Private Tour Santorini

[jgrahamiii]

Hi guys. We are a group of 6 in Santorini for the day. We've settled on trying to do some sort of private tour in a minivan with driver for 5 hours or so, taking in Oia, a winery and Ancient Thira, or something along those lines. I'm all for using cabs and buses, but the rest of the group want it pre-arranged and simple and are willing to pay for it. No ship tour fits the bill.

 

I've found Pelican Tours on www.mysantorini.com, but have not seen any reviews of them here. Anyone try them? Happy? I've also seen www.Oceanwavetours.com who seem good and were recommended by one person, at least here, but they are a little more $$. Plus I've seen www.santorinicarhire.com here, but that's gotten good and at least one iffy review.

 

Any other suggestions are appreciated. -John

[christie584]

Hi guys. We are a group of 6 in Santorini for the day. We've settled on trying to do some sort of private tour in a minivan with driver for 5 hours or so, taking in Oia, a winery and Ancient Thira, or something along those lines. I'm all for using cabs and buses, but the rest of the group want it pre-arranged and simple and are willing to pay for it. No ship tour fits the bill.

 

I've found Pelican Tours on www.mysantorini.com, but have not seen any reviews of them here. Anyone try them? Happy? I've also seen www.Oceanwavetours.com who seem good and were recommended by one person, at least here, but they are a little more $$. Plus I've seen www.santorinicarhire.com here, but that's gotten good and at least one iffy review.

 

Any other suggestions are appreciated. -John

 

I haven't been here yet, but have a cruise booked next year and would love to hear any suggestions on this same question!

[couture1]

Hi,

We are heading to Santorini in two weeks and have joined the search for a private tour. We are a family of 6 (three adults, three children) and would love to hear suggestions.

I have been booking other shore excurions (in Turkey) with Pergamon tours, and may book them for Santorini but have no idea if they are any good.

 

If you have been to Santorini recently and have suggestions please help us out...

Thank you!

[bostonjim]

We (four adults) just got back from Santorini 10 days ago, 3 days of RR there after an event packed cruise (Louis Cristal). We had a 5 hour private tour with santoriniprivatetours.com and felt it was money well spent. Vickie our guide grew up on Santorini and was very cheery, informative, accommodating and excellent English. She drove us in her BMW and knew the places to get the best views and photo ops such as a special view in Fira of a blue dome chapel not accessible by road to the large tour buses. The winery was nothing special other than "more incredible cliff views". You get to sample wines but don't see anything of real interest - skip it if time pressed. She gave us enough time in Oia to explore and shop. Saw the black sand beach and had lunch at a wonderful local spot on the northern shore. I would definitely avoid the taxis and bus to sight-see. There are only a limited number of taxis on the island and you often waste time waiting for them. The buses ran every 30 minutes but we found them very crowded. You won't regret spending on a private tour. One evening we took the bus to Oia for dinner and wanted to cab back at 10pm and thankfully our restaurant knew a cabbie to call for us while other people were waiting a long time for an open cab. Pixel Tours offered another benefit in that they took pictures of us during the tour using their camera and gave us a disk of the photos at the end - a nice touch - but I think my pictures came out better. On our cruise I arranged private tours on 5 Greek islands and Turkish cities while using the ship tours on a few. The private tours were all execellent and far superior to the ship tours - and cheaper for our party of 4. No more ship tours for us. But beware the tour prices on Santorini are much higher than all the locations we visited - but that's Santorini.

[jgrahamiii]

Thanks for the great info, BostonJim. That is one of the companies we are looking into. Just curious, if you don't mind sharing, I'm trying to figure out if tipping is appropriate, or expected for the drivers of these private tours and how much. Thanks. -John

[lanikeekee]

I know this is not quite what you asked but we booked a private boat cruise around the island...it was fantastic and gives you a different look at the island from a Greek boat...try it we loved it and it was such a relaxing day.

 

www.santoriniyachting.com

contact@sy-eleftheria.com

[Great8]

Our group of 8 were on the Star Princess from Sept 23-Oct5. We booked a private tour and it was worth every penny. I found the email address on Fodor's: info@thira-tours.com Dimitrus is the contact.

 

We were met by our driver/guide as planned at the top of the funicular. We had about a 5 minute walk to the van. We visited a winery which had the most amazing views of the white cliffs and our ship far below. Oia was incredible. We got to park closer than the tour buses which was very nice.

Our tour guide was originally from Athens but had moved to Santorini years ago after going there on a short holiday. He was very pleasant and informative.

 

I had read a lot on CC about it being easy to DIY but our group decided to go with the private tour and although I had reservations about whether it was a waste of money, we all came away very happy with our choice and felt that the money was well spent. It cost 500 Euros for 8 people and we were gone 5 or 6 hours.

[luvtocook]

We are sailing Star on Nov 10th and we have booked a minivan for 8 with Ocean Wave Tours.

Will report back and give a review!