Santorini – how to travel on a budget and escape the crowds

Hello, Steemians!

I will start by saying that Santorini is definitely every photographer's​ dream. If you ever decide to go to Santorini, believe me, your camera will be happy. It had been a dream of mine to go there for quite a while and since we were going to Athens to run the marathon we decided to visit Santorini as well. Me and my sister went on a trip there the previous year from November 13 till November 16. At the beginning I was a bit scared of the crowds and how much it would cost, but it turned out that there was nothing I had to worry about since we chose the best time when to visit Santorini. In this post I will tell you about how much we spent and what we did during our stay there.

How did we get there?

Well, we decided to go by plane. You can also get to Santorini by ferry, but the prices do not differ that much and actually when I compared the prices for the ferry and the plane, for our chosen dates the price for plane tickets was lower than for the ferry. The ticket price for one person was 39 € (there and back).

Where did we stay?

We stayed at Milos Villas Hotel that I would highly recommend. It is located very near to the centre of the biggest city in Santorini – Fira (walkable distance). It will take you approximately 10 minutes by foot to get from the centre of Fira to Milos Villas Hotel. The place itself is stunning. I will add pictures for you to make sure of that, and, since we both are students on a budget what we also liked about this place was the friendly price. For 3 nights both of us together paid 120 € for a twin room.

And what did we do there?

• We visited Santo Wines winery where we went on a small tour and tasted few of their wines (in my opinion this is a must if you are a wine lover)

• We went to the old port and enjoyed the beautiful view and were greeted by a number of donkeys

We went on a hike from Fira to Oia (if you love to take pictures, you won’t be disappointed of how scenic the trail is)

• Watched the sunset in Oia

• Explored the red beach in Thira

Lastly, how do you avoid the crowds?

The answer is quite simple – don’t go during the high season which starts in May and ends in October. Honestly, even though the weather wasn’t super-hot it was still warm and we felt like we had the island to ourselves, like in the movie I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, haha.
P.S. all the pictures added in this post are mine, and if you have any questions do not hesitate to ask, I will gladly answer all of them.

Thank you for reading, cheers!