GetSetJetSet

On Paros now, probably won't be able to write a proper update until I'm in Paris or during the brief stop back in NYC. Have to say, I DO NOT see the appeal of Paros as an island. By far the worst of the places we have visited in Greece on this trip. Will take the ferry to Antiparos today to see if it's any better. Would rank the islands we have visited:

1. Koufonisia (BY FAR #1 )
2. Naxos
3. Santorini
4. Crete (Elounda)
5. Paros

We'll see where Antiparos figures in. If anyone reading this has any suggestions for next summer re. Greek Islands...PLEASE tell me there are more like Koufonisia ^ . As the final few days of this wonderful Greek trip wind down, it FEELS like the end of summer, but I suppose there's still a month to go .

Yahtzee

You would think Anti-paros would be better than Paros by default (i could be a Russian comedian). Enjoying the report.

GetSetJetSet

A3 525
DME-SKG
Airbus A320-200
SX-DVK
Seat 12A
COACH
Flight #62 of 2019

I am no longer Star Gold, as I switched loyalties from UA to AA a half a decade back. As such, I try to stick to OneWorld carriers as much as possible. However, when traveling around Europe, and especially Greece that's not always an option. I end up on Aegean for 2-6 legs pretty much every summer. In the air they are one of the most comfortable carriers in Europe, but most of their phone agents and their IT systems are laughably bad, which can be frustrating.

A3 has implemented a "bid on upgrade" system. In the run up to this flight, I bid what I thought was a very reasonable 95Euro/person on the upgrade for the Moscow-Thessaloniki flight. A few days before the flight, A3 sent me an email saying they had declined my request. I tried to call in to see how much it would be to upfare to biz and pay the difference, but was told that it's not possible to do that, and the ONLY way to go from coach to biz is to bid on an upgrade. The agent suggest I bid...I told her I had already bid and it had been rejected, I was willing to pay the fare difference, but again...impossible.

I figured i'd give it a shot at the airport. We got to DME early. The guy at the A3 counters said there was only 1 biz seat left, so going into the specifics of how and if an upgrade could be done became a moot point. He then said he wanted to weigh our hand luggage. We travel all over the world with this luggage without issue, but some agents want to be difficult. He tried to tell my gf she had to repack her luggage or check it and pay like 60 euros. Since we already had our BPs, we told him we were going to repack the bags and return...then we just proceeded to security. Later nerd!

Security and immigration had almost no lines, it was one of my most painless exits from Russia. Also of note, we went to the Priority Pass Lounge in Sector A near Gate 1 and it was MUCH better than expected. It was bright, airy, had tons of seating and even a decent buffet. On previous visits, I had remembered every lounge at DME as being horrible, so this was a welcome surprise.

Things continued getting better from here. After boarding was completed, we found that no one had selected the aisle seat in our exit row, so my gf slid from her middle to the aisle and we had our own virtual eurobiz with even MORE legroom, for less $. Thanks for letting me keep the $ I was trying to give you for that upgrade A3! I'll crush some ouzo on you! On top of that, while BA does not even give coach passengers water, A3 served a FULL HOT MEAL on a short intra-Europe flight! What is this, 1955? There was a babaganoush starter, a main of orzo with chicken in tomato sauce, a piece of cheese with a warm roll and cookies. Of course there was also beverage service with the meal and tea and coffee after. LOL @ BA.

The flight was very empty and quite pleasant. Soon we were descending into Thessaloniki to start our three week adventure in Greece.

GetSetJetSet

Thessaloniki/Golden Star Resort

There's not much I can say about Thessaloniki. It's now another one of those places that i've "been" to, but never actually been to. A few years ago after a fantastically destructive week and a half on Mykonos, I had my first run in with SKG. A buddy and I were on the same flights from JMK through SKG to Paris. Due to the Greek nature of things, the flight out of JMK was massively delayed and by the time we landed at SKG, it was after our scheduled departure for Paris. We were already well into researching hotels and bars in Thessaloniki as the plane taxied to a stop. Luckily (I guess) the SKG-CDG flight was ALSO massively delayed, so we were able to make our connection and continue as planned.

