Santorini
If Santorini isn't on your bucket list yet, quit reading this and go add it. Looking out the airplane window as you arrive to the island, you immediately realize that you are just about to land on a volcano - a little exciting to say the least. The island is a half moon shape which makes up one side of the volcano's caldera and the inner part of this caldera is sheer cliff diving hundreds of meters into the ocean, while the outer part is more gradually descending into the ocean - literally making it look like a perfect textbook volcano.
As you drive to your white and blue villa, it really hits you that you have just arrived at one of the most Instagrammable places on earth. First order of business upon arrival is heading to the black sand beach that you flew over when arriving. Kamari beach is an extremely picturesque beach town with almost Hawaiian vibes to it. Little shops and restaurants lining the main street make it just a perfectly cute little Greek town. However, unlike Hawaii, this "black sand" beach is more like a black rock beach as it was just a bunch of small rocks that were painful to step on. Barring this, the view was awesome and it was the perfect place to relax with a beer and some calamari.
Everyone knows Santorini for the white buildings with blue domes sitting precariously on the edge of a cliff. What they don't know Santorini for is how terribly hot these white buildings make it. The Greek sun that's already uncomfortably intense in July seems to radiate off these white buildings to make you even hotter while you are wandering the streets. However, each and every bar/restaurant/store has their AC blasting which you can feel as you walk by making you stop in way more stores than you imagined - smart marketing.
I didn't really know this until I started researching this trip, but Santorini is actually big enough to host quite a few individual small towns. The most well known of these are Fira, Imerovigli, and Oia since these are the ones with most white houses and blue domes you see on the Internet. To get a feel for each of these, you can actually do a gorgeous, albeit sweaty, 10km hike from Fira to Oia which passes through Imerovigli and gives you fantastic views of the island. Once you get to Oia drenched in sweat, you are rewarded with the view that is on every advertisement for Santorini.
One of my favorite parts of the island was the spectacular sunsets it affords. After seeing it the very first night, I made it a point to see it every night after that. On that first night, I had my first introduction to the general population of the island: couples. It was kind of comical that every restaurant I went to was full of couples or every person I met was there on their honeymoon and I was just there to enjoy life. Besides rooftop restaurants in Fira, another great place to catch the sunset is Santo Winery where you can sample some great wine while watching the amazing view right in front of you.
Everyone and their dog has a motorcycle/scooter/ATV on the island, so I obviously had to try to blend in with all the honeymooners and rent an ATV which was actually a great way to see all parts of the island in a really fun way.
Last, but certainly not least in my book: food. Santorini also has some killer Greek food that is definitely more expensive than Athens, but where it really shines is in the seafood department. The local fresh fish like red snapper and sea bream along with the octopus and squid are something I could eat every day for the rest of my life and never get bored.
