Santorini - With Kids!

Welcome back to another episode, in this one I'm taking you to Santorini in Greece for a luxurious weekend away (from the UK) - but with kids in tow!

I talk you through:

- Flying from London Gatwick with Easyjet

- Our AMAZING accommodation - Cave Suite Oia

- Pelekanos Restaurant 

- Kastros Restaurant

- Best time to get photos

- What to bring/not to bring for kids

You can also find us on Youtube search Shire Travels and instagram Shire.Travels. 

Transcript

Welcome to Shire Travels in this episode. I'm going to be talking you through a trip we did to Santrini in Greece. We took this trip at the end of June 2024. and we only went for two nights as a quick weekend away it was we were staying in the UK with family. We had originally planned to take this trip in June 2020 for my third 30th birthday, but unfortunately, the pandemic took hold, which meant those plans were scrapped. We knew we still wanted to take the trip, but four years on, we now had two kids in Should we still go? Should we not go? Well, we just thought it's now or never. We're going to be over in the UK. We're going to be there for my birthday. So we might as well just go there and make the best of it. We flew from London Gatwick Airport. We decided to do this as the flight times with EasyJet were the most convenient at that time of day. It actually would have been far more convenient to fly from someone like Bristol or Birmingham, but at those smaller airports, they only had flights going out once or twice a week, so it had to be Getwick. We flew with EasyJets and the flights were around about $1700 return. This was a crazy amount of money, considering we were on the island for pretty much 48 hours. Those flights were for two adults, one child and one infant, so with the infant, we only paid taxes. With EasyJet, they are no Fris airline, which means absolutely nothing is included in terms of food, drink, baggage, etc. So we did pay for two checked bags, which is included in that price. Now, they do allow you to take on child items for free. However, we knew that we wouldn't need a travel cart as our accommodation were providing one. A pram wasn't going to work for us with the streets in Santorini. So we didn'tilize this. We did, however, take a nappy bag on board with us just to ensure that we had everything we needed on the flight, which was fortunate as the flight was delayed by about three hours. So this was an extra couple of hours we spent at Gatwick, finally got onto the plane, only for them to tell us that we were going to be sat on the tarmac for round about another hour. This was just pain painful, to be honest. The plane was really hot. There's not any entertainment for the kids on there. We did bring an iPad, but still, there's only so much you can really do sitting still for an hour as it's easy, Jack Jet, like I said before, there's no food, there's no drink, you just kind of have to sit there and deal with it. Eventually we did get going and once we were in the air, it was smooth sailing from there on in. We were little bit apprehensive because we were the only people on the flight with children. We knew we were not heading into the most child friendly place in the world. And we kept kind of second guessing ourselvesselves and questioning our decision whether or not taking kids was a good idea for the whole flight. In the end, we got to Greece, we got to Santorini. It was nice and hot. Our driver was there to meet us straight away, so with our accommodation that they could help us organise airport pickup and drop off. This was 30 euros each way. The car they picked us up in was a nice big car, air-conditioned. As soon as we got out the airport, we were straight in and on the road, it was really interesting to see kind of the the side of centre really that you don't see in all the glossy pictures, the road from the airport, out to Eatown, just driving through the kind of countryside. It's very bare, very barren, not much around, just a few houses. And it's always really interesting to see the actual kind of real side to places like that. So we arrived into Eatown. Now, obviously where the accommodation is, we couldn't drive straight up to it, so we parked as close as we could. We were then met by our host, who was really lovely, and she organised for two guys to carry our bags for us down to the accommodation. Now, this was invaluable. We At first, we were a little bit like, oh, no, like, don't worry about it. But when we saw how steep the stairs were down to the accommodation, there was absolutely no way we would have been able to do it. Even if we weren't carrying two children, I think we would have genuinely struggled. So the steps down to the accommodation are the most famous steps in Santorinni. If you Google Centorini steps, Blue domes, those are the steps. So as well as trying to navigate steep steps, which are really uneven, they're also very slippery, so with all the foot traffic, everything gets worn down and it's really smooth. So really slippery and all the rest of it, there's also photo shoots going on. So there's photo shoots at the top of the stairs. Also, when you get down to the bottom, you might see people doing photo shoots. If you Google flying Dresses Santorini, you'll see the sorts of pictures that are taking place while you're trying to navigate your way around. So it was brilliant for them to be able to take our bags down forest. I was also a little bit worried with kind of it being such a