This time was to be a slightly longer, but no more eventful stop. The A3 flight in from Moscow landed after 9pm, and we had a flight out to Crete shortly after 6am the following morning.

As such, I booked a place that looked close to the airport and reasonably comfortable, The Golden Star.

SKG was pretty well done for the day by the time we landed, but as were coming from Russia, we had to queue up for an immigration nightmare line. Once through that, we hopped into a cab and set off for the hotel. It was a serious rip off of about 20euro for the 12-15 minute drive to the hotel. Check-in was quick, the hotel seemed to be near the seaside and I assume was in a busy area, it looked like there were restaurants and bars in the vicinity. I just wanted to sleep, I was dreading the 4:45am alarm from the moment we landed in Greece.

The desk clerk gave us a key, and as soon as we entered room 101, the smell was unbearable. In an earlier portion of this summer report (June), I discussed a bio hazard smell coming from the toilet of a room I was shown at the St. Regis in Moscow...this was every bit as bad. A serious war crime. We called the desk and he told us to come fetch a key for a new room.

The hotel was everything I expected for $80-90 USD/night. The aircon was strong, the bed was a King, it was clean and I passed out quickly after we settled into the new, non-smelly room.

One of these days I will go to Thessaloniki and actually GO there. I've heard it's nice.

GetSetJetSet

OA 570 (A3 7570)
SKG-HER
Airbus A320-200
SX-DVK
Seat 12A
COACH
Flight #63 of 2019

I'm not exactly sure what the A3/OA dynamic is. As I understand it, back in the day Olympic Airways was the flag carrier of Greece, they flew nonstop to Australia, Asia, N.America, etc...at some time in the 90's I suppose their fortunes began to wane and in 2009 (after I actually flew with them once in 2008!) they were sold by the government to private investors who basically hacked the airline up for spare parts (correct me if i'm wrong). So now Olympic, whose code was changed form OP to OA exists really in name only. They have Olympic livery on the Dash 8 fleet, but all the Airbus say Aegean and really they seem to just be a subsidiary like American Eagle would be to American. If anyone with more knowledge would like to flesh this out...go for it.

Anyway, to further my point that OA is just A3 by another name, my SKG-HER flight was an Olympic Flight, but sold by Aegean and operated by the same Aegean A320 (exactly the same aircraft, same registration) that I flew in from DME on the previous evening.

Same aircraft, same seat, different crew. There isn't much to say about a 50 minute domestic flight. I will give further kudos to A3/OA, because even on this very short domestic hop, there were snacks and beverages served. Your thoughts BA?

Thessaloniki was really just a transit stop, but Crete would be the first island on this summer tour. The full itin would be Crete-Santorini-Naxos-Koufonisia-Paros/Antiparos. For YEARS I have wanted to properly explore Greece over a few weeks but I've never had the time. My experiences prior to this summer had been limited to seeing Athens and a few summer trips to Mykonos. Time for a NEW ADVENTURE!

GetSetJetSet

BYE RUSSIA!

PRIORITY PASS LOUNGE DME

A320 to Thessaloniki

A3 A320 EXIT ROW SEATS

A MEAL IN COACH! ...!

GOLDEN STAR THESSALONIKI

Our "usual" A320 for the SKG-HER leg

GetSetJetSet

CRETE (Elounda) PART 1/Elounda Bay Palace Hotel

When I started drawing this summer up, I initially booked TWO nights in Elounda, because I found a good rate on the Elounda Bay Palace Hotel, and wrongfully assumed that being a LHW property still meant something. As we got closer to travel time, I decided I didn't want to add any more nights to our Santorini stay, and that it didn't make sense to try to cram another island in between Crete and Santorini, so I added two additional nights in Elounda, but decided to try a different hotel that my TA recommended. So, in the end it would be two nights at the Elounda Bay Palace Hotel then two nights at Elounda Gulf Villas.

Additionally, another couple we are friends with in NY, had just finished up a DISASTROUS stay in St. Tropez, and decided to meet us in Crete, so we'd all be together at Elounda Bay, then they would depart for Amsterdam before heading back to NYC in time for the start of law school classes.

