Santorini On A Budget

emmaterrra
Mar 27, 2023
7 min read

Updated: Apr 26

On a budget in Santorini? HA! Good luck…most would say. I thought the same thing myself before leaving on an 8 day “mini” bachelorette trip to Greece with two flight attendant friends that enjoy my horrible jokes and overshare tendencies, great wine , going with the flow and have also have a serious flare of wanderlust.

Greece was lovely, I did very much want to check it out for a long long time. What really blew me away however and made it all so worth it, was Santorini.

Being on a flight attendants budget, being travel savvy is key when it comes to stretching our Canadian dollar overseas. But we were ready to spend whatever we had to in order to make the best week possible on our time off together, something that doesn't happen too often! The 3 of us flew down to Greece for next to nothing, so don't factor flights into the costs I have loosely outlined.

For flight deals, check out www.nextdeparture.ca - that’s the best advice I've got for flight prices. This website essentially follows airline trends for mistake air fares or seat sales. I've definitely seen a few steals on there. Us crew fly standby when travelling leisure, it's part of the perks that come with the job. What this basicalllllly means is we only get on the flight if there is an empty seat for us to take! Full flight? Too bad. Looks like you aren’t going to arrive in time to catch that ferry to Santorini you prepaid for. Or worse…..when you aren’t making it home in time for work the next day. Standby Gods were not on your side today. This is a huge no no, and part of the stress that comes with standby travel.

We stayed in a beautiful Airbnb in Athens, one stop away from Akropolis and paid about 50 euros a night. I will say this style of travel is a leg up on the backpacking I did back in 2014, its kind of nice not sharing a hostel room with 14 other strangers. Although that is definitely my preference when it comes to exploring little corners of the world, some places you gotta put the money where it matters. Greece, is one of them!

Athens is your typical big city, I really enjoyed wandering through the winding cobble stone streets, popping into many of the wine bars and restaurants for some fresh feta with sweet red onions with peppers and sipping on aperol spritz. You only need a few days here max.

Costs

Having said that, I was pleasantly surprised by how affordable Greece was! In the 8 days we were there, I spent mayybe $1000 on:

- Accommodations (3 nights airbnb Athens, 3 nights Santorini)

- Transportation (ferry, trains, tram, metro system, taxis, busses) TRAVEL HACK – we used public transportation legit 90% of our week in Greece. I do this in every country I visit. Its cheap, fast, (mostly) clean, and I really feel like I’ve experience more rawness of the city I am visiting. This is the best advice I can offer for those trying to travel on a budget.

- Food (luckily your only two options in Greece are good or GREAT food)

- Wine (way too much wine)

- Shitty 1L bottles of wine (Cannot be confused with normal people wine. This is crucial)

- Sight-seeing - honestly pretty annoyed that the Acropolis was 20 euro to climb up on the hottest day I’ve experienced this year, HUNGOVER AF (AF = "as fuck" to all my Mom’s friends reading this) after our first night out in Athens. Two words – "karaoke bar". Apart from that most sight seeing was free.

- Vougliameni Thermal spa ( totally worth the trek out to. This cost 11 euros to enter, had a restaurant that was fairly priced with alcohol, lounge chairs and tables. Kathryn made it out (1 hour + ride on public transpo. after an entire evening / morning of dry heaving *please refer to my shitty 1L wine bottles point) so I mean, if she can do it so can you. VERY cool spot that is a geological rarity. See photos below.

Vouliagmeni Thermal Spa

- Car rental on Santorini (24 hours, 40 euro) I mean, common….its a no brainer

- Shopping (the shopping is seriously amazing, Santorini sterling silver jewellery is so unique and beautiful)

- Unnecessary treats ( ie. Baklava, gelato, more gelato, wine roadies…lots of this)

Hotel in Santorini

I found that Santorini was a place where you could really ball out (some places in Oia will run you over $1000CAD a night) but you could also see it all on a more realistic budget. I found a sweet deal for our accommodations, just outside of Oia.

