Come with us on a week trip to Greece exploring ancient ruins in Athens, beach clubs and nightlife in Mykonos, and the luxurious experiences Santorini has to offer. We share Greece travel tips, the route to take, the things to do in Greece you have to experience on your trip and share why Greece is one of our top 3 favorite places in the world.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Thrifty Traveler Premium to find great deals on flights from your preferred airports. Use code TS10 for $10 off your first year subscription of the emailed flight deals.
• Liquid IV – Use promo code TRAVELSQUADPODCAST for 20% off
• Santoni Luxury Boat Cruise – All-inclusive drinks and 5-course dinner
• Acropolis and Acropolis Museum Combo Pass
• Santorini Thirea Suites – The most gorgeous luxury hotel in Oia overlooking the caldera.

Greece – Episode Transcript

Welcome to this weeks episode of the Travel Squad podcast. Today we are going to Greece to recap my favorite trip of all times.

0:53

Wow.

Bold statement to say.

Favorite trip of all times.

You have been talking about Greece forever.

We talked about this potentially being a squad trip, but Jamal was not on board at all.

So you did an amazing romantic Greece trip and I loved seeing all the pictures.

1:15

We haven’t really talked a lot about the trip itself, so I can’t wait for you to dive into it in this episode.

Well, I just want to say I was not being a hater.

The girl.

No, no, no, no.

You ladies were on Greece and I wanted to go to Greece, but I wasn’t hard on Greece.

It wasn’t like, oh, this is the next one, right?

1:31

I think there was a few other ones.

So that way when we were talking about what are we going to do next as a squad, This just wasn’t really high on my list.

But we recently had our 2023 travel recap episode, come back.

And Kim, you were talking about this.

And I said, you know what, It’s always a fun time when we’re on with a squad.

1:47

But like Brittany alluded to earlier, you did it as a little romantic getaway.

I think you may have enjoyed Greece in a different way that you wouldn’t have enjoyed it if we went.

So I said I was thankful in that episode.

You got to experience it the way you did and you said you want to go to Greece again, and then that’s when I said that one will be the squad trip.

2:05

So I’m excited to get into this episode for you to tell us all about it.

And then if you really think I’m a hater on Greece, sell me on it.

Get me really, really amped up for Greece for when we go together.

I mean, you have to go.

You have to experience it.

And this is 1 destination where my expectations were pretty high.

2:21

I’d been planning it for over a year and planning out my outfits in depth and doing a ton of research and pretty much everything I saw matched my expectations of like, you know what I saw online, Instagram versus reality.

You know, it was what I expected.

2:38

I wouldn’t say it’s the most beautiful country, like nature wise, like even though the beaches are gorgeous, there’s not a lot of trees and like green vegetation, it’s very rocky.

And so you can see that in Instagram and tik toks and whatnot and that expectation was there.

It’s an amazing romantic getaway.

2:54

It would make an amazing girls trip.

It could make an amazing squad trip, but TBD on that.

See, she’s already talking about getting out of the Squad Trip.

I could tell by the tone.

And you know what?

You ladies were hard on squad trip and now that I’m hearing her secondary tone, kind of glad we didn’t go on.

I’m just going to throw that out there, Ken.

3:10

I hear you alluding to the fact that you don’t want Jamal to be on this one.

Well, it truly is the quintessential European summer vacation destination.

Like if you can imagine a European summer vacation, Greece has it all.

It has amazing beaches, beach clubs, parties, the romance, good food, nice people like it.

3:32

It’s an amazing vacation and and I think you 2 going as a couple trip would actually be very nice.

Yeah, you know, maybe I can wine and dine Jamal, and we can have a really nice romantic trip together to Greece.

I’m looking forward to it, so let’s dive right into this episode.

3:48

As always, we start with the tip tips first.

Lots of tips here.

So one of the biggest things is that credit cards are accepted everywhere.

I almost did not use cash at all and I was surprised by that.

You know, when we were in Spain in 2023 in April, of course, unfortunately not a squad trip, same thing, pretty much credit card everywhere, didn’t even use any cash.

4:11

We came with €100 that we had leftover from a previous trip when we were in Europe.

And I think we only went through €20 cash and that was really to break it to go use the restroom, but everything was via credit card.

Yes.

And then the other thing to remember is that you’re in Europe, but I don’t know if this is like this everywhere in Europe, but specifically in Greece.

4:30

They’re not in a rush to check you out.

We’ve had to flag people down.

Like they said, they were gonna come around three different times and they bring the card machine to your table.

It was hard to get out of there quickly, so prepare for that.

If you’re in a rush, just we’ve even said like take our card now and they said no, no after your meal.

4:50

Yeah, you know, I feel like that is pretty common across Europe.

Like, it’s hard to flag people down.

They kind of come and go when they want.

It’s like if you’re in a rush, going out to dinner is not the solution.

Well, because it’s different over there than it is here in the US.

Here in the US, they really want you in and out, get table turns, get new customers in.

5:09

Whereas dining out in Europe and not even just in Europe, other countries throughout the world, different continents, Eating is an experience to be enjoyed.

So they don’t rush you.

So that’s actually kind of like a really good tip, flag them down.

Otherwise you’re going to wait there forever for the bill.

5:26

They’re not going to come offer it to you.

You have to ask for it.

And even when you ask for it, like you just said, you’re seeing that it’s taken quite a bit of time for them to get to you.

Yes, Sir.

Another thing, in Greece, they use the European outlets, so they’re not the same as the US You’ll need to bring a converter or if you forgot it like I did, you can buy them there.

5:46

They’re pretty common, easy to find.

When we first arrived in Athens, there was a electronics mini shop right across the street from our hotel, random, but it had all kinds of electronic things and we can get it.

There was like €3.

I think you mean adapter, not converter.

6:02

Because converter changes the voltage, adapter changes how you plug into the wall.

Yes, good point.

Did it convert voltage?

I have no idea.

But it worked for my hair dryer and my phone charger, and that’s all that really matters, right?

Yes.

They have them at like convenience stores or those little mini grocery marts or even in the airports.

6:22

If you realize you forgot one before you got there.

Good time to visit.

Let’s talk about this.

So I visited towards the end of September.

That was a really good time because it is the very beginning of shoulder season, so there’s a lot less crowds.

I don’t know if it affects price really, but the weather was still really, really good.

6:41

But I would say anytime between June and October you’re going to get the good weather that you’d like for, you know, enjoying the beaches and the boats and all of that you will.

You will get the crowds in like the main part of that portion.

But I would say not to visit outside of that time frame if you want to do a lot of the main tourist things because the shops will close down, especially like in Mykonos, there’s a lot of places that will close down that they’re seasonal, so.

7:05

Interesting.

Didn’t really know that.

Yeah, me neither.

Until I found out when I was there.

Even when we were there towards the end of September, places were getting ready to shut down for the season.

So I see your next tip.

And your next tip is intriguing.

You’ve written you won’t need a bra.

7:23

Yeah.

So I realized this once I got there.

It’s, it’s September, right?

So the weather is hot.

It was mid 80s most days during the day, high 60s at night and during the day.

Very humid.

7:38

That’s why I say you don’t need.

A bra.

Well, that’s that typical Mediterranean climate.

So, I mean, I guess I’ll leave my bra behind when I come to Greece and I won’t do that.

I know my jock strap, right.

But it’s funny that you kind of say that.

So I first, when I saw this, I mean, I knew where you were going with the concept of you’re not going to need it.

7:57

So if you’re a girl going to be wearing your sun dress, you know, awesome, right?

But I remember when we were in Croatia and Croatia’s on the Mediterranean just as well, kind of close to the proximity of where grease is.

And we were there in September and it was disgustingly humid.

8:14

We got back to our hotel room and I remember Brittany, and this is not an exaggeration, she rang out.

Her bra rang it out and.

Flew.

I did not wring it out.

It was drenched though, and I did have to blow dry it.

Well then, did you wring out your dress?

You rang out something.

8:30

We were able to like ring fluids out of our I don’t.

Think I did that.