After landing in Heraklion, we went to the taxi rank. I had read online that HER to Elounda should be 75euro one way, so I balked when the driver quoted me 98euro. When I said "Isn't it 75?" The driver took me to the posted route map with fixed rates from HER to various parts of the island, and it indeed read "98e" for HER to Elounda, so I agreed and off we went.

As soon as we arrived at Elounda Bay Palace, I started to think that perhaps LHW's standards have slipped. The hotel looked very 1970s, in that it was likely constructed then, and never refreshed. Still, I figured let's wait and see. When we got to the check-in desk, the woman behind the counter, who was very nice told me we had been upgraded from the entry level room we booked to a bungalow, I assumed this was because I am a Leaders Club member. While that may have played a part in it, she added "it's your Honeymoon right?" I stupidly blurted out "no," then the other woman who had escorted us to the desk nudged me and was like "just say yes..." so I fumbled and said something like "Oh yes, I mean, yes it IS our Honeymoon!" With everyone agreeing to continue playing along with this poorly sold fiction, we were told that the room was not yet ready, but we could have breakfast in the interim. The girl also mentioned that we had half board, with breakfast AND dinner included in our rate. This should have been another red flag. When do any nice hotels include dinner in their rates and for that matter when do any nice hotels have dinner buffets?

We went up to the very crowded and child filled breakfast room and waited until the room was ready.

On the way to being shown our room, we ran into our friends on the beach and told them we'd join them shortly. They were QUITE happy to be out of France. The previous summer, we had rented a house with them and a number of other people in St. Tropez. Afterwards, we all went to the couple's house in Cap Ferrat before continuing our road trip to San Remo, Lake Como, Forte Dei Marmi (where on of my friends was STABBED in the FACE with a box cutter at Capenina). Pisa. Florence and finally Rome, with people falling off one by one through the various stops until it was just me and my gf by Florence. THIS summer, they had opted NOT to join on the St. Tropez dates we wanted and instead went a week or so later. They had fronted the $ for a big house and had largely filled it with friends of friends. When we were all together in Monaco, I told them about my nightmare scenario with our rental being rented out from under us and scrambling to find another property last minute. I remember then, at Sass Cafe, the girl we will call L, saying to her bf J "that won't happen to us right?" He assured her it would not...a foolish assumption to make!

The day they were due to check in, the vrbo landlord they had rented from (and paid) told them he wasn't getting enough $, so they would have to pay him DOUBLE what they had agreed upon or he wouldn't let them have the house. Also, they should pay the extra in cash and do it outside the app. They refused. A similar situation unfolded with the next landlord vrbo paired them with, and in the end...all of them became homeless the day they arrived in St. Tropez. As it was still high high season, vrbo couldn't even find a suitable hotel, or any hotel at all to house them for their entire stay. I think they ended up being put in a nice hotel for 2 nights, a DUMP for 2-3 nights and at that point my friend and his gf decided enough was enough and left for Cap Ferrat. At the time of this writing, he's still out the thousands of dollars he paid through vrbo for the house they had never been allowed to actually use due to the owner trying to extort a double fee, as well as various other $ he had splashed out that vrbo had agreed to reimburse. The lesson is of course, by all means find a house but NEVER be the guy who advance the $. ALWAYS make everyone pay you in full in advance an DO NOT try to organize trips like this with randoms. I don't care if they're friends of friends. Unless they are GOOD FRIENDS and you KNOW you can trust them...don't do it.

Back to Greece...The room itself was spacious, although not exactly well decorated or modern. Still, it had a big bed and a bathtub, so I was happy. Almost happy...the aircon appeared to be broken and as it was 90+ degrees in Greece, this was not going to work. The desk said they would send someone to fix it, and we should enjoy the beach, it would be fixed when we returned. We stupidly took them at their word, changed and went to join our friends on the beach.

The turned into beach--->lunch-->enough lunch drinks to require a siesta. When we got back to the room, the aircon was still not fixed. The hotel said they would send a technician again. We asked WHY they didn't already do that if they were aware the first guy hadn't fixed it. We also asked about moving to another room. We were told 1. no rooms of the same category were available, 2. they would not upgrade us to a higher category room because it was "too expensive," 3. we could be downgraded to an entry level room and shouldn't complain because that's what we booked anyway.