We spent $45CAD a night at an awesome boutique hotel called Soulis Apartments. I read great reviews on www.booking.com for several spots in Santorini, but knew that I wanted to be close to Oia. We were also a stones throw away from a cute, quiet beach, Paradise beach. There are 3 main areas to stay on Santorini: Oia, Fira and Perissa. Oia is the very iconic, picturesque part of Santorini, although there are SO many small little districts that were absolutely stunning as well. Our hotel offered a free shuttle service in and out of Oia which was a massive perk. Although the ride was a quick 8 minutes into town, having the free ride saved us from hiring taxis. The hotel also arranged the car rental for us, and had several excursions available for us to sign up for on the spot. Extremely convenient!

Our room had one double bed, a single bed, and a skinny little couch that you cooouuld sleep on but it definitely wasn’t your first choice. We shared this room very comfortably, it was equipped with a small dining area and a fully functioning kitchen. Our Airbnb in Athens was quite similar. Air conditioned, brightly painted yellow, and with a cute patio, our little apartment was everything we needed and more.

Just outside of our front door was a lovely refreshing (and so necessary) pool. We loved this aspect which was missed in Athens. We were able to chill out, have some cans of ice cold Greek beer (the hotel served you CHILLED glasses for your beer, very nice touch that I appreciated probably far too much) and delicious plates of tzatziki. The service was so fantastic, the owner and his daughter both work there and are such lovely people that had you leaving Santorini with a light heart.

Rent a Car

I definitely suggest renting a car, some places may give you trouble if you don't have an international drivers license, just keep looking until you find a place that will do it. Although

the car felt like it was going to die at any moment, this was such a great and affordable way to explore the entire island. From the very top where we were staying all the way down to Perissa beach was about an hour drive. The black sand beaches of Perissa (left

photo) are pretty cool, lots of neat bars and restaurants on the beach strip and the water is very refreshing. Not far from here is also a red beach (photo above, right) and white beach, I suggest getting to the red beach before 9:30 as thats when the busses of tourists arrive. Stop into Akrotiri on your way for some historic ruins and a cup of coffee. I was going to go for a dive as I was interested in seeing some of the underwater volcanic life and structures, but the timing did'nt work out. I believe a single dive was 70 euro out of Perissa beach. Driving was relatively easy although some of the streets and intersections don't make much sense but overall I'd say I had no problem driving in Santorini.

Map of Santorini

Getting to the islands

My best advice is to get out of Athens ASAP and explore the islands. I really felt like I was living the Greek life once I was surrounded by white stone homes with their brightly painted blue rooftops. Santorini is about 6 hours on the boat, which is more like a small cruise

ship.The ferries are relatively straight forward and can cost anywhere from 50-90 euro for a one way trip, depending on if you want a fast/slow boat or a cabin and of course which islands you are going to. We opted to take the midnight ferry from Santorini back to Athens and splurged on getting a cabin to sleep in, this cost us maybe 70 euro which was well worth it. Make sure to get bottles of water, food, wine etc before getting on the ferry as your options on board are not only limited, they are very overpriced. However, I will say the cappuccino I had on board was surprisingly delicious.

Where to EAT

Most places we went to eat we chose based on location. I am all about having an amazing view whether its overlooking the Mediterranean or a cozy street sheltered by overgrown

vines brightly dotted with sweet smelling flowers. Atmosphere is everything, and you will have no problem finding spots like this in Greece.

Santorini's top restaurants can definitely run you a big tab, we kept things simple. Bought alcohol from corner shops, ate small plates at less expensive restaurants and made reservations at the expensive places for sunset, around 8:00 PM. This gave us loads of time to eat before hand, get a buzz on, and arrive at the swanky spot to splurge on bottles of bubbly and a few appetizers.

This method worked really well for us! We had bubbles and appetizers at Canaves Oia, which is a jaw dropping hotel, bar and restaurant. I found out about Canaves through Instagram, I basically searched the hashtag #Santorini and found accounts of hotels and restaurants through photos they posted. Our panoramic view and nearly private patio and bar was a great way to spend our last night in Greece, which also happened to be my 28th birthday. No complaints.

If you can, eat at A for Athens rooftop bar or 360 for an epic view of Monastiraki square and the Acropolis. We opted for a bottle of wine and 2 appetizers to keep our bill relatively cheap while still having the best view in the city. Check out my blog's video section for a time lapse of our view of Athens, or simply click here.