Santorini/ Mykonos advice and recs?

My wife and I did Santorini/Paros/Athens/Meteora in September.

For Santorini, we stayed at the Esperas Hotel in Oui. We really enjoyed the stay here. Excellent service throughout and the hotel was tucked away from the busiest areas. Breakfast service was fantastic and we used the front desk for recommendations, transportation from the airport/around the island/to the port, and booking restaurants. A nice plus, the hotels face west in this part of Oia overlooking Ammoudi Bay, so we had excellent sunsets every night on our private veranda/patio.

CATAMARAN TRIP is a must and definitely spring for the smaller ones that hold like 15 ppl. I used Santoriniview.com to book - went for the morning excursion on the boat titled "Luxurious Catamaran Cruise in Santorini with BBQ and Drinks". We considered the sunset trip but since our room had beautiful sunset views, there was no need.

RESTAURANTS. We did not have a bad meal so I'm just listing where we ate:
- Lefkes in Finikia. Finikia was a pretty cool laid back town and dinner here was nice a short taxi from the hotel. We ended up walking home. Would recommend again.
- Roka - at dinner here another night. Good food, I remember it having pretty traditional Greek options.
Krinaki - see lunch description below.


Alot of people do the hike from Oia to Fira, or vice versa. We stopped part way at the town of Finikia to have lunch at Krinaki. Laid back lunch spot that we enjoyed.

Look at renting a car at either island. We did not drive Santorini, but driving Paros wasn't terribly difficult. Would do again. Driving in Athens is the most terrifying place I've ever driven - mass pandemonium.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Very nice summary from Fatcat. I have not been to Mykonos but would agree with everything he wrote about Santorini. We stayed at Esperas as well and really enjoyed it. Only thing I will add is if you go in April, the water will still be damn cold. We went end of May and I think the Aegean was about 66 degrees so be prepared. Enjoy!!

April might be a little early in terms of catching some enjoyable weather. My wife and I went in mid/late May and we still caught a couple of pretty cool/rainy days. You might also run into issues with some restaurants/hotels not being open in April. If you want to avoid the crowds though, then late April would be perfect.

We spent 4 days in Santorini and wanted to spend more because it was so beautiful. My main suggestion in Santorini would be to not try and pinch pennies when it comes to the hotel. You are going to be at one of the most beautiful places in the world, so pay a little extra to be able to spend more time around the amazing views.
For a three day trip, I would make every effort to do the following:

1) Hike from Fira to Oia
2) Visit Ammoudi Bay and have lunch
3) Catamaran trip
4) Rent a moped or other vehicle and explore the countryside.

You could probably knock all those out in two days and maybe relax at the hotel pool or explore some of the cool wineries they have.

The entire ferry process gave me tons of anxiety given the fact that every ferry company is rated extremely poorly and there is always the risk of a strike. I would get an early morning ticket on the biggest ship (less likely to get sea sick). You might not have as many options as the ferries cut back during non-peak season. The loading/unloading process was stressful for a first timer since you just throw your luggage wherever and find a seat. I wouldn't be worried about doing it again though. It is much faster than loading/unloading an airplane!

For Mykonos, we spent a lot of time exploring the city, which we really enjoyed. We also went to a beach club one day, which was fun but expensive. They probably won't be open in April though.

You have Athens planned out really well. 1 day is more than enough. Plan on getting to the Acropolis early and then get out of Athens. I thought it was a pretty bad city.