I don't know about you, but if I am upgraded to a room that is defective, the service recovery is not to make me repack my stuff, be downgraded to a lesser room and told to be happy with it anyway. I looked at some of the rooms they were offering us and all of them were vastly inferior and I refused them. After the second round of technician work on the aircon it puttered along a little better but wasn't functioning the way it should. I know this was a room specific issue, because in all of the inferior rooms we were shown and in our friend's room the aircon functioned normally. Great job Elounda Bay! Outdated, broken rooms and attitude.

We had dinner with our friends at the hotel and turned in early that first night. We were still pretty beat from the 4:45am wakeup, the travel in from Moscow and on to Crete and the lunchtime alcohol party.

Day 2 was much better. The small beach at the hotel was jammed, so we set up shop at the pool closest to our room and our friends joined us there. We spent most of the day swimming and tanning, save for a brief break to ride jetskis in the bay. As it got on to late afternoon, our friends departed for a nap and my gf and I went over to the hotel's sister property Elounda Beach to play tennis. That evening, our friends came over to our room (they were VERY curious about it, since they had not been upgraded )we crushed the complimentary hotel wine and some ouzo on our patio then took a taxi into Agios Nikolaos and had a WONDERFUL dinner at a small taverna called To Pareaki. We found it through tripadvisor reviews, but when we turned up and saw a menu with pictures we became very skeptical. The food erased that skepticism very quickly. Everything was wonderful, so good that my gf and I returned on our final night for a second round. After dinner, we walked around the surprisingly quiet town (I had read it was a brit chav unz unz rage town) had a few drinks then called it fairly early, as our friends had an early AM flight out of Heraklion to Rotterdam.

My final thoughts on the hotel are...it was badly outdated, too big, filled with families and children (I was told they often sell this hotel as part of vacation packages). The rooms were a bit shabby but not egregiously so. Had the aircon worked, that would have been a positive. The gym was a joke, the beach was nice but very small and perennially overcrowded. The food on property was horrible and overpriced, as was everything else, I think I was gouged 37euro for suntan lotion!? Given the plethora of 5-star hotels in Elounda, and the relative lousiness of this place, I wouldn't return, and we were glad to leave and move on to a new hotel after two nights there.

GetSetJetSet

ELOUNDA BAY PALACE ROOM



"UNIQUE" Hotel Pool

HOTEL GROUNDS





SOUVLAKI AND BEER THAT'S WHAT ELOUNDA DOES!

GetSetJetSet

CRETE PART 2/ELOUNDA GULF VILLAS

With our two nights at Elounda Bay Palace done, we were very ready to move on. Our next stop would be just up the road at the Eloudna Gulf Villas, a member of Small Luxury Hotels. I believe a taxi was arranged for 10e, and after breakfast we got moving.

It was instantly a better vibe at Elounda Gulf, much smaller, more private and much higher quality service. At check-in, we were told that we had been upgraded to a spa suite. The staff took us up to the room by buggy. Now, I don't want to look like all I do is complain about upgrades, but I don't know WHAT the hotel was thinking with this "spa suite" concept. The "Senior Suite" I had booked, was a 75 sq mt room with a living room, bedroom, large marble bathroom and generally lots of space and seating. The "spa suite" was a perhaps 30 sq mt room with just a bedroom and no seating area, lousy decor and a small bathroom with a shower and no tub. The perks of this room, were that it was perched on top of the hill with great views of the sea, and it had a private plunge pool. Unfortunately, the location of this plunge pool meant that the small lounging area was never in the sun, so it would be impossible to tan, AND the room was quite far from the hotel common pool. Beyond that, the hotel missed a huge opportunity here to create truly special rooms. The "spa suites" have gated entry to each room and a brief walkway to the cramped room up top attached to the plunge pool. There is an exterior stair that goes down below to a HUGE space that looks like an unfinished basement with a 1/2 bath, that is the "spa" area, where you can choose to have in-roomish massages. This is just an unforgivable waste of space, as the useless basement area is larger than the room itself. HAD the hotel made the staircase interior instead of exterior and made the "bedroom" area a living room attached the deck/plunge pool upstairs, with the bedroom and a proper bathroom downstairs instead of this useless "massage area" most people don't use, then this would be a truly exceptional duplex suite with great views and a plunge pool. They could charge 4x as much/night for it and people would pay.