I think that’s an exaggeration.

I don’t think it is.

She did.

She’s just a little embarrassed.

How much boob sweat?

No, I just told you how much boob sweat I had.

Like I had a lot of boob sweat and I had to blow dry my bra.

But I don’t feel like I rang it out.

8:47

I.

Don’t know your word against his.

Point being, you don’t need a bra, apparently.

No you don’t.

And and also during this weather you’re probably wearing smaller shirts and or swimsuit and so I wore those little sticky nipple cover things a lot.

9:04

So much in fact though that one day after wearing them for like 5 days straight it like stuck to my skin.

Oh my God.

And then I peeled it off, but like I still have a little scar right there from peeling my skin off.

And almost took your nipple off.

I know, yeah, So be careful with the sticky.

9:20

Just maybe just go No bra.

Like Free the nipple?

I don’t know.

I don’t know if I could do that.

My boobs are pretty big, so you got to keep them perky, you know?

Well, it’s between, you know, big boobs sagging or wringing out your bra.

How do I pick?

How do I pick?

9:37

So we talked about it being really hot, so I imagine you should probably bring like sunscreen.

Sunscreen because we did purchase a bottle of sunscreen in Mykonos for €30.

Oh my God, it was.

Baby sunscreen, but we used it every.

Single.

They really bent you over for that one.

9:53

But I guess they can really, if they’re going to really up charge you €30 for sunscreen, then you can really see the necessity of it, right?

People are there.

They’re like, oh shit, I really need it.

Yeah.

And that was also a myth that I heard before.

Going in, they said if you want sunscreen, bring it yourself.

They don’t believe in sunscreen.

10:09

That’s not true.

You can find sunscreen.

Mykonos.

It was the the little shop outside of where we’re staying.

So they could up charge you.

You can find it at less expensive prices like in Athens.

But yeah, so go during the summer, brave the humidity because there’s so many water you’re based and beach based things that you’ll want to do during that time.

10:30

If I could do it again, I would still go the same time of year.

But you like it hot.

I like it hot and sweaty.

And the water activities, right, because a lot of the places you went, as we get into this, of course, you were in Athens, which is on mainland, right?

But pretty much everywhere else you went is on the island.

So you’re in the Mediterranean, other than Athens, I’m honestly not too sure what there is to do really on the mainland area of Greece because it really is geared towards the water environment or if you are in mainland in Athens, of course they have the old ancient Greek ruins, the Parthenon and all that stuff.

11:02

So that’s good, really going to be the highlight on land, but everything else is really water based.

Yeah there are other ruins that like Delos is a day trip you can take from Athens, also land based and and for the for me, the highlight was the islands like you’re saying.

So I didn’t do a lot of research that you can do there.

11:19

But yeah I think that’s that’s what most people do.

And so we went to Athens, Mykonos and Santorini.

We spent two nights in Athens, one in Mykonos, 3IN, Santorini.

There are a lot more islands around that I would love to go back for.

They’re less touristy, still just as beautiful and it’s just too hard.

11:39

You need like a month to really hit them all and enjoy your stay.

So just got to go back.

Exactly.

Maybe we’ll do a girls trip to Greece.

See, Jamal, you were hard on Greece.

All right.

I’ve been excluded.

That’s a OK with me.

So Kim, you went from Austin.

11:55

Tell us how you got to Greece.

Right, seven day trip started out on a Tuesday.

We flew from Austin to London and then London to Athens in two different bookings of a flight.

And we did that because, and this is actually a really good tip for you squaddies, if you’re looking to get prices down on your flight, look at where your home airport flies direct to.

12:21

So I just was looking for how can we get to Europe and Austin flew direct to London.

And then you know, once you’re in Europe, flights in the EU tend to be a bit less expensive.

And so if we were to book just say Delta Austin to Athens, it was coming in somewhere around like 1400, which is crazy.

12:42

And so between booking the two separate flights, Austin to London, London to Athens and then round trip of course it brought it down to like 800.

Oh, wonderful.

Good tip for y’all.

That’s a really good tip, but if you are checking the luggage, if you actually have two different airlines and they don’t code share, then you will have to receive your luggage in country.

13:02

In London in that example, then recheck it to Greece.

Yep.

So Tuesday, that was most of our day.

We we took off in the evening, so it was kind of an overnight flight and I kind of like doing that for international, get it out of the way, take that big long trip.

I think it was like 9 hours on that big flight.

13:19

So that was good.

Hit up the London lounge, got harassed by TSA in London and then got on that next flight into Athens, took a cab to our hostel.

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend staying at this one.

It was called the Well Common Hostel.

13:36

It was way more low end than I thought it was.

It was actually highly recommended on Hostel World and the reason we stayed in hostels was because we were going to go cheap on part of the trip so that we could splurge on the three nights in Santorini with a luxury stay.

So we really felt the penny pinching in this hotel like.

13:56

Well, it’s a.

Hostel.

Yes, it yeah, but it did the trick.

Whatever.

It was about a 20 minute walk from the Acropolis, so you get to like, see the city while you’re there.

And it did the trick for the two nights we were there.

So I understand maybe this one you wouldn’t recommend because it wasn’t the best hostel and you felt a little bit low budget even for a hostel, right?

14:16

But I imagine Athens would be a cool place for a hostel.

Did you meet people in the hostel that you kind of talk to or anything, or you just really didn’t get those type of vibes in that location?

No, we didn’t meet people.

And it wasn’t like a social situation either.

In fact, it was kind of weird.

14:31

Like one day we saw them making food and we asked what they were doing and they just said they’re making food.

But it was a very clear like you’re not invited.

Oh, interesting.

Not as friendly as hostile vibes as we had in Cusco then.

Yeah.

So right outside of the Well Common Hostel though, it’s it was interesting the first night there was a an alleyway of bars and restaurants and everyone’s outside smoking.

14:57

Oh, that’s another thing about Greece Smoke.

Everybody smokes in all the restaurants, everywhere.

There’s the taxi drivers like everything.

They love to smoke.

So anyway, it’s it’s very social, it’s popular, it’s it’s popping off.

The second night it was a completely deserted ghost town.

15:13

None of the bars and restaurants were open.

There were no people sitting there.

Why?

I’d have no idea It was what a Wednesday night and then a Thursday night. 2 Completely different situations.

Interesting.

We were almost like are we on the same St.

That’s funny.

15:31

So this first night in Athens, we get there and the vibes are good.

But it is also a city that when you first walk into, especially at night, you’re kind of like, oh, how safe really is it?

Should I really be walking around?

But it was, you know, just like any other city.

15:47

Make sure you have your stuff together and you’ll be just fine.

So we we took a little walk down to the main area where the Acropolis starts to begin, and this is kind of where everything is in this main city center.

And we went to a place called 360 Rooftop Cocktail Bar.

16:05

Sounds so.

You, Kim.

I’m not surprised.

My Co worker actually had gone in April and she’s the one who told me a lot of things were closed.

She recommended a lot of things to me and this was one of them and I would highly recommend it to everyone else as well.

We did not have a reservation.

16:21

We got sat pretty fast actually.

They have house music playing, The vibes are good, the cocktails were good.

I got a cocktail that was called Naxos.

So all of their cocktails are themed over a different area and it had a little piece of Gruyere cheese on top.

16:36

Apparently Gruyere comes from Naxos.

Interesting.

It was a good cocktail and the most amazing view of the Acropolis.

Like Jamal, I felt like you with the Rhino, a little tear coming down my eyes.

I.

Love.

I love it that, you know, it’s those little moments that make a vacation, isn’t it?

16:54

Because you’ve been really, really amped up on Greece for a while beyond even that.

I know you love ancient ruins and things and structures, so I can imagine.

And if you’re on the rooftop, it’s probably lit up at night.

Yeah.

So then you have that kind of vibe to it too.

17:11

So I know exactly what you’re talking about.

I’m glad you had that little, that little moment that brought it to you.

That’s awesome.

I feel like it’s a perfect trifecta for Kim.

