Greece, where to begin… I have always wanted to go to Greece. I still regret not visiting this amazing country while I was living in Israel for a year back in 2012. It’s like an hour and a half flight from Israel. Instead I traveled to Europe, which was amazing, don’t get me wrong. But my advice would be to anyone who is already in Asia, stay on that side of the world and travel to places that are 12+ hours from New York and the states.

Anyways to get back on track… We took a 12am flight from NY and arrived in Athens at 4:15 pm. We tried to only sleep for a few hours so that we would be able to sleep and not be jet lagged when we arrived. This worked!

We took a 35-minute flight from Athens to Santorini. Their airport is tiny! There is only one luggage carousel.

We had arranged with the hotel to be picked up and brought back to the villa. The First 3 days of our trip we spent with my family. The perks of traveling with family (at least for me) are that they stay in lovely expensive places that we couldn’t afford haha! We stayed at the Nafsika Estate, which is a private villa with personal butler and staff. It had 5 bedrooms, 2 kitchens, fully stalked with fruits, snacks, drinks and a private pool with lounge chairs and an incredible view!

This place was a dream! If you are going with a family and have the budget to do this, I highly recommend it! It comes with a personal chef as well so you can order whatever food or drinks you want. Being kosher observant, the kitchen was great because we could bring our own pan and they had a lot of kosher ingredients so we didn’t go hungry! The staff coordinated our tours and reservations. This made the days go very smoothly as we needed for nothing.

Day 1-

We did an island tour arranged by the hotel in a private van. It was great to have a guide tell us the amazing history of the island as well as take us to the main spots. We visited the Akortiri Ruins, which was incredible, rich in history and tradition. This is a must see if you enjoy culture and history.

We went to different viewpoints and saw the island from many different angles. Next we visited the city of Oia. This is the most popular part of Santorini, known for its white houses on the edge of the island and for an incredible sunset. We just roamed the city and took in the glorious views.

We ended our day at the Ovac restaurant. They had incredible views of the sunset and delicious drinks.

Day 2-

My mom has gotten into diving. By diving I mean SCUBA DIVING. I tried it once before in Eilat in Israel and I found it very scary and uncomfortable. I couldn’t get over that this machine that I was holding in my mouth with my teeth would be responsible for my breathing 10+ meters under water! I also had a very hard time equalizing my ears with the pressure. Anyways, I had told my family no. I will not be joining them on their scuba adventure. But after much convincing, I decided to go and try it out. If I couldn’t do it then I would go back to the villa.

Needless to say I did it! I found that because we were getting certified I learned how to take care of my self in case of an emergency and the science behind breathing etc. I felt much more comfortable once I had been educated, rather than a guide taking me into the ocean and telling me to come along and not caring if I was ok or now. Our teacher Chris from…. Was so patient and wonderful!

That night was Shabbos so we enjoyed a home cooked meal of fresh fish and veggies! And watched the sunset from our villa.

Day 3-

We relaxed all day. At night we decided to go visit the town of Fira, which is the second more popular place to visit in Santorini. It’s the most popular place to stay for tourists. We first went to Koo– online it said it was a club. You had to pay a 10 Euro entrance fee to get in and you get a free drink. (Watered down something) the amount of “tequila” they gave Ben he should have been gone after drinking it. It worked out for me because I don’t love the taste of alcohol so I enjoyed my fruity concoction that the bar tender whipped up. This place was very cool, but it had more of a lounge feel for me. It was 3 stories high with music playing but not blasting, people where sitting around and chatting not dancing.

We decided we wanted more of a party feel so we walked around and found a bar called Town Club. It was pretty small but it had a great DJ and disco lights. We danced around until we got tired and headed back to the villa.

I will be uploading the second half of our Greek Adventure soon. I hope you found What to do in Santorini  helpful and entertaining. Please subscribe to my blog to get all the updates! If you have any questions please comment below.

Cheers,

Batsheva