Instead, they squandered their potential, and this room was so lousy, that I asked if it might be possible to see the lower category room we'd actually booked. They obliged, and after seeing the original room, we politely declined the upgraded and opted to stay in the room class we originally booked. They probably thought we were crazy .

With the room situation settled, we unpacked our bags and went down to the hotel pool which was very close to our room. There were only two other people there and it was lovely and private, we swam for a bit, tanned then had the free mezze lunch that came bundled with our rate. We spent the balance of the day in the sun by the pool then took a cab to Plaka that evening and had another lovely dinner at a taverna called Maria's. The food wasn't quite as exceptional as To Pareaki but the proprietor was very friendly, the food was good and they had one of the most obese cats i've ever seen prowling from table to table eating whatever scraps could be found. The appropriately named named "fat cat" was a bit of a diva and if you weren't putting food in his face, he had very little interest in being social.

After dinner, we returned to the hotel. Our final day in Elounda would be a bit more eventful.

We took a taxi from Elounda Gulf to Elounda town and walked along the seaside from there to Plaka. Once in Plaka, we went down to the waterfront and used the free tickets the hotel had provided us with for the boat ride to Spinalonga. While the boat was free, entry to Spinalonga island is 8euro/person. Spinalonga was once a contiguous part of Crete, but during Venetian rule it had been cleaved off and made into an island fortress. After the Venetians it was a trading post for the Ottomans and most recently it was a leper colony. I believe that stretched into the late 1950's. After doing sufficient research to assure myself that there was no possibility of latent leprosy strains waiting for us on the island we set off climbing and exploring the surprisingly dangerous island. There are no "caution" signs or roped off areas in Greece, so it's really an explore at your own peril sort of situation. The island was quite neat, we had a lovely time there and spent a few hours before heading back to Plaka for a look at the town in daylight.

After exhausting the handful of streets in Plaka, we had the hotel show us their pitiful beach club. While Elounda Gulf was a vastly superior hotel overall, it was not right on the sea, and the beach club was not only lousy but a 15+ minute drive from the hotel. There's a free shuttle, but still. Better to stay by the pool. That night we returned to Agios Nikolaos and had dinner at To Pareaki again. After dinner we strolled the somewhat livelier streets of town for a bit before returning home to pack. We would have another early AM wakeup to get to Heraklion in time for our morning ferry to Santorini.

Final thoughts on Elounda Gulf Villas. The biggest negative is that the hotel isn't RIGHT on the sea. There's no beach. Driving 15+ minutes to a small and lousy beach club simply doesn't cut it. That being said, the pool was nice, quiet and fairly private. The grounds were in great shape, the rooms were all so much better than Elounda Bay Palace that it's not even worth comparing and the staff at Elounda Gulf were all very professional, polished, knowledgeable and friendly. It's insane that both hotels are classed the same as 5-stars when Elounda Bay Palace doesn't belong in the same league. I would not hesitate to return to Elounda Gulf, although as mentioned there are many 5-stars in the area, so I might be tempted to try a new hotel just to see what's out there. A very enjoyable stay, and I believe that Small Luxury Hotel members are affiliated with Hyatt, so you earn Hyatt nights/points.

GetSetJetSet

"Upgrade" to Spa Suite, this was literally the whole room

View & Plunge Pool...no thanks!