hotspot for photos and things like that, would it be a bit awkward? Would people be a bit grumpy if we were having to make them stop taking their photos? But actually, it was fine. Everyone was really polite. We waited for them to take their pictures. We got got by, walked past them as quick as as safely as we could, given how steep the steps were. And there were no issues at all. Sometimes people would come down the stairs thinking that it actually led somewhere when they got to the bottom, they'd see that, oh, no, it's just people's accommodation and walk back up. So we made our way down to the accommodation and the host gave us a tour of cave suite E and it was fantastic. So there was a small kitchenette that had a sink, a fridge, a kettle, coffee maker, a toaster, and a toasting machine as well, sandwichridge press. Then there was a small dining area, a sofa area with a TV, the main bedroom, and then the bathroom, which was gigantic, the bath in the bathroom was bigger than the swimming pool upstairs. It was huge. There was showers down one M was kind of a slide. If you wanted to fill it up, you'd be there for hours. It was that deep. It was huge. The kids just loved swimming in it, basically. So after we had a tour of our accommodation, the host said she gave us her details on WhatsApp so that we could organise our cooked breakfast to be delivered. So every night we would send her a message just to say what time we wanted and which type of breakfast we wanted them to deliver, which was really great. Then it was up to the swimming pool, to have a quick look. So it was a plunge pool. compared to other plunge pools that I'd seen at other accommodation, it was actually really big. So you could actually spread out in it, stretch out in it it had a little built in the seating area inside as well. Some of the plunge pools you see, it is literally that. You can kind of plunge your body in and that's about it, but this one was big and it was just so, so amazing to sit in that pool. You are right between the two blue domes as well. So that's the selling point. So you sit in your infinity plunge pool and the blue domes are right in front of of you. You've got views out over the caldera as well. So you can see all the cruise ships coming in and it's just magical. It is fabulous. Now, you pay through the nose for it, mind. It was about $1,800 for two nights. So that's Australian dollars, which is crazy, especially on top of the price of flights, but it was kind of a once in a lifetime thing and we just thought, you know what, we're just going to do it once. We'll stay in the most ridiculous place in Tristown and just cop the price and it was really worth it. Honestly was it was fantastic. And next to the swimming pool as well, sorry, the plunge pool as well was a small daybed area. And then downstairs from that there was a small courtyard with an umbrella and a built in seating bed where you could sit outside and have your breakfast, looking up at the blue domes. So we enjoyed a glass of the complimentary wine our host gave us and relaxed by the pool for a little bit, and then it was straight up out to dinner. Unfortunately, because our plane had been delayed, we didn't have time to kind of unpath and wind down before heading out to dinner. It was just kind of right, let's go. So we had booked dinner at at Pelicicanos's. Now this is about two minute walk from Cave Suite Ear, which was ideal. We had planned a lot of this trip to only be within walking distance of our accommodation because we got the little kids, we were only there for a couple of days. We really lowered our expectation in terms of what we would actually be able to see and do on the island. So we went up to Pelicicanos's. We booked this month in advance because I wanted to make sure that we had a seat kind of right on the edge overlooking the water. To do that, we simply just emailed them. And I think from them, we might have had to give them a credit card, just as a security for the booking. They also only hold your table for 15 minutes, and this is common throughout all the restaurants that we had inquired at. So make sure that you get there on time, otherwise they will give away your table. Every place that we went to was completely full, so the demand is definitely there. If someone wants your table, they will give it away. The view there was beautiful looking out over the water, and because it was so humid, it actually made for a fantastic sunset, it was just so orange and bright. It was stunning. The food there was fantastic. Neither my husband or I are foodies, but we still really enjoyed the food there. We had lots of fresh dips and breads and enjoyed a couple of cocktails, too, as it was my birthday. Once again, I was a bit apprehensive with taking the kids to a restaurant only because Santoi is such a honeymoon couples, high end dut market sort of place. I was worried, what would the kind of restaurant stuff be like towards them? What would other people be like towards them? Would we feel completely out of place? But honestly, everyone was really welcoming, very friendly. The restaurant staff kind of went above and beyond to try and accommodate our kids and find food for them that they would like. After dinner, it was just back to our accommodation. So the accommodation, we had one queen bed and then our eldest, who's three, she slept on the sofa, so it was kind of like a sofa bed that was made up for her. And then our little one, who was only three months