She’s in Greece, she sees ruins, and she’s at a rooftop bar seeing these ruins.

So that’s the perfect Kim trifecta.

17:27

And a great way to start the grease portion of the trip right?

The travel’s over.

This is the reward.

So after we spent a couple cocktails there, we went off to a place that our bartender had recommended to us, called Juan Rodriguez.

17:43

And this place is super fun if you want to dance.

They had a DJ going, playing really good house music.

It was really, really crowded though, so if you want to dance, you really got to claim your spot.

Brittany, I don’t know if you would like It was like shoulder to shoulder crowded.

We would not like that.

18:01

But it had the most gorgeous decor, like glam, beauty, decor.

Again, like vibes were so good.

So we had a drink there.

We didn’t stay super long, but it was a really fun place.

And then we bopped around a little bit in the area, went to another bar called The Handlebar and like people in this area are just drinking, like there’s tables out in the alleys.

18:23

There’s a lot of people out.

Even though it’s probably getting to be like one in the morning at this point.

It’s still very lively and but it’s not like debauchery, it’s just everyday life.

So at that point we kind of called it a night because we did have to wake up early in the morning for the ruins.

18:43

So when we booked our ruins tickets online, you didn’t have to pick a timed entrance, but just before we went, they changed the rules to timed entrance.

So it kind of screwed us because you actually had to stand in line to get your time to ticket.

19:01

I know.

So it kind of defeated the purpose of buying a ticket and not having to stand in line.

So we kind of knew that going in.

And so time to get there was really open.

We walked there and along the way we stopped and had brunch at a place called the Brunchers.

19:17

It was in the Monastraki neighborhood, which is really, really cute.

A lot of cute restaurants, cute bars, and it’s towards the way of the Acropolis, so you’re getting more and more in the busy City Center area.

Breakfast was actually really good.

19:33

It also had some cheese on there.

Love me some cheese for breakfast.

Who knew the Greeks love the cheese so much?

It had eggs, it had a little salad, some Greek tomatoes.

It was very good.

And then we were prepped and ready to hit the Acropolis.

When you walk there, you do have to walk uphill to get there.

19:50

So it’s kind of a trek.

It’s an easy day, you might say.

And in that humidity and in the heat, whoo.

You do not want to be wearing a bra for that.

So I know this day was focused on the ruins.

How long would you say you need to?

A lot to explore.

20:06

The museums, the ruins and all of that.

Well, there are a lot of different ruins around there, so you can choose to see all of them.

We did not do all of them.

I don’t think that you really need to, especially once you see the Acropolis.

It is the biggest of them all.

It’s a huge area.

20:22

So let’s not count the line situation.

If you have your time ticket, I would say you’re probably only going to wait in line, like 15 minutes.

But we had a different line situation because of the rules.

Once you’re in there, I would say you’re probably going to spend like an hour or two walking around.

20:38

It’s very crowded, but I don’t think there’s any way around that very, very beautiful.

You see the Parthenon, this huge, beautiful building.

You see these statues and these temples and it is gorgeous, I will say, having seen what is the one in Lebanon.

20:54

Baalbek.

Baalbek and how massive it is there and no crowds.

I was constantly comparing it to that in my head.

Yeah, well, you know, biased opinion.

Being Lebanese, I’m going to say Baalbek’s better.

Not that I’ve been to Greece, apparently to to see this, but at the same time, you know, you’re comparing apples to oranges, so to speak, right?

21:13

You know, it’s not as popular of a country for tourism, let alone in that region, Roman ruins to Greek ruins.

But if you’re comparing it based off of that, it’s kind of, you know, unfortunate, but I’m sure it was still quite an experience nevertheless.

Yeah, definitely.

I would not go to Athens and not see this.

21:30

If you’re there, you have to see it.

You have to go.

Otherwise, why else are you going to go to Athens?

I mean, I really, and again, I don’t know.

And I know you are more focused on the island areas and of course flying in Athens, so why would you not see this?

But I’ve really heard that there’s not much to do in Athens except these ruins.

21:48

And so that’s the biggest property there.

And if you only saw that, you’d be fine.

There’s a lot of other ruin areas that you can get a ticket to go into as well.

There’s the I’m probably not going to pronounce these totally correctly, but the Odeon of Herodias Atticus.

22:04

It’s a nearby ancient stadium, Very beautiful.

The Panathenaic Stadium Temple of Olympian Zeus.

That one was really cool.

Ancient agora, also very cool.

So pick and choose which ones you want to do.

They’re all within walking distance of each other, I would say.

22:21

Maybe Ancient Agora.

See that one?

And maybe The Olympian Zeus.

The other ones are much smaller and less.

You know, once you’ve seen the big ones, the smaller ones aren’t as interesting.

But if you’re big on ruins.

If you’re big on ruins or go see the small ones and then end with the finale, right?

22:38

Because you’re right.

If you see the Parthenon first and then go to the smaller ones, it’s going to be like.

But I will say, after walking from the hostel to up the hill to the Acropolis, walking all around the Acropolis, my feet were hurting so bad and I was wearing the Doctor Scholl’s white tennis shoes, the comfortable ones.

22:58

Your feet just hurt and it’s hot.

Yeah.

So take a break before you go see the other ruins.

Don’t try to do it all in one fell swoop.

So the the thing that we did and that I’d recommend you do if your feet are also hurting or it’s just hot and you want to take a little break down.

23:14

At the bottom of the Acropolis hill.

There are so many restaurants shopping.

There’s tourists everywhere.

There’s locals everywhere.

So immediately at the bottom there we went and had a euro at a place called Mikpo Toitko.

23:30

Just look for that M and T2 letter euro spot there.

Usually I wouldn’t call out a name if I can’t pronounce it, but this Euro was so good that I would highly recommend you eat it from there.

Pretty much every Euro I ate in Greece was amazing, but this was the first one I had and it was so good and it was like 5 euros.

23:51

Was it the best that you had the entire trip?

So honestly.

OK.

And after walking around and being hot and just wanting to sit down, it was killer.

I really find that to be the case.

Sometimes when we’re on places and you want to try the local cuisine, the first one is the best one.

24:06

And I wonder, is it really the best one or is it because it’s just like, oh, I’ve been waiting so long to like, have it, you know?

Because again, I mentioned how we were in Spain earlier in this episode in 2023, same year that you went to Greece here and we got some tapas, the potato bravas, and the 1st place that we got it at was the best.

24:26

And we just kept comparing it to that.

And you know, maybe it really was the best in both situations, ours and yours, right?

But sometimes when you have that really great one the first time, the other ones are good.

But it’s just like you’re chasing that high, almost a Pike.

Let me get that one again, you know.

24:43

Yeah, either way, it’s going to be good and I would recommend it.

It’s right at the bottom of the Acropolis and a good place to stop and take a break.

Now once you’re there, you can kind of plan where you want to go from there.

And there’s several different neighborhoods.

The Placa neighborhood, We went here and I would recommend going here.

25:02

It’s just cute restaurants with adorable umbrellas where they’re having Aperol spritzes and little bites, and there’s so many places to pick from.

I won’t even say the one we went to because I don’t think it really matters.

There’s a million places to choose from and they all have about the same stuff.

25:17

So just pick one of those, sit down, have a cocktail, just relax.

Like this is the place to just sit and have a drink.

And that’s also part of your upright just sitting and having a drink.

Perfect place for it.

There’s the Sintagma Square, which is part of this big city center area to check out Kalanakai, which is right behind the square.

25:38

There a lot of glamorous cafes, more rooftop bars, and I should also mention too, in this city center area by the Acropolis, there are so many rooftop bars to choose from and a lot of them look really, really cool.

So whether you go to the 360 or another one, they’re all going to have pretty good views of the Acropolis, especially at night.

25:58

So from there, we’re looking at about, I don’t know, probably 2:00 PM at this point.

We had our drink, we’re had a little bite.

We relaxed.

Now we’re ready to hit up the Acropolis Museum.

A little bit of a walk away.

You need probably about two hours here.

26:14

This is where all the artifacts from the Acropolis have been taken.