View and balcony from our voluntary downgrade

Living Room

Bedroom

Bathroom

Hotel Pool

Taverna Maria's & FAT CAT



Elounda Town and the walk to Plaka




Spinalonga



Hotel Beach Club

To Pareaki Round 2

GetSetJetSet

Back in NYC for ~22 hours. My AA J flight CDG-JFK upgraded with a SWU earned less EQD than expected. I thought it would be the same $380 EQD I earned on the JFK-CDG segment, but it was less than $200...I am now $76 FREAKING DOLLARS short of hitting the EQD to requal EXP (but sitting at almost 137k EQM) which means STILL NO NEW SWU. I have been eyeing up seats for 2020 that are wide open and was going to book 2x today but now I will have to wait until Tuesday's flights post and hope the C-space is still there. I mean come on AA...$76 short with 5 AA metal flights next week, just throw me a bone here and give me early SWU!

Fairly exhausted. Need to unpack, repack for this wedding, flying private tomorrow should be hassle free at least .

I don't think I can write anything coherent today, but I will try to close Greece out and get us caught up while I am in Maine. Cheers!

EDIT: Change to the Tulum portion of this itin. My proposed hotel "Ana y Jose" informed me they're closing for renovation work and refunded my money, so we are now booked at La Zebra. Had cocktails there last time in Tulum, seemed nice enough and I believe they are part of Small Luxury Hotels and thus earn Hyatt nights/points.

GetSetJetSet

Some GREAT updates due to travel SNAFUS:

1. My night at the Kempinski in Munich did not happen. I booked a very low rate ($494 all in) through Amoma. As some of you may know, amoma went out of business. Even though I prepaid the entire amount on 3/30/19, apparently amoma never paid this onward to the hotel and as they received no $ they cancelled my reservation less than a week before my scheduled arrival during the start of Oktoberfest...lovely. I got ZERO notice of this. Luckily I asked my TA if he could take over control of the booking and add select benefits to it, and the hotel informed HIM it had been cancelled and the best rate they could offer was roughly 2x the price. Thankfully my buddy and I were able to extend our stay at The Westin by one night. Even though it's a dump of a hotel, it was a roof over our heads, didn't require a move and wasn't horribly priced. I guess now I will have to fight with my bank to get the amoma $ back.

2. On the back end of Oktoberfest, I was scheduled to fly MUC-LHR-KWI in BA J on an avios award. About 16hrs before the flight, BA cancelled it due to weather. They rebooked me on what I assumed was the only other MUC-LHR flight that day, some 6 hours after my scheduled flight. When I got to the airport I saw there were in fact earlier BA flights with seats, but they were unable to change my ticket and get me out early. Of course, my new flight was delayed and eventually the updated arrival time was about 18 minutes before the LHR-KWI departure, and it became clear I wouldn't make the connection. After 30-40m on hold I got a BA agent who told me phone agents can't rebook on non-partners and to find an airport agent. There was no one to be found. At the 11th hour, I located two BA FA's walking with a girl in a dirindl and explained my situation. The girl in the dirindl told me it was impossible and the phone center had to do it. I told her the phone center said the opposite. She told me she wasn't even regular full time BA and didn't think it was possible, but she'd try for me. We walked over to the gate, she set down the pack of Marlboro Menthols she'd been carrying and a few keystrokes later, BAM! I had ticket #s for EY. She encouraged me to take a picture of the info on the screen, then walk to T2 to check-in to EY. Somehow it all worked and so that portion of the trip is now MUC-AUH-KWI in EY J. Lousy seats since I had last choice, but it beats being stranded in LHR.

I will write some longer updates from Kuwait and Bahrain. I'd planned to catch up from the 7 hour layover in LHR today, but things rarely go as planned. Lots of moving pieces this summer (although I guess now it's fall, as we're past Sept. 23!).

GetSetJetSet

OK, I am finally settled back in NY and working on the rest of this report. If anyone can tell me what is going on with the Flyertalk interface and why it seemingly won't let me post more than 1-3 pictures per post that would be excellent, there was no problem until recently. Now I will add a picture and it deletes all the previously uploaded ones. It's really annoying.

Santorini/Anastassis Apartments

After a lovely stay in Crete, it was time to take the ferry. The great thing about Greece, is that while we would be spending several weeks traveling around the country, we wouldn't have to board another flight until it was time to go home. Cruising from island to island by ferry is quite convenient, comfortable and cheap.

