Exploring Ancient Civilizations, Sailing the Aegean Sea
It has been several days since returning from Greece, but the ancient ruins and white clouds of Athens, the blue sky and sea of Santorini still often appear before my eyes. Many friends have come to ask for travel tips, so to provide a reference for those who want to travel, and more importantly to better savor the memories, I record this wonderful journey with words and pictures.
This October marks our 10th wedding anniversary. After the Chinese New Year, I promised my wife I would take her on an international trip. Although we have visited many places since having children, opportunities for just the two of us to travel alone are rare. This time, we initially considered the Maldives (visa-free, seaside scenery, but just lounging by the beach, a bit boring), Morocco (visa-free, Casablanca and the Sahara, but each flight connection took 8-9 hours, and local driving was also tiring), and Northern Europe (Schengen visa, multi-country itinerary requiring more effort for planning), among others. Greece was also a candidate. Finally, I asked my wife for her opinion: Greece, a honeymoon destination, has blue skies, the Aegean Sea, blue-and-white houses... So Greece it was :). Six years ago, my first trip to Europe was a rushed tour with a group, but Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Venice in Italy left a good impression. However, in France, our guide was robbed right before my eyes, and the many pickpockets in the Louvre made me both love and fear Europe. But after reading many travel guides, I was confident that pure-play, no-shopping semi-backpackers like us would hardly be targeted by criminals—because we had nothing to steal or snatch, haha.
Once the destination was set, the next step was to book the itinerary and travel resources (all done on Ctrip; some Ctrip products are a bit pricey, but the selection is comprehensive—basically anything you need can be booked on Ctrip, and I think a big company is more reliable than TB shops for problem resolution). Trip planning mainly involved browsing travelogues on Mafengwo and Qyer, which provided plenty of information—they even anticipated every need, haha. Domestically, only Beijing has direct flights to Athens, so departing from Shanghai required a transfer. I tried searching for multi-city flights: Shanghai–Athens–(ferry)–Santorini–Shanghai, which showed connections either via Beijing or the Middle East/Europe. After comparing departure, transfer, and arrival times, a transfer in Germany turned out to be the most reasonable and relaxing. Booking a month in advance, Lufthansa tickets were 4,350 yuan per person (all prices in RMB unless noted), which was a bargain. This highlights the advantage of independent travel: group tours typically offer round-trip Shanghai-Athens, meaning an extra one-hour flight or seven-hour ferry from Santorini back to Athens, wasting time and energy. For hotels, convenience was the priority in Athens, while cost-effectiveness mattered in Santorini :), but the baseline was Ctrip 4-diamond, rating above 4.5, including breakfast. Below is my self-compiled itinerary, including flight, hotel, and ferry bookings, which would be needed for the visa application.
ITINERARY
07.05.2019
Shanghai- Frankfurt（connections）-Athens
LH733 2355/0535+1,LH1280 0655/1040
08.05.2019
Athens
Visit The Acropolis in Athens
09.05.2019
Athens
Visit Syntagma Square and Ermou Street
10.05.2019
Athens
Visit the Museum of Athens, Shopping in Athens
11.05.2019
Athens- Santorini
Blue Star Ferries 0725/1450
12.05.2019
Santorini
Sightseeing in Fira town
13.05.2019
Santorini
Sightseeing in Oia town, Shopping in Santorini
14.05.2019
Sightseeing in Santorini
Santorini- Munich（connections）-Shanghai
LH1765 1915/2055,LH726 2220/1515+1
Visas are a major issue for European travel. Applying for a Schengen visa is relatively troublesome and expensive (Ctrip charged 898 yuan per person, including visa and service fees; insurance was purchased from Alipay Ant Insurance to cover Schengen countries) and it's single-entry, usually applied for about three months in advance, requiring a personal visit to Shanghai to submit documents and fingerprints (not needed next time). But when I booked the visa on April 6th, I had only one month until departure. Ctrip replied that it would take 15 business days, with the earliest departure on May 9th. My confidence kicked in—I had a previous Schengen visa and a valid U.S. visa, so it should be fine. I prepared all documents on April 8th and sent them to Ctrip, went to the Greek Visa Center in Shanghai on April 11th to submit fingerprints and materials, got the visa on April 24th smoothly, and received my passport on April 25th. After checking everything, I started booking add-ons, which I’ll detail during the trip. For communication, I bought a 15-day European SIM card (65 yuan per card) with 2GB data and 500 minutes of European calls, which was enough for 7 days, mainly for WeChat and navigation.
All set, just waiting to depart. Here’s a small tip: Lufthansa allows free seat selection only for Gold members and above, but I found online that free seat selection opens to everyone 23 hours before departure. So I made sure to choose a comfortable seat early—after checking, there weren’t many pairs of two seats together on a 747, and the second leg was only 2.5 hours, so the seat requirement wasn’t as high. However, a small issue occurred on the return trip: the pre-selected seats were changed by staff at the Santorini airport counter. I didn’t notice at first, and the first leg had us separated by nearly 20 rows. Fortunately, the second leg was an Airbus A340 (2-4-2 seating layout), and after the change, we still sat together but nearly 15 rows further back.
On the evening of May 7th, we arrived at Pudong Airport on time at 21:30 (a pick-up/drop-off service was very convenient). After security, we browsed the duty-free shops briefly, then boarded the plane.
