5.5 hour semi-private tour (maximum 18 participants)
COST: 148 EURO P.P. (CHILDREN UP TO 3 Y.O. JOIN FOR FREE)
(Boat trip from Old port to Ammoudi port of Oia – Oia village – Blue domes – Winery and wine tasting experience – Fira)
This tour is specially designed to avoid queuing up at the cable car and getting to Oia within a short period of time, giving you a very good chance not to be there later on when it’s crowded. The tour emphasizes in Oia village, where you will spend a total of 2.5 hours but also includes the Santorini wine experience and the Blue Domes in Firostefani. Tour ends in Fira where you can spend time before taking the cable car back to the Old port.
Your qualified fluent in English tour director will be waiting to welcome you at the pier of the Old port at the point where your ship’s tender boats will let you off. Instead of taking the cable car, enjoy 20 minutes of cruising along the coastline of the 1,000 feet cliff on the gulf of the Caldera. Admire the spectacular view of the island from sea level, as the black cliff towers above you and take pictures of the houses that hang like grapes from the edge of the cliff.
You will then arrive at Ammoudi, the picturesque fishing port of Oia. It will take you less than 10 minutes with your private minibus to drive up to the village of Oia. Your local expert tour director will orientate you and give you information about the island of Santorini and Oia village, and then you will be free to wander around and explore on your own. The village of Oia is full of narrow streets, which typifies the white-painted houses of the Cyclades. In many cases they are built directly into niches which are cave houses used by the crew of the ships, on the lip of the volcanic crater, between which are narrow alleys and blue-roofed churches with cupolas and neoclassical mansions that used to be captain’s houses in the 19th century.
After you gather all together again, you will drive south towards a local winery, and along the way you will make a photo stop at Firostefani to take pictures at the most famous blue dome Christian Orthodox church of the island.
Continuing the drive you will visit one of the most famous and oldest wineries in Santorini. Established in 1880 inside a natural cave 8 meters below ground, there is also located the only wine museum in Greece which is considered one of the best wine museums in the world (ranked as #2). You will enjoy a tour of the wine museum that presents the history and life of wine from 1660, and then enjoy in a private hall a wine tasting experience of 4 wines, one of which is the famous Vinsanto, accompanied with hard dried bread. An electronic audio guide will be provided to you with information for both the wine museum, but also for the tasting experience. Then you will all get back to your vehicle and drive back to Fira.
In case there is no availability at the winery, we will visit a different carefully selected winery in Santorini for the tour and tasting experience of 4 wines, including the famous Vinsanto.
Once back at Fira your tour director will show you the way to the cable car, and also provide you a map of Fira, in case you would like to spend some time exploring the alleys.
Your transportation vehicle will be an agile Mercedes Sprinter or similar minibus, driven by an experienced professional non-smoking driver. Throughout the tour you will be accompanied by a fluent in English qualified tour director, who will provide interesting commentary on board. Your tour director will give you a tour of Oia village and the winery. Smaller vehicles may be used for 6 or less participants.
The price includes transportation, throughout escorting by an English speaking tour director, the wine tour and tasting in the winery.
Food, beverages, gratuities and return tickets for the cable car are not included.
| Important note: We feel obliged to notify the travellers that are wishing to visit Santorini island in a day's excursion from a cruise ship, as there are certain dates during the season that their cruise ship will arrive along with 2, 3 or more cruise ships. Having in mind that Santorini is a small island and with small villages and narrow roads, at these specific dates the places visited are bound to get very crowded. Even on those dates, we can guarantee the implementation of our excursion's itinerary and returning on time to get back to your cruise ship. On the other hand we cannot do anything about the crowded areas, eg streets of Oia, Old Port etc, that will not allow our guests to enjoy the magnificent environment the island offers as they should. Nevertheless we promise to do our best efforts for our guests to experience the best Santorini has to offer. |
