last stop. At that point, if you want more time in Oia you could simply leave your tour (after informing the tour guide) and later make your way back to Fira via the regional bus or a taxi.

 

Hank

[Softball20]

We assume your tour will take you to Akritori (first) and most likely go to Oia as the last stop. At that point, if you want more time in Oia you could simply leave your tour (after informing the tour guide) and later make your way back to Fira via the regional bus or a taxi.

 

Hank

 

I'm kind of thinking of doing that next May - mostly to avoid the tenders with four ships all getting in at 7:00 a.m. and then another at 3:00! I'm also curious if the tours go to Akritori first; we will be on the Reflection. We really want to do the hike to Oia, however, and that won't be an option if we do the tour. I don't mind tendering and riding the cable car/donkey, I'm just concerned about how long this whole process will take given the volume of people.