And it’s also cool because it’s built on top of ruins too, so they’ll be right when you come in.

The bottom area is all ruins that are still in the ground and then they have the floors that go up their glass floors so you can see them as you’re walking around inside the museum.

26:33

That’s really cool, ’cause then you can see like, what’s underneath and like, I feel like it’s almost like in a scavenger hunt and you’re kind of seeing like all of the cool artifacts and ruins and you know, it’s just like a whole different perspective that you get to walk on top of them.

Yeah, there’s some really cool stuff in there to see that it’s been pulled out.

26:52

You know, they have the, like the coolest statues and it’s so detailed and you’re like, how the hell did they make this back then?

I always wonder that, like when you go into a church and see a fresco or when you see like columns that are carved out and you’re like, how did they make these and they’re so perfect.

27:11

And I was just surprised how old some of this stuff is like 2000 BC.

I’m like, how does that time frame even exist?

I don’t know.

In my mind it’s.

And then they’re still like so intact, too.

And they have some of the history there too.

27:26

Like this was from the Persian invasion, and so you get a little bit of that history.

We didn’t do any guided tours to explain any of the history of this stuff, so we were just reading it in this room.

I would also really recommend going here because the AC is bumping there so you get a nice break from the sun and the AC the.

27:44

Entrance fee may be worth it beyond the history just for the AC then, huh?

Yes, we did buy tickets in advance for the museum and I would highly recommend doing that because the line was super long.

The only thing is though, the ticket was supposed to come with a like a whisper to listen and we would have had to stand in that line to get it.

28:04

So we didn’t do that.

Yeah.

So after the museum then it’s kind of just at your own will.

And I really like that about Athens too was a lot to discover city life there.

So we went into some shops.

There was a motorcycle shop in this neighborhood called Pasiri that was more of a shopping and cool bar area, also in the city center type place.

28:28

So we did a bit of that.

And then the coolest thing that we did to end the night was go back near the Acropolis onto the Aeropagus hill.

You still climb up the hill to the Acropolis, but then instead of going left to it, you go right to this other hill and everyone sits up there with their drinks and watches the sunset.

28:46

You have a really cool view of the ancient agora below you just popping out from the trees.

It’s it’s a really cool view up there.

Someone got proposed to at sunset up there.

Oh, that’s nice.

Yeah, it was really cute.

And then you look behind you and you see the Acropolis starting to be more and more lit up.

29:03

So this night we really at that point just got a taxi back to the hotel.

We were planning to get ready and go back out to more rooftop bars, but ended up falling asleep.

Oh wow, Kim.

We know you’re over 30.

I was about to say Kim, over 30.

Look at that.

No rooftop bars in Athens.

29:19

Well, well, we did the first night.

Yeah, but she didn’t have the encore.

Yeah, so we woke up a few hours later and we just got food at the restaurant next door and then went back to sleep because the next day we are leaving Athens and going to Mykonos.

So.

I’m really excited about Mykonos, but before we dive into it, let’s take a quick detour to talk about one of our favorite travel products, Liquid IV.

29:43

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30:02

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30:18

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All right, so Friday we are hitting Mykonos, baby, and we did not take a ferry.

30:35

We took a flight from the Athens airport into Mykonos.

I would recommend that.

It’s about the same price, it’s a lot faster and then you don’t have to deal with the weird schedules of the ferries.

Schedules of ferries, choppy water, hot on the boat, you know.

They’re always late.

30:50

Yeah, so you could just have that nice, cool tempered air of the airplane.

That’s right.

We get into Mykonos and we get a cab to our hotel, probably one of the most expensive cabs we ever took for a 10 minute ride.

I think it was like €50.

31:05

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

You know, I know in Europe cabs are always expensive in Europe, no matter where we go.

They’re they do have Uber in Greece, but not from the airport.

And probably not on the islands.

I imagine on the islands I’m sure it’s probably regulated just for taxis.

31:21

Or were you able to catch Ubers?

They did.

We did take an Uber in Mykonos.

The thing is, though, they are blocked at the airports and a lot of people will rent ATVs in Mykonos.

It’s a very small island, but we were only there one night and we knew we would be doing a lot of drinking here, so we did not rent one.

31:37

Real quick question before we get too deep into Mykonos here.

You mentioned that the ferry and the flight was the same cost or equivalent earlier.

You mentioned how, of course flights within Europe to Europe and other places are relatively inexpensive.

31:52

How much was your flight?

From Athens to Mykonos, Yeah, 71 U.S. dollars.

Oh my gosh, that’s so cheap.

Yeah.

And the ferry was about the same, maybe even a little bit more.

And it’d probably take you longer to get there from the ferry than it would the flight.

Yep.

And that’s exactly why we wanted to do that, because we only had one night here.

32:12

We chose to only have one night here because a lot of the research we did online said, you know, there’s nothing to do in Mykonos but party.

And there was a lot of shit talking about Mykonos on the social medias, saying it’s touristy, it’s crowded, it’s blah blah blah.

32:29

And yes, it was crowded in Mykonos town and maybe it’s touristy.

I like nightlife I did not have.

I don’t have a bad thing to say about Mykonos.

I had so much fun here.

I would have actually loved to have two nights here.

I think anything more than two nights would have been.

I’m over it.

32:45

But one night we tried to do as much as we can, so we were staying at Paradise Beach Resort.

Believe it or not, it is a hostel beachfront hostel with beach clubs right outside your doors.

How can you go wrong?

Yeah, it was perfect.

And we chose this spot because, one, it was cheap.

33:01

It was only 100 bucks a night to stay here.

And then two, it’s right on the beach.

So we didn’t have a lot of time, wanted to be as close to the beach clubs as possible.

And that’s what we did.

And this was a great spot too, because it had the Paradise Beach Bar.

But then there were like three other bars.

33:18

All of them have beach beds that you can rent out that are part of it to restaurants.

All that.

The Paradise Beach bar, though, was buy one, get one free on all the cocktails.

Oh, you can’t go wrong there.

So it’s 15 bucks a cocktail, but you get 2, whereas the other bars on the strip or not buy one going free.

33:36

I hope this is a great squad tip.

So you know, we were going back there.

We didn’t actually rent a bed there.

We rented a bed a little farther down in a nicer bed, but we kept going back to that bar for drinks.

So we ended up getting in around, gosh, 9.

33:52

No.

So it must have been around 10:00 AM We finally arrived there.

Obviously you’re not really supposed to check in till like 3:00 or 4:00 PM, but a lot of people were arriving.

They’re probably used to it.

They let us put our stuff down and then at 11:00 AM we could check in.

Oh, that’s pretty nice.

That’s an early check in, actually not too bad, but you know that’s a good tip in general to note is if you get to a hotel, hostel or any place like that.

34:15

Maybe the only place you really wouldn’t be able to do do that as an Airbnb, right?

But if you get to your accommodations early before check in, usually you can leave it.

So plan trips to get there early, make the most of your day, leave your luggage where you’re staying, and then just head on out.

34:31

Yes.

And that’s what we did during that one hour.

We just went and got a cocktail and we’re just sitting on the beds waiting.

The guys will come over and ask you if you want to reserve that bed.

It was €30 per bed and after we checked in we did rent one for each of us, but at this point we were just kind of squatting.

34:51

So €30 per bed.

How long do you get the bed for?

All day?

All day, even if you?

Leave, it’s yours.

Oh, that’s nice.

The only thing that would have been a little better, and probably more so at a higher end spot, would have been bedside service.

I was going to say you kept talking about having to walk back to the bar.

35:09

But it’s fine.

Well, bedside service for €30, you would kind of want it, but if it really is all day and not so many hours, then I think that makes sense.

But at the same time, if they did have that bedside service, so to speak, you probably would be getting the drinks, being lazy and not getting your two furs right.

35:26

So I guess it’s kind of good to get up, walk around, who knows what you’re going to see on the beach.

You don’t want to be too lazy and then to have too many drinks and just get sloshed and fall asleep with a burn anyway.

I know, but you know, it’s kind of good that way.

