Travelblog 1: The Greek cyclades

Dear blog readers,

If you read my first post since ages, then you will definitely know that I have been travelling a lot. Instead of starting with the first (model)trip, to Istanbul, I will start with my last trip at the end of May, to the Cyclades, Greece. Just because maybe some reader will go there on summer holiday and do not really know what to do on which island or maybe they do not even know yet to which island they want to go. That is what my boyfriend and I were wondering in the first place before we booked nothing else then a plane ticket to Santorini, one of the most famous Greek islands. In total we have been to five islands in ten days. We wanted to see many different islands in actually a very short time frame. That was the main reason why we did research on the internet for things to do on different islands. Over here I will give you a (hopefully) fun overview of where we went, why we went there and what we did. 

Instead of flying to Athens and go by boat to the Cylcades, we flew to Santorini from Amsterdam. This was the cheapest and fastest option. Next to that we saved time by not going on a boat immediately. We booked a retourticket and all our boattickets we looked up on go-ferry.com where you can see which transfer is cheapest and then we went to the right boat company's website to buy the ticket there. We collected tall tickets in Santorini, Fira at an boat ticket office for all companies. Once we arrived on Santorini we found out that we should have asked the first hotel we stayed in to shuttle us from the airport to the hotel, because taxi's from the airport are quite expensive. Nevertheless it all went well and we got to Kamari really quick. Kamari is a wonderfull place, we immediately fell in love with. The boulevard has many great restaurants and if you pass by all of them a bit too early for dinner, they sometimes make you an offer like free wine. Since we planned to stay here one full day we arranged on the day of arrival to do a boat & hot springs & volcano/Kameni tour in one with a guide the next day. That has been a good choice! We loved Kamari because this place is not as busy/touristic as Fira and Oia, but the atmosphere is amazing and relaxed to start off your holiday and cheap local busses to Fira continuing to Oia will go from here too. That is what we did after the boat tour day, we went to Oia. This is probably the most famous village on Santorini with the picturesque white little houses on an hill. We had a wonderful sea view during dinner. After all we also wanted to see ancient Fira, but we snoozed for too long... In any case we would have had enough time to explore Santorini since we booked a stay in Fira before we went home on day ten. We stayed 54 hours on Santorini, Kamari & Oia which was more than enough for that moment. 

On day three we went to Naxos, the biggest island of the Cyclades. Most of our boattransfers took approximately 2 hours. Most of the hotels we booked were close to the haven to save time and also practically with our hand luggage and sunny weather we were happy we did. Naxos has an amazing coastline, not only because the wild water and wind (see pictures), but also because the long busy boulevard where everyone relaxes after a day of work. This island did not seem touristic at all to us. Only at the Portára, the not finished temple of Apollo, you saw some tourists, but that was mostly it. We also went to the archeological museum, which was pretty hard to find because there were many small streets that form a labyrint. A nice and cheap museum though with lots of pottery, from before Christ. Naxos has wonderful beaches too, so we chose one of the prettiest according to our host, Plaka beach, which you should definitely go to. We stayed 29,5 hours on Naxos, which could be more if you want to go inland or see more beaches.  

Next stop for day number five was Koufounisia, one of the Small Cyclades. This was the most expensive boattransfer for only a short time on the island. But mennn, this was absolutely beautiful and worth it. Such a tiny island, whith lovely and chilled people. We could have rent bikes to go around the island in one day. But we decided to go by foot, staying close to the seashore all time and finding hidden paradises/private beaches. I think we walked one thirth of the coast, where we saw Piscine which is a natural pool and also many beautiful private beaches. The most beautiful ones we have seen during this holiday (see pictures). The water was super clear. We stayed 13 hours on Koufonisia, which could have been a bit more to see the whole island by bike for example. There is not much more to do than relax.  

Actually the same day as we arrived on Koufonisia, we also went by boat to Paros, Naoussa. This island I remember because of it's cute white haven and old fort (see pictures). On this island are many clothing shops, even a very nice outlet called VENTO. There is also a white church in the middle that might be worth visiting (see picture)… It was closed when we passed by. Firstly, we wanted to plan a canoe tour, but after all we rent kayaks on Chrisi Akti beach, where you could also rent windsurf sets, SUP's and more. We stayed 44,5 hours on Paros, which was perfect. 

Day 7 we arrived on Ios. We chose for Ios instead of Myokonos. Both are party islands, but Ios is less known by tourists and this made our night out so so good. Partying starts late though. We walked up into the village around 11.30 PM but we sat on a typical Greek terrasse under leave trees with live music until 2 AM I guess. Luckily all clubs are close together and the party season just started. In the end we stayed all night long in the silenct disco where we met new friends from Brazil and other places. The day after we walked, with 30 degrees Celsius and a severe hangover, to an amphitheatre mentioned on the internet. We thought it would be a historical one, but in fact it had the same age as me, hahaha anticlimax. The view was amazing though (see picture) and it was worth suffering for. On our last morning here we got on a snorkeling excursion to three locations: a ship wreck, private beach and caves. This was awesome, and I would definitely recommend this to anyone. We stayed 48,5 hours on Ios, which was perfect for us as well. 

One day before the last we arrived back on Santorini again. This time we slept in Fira, the central village of Santorini. We wanted to do some wine tasting with dinner, but we did not really find an option for this. Although there should have been a good one inland. Nevertheless we chose a restaurant with sea view again and had our last great Greek plate for dinner. We stayed 30 hours again on Santorini, Fira, which was enough time for Santorini in total. 

Mmm I planned on making a shorter blog, but I guess I am still too excited about this holiday destination. It was a vacation with lots to see, to do and to eat. But also a great one to relax from the busy city lives and get tanned on lonely places. See you on the next!

ps. Without a doubt, Greek food is amaaaazing!

@kvanantwerpen for more pics