The second day: travel to Greece. Our planned activity today was a guided tour around Santorini. At the top of the list, before the guided tour, was the unofficial planned activity of watching a famed Santorini sunrise at the beach.

Santorini sunrises are spectacular! No doubt about it. Santorini sunrises are so spectacular that the naturally-occuring free event was even offered for booking by tour companies!

The back of our hotel was located right in front of a beach that was facing east. That was an excellent opportunity to just wake up before sunrise, sit on the black coarse pebbles of the beach, and wait for the sun to rise! Anyway, we routinely wake up at the break of dawn especially when traveling to locations like Santorini.

Kamari beach was just at the back of the hotel. It was on that particular morning that we quietly walked down the hallways, past the almost-deserted pool, crossed the narrow pedestrian walkway to the restaurant’s beachfront seating area, down a short flight of stairs, and sat next to the tiki umbrellas at the beach. From that vantage point, there was nothing obstructing a magnificent view of the Santorini sunrise.

Sunrise at the beach.

It was not sand but rather coarse black pebbles. There was only a scattering of coarse black sand. It made the beach look more rocky rather than sandy. The water from the Aegean sea was clear, a bit foamy when it hit the shore, and gently lapping the sand as the gentle morning breeze pushed it to shore on our beautiful island of Santorini.

The island of Anafi was breaking the drabness of the flat horizon. Its outline becoming more prominent as the sun was rising slowly. The sky’s color was changing from dark to blue-grey to different shades of the red spectrum before fully brightening the day. The scores of people watching the sunrise with us were, like us, trying to linger and see what more would happen. The sharp brightness of the sun spread across the sky. It was the end of the show and time to prepare for the day’s activities on Santorini.

The guided island tour.

We almost missed our tour bus! The designated pick up area for the tour bus was at the other end of the street while we stood in front of our hotel in Santorini. Luckily, they saw us as the tour bus was driving by and stopped to pick us up.

The streets of Santorini were too narrow. Designated pick up areas made it easy for tour buses to park and wait.

A useful tip: read the instructions on the location of the pick up points in Santorini.

The Akrotiri Archeological site.

Our first tour stop was an archeological site of a pre-historic Minoan settlement in the southern part of Santorini. It was akin to the ruins of Pompeii but the event occurred at an earlier time period. This ruins were known as the pre-historic Pompeii of the Aegean. The tour guide kept emphasizing a significant fact. There were no signs of human or animal remains at the site.

The Red Beach, another attraction on Santorini, was within walking distance from the Akrotiri Archeological site. The name Red Beach was because of the red hue of the sand caused by the erosion of volcanic material towards the sea. We opted out of exploring this area. We couldn’t walk fast enough to hike to the beach and be back on time to the tour bus.

The village of Emporio and Profitis Ilias.

Emporio, the oldest village on Santorini, was built on the lowlands of the highest peak on the island, Profitis Ilias. A whitewashed Orthodox Church with its belfry and domed roof became our starting point for exploring the village. The cobbled streets were winding through a maze of narrow alleyways. The alleyways were connected clusters of whitewashed buildings. There were arches through entrances and exits. Narrow stairs led to different levels of hallways or small courtyards. The buildings were mostly beautifully restored, centuries-old, and the exterior fortified to give protection for the village.

Profitis Ilias, the island’s highest peak on Santorini, was one stop that we didn’t appreciate so much. It required a short steep walk uphill. Our energy was ebbing. We opted to skip this part of the tour.

Useful tip: a pair of good and comfortable walking shoes will help a lot when exploring Santorini. I have seen some people using telescopic hiking poles for walking assistance and balance.

The wine tasting.

The best part for most participants of the tour was the wine tasting on Santorini. We stopped at a local vineyard and tasted their produce. A white wine, a red wine, and a sweet red wine. Sweet red wine has always been our favorite so we were already biased. To be fair, the red and the white were not bad at all.

At this point of time, our tour guide bid us goodbye. Our tour driver was driving us to the last stop of the tour, Oia. At Oia, we were given enough time for walking and exploring the surrounding area. It was also time for sunset hence the driver was waiting for us until a few minutes past sunset. We viewed the sunset but didn’t wait very long. It was back to the tour bus for our trip back to the hotel in Santorini.