Oia, Greece

Santorini Greece Wedding Photographer, Oia Santorini, Greek Island Photography, Travel Photography, Destination Wedding Photographers, Husband wife photographers

After our amazing stay on the island of Naxos we took a one hour ferry to Santorini. Santorini was by far the part of our trip we were looking forward to the most! We rode on the Blue Star Delos ferry which was the size of a major cruise ship. They had escalators, restaurants, hotel lobby style seating with sofas and lounge chairs, and had about 8 levels including a top deck where you could take pictures. We opted to grab a window seat on a very comfy couch on the 4th floor and were able to see all the islands on the way to Santorini.

Once we arrived in Santorini we poured out of the back of the ferry with the hundreds of other ferry patrons into the port. We had not arranged a transfer to our hotel (big mistake, do this ahead of time) so we were trying to find the best deal to get us to our hotel. We ended up paying 40euro to ride on a shared transfer bus with 16 others island visitors. What they said would take 45 minutes ended up taking close to 90 minutes because one of the riders had gotten off the ferry too soon and was on the wrong island!! The couple spoke zero English and our driver spoke zero Spanish so it was very difficult for either to understand what was happening. Our driver was very friendly and tried to accommodate the lost rider, however it was to our expense as this took precious time away from our first day in Santorini.

We arrived at our hotel in Oia, Anemomilos Hotel and Villas. What a beautiful room and hotel!! We loved having a blue concrete shower the size of our whole bathroom at home, a jacuzzi tub on our back terrace space, and a view of the ocean!! After a quick shower we ventured out into the streets of Oia for the first time. We took some photos even though it was super bright and scorching hot outside. We would take breaks inside all the shops on the roads to shop and grab some much needed A/C.

After walking around for a little bit, we decided to go back to the hotel and get in the outdoor pool featuring an ocean view and cold beers we bought from the mini market while out. The pools in Greece are all freezing cold but it felt amazing! This pool was nice because one end of the pool was about 12 feet deep and perfect for diving into. After a relaxing dip and a cold beer we headed back to the room to shower up before our first sunset in Oia.

The walking path from Oia to Fira was right across the street from the hotel which offered 360° picturesque view from the top of the caldera. Putting our cameras away for five minutes was so difficult to do. We setup a few shots of us on a rooftop with the self-timer/tripod. At one point we got yelled at because we were in a “private area”. Santorini, especially Oia, has a ton of walkways that are technically private because they are part of hotels or apartments. So confusing!

The view was breathtaking from here and we could see all of Oia with the sunset, so we decided to avoid the huge crowds of people at the popular sunset lookout point at the end of the island and stay where we were. We enjoyed our first Santorini sunset and tried to be in the moment as much as possible, but of course we took plenty of photos! Barrett also did a time lapse video of it. And we even got to photograph a cute European couple (who were sitting beside us) with the sunset and Oia in the background! EPIC!!

After sunset, we walked around and did a little more shopping. The streets were crawling now as sunset is the most popular time of day in Santorini. There are so many little shops, cafes, restaurants, bars, and hotels. Megan found an amazing white linen jumpsuit made locally before we headed back to the hotel to eat some dinner at their restaurant on site. Barrett ordered a lamb roast dinner that was cooked in paper for 5 hours in an oven!! NUM!! Megan had a tomato risotto which was also to die for and one of her favorite meals of all time.

The sun was finished setting but the show did not stop while we were eating dinner. The colors in the sky continued to change for the next hour or so while we ate. We have never experienced anything so beautiful and are so glad we have 4 more days on this amazing island.

We also found this amazing book shop that we had written down for things to see. This book shop was called “Atlantis Books” and they had so many first editions of famous books such as To Kill a Mockingbird (1st edition). This was such a cool stop for us!! Here are the photos of this place.

We woke up the next morning as dawn was breaking. Since we had skipped out on walking to the end of the island last night for sunset we made that our plan for the morning. We stopped at a small cafe down the road from our hotel to grab a latte and a macchiato for a quick energy boost before continuing our trek to the end of the island. After a long walk, the sun had risen quickly and the cool morning had become a sweltering day. We made it back to the hotel just in time for the opening of the free continental breakfast buffet. We ate a quick breakfast then went to pack our things because we had to checkout by 11am.

Anemomilos Hotel and Villas was such a great hotel that they held our bags in the reception area and allowed us to chill by the pool and enjoy a few cocktails from the bar. Megan had a banging strawberry mojito and Barrett had a strong old fashioned. After swimming around and enjoying our cocktails we went to find some lunch. Barrett had researched about a cheap, but delicious gyro place down the street from our hotel so we headed to PitosGyros for lunch.