old at the time, they provided a travel cart for her, and they actually provided a proper mattress for the travel cart. This is a first. This is the first place I've ever said that provided a proper mattress with a travel car, and it was much appreciated. So we pretty much just put the kids to bed and then we hung out in the pool, which is kind of just above where the bedroom is, which is good. So it meant that the baby monitor and camera could still talk to each other, so we could sit in the pool and make sure that there wasn't anything too crazy going on downstairs. So Santorini at night was just stunning. So if you've been Santono or Greece anywhere at night, you know that you can see the beautiful white buildings. You've got a nice candle light, you can see the pools reflecting off the white buildings as well. It's just magic. It has a really, really nice atmosphere. and although there were kind of neighbours fairly close by, everyone was just kind of doing their own thing. It's very quiet. We were kind of worried about being a bit overlooked in our pool, but actually there wasn't really any accommodation above us. And because we've got the shade sale, people can't really see directly into the pool anyway. So we didn't feel too overlooked or anything like that. So the next morning we woke up and our breakfast was delivered. So we both chose a cooked English breakfast. It also came with fresh juice and things like that, which was awesome. What we decided to do was get up early and go and do some photographs before places got too crowded and before it got too hot. And this was the best idea that we had. So the streets were really quiet. We left at about 730 from our accommodation and we went to all the kind of hotspots where everyone goes to get their Instagram shots around here. So we went all around the streets, we found a few nicely coloured doors. We found one section, which is steps, which leads down to where one of the blue domes is, which was completely empty and we got some really beautiful shots walking down the steps just along from where the castle is, there's also Castro and you'd know this from seeing it from pictures. It's the kind of terra cotted coloured buildings and it's got a light blue door. So we got beautiful pictures in front of that. The light at that time in the morning actually was really, really nice. We took a small tripod with us and just used our phone to take pictures, but there were also plenty of other tourists around who were able to take pictures for us if we took their pictures. In saying that there were plenty of people around, it really wasn't there. that many. If you tried to do this, I think at midday or have a bid, it's sunset, it would be impossible. You would have to be queueing for pictures. You would have to be dealing with people walking in front of you or all the time. It would be really difficult. So I'd say first thing in the morning is definitely the way to do it. There are also some really nicely coloured pink trees around as well, so they often grow over shops or over doorways, and they can make a really nice background for photos, too. After about an hour, the kids were over it and it was starting to get very hot hot and humid. So we headed back to our accommodation and just enjoyed spending most of the morning, relaxing in the pool, watching the ships come in and just soaking up the sun. Now, one way we tried to save money on this trip, and I say save, really, in inverted commas, because this was not a cost saving exercise, that's for sure, was we decided to self-cate it for lunch. So we thought this would be an easy way just to save a little bit of money. They have some small kind of supermarket corner shops in I. They're only about a five minute walk from from where we were staying and so we got basic stuff, bread, cheese, butter. We also got bottled water because you can't drink the tap water in Santna either. So we stocked up on a few supplies and made ourselves some lunch. After lunch, we decided to head up to one of the churches that's nearby. There's a bit of a square in front of it and have a bit of a look at the view. We also wanted to try and find some ice cream. So we found some gelato. We also wanted to get a few souvenirs as well. So we got a couple of bracelets that've got the classic centrin third aisle on them for me and my daughter, so we Mimatchi. And then we got our ice cream and then we found a shady spot. It was just kind of in a square where actually the tall buses turned around and it was quite fun just to sit there for a bit and people watch. And the cruise ships had come in and the tall buses were bringing up all the different groups and we could not believe the amount of people that were coming off the cruise ships. I know it is thousands of people. But in this one tiny little space, walking along all the streets, seeing the same things, going along in their groups with their stickers and their signs. It was just crazy, crazy busy. Like I said before, do not bother bringing a pram. We didn't bother bringing one. We just knew the streets, so it'd just be so chaotic that trying to get a pram through almost impossible. There's also a lot of steps. So trying to get navigate a pram, don't bother. If you've got a really little one, bring a carrier, like a front carrier. And if you have a bigger child, even a backpack carrier would be really useful. So once we have finished our ice cream, we had a little bit more of a look around town, but decided it