Book a tour or rent a car in Santorini?

[melaniez24]

Its our first time in Santorini and i'm so torn between renting a car (doing our own thing) and booking a tour. We'd like to see Oia and Fira (of course), a winery and maybe a beach. Its just DH & me and we do like to hike. We're there from 7 am to 7 pm. Any recommendations?? thanks!!

[leongcpa]

Rental Car. We rented from Tony's (do a search of this forum, and you'll find them), drove to Oia and then drove to Santo Winery, where we enjoyed the sunset with a delicious cheese plate and taste of various wines. Finished the day with some early evening shopping in Fira. Terrific day.

[buchhalm]

Rental Car. We rented from Tony's (do a search of this forum, and you'll find them), drove to Oia and then drove to Santo Winery, where we enjoyed the sunset with a delicious cheese plate and taste of various wines. Finished the day with some early evening shopping in Fira. Terrific day.

Second that!

Make sure you rent from a reputable company and get a small, zippy car. Roads are winding and narrow and parking is a bit tight. We always go for a jeep / Suzuki type of car. Easier on gravel ....

[anthonyy7]

We're visiting in May and I have a car booked with Tony!

 

 

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[MeHeartCruising]

Its our first time in Santorini and i'm so torn between renting a car (doing our own thing) and booking a tour. We'd like to see Oia and Fira (of course), a winery and maybe a beach. Its just DH & me and we do like to hike. We're there from 7 am to 7 pm. Any recommendations?? thanks!!

 

Since you like to hike, have you researched hiking from Fira to Oia? There are a few threads on cruise critic about it (I used the Forum Search on "santorini hike oia"). It appears to only take 2-3 hours. Obviously, it depends on your stamina and the temperatures. You'd probably have to make some other plan to get to the winery and/or to get back to Fira. But if I were fit enough, I'd love to do that walk.

[brunello22]

Second that!

Make sure you rent from a reputable company and get a small, zippy car. Roads are winding and narrow and parking is a bit tight. We always go for a jeep / Suzuki type of car. Easier on gravel ....

 

Third that!

 

We rented from Tony's (booked ahead of time). We were the only ship there, but we got off on the first tender anyway, and made our way to Oia straight away, before the tour buses arrived. We had a couple of hours to walk around before the crowd came. We then went to a few wineries, then to the Santorini Brewing Company (Yellow Donkey beer!), and walked around Fira after we dropped the car off. We took the last tender back to the ship and was onboard in time for sunset. Amazing day!

[samavarcruiser]

I would rent an scooter or quad once there rather then a car :D

[GOLDENBONNY]

Its our first time in Santorini and i'm so torn between renting a car (doing our own thing) and booking a tour. We'd like to see Oia and Fira (of course), a winery and maybe a beach. Its just DH & me and we do like to hike. We're there from 7 am to 7 pm. Any recommendations?? thanks!!

 

I am taking a tour from ship. Tender-cable car- walking ect. too much to worry about

[fabrome]

We booked a tour with Gold Street Travel with an english speaking driver

[VBMom13]

I am looking into renting some kind of vehicle from Tony's. Can everyone please tell me about their experiences renting a scooter? How far is Oia from Fira? We are docked from 1pm to 10pm on a Greek holiday. There will be one other ship in port but they leave at 3pm.

[greg898]

I'm thinking about renting a small automatic car from Tony's on our cruise in September. Could anyone tell me the approximate cost of that type of car?

[anthonyy7]

Here is a price offering I got and we reserved a manual for 17 euros. We're going in May and I'll let you know how it went.

 

We can offer you new model four door car for...

 

Manual ,Category A (Chevrolet Matiz, Toyota Aygo, Chevrolet Spark)for 35 euro .