Yeah, And then right here they have a bunch of restaurants.

35:42

They have pizza EUR, a whole cafeteria of different foods.

There’s an actual restaurant.

You can sit at tables and eat too.

We ended up eating a pizza and a euro.

That was really, really good.

And we pretty much stayed here all day.

We took some time to go out in the water and swim.

35:57

There’s a big coral reef here so you can swim and then climb on that and then swim past it.

We had the GoPro and just some of the most beautiful views down there.

Nice.

And the GoPro footage is so cool.

We spent a lot of time in the water actually.

36:13

But I must say, for the squatties listening and considering this area, Louis got a allergic reaction almost immediately after getting into the water.

He started to get these, like, hives kind of on his arms turning red.

They’re really itchy, he told me.

36:30

Are your mosquito bites getting itchy?

And I was like, no.

But it was this rash, apparently, that was forming.

What is it from?

I think it’s from the plants in the water because we got out, we went to the little market that was right outside of the resort and they immediately knew what was going on.

36:47

They actually put vinegar on it, but he needed allergy medicine.

They didn’t have any.

Our front desk guy at the resort did happen to have some of his personal stash and it pretty much went away almost right away.

Like a Benadryl, OK, you don’t travel with like a little carry on with.

37:06

I don’t usually have allergy things.

Oh, it’s always good to have.

Well, who expects to get allergies going into the Mediterranean Sea?

I guess it could happen, but, you know, you never know.

That’s interesting, interesting.

So something about the plant life that’s in there and they maybe the amount just gave him an allergic reaction.

37:24

Something else I said in passing just now.

Mosquito bites.

Mosquito bites.

There are mosquitoes out here, so bring your mosquito spray because we got a lot of bites the first night we didn’t wear it.

So that Soyer always comes in handy, like that’s our brand that we go to.

37:39

And I mean, every time we wear it, I always have a ton less mosquito bites if we didn’t wear it.

So we mostly stayed here for the day and we had so much fun.

There were other beach clubs that I would have loved to go to, hence why I would have liked more nights here.

37:57

Scorpios Club, Santana, Kahlua, Pissarro Beach, Super Paradise Beach, Paraga Beach, Bar, Restaurant.

All of these were on my radar, but obviously with one night it’s hard.

Yeah, you can only do so much, yeah.

So next time we’ll we’ll be doing more.

38:13

So around 4:00 PM we decided to get ready for the evening and go into Mykonos town.

We were staying in the the beach areas.

Mykonos town is just about a 10 minute drive in and we took the bus, public transportation.

Look at you.

Right outside of the resort, there’s a bus stop that everybody’s taking it.

38:33

It’s just full of drunk people.

Going back to Mykonos town, it was really fun and we got into Mykonos town and yes, it is crowded.

It’s very crowded.

There’s a ton of people, but it’s that iconic, like white and Gray brick, sidewalk pink flowers everywhere.

38:50

It’s beautiful.

We saw the the little Venice windmills in a distance.

And another reason I say I would have loved another night here is because by the time I went to Mika Nurse Town, I was drunk.

So I wasn’t sightseeing.

I could see the windmills from a distance, but I didn’t take a picture of them.

39:11

We were just going to more places and having drinks.

We we went to I think 3 places.

One, we were sitting outside on a table so we were able to see all the people walking by, have a cocktail.

I think I had an espresso martini here to get my wits back, you know.

39:27

Oh really?

And we’re just.

Walking, watching all the people go by and it really was like a Stampede of people constantly.

But what are you going to expect, right?

You know what you’re getting into here.

So after we had the espresso martini people watching situation, we went over to one of these iconic bars, restaurants that you can sit out on the like patio area and the waters lapping up under your feet.

39:54

Like on the sand you’re on the sand and the the the tables are in the wave break area.

Or what do you mean?

No.

In this little Venice area, all the restaurants are built along like a promenade kind of walkway type thing.

OK, I see what you’re saying.

So there’s actual brick type flooring where the tables are.

40:13

So some of the places that you might see are 180 Sunset Bar Negrita bows.

These are all along the same strip here.

Any place right there you’re going to have a really good time at.

We sat right there.

We had an apparel spritz.

We, you know, enjoyed the night time views of this area.

40:32

Sunset would be the ideal time to come here, but night time was also really good.

So my memory is a little hazy, but I think that we went just inside of this place where we had been sitting outside.

I think we ended up staying here most of the night because it was so fun.

40:47

They had a DJ going.

It was not a big place, but it was full.

They had a saxophone guy standing on top of the bar, playing along to the DJ to the house music.

So it was just the vibes were so good.

We were making friends.

41:02

I made friends with these three girls.

I don’t know their names or where they were from.

They were from Europe somewhere, but they we were dancing all night.

One of them kept kind of kissing me.

I don’t know, it’s a little weird, but she was a good.

Girl, in Cuba, people are licking you and Grease people are kissing you.

41:19

I mean, what’s going on here?

As time went on though, we and or Louis ended up getting a bottle and so there was a bottle of tequila and an ice bucket on the table.

You said you were already hazy.

I know This is why I don’t know the details of how that bottle arrived, but it’s in pictures.

41:37

We know it was there.

Somehow, a bottle arrived.

Yes.

And and then we ended up getting a taxi back to Paradise Beach Resort around 3:00 AM and it it was still busy out there.

We definitely could have stayed longer, but it was a little bit dying down.

41:52

Dine down and you were leaving the next day to Santorini, correct?

Yes, early.

OK.

Well, I guess then before we get into Santorini, this is a good time to mention that we have several trip itineraries for you squatties because we have so many requests for us to send our exact trips for you all to replicate.

42:10

We have a grease itinerary.

It’s our newest itinerary available on the site.

We also have several other international trip itineraries including Japan that’s one of our best sellers, Banff and iconic week trip there, Spain.

On top of those, we also have US trips like the Mighty 5 National parks in Utah, Grand Teton and Yellowstone.

42:29

We also have free ones.

Yeah.

And every itinerary that we have is 20 to 30 pages, say, PDF, instant download guide that tells you where to fly into, the exact route to take, where to stay, the park entrance prices, where to eat, driving distance between tractions, things to do and see, all of the hikes that we recommend if the trip is allotted for that, their mileage.

42:51

And there’s just so much information in these.

So we’re going to link this in our show notes, but check them out for sure.

Also, be sure to head into travelsquadpodcast.com and you can find our itineraries on our website just as well.

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43:08

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43:47

I said we were leaving early the next morning.

By early I mean the ferry was leaving at 12 noon.

Hey, if you’re If you’re catching the cab at three AM, 12 noon will come very early.

Yes, and it certainly did.

We kind of did not prepare for the wake up.

44:04

So it’s like scrambling, trying to get everything together in the suitcases and oh, get our taxi to the ferry.

The thing about Greece, though, that is true with what they say, is the fairies are always late.

We showed up just before noon.

Our ferry didn’t even get there until 12:30.

44:20

And so you had plenty of.

Time.

We had plenty of time and it’s just a cluster.

There’s just people everywhere.

Nobody knows like where to go and you ask someone and they’re like, just stand right here, it’ll be here and you’re like, it was supposed to be here 30 minutes ago.

What’s going on?

But we made it on couple hours on the ferry.

44:36

Not the most comfortable.

There is assigned seats on the ferry.

I didn’t realize that, but you have a specific seat you need to sign in, and that is also a cluster because no one else knows that either.

So they’re coming around saying you can’t sit here, where’s your ticket?

And it’s like, very disorganized, but hey, you get to your end destination.

44:53

Learning curve.

Is this the ferry ride where you shared your take on travel pillow because you guys were so tired?

Yes, and actually Louis even laid on the floor to take a nap, because it wasn’t.

It wasn’t a comfortable ride for being so hungover and needing a little bit more sleep.

45:09

You know what this kind of reminds me of?

If you’re talking about sharing pillows laying on the floor of the ferry, have you guys not seen those Instagram or TikTok videos of people showing Ibiza airport?

And it’s everybody just like crashed out because they’re drunk, ready to catch their flights.

