Santorini shore excursions- How to avoid the cable car, donkey and stairs on arrival?

[maddog136]

My family and I are on the Silhouette and arrive at Santorini on Aug 13th. That day there are three ships in port. What is the best tender/tour booking option, via Celebrity or private tour, which avoids the cable car, donkey and stairs on arrival? I called Celebrity today and asked this. The agent said to e-mail RCCL excursions to address to ask my question. :confused:

[DavidYYC]

Stay on the ship?

 

Clamber up the cliff face?

 

Hire a private boat to roar around to the Silhouette and then take you to another port or beach.

[Lois R]

My family and I are on the Silhouette and arrive at Santorini on Aug 13th. That day there are three ships in port. What is the best tender/tour booking option, via Celebrity or private tour, which avoids the cable car, donkey and stairs on arrival? I called Celebrity today and asked this. The agent said to e-mail RCCL excursions to address to ask my question. :confused:

 

I believe Santorini is always a tender port. So the only way to get on land

is via tender......once you get on land? You can hire a car if you

want......the only time the cable car was used was to get back to

the ship. Not sure why you want to avoid the Cable car though....

it is very easy:)....no need to do the Donkey thing at all.

 

I went on a ship tour when in Santorini and where tender dropped us off, there

were buses waiting. In that same area you could hire a car if you want.

Edited July 31, 2014 by Lois R

[Phxazzcruisers]

We took a tour that took us to a bus pick up point on the end of the Island that avoided the stairs, cabe and donkeys on the way to Santorini and Oia. We did have to take the Cable car or donkey on the way back down, we actually walked.....

[Maligator]

I seem to recall an excursion that went from the tender dock to Oia via boat. Not totally sure, though, as we did our own thing and took the cable car (we were the only ship in port that day).

Edited August 1, 2014 by HickoryShampoo

[FortyNinerLiz]

My family and I are on the Silhouette and arrive at Santorini on Aug 13th. That day there are three ships in port. What is the best tender/tour booking option, via Celebrity or private tour, which avoids the cable car, donkey and stairs on arrival? I called Celebrity today and asked this. The agent said to e-mail RCCL excursions to address to ask my question. :confused:

 

Sign up for the Celebrity Oia only tour. They get you over to the bus that takes you directly to Oia. That is where you want to be anyway..... We have done it twice.........

[Lois R]

I seem to recall an excursion that went from the tender dock to Oia via boat. Not totally sure, though, as we did our own thing and took the cable car (we were the only ship in port that day).

 

Matt, I LOVE that fortune in your signature:D

[Cforlani]

We were recently in Santorini on a day that 3 ships were docked. In our party was a 3 yr old child and my parents, so walking and the donkey ride were not good options.

 

There was no option but to tender ashore.

 

We arranged a private tour but they could only pick us up at Fira at the cable car stop. TA advised us to get off ship mid morning to avoid lines at cable car, and she was right: no lines!

 

We also had to take the cable car back down. Unfortunately we encountered 1 1/2 hours of lines on at the cable car on the way down. I would definitely budget time to return to the ship. There were a lot of panicked passengers trying to return to their ships who got quite disorderly, cutting in and causing quite a few arguments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Maligator]

Matt, I LOVE that fortune in your signature:D

 

I took it as a sign and booked right away! :D

[hcat]

We took a tour that took us to a bus pick up point on the end of the Island that avoided the stairs, cabe and donkeys on the way to Santorini and Oia. We did have to take the Cable car or donkey on the way back down, we actually walked.....

 

Seems this is the best way

We did the same excursion.....tendered to small area directly from the ship. A bus took us up the VERY steep hill and on to Oia...got there before any tours and most going on their own...it was great.... Our tour included a winery visit and then back to Santorini...lots of time to explore......I was nervous about the trip down the hill so we went back a bit early...no lines at the cable car and only a short wait below for the tender to the ship

[Lois R]

For those of you who have been there multiple times.....don't you

have to get back down by cablecar/donkey/walking? I have only

been once.....I thought that you had to use one of these in order

to get down to where the tender picks up.

[FloridaShari]

For those of you who have been there multiple times.....don't you

have to get back down by cablecar/donkey/walking? I have only

been once.....I thought that you had to use one of these in order

to get down to where the tender picks up.