 

Manual, Category B (kia picanto, Hyundai Atos, Hyundai i10)for 17 euro

 

Manual, Jeep with open roof (Suzuki Jimny) for 43 euro

 

Automatic, Category B (kia picanto, Chevrolet Citigo, Nissan Micra) for 43 euro

 

 

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[greg898]

Here is a price offering I got and we reserved a manual for 17 euros. We're going in May and I'll let you know how it went.

 

We can offer you new model four door car for...

 

Manual ,Category A (Chevrolet Matiz, Toyota Aygo, Chevrolet Spark)for 35 euro .

 

Manual, Category B (kia picanto, Hyundai Atos, Hyundai i10)for 17 euro

 

Manual, Jeep with open roof (Suzuki Jimny) for 43 euro

 

Automatic, Category B (kia picanto, Chevrolet Citigo, Nissan Micra) for 43 euro

 

 

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Awesome, thanks!

[anthonyy7]

Well our Santorini port stop was a week ago. We were in port 7a-7p. On first tender by 7:05a and no wait for the cable car (providing you walk faster than most on your tender). The directions to Tony's was good however they don't open until 8am. We were there early, around 735 and they didn't really open until 8:15. Even after all the emails he still didn't have our reservation but he did have a car so we picked up a manual in the Cat B which was a chevy matiz 45 euro total with full insurance which was 10 extra. Gas was 10 euros so total that day was 55 euro. We had a Cat A reserved which was cheaper however I don't want to know what that car look like as the one we had was a POS but it got us around. Traffic wasn't too bad except when going thru Fira which has some one way streets but Tony gives a map and details. We drove to Oia where there are multiple free parking lots then back across the island to Akrotiki ruins. We stopped at a winery for lunch and returned the car to Tony's. We walked around Fira before heading back to the tender. It was a good day and we did everything on the itinerary. Of all the cars we rented on our greek isle cruise, this was prob the crappiest car but all cars were on this island. I felt the service was OK.

[rdt10]

We did a quad our first trip to Santorini. Got us around, but underpowered for 2 people and not able to keep up with regular traffic. Didn't like playing tag with the many buses. Second time we rented a premium automatic car from Tony. The car was nice and much more comfortable than the quad.

 

As another poster said Tony doesn't open until 8 so no reason to show up before.

 

Also watch for the one way roads. Not fun going the wrong way. I won't say how I know.

[greg898]

Well our Santorini port stop was a week ago. We were in port 7a-7p. On first tender by 7:05a and no wait for the cable car (providing you walk faster than most on your tender). The directions to Tony's was good however they don't open until 8am. We were there early, around 735 and they didn't really open until 8:15. Even after all the emails he still didn't have our reservation but he did have a car so we picked up a manual in the Cat B which was a chevy matiz 45 euro total with full insurance which was 10 extra. Gas was 10 euros so total that day was 55 euro. We had a Cat A reserved which was cheaper however I don't want to know what that car look like as the one we had was a POS but it got us around. Traffic wasn't too bad except when going thru Fira which has some one way streets but Tony gives a map and details. We drove to Oia where there are multiple free parking lots then back across the island to Akrotiki ruins. We stopped at a winery for lunch and returned the car to Tony's. We walked around Fira before heading back to the tender. It was a good day and we did everything on the itinerary. Of all the cars we rented on our greek isle cruise, this was prob the crappiest car but all cars were on this island. I felt the service was OK.

 

I'm glad things worked out in the end. I ended up making a reservation a couple weeks ago so hopefully they don't lose it lol.

Since I can't drive a manual and I'm assuming they have more manuals than automatics. You pretty much did exactly what I want to do so we should have more than enough time to get things done.

[melaniez24]

Thank you everyone!!

[6rugrats]

I'm glad things worked out in the end. I ended up making a reservation a couple weeks ago so hopefully they don't lose it lol.

Since I can't drive a manual and I'm assuming they have more manuals than automatics. You pretty much did exactly what I want to do so we should have more than enough time to get things done.

I have found very few automatics in Europe. Last time I specifically rented an automatic, I got a manual, but luckily can drive one.