was too hot and decided to go back to the pool. We had a bit of a swim and then we got ready to go for dinner. So we booked at Castro's restaurant. Like I said before this one is near the castle, it's one of the most popular places to go because it is right near the spot where you take photos for sunset. I'm talking about the sunset spot, which overlooks the white buildings and also the windmill. So it is by far the most popular place to go at sunset on Santorini. We book this month in advance. We had to pay a deposit, and we got to choose where we wanted to sit in terms of the, they call it the first line or the second line. So first line is when you are right at the edge. So if there's a window there, you've got the window seat, basically. And the views from there were stunning, so beautiful. It's so beautiful. The edge have a staff member who stands at the end of the restaurant where some steps are to make sure that people aren't coming down and taking pictures and blocking diners' views, which was quite funny to watch. The food there was really great. We also enjoyed some delicious cocktails. Now for the kids, the little one didn't eat solid food. Three-year-old. We just set her up with kind of breads, dips, that sort of thing. They didn't have a kids' menu there. So we just made best with what we could do. We also actually set her up with her iPad and headphones. So whilst we were enjoying the View and taking it all in, she's three years old, she did not care. So we set her up with movie headphones, and she was more than happy just to sit there and eat her bread and dip. There were also lots of cats around, which provided quite a lot of entertainment as well. trying to school themselves a free dinner. Now, as the sunset, everyone clapped. Yep, it's one of those places. To be fair, it was very spectacular. All the boats that on the water also beep their horns. I guess it would be a horn on a boat. And everyone from the castle then swiftly exited. So all the big crowds that are there soon disappeared and it was then quite quiet. Well, what's really nice is when the sun sets, they bring out the like candles and the tables and it just looks really, really beautiful. I think at night is just as special as it's sunset or in the day. If you can get out and have a bit of a walk around the streets at night, it's very safe. There's a good vibes, good atmosphere. All the shops are open. Everyone's out on the streets walking around. So definitely do that if you can. We then went back to our accommodation and again, just hung out in our pool. And then the next morning, we woke up early again to take photos. So our goal was to find lots of different coloured doors to get pictures in front of, get those Instagrams. So we just walked a few of the backstets around here and there were heaps of different coloured doors, all really brightly coloured, beautiful, nicely painted. And there was hardly anyone around, so you don't feel too kind of cringed getting the Instagram shs. I mean, everyone else is there to do the same thing, but it's always a little bit awkward when you stood there doing it. So we got a heap of pictures in front of the doors. We then decided to walk up to the car castle to get pictures of the windmill. And first thing in the morning is the light's not as good, to be fair. Obviously sunset is very spectacular, but there was hardly anyone else there, so you're not fighting the crowd to get your pictures and it was really, really nice view from there as well. Then it was back to our accommodation, one last quick dip in the pool, and then I'll host Texas to say that our car was there to take us to the airport. So once again, they had two guys come down to carry our bags up the stairs. There is just no way we would have been able to do it ourselves. So that is a fantastic service. Got to the airport. Of course, the flight was delayed by an hour, which was an ideal, but we could kind of deal with it. We didn't have anywhere to get to after in a rush. So we just hung around at the airport for the hour and flew back. Once we were in the air, everything was fine and we were home in about about four hours. So when we recommend travelling to Santorinno with kids? Absolutely we would. It was nowhere near as bad or as daunting as what I had imagined it would be. Everywhere we went, people were always very welcoming with the kids. We didn't have any issues with the people giving us, you know, dirty looks on the plane or dirty looks at restaurants. No already minded that kids were there. Like I said, our kids are pretty quiet and for dinner, set them up with the iPad and they just sat there quietly, which I know is a little bit controversial, but when they're three years old and three months old, they just do not care about the beautiful view behind you. So in terms of planning the trip, I did all the planning myself. I don't use travel agents. I have never used a travel agent and found that they've managed to get me a good deal or found me something which I couldn't find myself. In fact, a couple of times that we have used them, they have stuffed up our flights. So personally, I don't recommend using them. I just do all my research myself. One thing I did find doing research was with a accommodation. There were some places that when wanted a minimum night's stay, which was kind of obvious is there in the prime print. Cave Sweet E was a minimum two night stay as well. But we originally were looking to book and stay at another place, which