8 Days in Greece

Athens, Mykonos and Santorini

Day 1: Athens, sunset at Lycabettus and Olympic Stadium

The first surprise was our apartment: Swanky loft. It was perfectly located very nearby the Acropolis and we could see the Parthenon from the balcony.

We had lunch at the Plaka, where you can find many affordable restaurants and, later on, we climbed up the Lycabettus hill. We went up a bit too late so we couldn’t see the sunset from beginning to end. There’s water on top of the hill so the ones who climb up can have a drink for free. On our way up we saw many couples dressed with their wedding attires getting their pictures.

From there, we went to the Olympic stadium, to which we could go in from the back. There’s a neighbourhood park that accesses to the stadium and you can see it at night. We aren’t quite sure if that’s completely legal, but many people were sitting up there chatting and having a snack. We had a small inconvenience though: the park gates closed and we had to jump in order to get out of it.

Day 2: Athens – Acropolis and other classic areas

We purchased the 30€ tickets each so we could visit all the areas. It lasts for 5 days and you can only visit each of the spots one. We visited the Acropolis at 8:00 and it was almost empty for about 30 minutes, more than enough to get some pictures. We also visited the North and South Slopes, the Hadrian’s Library and the Ancient Agora. In the afternoon we visited the Olympeion.

We had an amazing lunch at Vegan beat and it was 8€ and we had dinner in Anteti, all of it local food and it as amazing.

Day 3: Archeological museum, Anafiotika el barrio blanco

In the morning we visited the Archeological museum and then we took a walk around Anafiotika and the Plaka. We had lunch around Monastiraki and in the afternoon we visited Kerameikos just to make the best of our time.

The surprise came at night, when we found a vegan restaurant called Veganaki, it was spectacular and crazy cheap, like 8€ for 2 people.

Day 4: Ferry to Mykonos, Ornos, sunset windmills

We took a ferry to Mykonos and we recommend to take the Seabus from the ferry station to the town, which is way easier and faster. We booked all of our ferries via Ferryhopper, keep refreshing it as prices and schedules might vary.

It’s quite easy and relatively cheap to move around Mykonos with bus, for us it was 7’8€ 2 people round trip, which made a lot of sense because we didn’t want to drive in the island and we visited a couple of beaches.

The town is not as full of people as you would imagine during the day. I would say that from 9am to 11am is the worse time, but after that it gets empty until dinner time, when all the crowds come out to have a drink or to look for a restaurant.

We had dinner at Popolos, which is good for healthy salads and is relatively cheap.

The first day we went to the Ornos beach, which was closer, but is really a party beach, covered in umbrellas and sun beds for you to rent. Most of them will cost you 26€ for the full day.

Day 5: Mykonos Platis Gialos

We spent this day mostly at the beach, so we rented an umbrella for 20€. Apparently there’s one of the beach restaurants there that will give you free umbrella only if you order your lunch there, but it was fully booked when we got in.

Later at night, we had dinner at Niko’s as we wanted to have some seafood. It was ok, and the prices were more or less what you would expect, but when you take a look at the amount of guests, you can tell it’s one of the most popular places on the island.

Day 6: Ferry to Santorini + Car to Oia

This day was kind of difficult as we got an Airnbn which wasn’t very well located in the island. It was between Vothonas and Messaria so any bus was good for us. Getting out of the ferry was quite horrible as the ferry station gets crowded and there’s a lot of confusion, luckily we managed to find a bus that went to our Airbnb area.

As soon as we got to the Airbnb the host offered us a car in order to drive around the island. She offered a manual car because it would be cheaper, but the car was too old and gave us too many problems. I almost feared for my life a couple of times.

Anyways we went to the coolest place to have local and Turkish food: Anemoloos in Exo Gonia. That’s where we discovered the kavourmas and we just had to go back on our last day to have dinner there, it was amazing.

Oia was quite a photo spot. The streets were packed and everybody was just trying to get their best picture, so it was a bit overwhelming for us to move around.

Day 7: Catamaran and Thira

This was my birthday and my boyfriend surprised me ordering a crazy big local breakfast that actually lasted for 2 days.

Then, we took a catamaran to sail around Santorini and swim in the coolest spots. There’s an area that still has sulphur from the Caldera volcano eruption and that’s why I brought my ugly bikini. It was the last time I ever wore it. The catamaran experience was quite good, I think the company name is “OiaSunset” and we had free drinks during the whole trip and the crew even served lunch which was quite good to be honest. The worst part was that we had to wait for 1 hour approximately in order to disembark.

Later, at night, we went to Thira, where I had a surprise massage! And we walked a bit in order to watch the sunset. Thira is not as nice as Oia and the worst part is that we saw a lot of kids begging for money while their relatives where somewhere else, hidden, checking on them.

We moved around with a bus again and the prices here were the same as in Mykonos: 3’6 each person’s round trip.

Day 8: Swimmingpool and Oia

For our last day, we decided to book a hotel in order to be able to have a nap, enjoy the swimming pool, take a shower and keep our stuff before we flew back (our flight was at 2am). This hotel was at Messaria, so it made it very easy for us to move around. We went to Oia again, this time more relaxed, with less people even though it was Saturday and we knew how to move around and stay hydrated.

As the airport was 15 minutes away from our hotel, we decided to walk there and it wasn’t the best idea as google maps didn’t actually show the way to the main entrance, but the way to the military area. It wasn’t that bad after all as we had plenty of time to spend there. The worst part is that the airport is tiny and there’s no amenities or areas to stay. The staff recommended for us to go to the terrace and it was kind of a solution because we could sit there, but it was so crowded… Terrible airport, really.