This kind of sounds like that, I would imagine, but I’m sure you know, it’s not as chaotic on those ferries as the Ibiza airport.

45:30

But there are a few people I imagine who are just like, oh man, I’m really hungover partying.

Yeah.

And then once the ferry gets going, you kind of settle in.

I think it was around 3 hours to get to San on Tarini.

Once you get off the ferry you are met with a lot of people who are offering rides.

45:47

So taxis or there’s a lot of buses like the the Mini like Mercedes type van buses that can fit like 10 to 20 people.

There’s a lot of that.

So you might buy one person one way ticket on that bus to wherever you’re going, but it could take you an hour to get wherever you’re going.

46:03

You show up towards the southern end of the island.

We were staying in EA, which is about an hour driving from there, and that’s about how big the island is too, about an hour from One Direction to the other.

You can also rent ATVs here, scooters and buggies, and we ended up renting A buggy because we were going to be here for three days.

46:22

You would constantly need a taxi or a bus every place you went.

We were staying up in EA.

Like I said, it’s in the very northern part of the island.

Everything else requires a drive.

Well, you know, it’s really funny about what you mentioned is I feel like I’ve heard that before from somebody who’s been to Santorini, that the island is rather large and you’re saying like an hour from one side to the next.

46:44

And I wouldn’t assume that much because, you know, when you Google image photos of Santorini, you really just kind of get that one shot of the white and blue buildings overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

And it’s always kind of in that same cluster.

But the island is much larger than that, if you’re talking an hour from one end to the next.

47:00

And maybe it’s not so much that it’s huge, but the road system is.

There’s a lot of one ways.

That makes a lot of sense though, but nevertheless, still kind of a larger island though, yes.

And a lot of windy roads too.

And I guess you’re not going extremely fast and a buggy or an ATV.

47:17

Right.

How fast can you really go, especially if you’re trying to carry your luggage from the ferry?

There’s a lot of traffic to people there that we we didn’t want an ATV.

We were originally going to get them, but we decided not to once they showed us the buggy.

It’s a little bit more expensive.

I think we paid like 4 or €500 for the three days, but probably would have paid that much in taxis and in a hassle anyway.

47:38

So we did see people on ATVs like holding their luggage to the side of their body, getting to their destination.

I was so glad we didn’t get one of those because the buggy comes with a top to shade you from all that sun.

There’s a lot of room in the back for your luggage and then you’re comfortably sitting next to each other.

47:57

That’s nice.

Only one person has to drive.

So guess who got to be passenger Princess?

You.

That’s you are always passenger Princess, no matter what.

The buggies do not have power steering, though.

That was like the one thing that made it a little bit more difficult.

Not that I drove, but over those really windy roads you really have to crank.

48:15

It yeah, but this is where you had your luxury stay, right?

This is what you were did budget the rest of the trip because you went all out for this.

Yeah, I think we spent like 600 bucks a night at the Serious Suites and Studios.

48:31

They are tucked away on the backside of the caldera Cliff up in EA, so you can’t actually see it.

And so the hotel staff met us out front on the street, took our luggage and walked us down.

And there’s a lot of steps.

You have to walk down the side of the Cliff to the lobby.

48:47

Then they take you to your room.

It’s a gorgeous room.

They had all different types of rooms, but ours was a gorgeous one bedroom, huge room.

In the bathroom it had this like gorgeous shower, almost like it looked like rocks and you almost couldn’t see that there was a shower.

There was like built in kind of huge Jacuzzi tub.

49:05

There was wine waiting for us with a beautiful note.

It had a private Jacuzzi hot tub on the porch balcony overlooking the ocean.

I was about to ask you because as you’re talking about this, I had to Google.

I’m like, all right, I got to let’s see what the theory of Suites and Santorini look like.

49:21

And every image that comes up for the first maybe 10 is really a patio overlooking the water with its own private little pool or Jacuzzi.

And it has that classic kind of, like, whitewashed look that the buildings in the area are famous for, too.

So I feel like it really immerses you in that entire vibe.

49:39

Yes, yes it does.

It’s the architecture here is so cool.

There are no straight lines, there’s no corners, everything’s rounded.

Everything kind of flows into each other.

So your balcony or your patio area doesn’t have a door.

You just kind of walk up your stairs and you’re there and you can’t see.

49:56

But there’s a bunch of them in this area.

But it like all blends together.

It’s really, really pretty.

Nothing beats having your wine.

We also bought stuff to make a little cheese board and ate it and drink our wine in our Jacuzzi hot tub.

The first like moment we got there, and that was really, really nice, the hangover suddenly was gone.

50:15

Need a little hair of the dog to just get yourself back in the mood, huh?

That Jacuzzi tub me on that was amazing.

This was like truly what we were looking forward to the whole trip and it I’m so glad we splurged on it.

The hostel in Athens was worth getting to have this luxury spot in Santorini.

50:32

So this night we didn’t want to go too hard.

I thought depending on how we feel, maybe we could go to Fiera, where it’s like more of the middle of the island.

There’s a lot of nightlife there, but we weren’t really feeling that.

We decided to go down to EA.

Well, we kind of worrying EA, but we went down to EA.

50:48

Farther in went down to a Moody Bay, which is a is another really popular area here.

And I’m actually really glad we went at night because it wasn’t busy at all.

I guess after sunset it kind of clears out.

Sunset is an amazing time to be down there, but you can expect huge crowds.

51:04

There were almost no people down there.

When we went, we got a sea front table, had a steak dinner.

It was beautiful.

Like truly the water was right below us.

We could see turtles, fish.

Oh, that’s really cool.

Yeah, it was.

It was really, really nice.

And then kind of just made our way back and ended up having an early early night.

51:22

And the restaurant is actually called a Moody Bay at Dimitri’s, A Moody Taverna.

There’s a few restaurants there.

I’m pretty sure they have similar menus, very good for seafood lovers.

There’s also steak options, but I don’t think you can go wrong with any of the restaurants right there.

Next day, day, 2IN, Santorini.

51:39

This was a day I was really excited for because we’re going on a yacht.

Oh, that’s so, Kim.

Yes, a private semi private luxury yacht experience.

They’re picking us up at 3:30, so we do have some time to kill.

We decide to walk around EA in the neighborhood that we’re in.

51:57

And a lot of what you see on social media is also true here.

Very, very crowded.

I also noticed the age demographic here slanted a lot older.

So we did The Walking around.

There’s lots of shopping, took pictures at some of the iconic blue Dome type spots to get pictures, churches, but I didn’t love how crowded it was at night.

52:20

It’s not quite as crowded.

There’s not a lot of nightlife in this area here, but.

Maybe that’s why it LED itself to the older crowd.

Yeah, for sure.

And it’s more expensive too.

So older crowd for sure, but it was good and it was a good thing to do nearby while we’re waiting to do this yacht experience here.

52:38

It was also really, really hot.

So walking around you know how it is.

Anyway, the yacht though, this is the highlight of the day they pick us up in a bus ride.

It takes probably like 45 minutes to get the other people and get on 6 people total in addition to the staff.

So it was pretty small, intimate.

52:53

Yeah, and I didn’t know it was going to be that small.

There were other boat tours where there was a lot of people on there.

I picked it because it said luxury and it was a 5 course dinner and open bar.

I didn’t realize it was going to be so small.

And our other two couples, they weren’t the most social, but that’s fine.

OK.

53:09

And how much would you say you paid for this excursion?

I?

Think it was like 180 a person.

That’s not terrible for Open Bar 5 course meal.

How was the food?

I have to ask how was the food?

Food was good.

Yeah.

I got the chicken, he got the fish.

It came with rice.

There were those leaves that you love, Dolma leaves or dola leaves.

53:27

Dolmas that stuffed grape leaves.

Yes, and it had cheese inside.

They had a great dessert.

The food was great.

We ate a lot of it.

We also got our money’s worth in beer and wine.

There you go.

They really kept it coming.

It was a great experience.

And it was a sunset dinner cruise the five course, right?