was very close by and they only had a two-night minimum stay, but the day after the night after our booking was also free and it was a Monday night and the host mess us and said, look, we don't want to leave one night free. So you either need to book three nights or we're not going to accept your booking. It was round about, again, $7,800 a night. It just didn't work for us. It didn't work with our flights and things like that. So we just had to turn around and say, nah, thanks, we'll stay somewhere else. And I am so glad we did because I think where we stayed was 10 times better than what we were originally looking at. We just booked our accommodation, I think throughbooking.com. It was non-refundable as well. So there were a few times where I was looking at the price of flights over from the UK to San Santorini and thinking, if this was refundable, maybe I'd pulled the pin on it because the flights were so expensive. But with the accommodation being non-refundable, it was just a case of just got to bite the bullet, suck it up, and pay for the flights. I did also check on the Cave suite Ear website as well to see if it was any cheaper to book on there rather than booking.com, but it was actually the same price. And I can't remember. I don't think that they were on Airbnb and if it had a choice of booking Airbnb or booking.com, I'd probably go booking.com because the fees aren't that much cheaper. For example, there was no cleaning fee, there was no service fee. I think there was maybe just a credit card fee and that was it. Again, looking at flights, I just organised this myself. We went from London Gatwick, which was not ideal. We were staying with my family in the UK and from their house. It's about three hours, which really wasn't great. Bristol and Birmingham are much closer. But Brist and Berman, they only fly out once a week, and we could only really afford to stay in our accommodation for those two nights. So Gatwick was the only places that worked. It was a bit of a pain because the flight was so early in the morning, we had to stay at Gatick the night before and the premiere in there was, I think about $250 for one night, literally just for two beds, nothing else included. We then also had to pay for parking as well, which I think was about 90 pounds or something ridiculous for two days, which the cost just kept going up and up and up. It was insane, and saying that we did choose to park at the car park, which is closest to the north terminal. It is cheaper if you park out. It's kind of the long term parking, but we didn't want to have to deal with buses at that time in the morning. The frustrating thing was that after paying for that accommodation to stay the night before and paying for parking, for the extra day and all the rest of it, our flight was delayed by three and a half, four hours, so we potentially could have actually just driven from my parents' house straight to the airport, but we had no way of knowing that in advance. So it was just one of those things we had to just cop and deal with. So the time of year that we went, we went at the end of June. If you were to go July, August to time, it would be crazy busy. That is school holidays throughout Europe. Yes, it is the better weather, but Santorini, especially if you're going to Ia and Fira, if you've got a pool great, you're'll be nice and warm, you can be out in the pool, but there aren't beaches there. So if you go on a shoulder season, say April, May or September, October, it might be a little bit cooler, a little bit windier, but if you're not going to the beach or or you don't have a pool, then it probably doesn't really matter. It would actually probably be a bit nicer for doing walks such as the FR to earwalk. So in terms of things that we specifically took for the kids, we didn't take a param, it just wouldn't have worked with the busy streets. We took a took a baby carrier for our little one, which was invaluable, kind of getting around the streets. Our accommodation also provided us with a travel cop, which was great. They didn't have a high chair, but that didn't really matter for us because our baby was too small. We did always get offered one when we went to restaurants, which was fantastic. In terms of sterilising bottles, what we did was we actually took some travel, steriliser bags with us. So there's a few different brands that you can get. Pretty much what you do is you put all your bottles and everything inside it, poor boiling water in and then you leave it to sit for, I think 10 minutes or something like that. and we found that worked really well. We didn't have any issues with them at all. So will we do it again? 100%, we will. I actually really want to try and go back there when the kids are older so that we can explore much more of the island. We didn't see any of Vera, any of the south side. I think there were quite a few nice wineries and things there, which were we just didn't get to see at all. So next time, when the kids are older, when they can walk everywhere happily, we'll definitely be back. We're hoping to head to Greece again next year and currently looking at Corfu, which seems like an ideal family friendly island. I'll have another podcast coming out soon about planning a trip to Europe with kids, surviving the long haul flights, lots of tips and tricks. Don't forget forget that you can find us on YouTube search for Shire Travels and you can also find us on Instagram to shire.travels. See you in the next one.