AVOID CROWDS in SANTORINI - Criuise stop tips!
#santorini #santorinicruise #santorinicrowds #travelsantorini We are Cruising Greese and have a stop at the beautiful but very crowded cruise port of Santorini! Santorini is a rugged vocanic island in the Aegean Sea. Santorini is the most popular of all the greek islands mostly for its postcard perfect town of Oia! Oia is the famous town of cliff hugging white washed buildings with blue rooftops. Oia is also a popular spot for cruise ships. And we two are guilty of this as we are traveling on Royal Carribean's Adventure of the Seas. Cruise ships come in and dump thosands of people on this tiny island. So we are giving you our top 3 ways to avoid the crowds in Santorini. 3. First on the list is make sure to book an excursion throught the cruise ship you are traveling on. Santorini is a tendered island, meaning that cruise ships have to anchor off shore and then tender their guests to port. This can be a long and tedious process. Guests that have excursions booked through the cruise have first priority off the ship. The first tender boats take the excursion guests to al less used port so they can hop on their tour busses. The rest of the cruise ship guests are tendered to Old Harbor. Old Fira Harbor is at the bottom of a cliff. From here cruisers need to pick a way up 600 plus stairs up, a steep donkey ride to the top or wait in the imposible long ride to the cable car. And all the while the excursion guests have had a morinig without the crowds. 2. Next on the list does not avoid the crowds but embrasses them. Book a greek party lunch or dinner. Their are a few of these on the island we choose Demitri restaurant. A restaurant that serves buffet style traditional greek food and has Greek music. Guest are taught traditional Greek dances and everyone joins in. And at the very end, we got to participate in plate smashing. Plate smashing is a Greek custom that signifies joy and celebration. 1. Instagram VS Reality. If you can't hit the Instagram perfect town of Oia early then that perfect Instagram town becomes not so perfect. Oia becomes grossly over crowded. Santorini needs to work on limiting cruise ships but until then, book something else. Charter a boat and view the breathtaking views from a different vantage point. Visit the ancient town of Akrotiri Ruins. History and culture dosent bring in all the Instagram models plus its pretty incredible. Think Pompeii but older. You can also spend your day at a winery and taste the grapes grown in volcanic soil.