Santorini Private Guide & Rhodes Question

[ussminnow]

Can anyone recommend a private tour guide in Santorini? Also, is it worth it to visit the west coast of Rhodes, or better to see Lindos on the east?

[tom_uk]

Santorini: in my opinion, there's no need for a private guide. If you want to do a guided tour then the cruise tours are pretty good on this island. But in truth it's so small that you can do your own thing very easily.

 

The big hassle with Santorini - the cablecar/path/donkey-ride issue - would not be solved by a private tour, unless they included boat transfers to/from Athinios. There is no route down to the dock below Fira other than the cablecar/ donkey-ride track, so no vehicular pick-up there. Even so, that's where the (non-excursion) ship's tenders will take you/pick you up. Excursion tenders usually take passengers to Athinios where they can be picked up by small buses, but the excursions themselves generally finish at Fira and include a cablecar ticket down, so you have to come back via the cablecar/donkey-track. So if you wanted to avoid that you'd have to find a way of getting a boat to take you back from Athinios to the ship, and I've not aware that that's possible. As far as I know, there are no tenders back to the ship from Athinios. Others may know differently, however, about both of these last assertions.

 

Rhodes: west coast or Lindos. Well, I haven't been to Lindos so I can't say. However, what I did on a visit in late June was do an 5-hour excursion that took us to a couple of beauty spots, a jewellery shop & a seafood lunch, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed. The beauty spots were Filerimos Hill (which is inland) and another spot on the east coast. Plus we had a very enjoyable drive across the hilly island spine. Then in the afternoon I went for a 90-minute or so walk around Rhodes Old Town, which I personally wouldn't have missed for the world.

 

But Lindos is also a wonderful place, I'm told, so I'm afraid it's up to you to make your choice! One thing - Filerimos was not at all crowded, whereas I think Lindos is pretty busy.

[Steamboatin]

We just returned from a cruise that visited Rhodes. We visited Lindos and unless you venture up the 500+ steps up and back down those same 500+ steps it is really not worth the trip. We are not in shape for that type of climb on 500+ steep narrow steps so we "chickened out" and just waited for our tour to return and had some ice cream and a quite walk through the village merchant shops. Those that went up the stairs to the top said it was not that much to see and the crowds on the stairs you had to fight coming down were a bit too much. Lindos is nice but time better spent just staying in Old Town on your own.

[ussminnow]

Thanks for the replies! Tom, did you find that it was fairly easy to take the bus to Oia? Was it crowded on the bus? Do they allow smoking on the bus? How long is the bus ride to Oia? We were thinking of the cruise tour of Santorini but for some reason it started late (11:30) which seems like a bit of a waste of time so for that reason I had thought about a private tour.

Also we were considering the walking tour (ship excursion) of Old Town Rhodes so we could get some narration about the sites. Do you feel this would be worth it?

Thanks!

[ncsongbird]

We took the ship excursion to Lindos and in hindsight would have been better off spending more time in Rhodes old town. The village of Lindos is tiny, same shops as all the Greek islands and the acropolis at Lindos was disappointing although the view from the top was wonderful. The climb up to the top is very steep, most places had no railings and it was very crowded.

 

Rhodes old town, on the other hand was wonderful. We were able to walk 5 min. from our ship into the walled town. Make sure you visit the Palace of the Grand Masters and walk the Street of the Knights. You will feel like you are in a medieval fairy tale. There are lots of shops, and lots of restaurants too. We wished we had been able to spend more time there.

[tom_uk]

Tom, did you find that it was fairly easy to take the bus to Oia? Was it crowded on the bus? Do they allow smoking on the bus? How long is the bus ride to Oia? We were thinking of the cruise tour of Santorini but for some reason it started late (11:30) which seems like a bit of a waste of time so for that reason I had thought about a private tour.

 

I'm afraid we cheated - we used taxis. It was blisteringly hot the last day we were there. We were going to use the bus but when we got to the bus stop there was 20 minutes to wait in the heat, and already a number of people waiting. So we got a taxi.

 

Here's what I wrote about it at the time:

http://tomtotley.wordpress.com/2007/06/29/day-8-santorini/

 

Other people paid more for taxis than we did. Both taxi rides we agreed a price before we got into the taxi!

 

Pictures here:

http://www.*****/travelpage/aspgallery/view_ad.asp?Ad_ID=2890

[juscrusin]

Tom,

Thanks for that helpful thread! Did you find that taxis were readily available in Thira to transport into Oia and from Oia back to Thira? Were there many other ships in port when you arrived at Santorini?

 

There are 2 other ships in addition to ours the Costa Mediterranea for a total of approx. 2,800 potential visitors to Santorini - so we're a bit concerned about the cable car lines and the amount of taxis available at Thira.

 

Many thanks!

[DedeM]

Is that tram cable car thing safe? Has anyone ever crashed in it?

 

I really don't want to compete with donkeys and I know my SO won't want to be near any scary ledges.