Santorini – A slice of Greek Island culture Part 2

For the final day I was a bit undecided as to whether I should hire a car or moped or something and do a bit of a driving tour of the island or go back to Fira and do a boat tour of the lagoon which I had seen advertised whilst down on the landing the previous day.

I figured with the bus trips I had been taking and some of the great scenery I had been able to view I had a pretty good sense of what the island had to offer and that the couple of other towns on the island would be much the same as what I had seen.

While I wouldn’t have minded having a swim at a beach, the weather was actually on the coolish side, pleasant but I prefer the temperature to be quite hot before I inch my way into cold water, plus I have to admit that I don’t find many beaches traveling overseas that compare to the beautiful beaches we have in Western Australia, so in the end I opted for the bout tour.

These usually left in the late morning or the afternoon or there was a longer all day one. I chose the version that took you over to the small island in the centre of the lagoon (Nea Kameni) which was meant to have evidence of the volcanic activity that still takes place beneath Santorini and then you had the option of going swimming in bay that had some water also warmed by the volcanic activity.

So firstly I took a bit more of a look around Oia with some more obligatory photo and then caught the bus to Fira to do a bit more exploring.

I then went down to the landing and off we went. The boat tour consisted of a short trip to the centre island after which we were told we would have about 90 minutes to climb up to the top of the island before having to descend back down and be back at the boat to ensure we weren’t left behind.

So off everyone jumped and up we all started to climb on the loose, gravel/shale tracks. The climb wasn’t too difficult if you are in half reasonable shape, but near the top, the amazing evidence that volcanic activity was still occurring was in a small depression there was a slight amount of steam escaping from a hole and a sort of sulfury smell in the air……..

It wasn’t exactly like reaching the top of Mount Everest or looking down into a fiery, volcanic abyss……

A small climb further up and you reached the summit of the island which had some nice 360 degree views. There was someone there who gave a short little talk at a couple of points in the climb, but after reaching the top and taking in the view it was time to start descending again.

On re-boarding the boat we pulled out and headed around the island to a the small bay, but because it was so shallow the boat couldn’t get in there and so people who wanted to swim had to jump into some cold water and swim over to the warm water.

As I mentioned that getting into cold water (at least jumping rather than slowly inching to adjust) isn’t really my thing, and so although I had brought bathers I elected to stay on the boat and just watch for 10 minutes and take a few photos of some mountain goats up on a bluff looking down into the bay.

After that we headed back to Fira. All up the tour was about 3.5 hours long and cost approximately 15 Euro. Was it worth it? It was something to do, but probably won’t be a memorable experience that will stay with me a long time.

The thing was I found on Santorini, me personally anyway, that there wasn’t a great deal to do there. Maybe I went to the wrong places and if I had gone to a beach area there might have been more water sports available? Maybe because it wasn’t full on tourist season that not as many tourist operators were open and marketing themselves?

I did see in one or two places some diving tours being promoted but I wasn’t really looking to do that on this trip. So apart from hiring a vehicle and driving around, doing this sort of boat tour to the other local islands, or maybe going to several of the pubs in parts of Fira it seemed to me that there wasn’t exactly a great deal to do on Santorini.

This might suffice if you are travelling with a group from say a cold country and just wanting to get away for a bit of partying and lying on some beaches, but I personally would probably struggle to not get bored after a certain amount of time as just lying around grows old with me after a bit while for others its what they love.

I compare that to some of the tropical islands in Asia where diving, snorkeling, white water rafting, zoos, elephant rides, adventure activities, visits to temples and shopping complexes, water parks etc, etc are all available and at reasonable prices as well.

I guess it’s a different experience that Santorini offers, but I actually pictured there being more to do, more on offer. From that point of view, and with my extra interest in photography and a bit of culture, I thought my three days were about enough for me on my visit to Santorini.

After the boat tour I did a bit more looking around Fira again before heading back to Oia for some last hours of having a look around before turning in.

Next morning was packing up and taking a shuttle back to the airport before a short 30 minute flight back to Athens.

So all up about Santorini, I found it an island with some beautiful scenery and some very picturesque towns and architecture. I thought some of the other activities and diversions I would typically expect on one of the premier holiday islands you hear talked about were a little lacking.

You could certainly go there for 3-7 days depending on what your interests and focus were and have an enjoyable get away from it all or if on a cruise and stopping for a day you could probably have a good look around Fira and the very picturesque view down to the lagoon, but you may be swamped with tourists if you tried to do the coach rides out to Oia and back to the cruise ship.

If you’re in that area of the Mediterranean though Santorini is well worth a visit just to experience some of those beautiful sunsets.

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