 

We chose to walk down. We passed numerous donkey riders with bleeding shins from donkeys running them into walls. We were unable to avoid smeared droppings and had to find a utility sink to scrub our sneakers. It was a miserable experience. Come back in time to ride the fee based cable car down.

[NLH Arizona]

Seems this is the best way

We did the same excursion.....tendered to small area directly from the ship. A bus took us up the VERY steep hill and on to Oia...got there before any tours and most going on their own...it was great.... Our tour included a winery visit and then back to Santorini...lots of time to explore......I was nervous about the trip down the hill so we went back a bit early...no lines at the cable car and only a short wait below for the tender to the ship

I did the same thing. I didn't want to do the lunch with the excursion, so I walked around a little and then took the cable car down. It was an easy ride down and I don't like heights. Edited August 1, 2014 by NLH Arizona

[cruzemaven]

My family and I are on the Silhouette and arrive at Santorini on Aug 13th. That day there are three ships in port. What is the best tender/tour booking option, via Celebrity or private tour, which avoids the cable car, donkey and stairs on arrival? I called Celebrity today and asked this. The agent said to e-mail RCCL excursions to address to ask my question. :confused:

 

 

We were on the Silhouette last week and tendered at Santorini. We left the ship at 10:30am and had no problem tendering into the port. Upon arriving at the tender dock we saw the huge crowd waiting for the cable car. We quickly decided to take the Oia boat that shuttles you to Oia with a return trip back to Fira by bus. Turned out to be a very nice boat ride and Oia is a lovely little town. The bus ride back was very scenic. When we arrived in Fira, we went directly to the cable cars to get back down to where the tenders leave. We had to stand on a line that was so long that we all feared we would miss the ship departure. Leave yourself plenty of time to get back. We've been to Santorini many times on smaller ships and never experienced the awful crowded situation that prevails when large cruise ships come in. I would never return to Santorini on a large ship again. By the way, did the donkey ride up the very first time we were there...not something I would recommend.

 

 

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[greeneg]

I'm surprised that no one has suggested renting a helicopter........:)

[Master0396]

A little off topic but... I'm on that same cruise and im just wondering what the two other ships are in port that day?

[Maligator]

A little off topic but... I'm on that same cruise and im just wondering what the two other ships are in port that day?

 

Looks like just Silhouette and MSC Fantasia.

 

http://ports.cruisett.com/schedule/Greece/805-Santorini_Island/August_2014/

[TourDeCruise]

One of the two times we visited Santorini, we took the tender to shore after lunch and booked a boat to take us to Nea Kameni, the volcano, where we hiked to the top of the volcano and back down again. The company also had an excursion to the hot springs for a dip in the warm volcanic water. I think Thira Tours may have been the company; you could check with them ahead of time if interested. http://www.thiratours.com

 

Kathy

[Us Two]

Read just yesterday, that you can hire a boat to the Island for a few hrs or more. they will pick you up at drop off point from tender, then pick you up again at an arranged spot to take you back to tender spot. Apparently its the cost of pp as ship excurtion. Somthing to look into.

[nekzaadvakil]

We were on the Silhouette in June and we were fortunate that ours was the only ship tendered in Santorini on that day. We got off our ship (priority tender) and reached the base of Fira. From the base you have a couple of options - Take the cable car up to Fira, or the donkey ride up, or walk with the donkeys.

 

We were fortunate, there was hardly any line and we were on the 2nd cable car up. There are 2 cable cars, each with 6 compartments, each compartment seats 6.

 

When you reach the top, you have some of the most outstanding views that I have ever seen in Europe. The little shops and restaurants are great. We rented a car and drove to Oia, where the blue and white buildings are. If this is your first trip to Santorini, you must see these 2 places (Fira and Oia)

 

Now there is another option as well. If the cable car line is too long, you can also get into a boat which takes you to Oia first and then come back to Fira. (We did it the other way round). Cruzemaven's suggestion is worth considering.

