The sun is shining bright over the barren landscape of Santorini. Thira once was the name of the island until the Venetians brought in Santa Irini and renamed it – the island with white buildings and blue church domes, all in the colors of the Greece flag. It is September and the season is still in full swing.

Santorini offers lots of attractions. We rented a quad to explore the island. A vehicle like that can be found on almost every street corner and it is actually quite fun to drive around with. Towards the west, the buildings get whiter, the prices more expensive and the tourists seem to duplicate every so often in numbers. The black beach borders the island in the south and the Caldera, a long cliff, in the north. In between there are vine, many narrow streets and small villages. The view from the Caldera is breathtaking: the uninhabited volcano island and a bit further away the island Therasia.

The towns Fira and Ia are the ones with the stereotypical streets and buildings. The pedestrian zones are tiled and shiny. Lots of small boutiques selling exclusive goods line the paths: Beautiful to look at but nothing for our traveler budget. Away from the busy touristic paths, the shiny image fades away as lots of dust covers waste nobody bothers to clean up… The Greek bakeries refilled the hole that the Serbian ones left in our stomach. We also loved the taverns and Greek wine, the sun and Coca Cola zero (yes, it tastes the same as everywhere else, but the can is labeled in Greek, which makes it special).

In total we “tested” three hotels:

Roubeti Village

Great hospitality, the owner and her family live in the “Village” as well, they are very communicative even if you don’t understand Greek – it’s the spirit that counts. The rooms are cave styled what is typical for Santorini. There are nice outdoor seating areas all over the village with colorful cushions, flowers, cactus plants and other green. All our drinks were on the house, too!
9 of 10 points

Santorini Mesotopos

Rather bad, we got a room in the basement since the entire hotel was booked out. At least the pool area was nice and we had it all for ourselves except a wedding photo shooting.
2 of 10 points

Caldera Butterfly Villas

Absolutely great! We had a perfect room with a view over the Caldera and the entire bay. The sun set directly in front of our sun beds, and even the price was fair. That’s what you want!
10 of 10 points