Santorini or Thira is a famous Greek island located in the southern Aegean Sea. It was the core of an ancient volcano that erupted in about 1640 – 1620 BC. A large part of it collapsed after an enormous volcanic eruption, creating the current caldera. Today I’m going for a round-island tour to visit various attractions in Santorini including Wine Museum, Prehistoric town of Akrotiri, Red Beach, lighthouse, Firostefani, Imerovigli and lastly stop at Oia where I’ll be spending the night.
Wine has been produced on Santorini since ancient times. And what better to learn about Santorini wine making history than to visit Santorini Wine Museum? This museum is a natural cave on the ground of Koutsoyannopoulus Winery that produces Volcan Wine.
The wine museum is 6m below ground and 300m long. It presents the history and life of wine from 1660 – 1970.
Each of us was given a audio guide and we’re free to tour the wine museum ourselves.
The museum has many semi-mobile and still life figurines that tell the history of wine making on the island.
Wine press.
My museum tour ended here and it’s time for some wine tasting.
Some souvenirs sold at the wine house.
This is the wine tasting bar.
Wow, I was spoilt with choices.
I started off with red wine.
The most famous sweet wine here is called Vin Santo. And I had the honour of tasting it.
There are some lavender bushes outside the museum.
Some Santorini’s visitors opt to travel around the island with this four wheel bike. Well, this vehicle is slow and if you can bear the heat, there wouldn’t be a problem.
After visiting the wine museum, I headed to the archeological site of Akrotiri.
Buying tickets at the ticket office. The entrance fee is 5 euro person.
It is open from 8a.m. till 8p.m.
It was a pleasant surprise to find that the archaeological site of Akrotiri is protected under a roof.
The miniature model of Akrotiri.
The excavation of Akrotiri since 1967 have uncovered one of the most important pre-historic settlements of the Aegean. The settlement was destroyed in the Theran eruption about 1627 BC and buried in volcanic ash.
During the Early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC), a sizeable settlement was founded and it was gradually developed into one of the main ports of the Aegean. The town’s life came to an abrupt end in the 17th century BC with the volcanic eruption of Thera.
The large settlement has elaborate drainage system, sophisticated multi-storeyed buildings with frescoes, pottery and even furniture.
Systematic excavation began in 1967 by Professor Spyridon Marinatos. Excavated artifacts have been installed in a museum distant from the site (Museum of Prehistoric Thera).
This site was closed for nearly 7 years due to a tragic accident in 2005 when 1 visitor was killed after the collapse of a constructed roof. Fortunately, it is opened again now.
Just down the road from Ancient Akrotiri, is the famous red beach. It’s just a 10-minute walk. People usually leave their cars at the parking space here and continue walking all the way down to the beach.
Well, there is a no entry sign to the only access to the red beach due to danger of landslides.
Well, nobody seems to bother with the sign.
It seems that there have been incidents where tourists were killed by falling rocks. But it doesn’t seem to deter people from going to the Red Beach.
Many sunbeds and umbrellas covering the crowded beach.
I was told by my guide that eventually, the red beach will no long exist due to the landslide which will overwhelm the beach.
The beach is also accessible by boat that departs from Akrotiri port.
If you choose not to go down to the beach, you can still admire this unique landscape of red cliff from the headland.
Our tour guide pulled over his car so that we could admired the view of the caldera and of course, take some nice photos. Behind me is the Palea Kameni and Nea Kameni islands.
Our third stop is the lighthouse.
Crystal clear sea beneath the cliff.
The square tower stands 10m high above the lighthouse keepers house. It first worked on 1892 with petroleum. The light stayed dead during the 2nd World War until 1945.
On 1983, the lighthouse was supplied with electric power and it went completely automated since 1988.
This cliff is called the Indian Rock for it resembles the side face of an Indian. Amazing!
We’re at the most southern part of the island. From here, I could view the whole caldera.
Santo Wines, which opened in 1992, is located in Pyrgos.
A lot of people came here to enjoy the spectacular views of the caldera and Mediterranean Sea.
I stopped over at Firostefani and the view was just spectacular. Best thing is there’s virtually no tourists in sight too.
Located between Fira and Imerovgli, it has one of the best view of the island. It’s a quiet village, which is mostly hotels, villas and traditional houses.
Further up the road is Imerovigli. Its position at the highest, most central part of the caldera gave it visual command of the whole area.
I envied those who stayed here.
The hiking trail which leads from Fira to Oia. I read that the hiking trail offers a beautiful scenery. It is not advisable though to hike during the summer.
This cute little church is located in the middle of nowhere.
And our last stop that day was Oia.
Our hotel was near the windmill in Oia. It’s time to bid farewell to our tour guide. For further information on the round Santorini island tour you can visit their web site at www.santorinitravel.com. The tour organized by Nikos comes highly recommended by me. For this tour which lasted about 6 hours, it cost me 300 euro. Might seem a lot for 6 hours, but it was the cheapest I could find on the internet. They can be contacted at santorininikos@gmail.com.
It’s already sunset time by the time we checked in to our hotel, Marizan Cave Hotel.
Not the best sunset view, but hey, I have another 2 nights here at Oia.
Look at the crowd that gathered for the famous sunset at Oia.
Oia is equally charming during night time.
The cobbled streets are brightly lit.
Had our first dinner in Santorini at Oia.
I stayed in Oia for two more nights. So plenty of time to explore this beautiful town.
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