 

Either way, you should have a wonderful time. Out of the 20 cities/ports that we have been fortunate to visit in Europe, Santorini ranks as #1 in terms of sheer beauty. Definitely please do NOT stay on the ship

[gek]

As others have said there is usually a ship tour which lets you off prior to reaching Fira. Organising a private boat tour is pretty much the only other option if you want to avoid the trip up the hill.

 

The queue for the cable car can be very long but so long as there are no breakdowns it will move quickly. Walking up is only for the very fit and the donkeys are an absolute last resort.

 

Walking down isn't really all that bad. Just watch where you put your feet.

[NukeIT]

No priority tickets and we were first tender off the boat. Just get up early and head to the tender line for tickets. Was super easy.

 

Cable car going up wasn't really an issue. Coming back down on the other hand it can be 1+ hours long. So either come back down early or have someone wait in line while the rest of the group shops.

 

 

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[dani negreanu]

I liked the idea of avoiding at least one queue to the cable car [and not waking up at the undgodly hour of 6AM for the ship's excursion] - "speed boat" to Oia after tendering in Santorini, from the dock at Oia up by bus and, included in the price of 25 Euro, an hourly bus from Oia to Fira [at 11,12,13,14.00]. Then, independently, back to ship either by cable car, foot or donkeys.

At 8.45 there was a considerable queue for the cable car.

I was approached by people advertising the "speed boat" transfer to Oia, bought the tickets, asked them what IF ALL the pax we'll want to take the noon bus to Fira, and they assured me that they KNOW how many tickets they've sold...

The "speed boat" took at least 100 pax, and then some pax had to stand in the bus... there were not enough seats for everyone, and the same story went at noon - at least 20 pax were left by the noon bus, waiting for another...

At 1PM we were at the cable car queue, which was already long and saw people "inocently" join the front line.... I should think that for the steep price of a one min ride, it should be more efficiently run and have someone watch the queue for "interlopers" :)

We left the ship at 08.45AM and what with tendering, waiting for the "speed boat" to fill, docking at Oia and boarding the "up" bus there - we were in Oia 2 hrs later, so the 11AM bus was not relevant for us.

We spent one hour in Oia, took all the pictures from all the amazing views and were in line for the noon bus 10 min before. It seems that a lot of people who arrived with us, left with us.

[Athravan]

I have been to Santorini twice. I have a problem with heights so I didn't take the cable car and not fit enough to walk up the stairs. The first time we took a boat directly from the ship to Oia (highly recommend this if you want to avoid the cable cars/donkeys/stairs). The excursion included a coach tour then from Oia which included all the views. This was with Thomson and 8 years ago so not sure what excursions are offered now.

 

The second time I just walked around a little bit at the dock and then sat down and enjoyed the scenery, watched the donkeys and had a chat with a few people whilst my husband went up in the cable car and took a lot of pics then walked down the stairs. I had already seen the views from the Oia trip anyway. We got off the ship on the first tender (I believe was around 8am, we are early risers anyway), and he had to queue for around 10 minutes. By the time he was coming back down (around noon), there was a 1-2 hour queue for the cable car. This was in the middle of the peak season though so pretty busy. He said the queue coming down was just as bad which is why he went down the stairs but even going down you need to be reasonabley fit.

[photabitha]

We visited Santorini last October on the Reflection. The visit was an afternoon with sailaway at either 10 or 10.30 p.m. We too opted for the organised trip with Celebrity to Oia (fantastic) which took you to a harbour from the ship and then on a coach. The trip included a run of the island and a winery visit, returning to Fira later in the afternoon. As we wished to see the sunset, we chose a taverna/restaurant near to the cable car station with a view to catching the cable car as soon after sunset as possible (8 p.m. or so). This was obviously a popular choice as the queue was huge! We opted to walk and keep moving rather than joining the queue. It was of course dark at this stage, although most of the donkeys had gone home with only a few remaining, although lots of droppings on the path. My DH had his i-phone on him with a good torch and together with made the decent down the steps, avoiding the dung. We had a miss or two and although I was wearing sandles with wedge heels, my feet were clean when we reached the bottom! We had a pack of wet wipes with us and cleaned the bottom of our shoes before jumping on the tender (others used the ships cold towels). We found the experience rather amusing - perhaps the wine we had consumed helped! A torch is a must however as the path is only lit in places.