When I was sketching this trip out, I pictured, small spartan ferries...this was not the case. Our Heraklion to Santorini ferry was on the Minoan Lines "Santorini Palace." This thing was the size of a small cruise ship, and we were positively shocked by how comfortable it was inside.

After we shoved off for the ~2-2.5 hour journey, a waitress brought me an iced coffee and my gf and I chatted for the duration of the trip. I had read horror stories about the arrival in Santorini. Hundreds of steps covered in donkey excrement with no choice but to walk up, ride a donkey up or wait ages for a cable car. That was the OLD Fira Port, the one that the hordes of tourist day trippers are forced to deal with. All the ferry lines now arrive to the new port.

While the new port is hardly "nice," it's fairly convenient. The ferry dumps you out, there are a few taxis (we had arranged transport in advance) and once the bags are loaded you head uphill on a switchback road. The traffic can get pretty brutal right before and after a ferry calls, but overall it was painless, and after all we were inside a nice air conditioned car.

Our driver dropped another group off at some other hotel, then deposited us at Anastassis Apartments.

I had found this place through on old and now former friend. After nearly 20 years of friendship, this guy snapped and blocked my # and all social media because he was really THAT angry that I didn't vote for his favorite political candidate in 2016. It's really sad how broken some people's brains have become over the past few years, but let's endeavor to keep politics out of this...

Anyway, our last conversation, prior to him informing me out of the blue that he would be blocking my # due to my political beliefs was a discussion of Santorini hotels. He had come to Santorini on his honeymoon and stayed at Anastassis and has been raving about it ever since. Back when he was a sane individual, I generally trusted his opinion on things like restaurants and hotels, so this was a good starting point. The rooms were very reasonably priced, appeared to have great views and the reviews on tripadvisor and the like were glowing. I think it's 5.0/5.0 on tripadvisor and people heaped superlatives on the hotel, claiming service was even BETTER than Amans. While this strained the limits of credulity, I was heartened that the people writing these reviews were 1. aware of Aman hotels, 2. had stayed at them previously and 3. still had a favorable opinion of Anastassis. I had cautiously high hopes.

I was skeptical as we entered the check in area and after coming from such a nicely appointed room in Elounda, and a bit let down by the decor and general aesthetic of the room at Anastassis, however, I could not fault the layout of the hotel or the view. It would all get better from here and I would become fully converted by the truly perfect service the hotel provides.

After our check-in was complete, the hotel asked us about certain preferences and informed us that they would serve breakfast to our specifications on our terrace each morning at the hour we desired, around 3-4pm every day there would be coffee or tea and small snacks served in our room or on our terrace and around 7-8pm wine or cocktails of our choosing also served in the room or on the terrace with more light bites. One could get used to this sort of pampering.

After the long journey in, I was itching to get moving, so we dropped our bags and set off on a hike. For some reason, I had got in my head that the thing to do was to hike the caldera path from our hotel all the way to Oia. This is several miles of hiking up and down and some of it along paths of loose rock. The hotel advised us to do the hike in the AM or late afternoon, but I decided the hottest part of the day would be best, so off we went.

It was a very nice hike, although I did not LOVE certain parts where the path seemed to ride the cliff edge with a sheer drop into the sea, but still it wasn't too bad. The worst was to come when we arrived in Oia.

I am sure you have seen pictures of Oia, it's what people think all of Santorini looks like. I was expecting something a LOT more charming. The hordes of Chinese tourists (and others lacking any tact or class) were thronged all up and down town and really there was nothing to do but try not to be shoved while picking ones way in between trinket shops. Needless to say I was NOT amused. We took a look at the windmills and the castle and then sat down to have some ouzo. It was of course massively over priced, because Oia. Our initial plan had been to stay until sunset, but as we both hated Oia and sunset was hours away, we decided that we would leave, then return for dinner the following night because seeing Oia at sunset was a "must do" thing, even though at this point we were quite confident it would be horrible.

We caught a bus back towards Anastassis and bailed at Thassos Tavern, then walked slightly back up the road to the hotel and hit the pool. While we lounged in the sun the staff brought us our afternoon coffee, then later they served us locally made wine on our terrace as watched an absolutely phenomenal sunset. At this point we were pretty beat, so we decided to eat at Anastassis and ordered something from the kitchen, it was also excellent.

