Writing about Santorini is hard. This island is so uniquely beautiful, it has left a lasting imprint in my head, a mental picture that’s almost impossible to put in words. Pictures don’t do it justice either, just must visit!

Santorini was devastated by a volcanic eruption in the 16th century BC, forever shaping its rugged landscape. Looking at it from the cruise ship is like seeing a large and imposing rock with small human settlements way up top. The whitewashed, cubiform houses of its 2 principal towns, Fira and Oia, cling to cliffs above an underwater caldera (crater). They overlook the sea, small islands to the west and beaches made up of black, red and white lava pebbles.

Cruise ships have to tender in Santorini so waiting to get off can be nerve-wrecking, especially if (like in our case) the whole ship is excited to see the island.

Once off the tender boat we lined up to take the cable car up to the capital Fira. (For the hardcore hikers there is an option to walk of an extremely steep zig zag road.) The cable car ride to the top took about 3 min and was truly breathtaking with stunning views of the caldera, the sea and the volcano from a 220 meters altitude so the ride is totally worth it just for that reason.

In Fira, we rented a car for the day at the local Spiridakos rental agency. The rate was fantastic, the staff was lovely and gave us great advice about about the island. We proceeded to explore Santorini and drove all over the island. First we went to Black beach in Perissa, a long stretch of beautiful oceanfront with dark volcanic sand, breathtaking scenery and a few nice beach bars and food shacks around.

Afterwards we drove to red beach, a unique beach famed for its titular red-hued sand located steps away from the ancient site of Akrotiri. It’s takes a few min hike around the cliff to get there but the sight of the high, bright-red cliffs makes it well worth it.

We continued driving all over Santorini and eventually went up to Oia to watch the famous Santorini sunset. We had made dinner reservations at Ombra at Esperas Santorini hotel, one of the most romantic hotels in Santorini, offers a diverse Mediterranean cuisine with the perfect view of the sunset. The food was divine, the atmosphere and the sunset truly unforgettable. Here comes the part where I run out of ways to describe our experiences. Sufficient to say that our hearts were full when we returned to the ship at 10 pm that evening. We are determined to return to Santorini for a weeklong vacation.

Adriatic Sea & Greek Islands Cruise - Oct 2018

NYC, Caribbean and Miami Cruise - Oct 2017