



End the night at the buzzing Little Venice, where parties last well into the night. My favorite place (being a piano player) is the Montparnasse Piano Bar: superb entertainment and delicious cocktails.

How to Get Around The Island

At the center of the town there is a big bus stop, accessible on foot pretty much from anywhere. Every 15-30 minutes of so there are buses to different beaches – all of them are very luxurious, with comfortable lounge chairs (I wouldn’t even call them lounge chairs – those are real beds with mattresses and pillows!) and really expensive restaurants. A lot of the beaches are known for crazy beach parties!





How to Rent a Boat in Mykonos

If you know how to drive a boat, take a bus to Ornos Beach and walk along the marina to a small office of Costa Costa Boat Rentals inside a local restaurant . We rented a small boat for half a day, and due to the low season, got some extra hours, plenty of time to visit Delos (an ancient city on a neighboring island, where, according to Greek mythology, Apollo and Artemis were born) and later do some beach-hopping, including a completely deserted beach, which is only accessible by water! I kept wondering, who left the spears? We’ll never know!





All in all, Mykonos left the impression of a cozy island,where you can do a lot of luxury things, but also enjoy it without breaking the bank. It has enough partying going on, but it’s not unreasonably crazy. It is very diverse, a mixture of people from all walks of life.

How to Get to Santorini

Santorini, on the other hand, immediately gave me a feeling of exclusivity. A lot of Internet resources say that Mykonos can be pretty pricey, but I found Santorini quite a bit pricier. You can get to Santorini by the same ferry companies that you use for Mykonos. The trip takes several hours.

The first thing you have to do as you arrive is take a steep serpentine road to the top of the island, and it is just amazing how the huge buses and trucks crawl up and down without falling!

Oia

We planned for a romantic getaway, so we booked a hotel in Oia with the Caldera view. Caldera is the inner “bay” of Santorini, the remnant of the Santorini Volcano. It was the perfect choice. Oia is a quaint town on the northwestern tip of Santorini and it just breathes with romance. Here you want to fall in love again.





Thira

If you are in the mood for touring the area and having a lot of activities, I would recommend you book a hotel in Thira – the capital of Santorini. Everything departs from there, and you can take a bus to Oia for one day and visit. Stay for the sunset – it’s the best view from the tip of the island. Needless to say, the views from the vertical cliffs are nothing short of absolutely incredible. White triangles of sails seem so small somewhere below, swallows zip up and down the roads and looking down leaves you breathless.

Santorini Volcano

From Thira, you can buy a tour to the volcano and hike to the top. Incredible view! Later you can swim in hot springs where the water is heated by the volcano itself. The legend goes that once upon a time Santorini was one big island with a volcano in middle, until it erupted in 1646 BC. The eruption was so massive, it created a catastrophic tsunami, which spread as far as Crete and destroyed the Minoan Civilization. After the eruption the walls of the volcano collapsed and created the Caldera – a body of water around the volcano. Nowadays, the Santorini Volcano is being closely monitored for any change or indication of a soon-to-be eruption – in the end, it is still active!





On another day take a bus to one of the beaches, but don’t expect regular white or yellow sand. Most have black volcanic sand and one of the beaches has distinctive red color, therefore it is simply called “the Red Beach”. If you need to get to the old port, you can’t avoid taking a cable car or a donkey up and down the breathtaking cliffs. You can walk as well, but beware: there are 588 steps to the top, no less!





the cable car lines





Where We Stayed in Santorini

However, if you want a romantic quiet time, you can book a hotel in Oia, like we did. Our hotel, Alexander’s Boutique Hotel, was on the expensive side (it cost us $250 a night), but maaaaan, was it romantic… The rooms were stylized as caves, but with all the modern amenities, and each room had a Jacuzzi outside. What can be better than relaxing in hot bubbly water with a glass of wine, admiring one of the most gorgeous views on the entire planet. Thanks to the friendly room steward, Eduard, who bent over backwards to make sure we were always comfortable, we didn’t want for anything.

Chilling in a Jacuzzi with the most gorgeous view on the planet 😉

Book a room at Alexander’s Boutique Hotel

Can You Compare Mykonos and Santorini?

All in all, there is no answer to “which one is better?”, because the question is wrong. The one you should choose depends on what you are looking for, what kind of atmosphere, what kind of activity. The right question would be: “which one better suits my needs?”

If you want to go to the beach and enjoy night life – choose Mykonos. If you want something exotic, quiet and highly romantic – choose Santorini. And remember, the best of both worlds is just a ferry ride away.

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