53:42

But did they give you the opportunity, especially if they picked you up at 3, for you to baby get in the water and swim Okay?

Did get in the water?

Yes.

Nice.

Did they take you to like any other little island areas, Really good spots for like fish or anything or that was just like let’s choose a spot and dock and get out swim or what did they do for that?

53:59

They did kind of take you around, so you got to see Red Beach, but from a distance you could swim there, but it’d probably take you a little bit too long.

But you could see it from a distance, Red Beach.

And then they went to like where the volcano is and they kind of tried to choose spots that they knew the bigger boats were not going to go.

54:18

It could be really crowded.

So we did have a little bit more like out in the water type swimming snorkeling experiences.

Did they provide the snorkeling gear?

Yes, they did.

Oh, perfect.

Yeah, it was fun.

I I went in the water a little bit and then put my cute outfit back on and enjoyed.

54:34

The Lux experience on the boat was great.

After the boat I was thinking maybe we could go out and fear.

I don’t know why I had this in my mind, like I want to go out and fear because it it really was the nightlife area.

Tons of restaurants, tons of bars, super active, a lot younger of a demographic.

54:51

But after the boat, we were kind of tired, kind of shot from being out in the sun and walking around in EA earlier that day.

The sun will tire you out so quickly.

Yeah.

So we ended up going back to EA.

We just picked up food somewhere near the hotel and brought it back and we’re watching TV in our amazing room.

55:11

And that was the other thing too.

The the room was so amazing, we wanted to spend time there and you know, like we always say, bring the Fire Stick when you want to chill night to kind of watch.

That’s exactly what we did.

Then we had our last day in Santorini, our last day really in Greece.

55:26

And the one thing I forgot to mention about the Theria Suites and Studios is that it comes with a free breakfast buffet.

Oh.

Very nice for expensive accommodations.

I have to ask how is the food good quality?

So good, and not only is it that, but they bring it to your patio.

55:47

I love.

It set it up on your table so you have breakfast overlooking the ocean in your robe and it’s like delicious stuff.

Some classic Greek dishes with like the filo dough and cheese inside and spinach, eggs, pastries, oatmeal, parfait, coffee juice, like everything.

56:07

And they bring it there and then when you’re done, they come and they take everything away.

Oh my God, the breakfast was like the best experience.

Even on our last day, the day after this, we had to leave really early.

They actually put our breakfast in our fridge to go.

Oh, that’s really nice.

Yeah, it was really nice.

They they really, really take care of you there.

56:24

I would highly recommend this spot.

But our last day in Santorini, right?

Santorini is also an island, so there are beaches to go to here, and I really wanted to experience a little bit of that.

That was like probably one of my favorite things Mykonos Beach day.

I wanted more of that here in Santorini.

So after we had breakfast on our balcony, we just did a little exploring.

56:44

We did go to Fiera again.

We went to Vulcan on the rocks, had a cocktail over there.

It’s overlooking the water and this big area where a lot of cruise boats come in.

It’s a huge Cliff area and they have one of those little gondola type carts that can bring you up the Cliff and then they also have like donkeys you can rent right there.

57:04

It’s a huge Cliff area.

So you have that whole view from Vulcan on the rocks was really pretty.

We went to Lucky’s Slovaki.

Slovaki is kind of like a euro, but also a little bit different depending on where you go.

Could be a euro or it could be more of the Jamal you would know this being Lebanese.

57:21

The Like the shawarma style.

Shawarma, Shawarma style and then the other kind that’s like on a stick.

Kebabs.

Yeah, more kebab style.

So I learned that, but at Lucky’s it’s more of the euro like shawarma style.

Yeah, And I mean the way you pronounced it, I think it’s pronounced souvlaki.

57:39

Souvlaki.

Yeah, those are very famous Greek dishes or kind of like sandwiches.

And I was going to ask if you we ended up trying one and I was going to ask that towards the end, but you hit it off right now.

So you did.

How was it?

Lucky’s is really good.

I would recommend going there.

There’s a lot of spots to eat in this fear area right here, but Lucky’s was good, my coworker recommended it and I’m going to pass that recommendation on.

58:01

And then Santorini is also really well known for wine.

There’s a ton of wineries here so really trying to jam packed the day in.

We went to Santo Winery.

It’s up on the Cliff.

It has a gorgeous view of the water below.

We got a wine tasting flight and it came.

58:17

We got the food pairing with it and it had so much cheese, like enough cheese for 10 people.

Wow.

It was way too much cheese.

And then little dippings and like salami and stuff.

The only problem was it was beginning to get cloudy and so all that fog and cloud was rolling in, blocking the view of the water below.

58:37

That’s a shame.

It would kind of blow out a little bit and you could see and then it would come back thicker.

So we were planning to go to more wineries.

We also had Venice No Vinnazanos, Venezanos Winery also on our list, and it was very similar of a situation up on a Cliff view down below.

58:54

So we decided to forego it just knowing what our weather situation was, and we decided to hit the beach instead.

There are two beaches to know in Santorini, Kumari Beach and Parisa Beach.

They’re right next to each other.

You could walk or you could drive.

Driving probably is a little bit better, but these are really well known because Parisa is a black sand beach, Kamari is a black Pebble Beach.

59:17

Both of them are pretty.

Both of them have beach clubs lining the street, so I would definitely recommend checking it out here.

If we had not stayed in EIA, I would definitely recommend staying in this beach area if you want more of that vibe.

Fear is also good because it’s kind of in the middle of Zantrini.

59:34

But I loved this beach area a lot.

I would have totally stayed there.

There were some recommendations that we had of places to go.

What stories?

The Albatross Love Boat.

I wouldn’t even recommend anything because it doesn’t matter where you go, there’s just one after another after another after another with menus right out front, people inviting you to stay in.

59:56

So just pick which one has the Best Buy by the time that you’re there.

And so everything that you listed, are those restaurants, bars, a combination of both, Both.

OK.

We were kind of like walking along this area before we found one and one of the people up at the front were trying to get us in.

We said no, we’re walking when we come back, so we’re walking down.

1:00:14

I see this beautiful like queen size bed with the big posted frames and the fabric along.

That’s where I want to sit obviously.

So we go over there, we sit, we start taking pictures, but then the the guy comes over to tell us the price and it’s €80 for just a.

Bed really for?

1:00:30

The day or for a few hours?

Probably the day, but we weren’t planning to stay a super long time, so we decided no, it’s not worth it.

To pay that, we started walking back and our friend who had tried to get us to come in before, invited us in.

Free beds, free shots.

1:00:46

Oh, can’t go wrong there.

And we got a bottle of champagne.

But did you take shots?

Because you don’t.

It wasn’t a hard liquor shot.

It was like a little bit more of a mixer, something Greek traditional, he said.

I shot it.

Yes, I did.

Wow.

We always say Kim over 30, but I I want to give Kim some props here.

1:01:01

When she’s in another country, she goes big.

That’s right, you don’t.

Take shots of tequila with me.

Let’s do it right now.

Bust it out.

But that was fun.

We kind of stayed there for a little while and had our champagne, and the only reason we left is because we had an appointment to get tattoos.

1:01:19

Oh, OK.

There was a spot in fear that we had made an appointment at earlier in the day.

And did you get one?

I did so like Splash House where you were going to get a tattoo.

I was.

I was about to say the same thing.

Almost like Splash House.

Yeah, except I didn’t get a little splash on my knee.

1:01:36

I got a little evil eye on my middle finger so.

There you go.

Fuck you to the evil spirits out there.

There you go.

I love it.

That’s the thing about grace.

Everywhere you go, all of the shops, everything, the evil eyes everywhere, they’re really into it.

1:01:51

And so I thought, why not?

So what did Louis get?

He had.

Been wanting these Mexican playing cards for a long, long time.

So he got three of them on the back of his calf and it took a couple hours to get that.

As we were doing the tattoo situation, the power went out two different times and that happens I guess in Santorini.

1:02:11

So if you’re there and the power goes out, it’s normal.

One of them lasted like almost 30 minutes.