Starting on Day 2, our ATV arrived. I picked it up in the AM, and after a lovely breakfast on our terrace, we took off to explore the island. We got slightly lost on our way to the lighthouse, then eventually found it and were confused as to why anyone would waste their time going there...highly underwhelming. Our next stop was Akrotiri. It was OK, you need a LOT of color and imagination to conjure up a picture of what that place was really like. Having recently been to Pompeii and Paestum, we were less than blown away.

After our culture tour wrapped up we went down to Perissa and Perivolos and spent some time lying in the sun on the black sand beaches. As a final stop, we swung by Red Beach, but decided it would have to wait until tomorrow as we needed to get home and freshen up before dinner.

We showered, dressed then took our trusty ATV into Oia. The hotel had made a reservation for us at a restaurant in town that they vouched for and said had a good sunset view. This would prove to be their only misstep. The meal was perhaps the worst we had during our entire stay in Greece and the view was mediocre at best. On top of that it cost 2-3x what most of our meals cost. We rushed through this slop as the sun sunk below the horizon.

Oia was disgustingly packed. It had been crowded the previous day, but now it was jammed in shoulder to shoulder "someone is going to trample you to death if you fall down" style packed. It was a nightmare. Thankfully most of these people were also quite stupid and the very second the sun slid below the waves they turned and made for the exits. Little did they know that the most beautiful part of the sunset is often 20-30 minutes after, when the colors are the best. Lucky for us, we were able to swim upstream against the crowd and get to the best vantage point, which at this point was somewhat deserted. We looked out over Oia as the burning pink-orange sky slowly intensified and deepened in color and then faded to black as the lights of the town began to click on and night settled in. Once it was well and truly black, we got back on our ATV and returned to Anastassis.

Upon arrival we were greeted with a somewhat strange surprise. The hotel has a "spa" area located in a subterranean portion of the hotel with a warm pool, massage area, showers, etc...when we got home, they told us they had reserved that entire portion of the hotel for our private use until midnight and provided us with complimentary champagne and strawberries. Then they added "and the cameras are all turned off" with a *wink wink* sort of vibe. It was a BIT strange. They had scattered rose petals everywhere and made a heart out of petals on the floor as well. The hotel staff really go the extra mile, although of course we joked that this was all a scheme and the cameras were definitely still on and recording. Who knows!

After another wonderful, relaxing breakfast on the terrace, we started Day 3 by returning to Red Beach. Now to get to Red Beach you have to climb from the parking over some rocks. As you get on the path there, a sign clearly says something like "Danger: Do no go this way" but of course no one pays attention. The beach was a bit overcrowded, but otherwise nice. Once we started to get sunburned, we drove over to Pyrgos. While Fira and Oia are awful, terrible tourist choked dumps, Pyrgos is a small town that doesn't get nearly the same crush of people. We explored in peaceful solitude, then had a scenic lunch at Penelope's which the hotel described as a sort of "grandma kitchen." The food and view were wonderful and it was just what we'd been looking for.

On the way back to Anastassis we stopped in Fira because we had to. It was every bit as horrible as we expected. Hordes and hordes of cruise ship people, nothing but tourist shops and there's even a freaking McDonalds...

We got back to the hotel a bit before sunset and the hotel informed us they had reserved the hot tub on the top floor for our private use during sunset. We relaxed there and took cocktails while watching our final majestic Santorini sunset.

While I am not likely to return to Santorini anytime soon, since the tourist hordes in Fira and Oia are truly unbearable and there's not much to do on the island, those sunsets are really something special and I won't soon forget them. The hotel had sparkling service and I would highly recommend staying there if you happen to visit Santorini, you get value well beyond the price tag. Overall it was a relaxing and really great few days on Santorini.

GetSetJetSet

SANTORINI PHOTOS

Sorry for the link, but it's impossible to get the photos uploaded until FT fixes whatever is messing up the interface and having the photos constantly deleted is incredibly annoying.

GetSetJetSet

ONE SUNSET