Oh, wow.

And then the other one was really brief.

So he was about to come home with a half done.

Exactly 1 card was done, almost done.

The other two hadn’t been started yet, but it’s like they don’t know if it’s going to come on or if it will stay on.

1:02:33

And and so we were there at the tattoo shop hanging out and there’s a ton of Greek men watching the soccer game on someone’s phone.

And he’s like, oh, you have to forgive us.

We’re an ancient people in the middle of the ocean or a prehistoric people.

1:02:48

I don’t know what he said something like that.

And it was, it’s like, yeah, actually that makes sense why your power would go out 2000 year old place in the middle of the ocean.

But everything was good there.

And that’s basically how we ended the night.

It was pretty late by that point because of the power delays.

1:03:05

Probably went home like 11 or 12 and then had to get up the next day to make it to the airport.

And the final thing I’ll say, since we did rent a buggy, they let us know that you can return it at the airport.

And they had given us some name like Rocks return it to the Rocks by the airport.

1:03:22

So we think airport, right.

We’re like, do you know where Rocks is?

And no one knows what we’re talking about.

So we’re like, what are we supposed to do with this thing?

But we look over and there’s a sign a gas station is called Rocks.

So.

We just left the buggy there with the keys in the cup holder like.

1:03:42

I guess this is how you return it here.

Ending your credit card to buy a $10,000 buggy or whatever.

I think you guys are good and maybe got it to the spot and I was going to ask too of did you catch a ferry back to mainland?

But apparently there is an airport in Santorini.

So you just caught a flight back to Athens.

1:03:57

Then Yep, Yep.

So if you’re flying anywhere, Athens to the islands or or the other direction, you’re good.

It’s that Mykonos to Santorini.

There’s no flight.

You would have to go back to Athens.

Well, it sounds like a fun trip all around.

You’ve kind of really inspired me and got me more excited about Grease Kim.

1:04:14

I I won’t lie, although we discussed earlier how I’m apparently excluded from the Grease trip, apparently it’s a girls trip now and all that jazz.

But one of these days we’re gonna get there, or I’ll get there.

And I’m really excited, ’cause this sounds like a lot of fun.

It was really, really fun and I thought I’d have more time to just lay on the beach and relax.

1:04:33

And we did do some of that, but it was so much more go, go, go and jam packed than I thought.

But if I did go back, I would do more of just beach.

Like I’ve seen things now, I don’t need to go around, just lay on the beach beds and have that quintessential European summer.

1:04:49

Enjoy those vibes, right?

Yeah.

The first time you got to kind of see the sides roam around.

But now that you’ve seen it, you’re right.

I mean, what is it famous for?

The beaches, that type of vibe.

You got to enjoy it.

And Speaking of enjoying Greece a little bit more, I think you’re going to be really excited because we are coming up to questions of the weekend.

1:05:08

And we have a lot.

I see we have 5 questions this week.

Our first questions coming from Angela and she’s asking would you recommend a guided tour or individual for this trip?

Me personally, after going on it as an individual trip and kind of feeling this way before too, I would not want to do this as a guided tour.

1:05:27

There’s just like I just said, I want to lay on the beach and just drink and just be.

And I think a guided tour might be too a little fast-paced.

Yeah, I can see that because this is a trip that you just want to enjoy and you can go at your own pace and you don’t want to be rushed through everything, so that makes a lot of sense.

1:05:45

So our next squatty Marianne asked how affordable were the street EUR?

Did you get fries in yours?

Yes, I did.

Of course you can’t say no to fries and the fries were good too and the the prices are very affordable on this.

I would say 4 to €5 at all of the places that we got them and they were all delicious.

1:06:04

So even in the touristy areas, the EUR were still in that price range and I was going to ask this too, but you were kind of touching upon it with a little bit of the prices.

But Greece is known to be a very affordable Euro country.

Unfortunately, you know, a few years, several years back that kind of like had an economic crisis.

1:06:21

So I know it’s geared towards tourism, that’s kind of really what saved it.

But food from my understanding is relatively inexpensive.

But I do know of course in tourist areas that can be more pricey in certain areas, but on average you found it to be really affordable, not any markup.

1:06:37

You know, I don’t know if I’d go so far to say really affordable, but I would say it’s reasonably priced.

There you go.

OK.

Yeah, I didn’t think anything was too crazy.

Even the sea front steak dinner we had at a Moody Bay restaurant wasn’t that crazy.

Well, that kind of answers one of our other questions that we were asked from Ross.

1:06:55

He asked how are the prices in Greece after the near bankruptcy collapse a few years ago?

So you kind of dove into that a little bit.

And, and here’s something I learned from a local We were asking why are the beach clubs so empty in Kamari and Parisa?

And he part of it was the season that we were there.

1:07:11

It was towards the beginning of the shoulder season.

So people had gone and left.

But also he said that before their crisis and 2008 was kind of when that hit, around the same time before that, the locals would be the ones at the beach clubs.

1:07:26

They were vacationing in Mykonos, vacationing in Santorini and spending a lot of money there.

But then the the crisis hit and prices went up.

So you used to get a euro for maybe €2.00 and now they’ve gone up to four or five and so they don’t.

1:07:42

And and also then financial personal crisises were happening and so people cut back on spending.

They stopped vacationing there because they thought why would I go there and vacation and spend three times as much as I used to and I can go now to this other destination and spend a reasonable price amount.

1:07:58

And so that’s also why you see a lot of the less touristy islands apparently is now where a lot of local Grecians are going.

So like Crete, Naxos, Peros, that’s apparently where more of the locals are now vacationing.

But still, like, like I was just saying with pricing, I mean, it’s not too crazy if you’re used to American prices.

1:08:18

That is definitely good information to have.

And no, we do have another another question Hannah Sophia is asking How many days do you think is necessary for a grease trip?

In my perfect world, I’d say 2 weeks.

Because you want beach time.

Beach time and.

1:08:33

More islands.

Yeah, you can see more islands like we only did one night in Mykonos.

I don’t think it was enough.

I I I always said I wouldn’t spend only one night in a place again.

And then I I went and did it, but I would say two weeks, maybe three weeks if you really want to spend more time and see all of the islands.

1:08:50

That’s a big amount of time though, for just one country.

But if you’re going to do it as more a leisurely thing, then I think that makes a lot of sense.

If you’re going to do a week, I would.

So we did Athens, Mykonos and Santorini, and we did that in a week and that was fine.

You could still do that, maybe cut one of those places out if you wanted to spend a little bit longer.

1:09:10

We did two nights in Athens just because of the time in which we arrived in Athens.

You really only need one night in Athens if you want to cut something or hey even go crazy or come in straight in the morning, do all the thing.

No, no, no, I take that back.

You need Athens nightlife.

Okay.

1:09:26

So our last question, I think you’ve kind of answered it already in the episode, but just to reiterate for our SQUATTY, they asked is it easy to get from Santorini to Athens?

Yes it is.

Take the flight the ferries too long.

Don’t mess with it.

Also really good information to know because I really would have thought like, oh, it’s an island, you know, you have to take the ferry, so airport, but everywhere you go, Athens is going to be the hub.

1:09:49

And one other little bonus tip here.

Everyone speaks English in Greece.

I don’t even know if I learned any Greek when I was there and about.

Cheers.

I know.

Wow, Kim judging you hard right now.

I did look it up on the app before it’s it’s kind of hard to say but people say cheers.

1:10:08

Is there anything else that you wanted to add before we close out this episode?

You know, I’ll just close it out by by saying again, this was truly one of my favorite trips, if not my number one favorite trip I’ve ever been on.

I would go again.

I would go again next year, and if you’re interested you have any questions about it, you’re always welcome to reach out to us.

1:10:26

And with that, thank you so much for listening to our Greece episode this week.

Keep the adventures going with us by following us on all social medias and send us in your questions of the week.

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1:10:43

And as always, please subscribe, rate and review our podcast and TuneIn every trouble Tuesday for new episodes.

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We have some more amazing adventures and tips in store for you.

Bye Squadies!