After arriving at Athens Airport and collecting our luggage, we walked out to the airport bus ticket office, bought tickets for 6 euros per person, took the X95 bus from the airport to Syntagma Square terminal, then followed Google Maps for a 10-minute walk to the pre-booked Hotel Cypria, which was very convenient.
Athens three-night hotel: Athens Cypria Hotel, 950 yuan/night/room (including double breakfast). The hotel is located in an alley opposite Syntagma Square, close to bus stops, subway stations, and shopping streets, with many restaurants around. The accommodation was between 3-4 stars domestically, very good. On the last night, getting up early to take the subway, the front desk packed a breakfast for us to take away.
The hotel is surrounded by the bustling city center of Plaka, the old town of Athens.
The next day, we used the "[Chinese Audio Guide] Athens Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Ticket (24 hours + 1 free day)" bought in China (125 yuan per person). Tickets could be exchanged at any stop on site, very convenient, covering major attractions.
Athens Acropolis tickets: 20 euros per person on-site, free on certain days of the year, with reduced tickets for EU citizens and students.
The crowded tourist areas were safe, with decent security, and police patrols were often seen. After visiting the main sites, we started wandering through alleyways. In some small streets with fewer tourists, we saw young people loitering in groups, their stares unsettling, so we quickly returned to busy main roads.
Let me talk about food in Athens, which I believe many friends care about :). The flavors are more suited to Chinese tastes than American food, so we only had one Chinese meal; the rest were local dishes, with main courses averaging 10 euros per person.
Two days were enough to cover the main attractions in central Athens. More remote places weren’t necessary due to transportation and safety concerns. On May 11th, we walked 10 minutes from the hotel to Monastiraki station (mentioned above) to take the subway to the port for the ferry to Santorini (this was our only subway ride in Athens, and it was the one we worried about most safety-wise—many online experiences mentioned safety issues on Athens metro, especially early in the morning). But taking Line 1 from the city center to Piraeus port was indeed the most convenient way besides a private car. We didn’t take taxis, as guides said they usually don’t use meters and negotiate fares. How to buy metro tickets is available online: based on travel time: standard ticket: 90-minute ticket 1.4 euros, half-price 0.6 euros. 24-hour ticket 4.5 euros. 5-day ticket 9 euros. Within the validity period, unlimited transfers between other metro or bus lines (excluding airport stations, no reverse transfers). Use the self-service ticket machine in English, usually you’ll buy a 90-minute ticket (but for airport tickets, there are three other types; select the one marked "airport").
After arriving at Line 1 terminal Piraeus port station, online guides said to cross a bridge to get tickets, but the bridge was under construction and blocked. Following the crowd on the ground for 2-3 minutes got us to the dock. We exchanged the ferry confirmation order (booked in China) for tickets at the corresponding ferry company’s ticket booth—very convenient.
Our ferry was a slow boat, with business class and cabin berths available, since the journey was 7 hours; those with needs could pay for comfort. However, I found economy class fine: sleep on the way, stroll the deck, eat something—time passed quickly. The boat had 8 decks; luggage storage on board or you could keep it near your seat. Decks 6 and above were cabins and deck areas. Some guides mentioned a fast boat taking 4 hours but being enclosed and bumpy, not recommended.
Transfer from the port to the hotel mainly depended on island buses, taxis (very few), and private cars. We had pre-booked a transfer, but only from port to hotel. Since we needed to pick up a rental car at the airport, we set the drop-off point as the nearest hotel to the airport.
On the way, I tried to ask the driver if he could drop us at the airport, since the route passes the airport before my set destination (not the hotel I was staying at that night). The driver only spoke Greek, but fortunately another passenger helped translate English-Greek. After consulting with his boss, the driver kindly agreed to drop us at the airport, all the way to the departure area (Santorini airport is extremely small, mentioned later). Based on the pre-booked rental order, a Fiat Panda manual (automatic was scarce and expensive; I was very confident in my driving skills, but practice showed Santorini has many steep slopes, so those with average skills should go for automatic or not rent at all—my wife was too scared to ride, but I managed to drive, haha). After cashback, it cost 500 yuan for 3 days. From the airport, a 2-minute walk brought us to the rental car office (I had read about various pitfalls in European rentals, so I deliberately took photos as evidence; I must praise the booming car rental market in the U.S.). The front desk staff found my order, tried to upsell insurance, which I declined, and then started the vehicle inspection.
It had been a long time since I drove a manual, so I was rusty. At first, I couldn’t find the reverse gear on the Fiat, but after a few minutes of exploration, I got the hang of it. I followed Google Maps (when signal lagged, I used the offline map app, which was also accurate, requiring pre-download of the local map) and drove to the hotel.
One night at Santorini’s Black Sand Beach:
We parked the car at a public parking lot 100 meters from the hotel. In the following days, we found that many roads on Santorini were gravelly and dusty.
On the second day on Santorini, we drove around the southern part of the island, visiting various scenic spots. We turned back halfway only at the White Sand Beach because the road (a rough gravel path) was too bad. Reached all other recommended attractions.
In the evening, we drove to Fira town in Santorini and stayed for two nights. The town center has many one-way streets, so driving required caution, and there were many pedestrians.
During the rental period, we once had low tire pressure and worried about a puncture. Communicating the issue was difficult, but we went to a gas station to inflate the tire. It turned out fine—no puncture. Returning the car was smooth; the same staff member gave it a quick look and approved. So far, no unexplained charges.
Overall, this trip to Greece was very smooth. Independent travel in Greece is a great choice. We left our footprints by the Aegean Sea. "The world is so big, let's go see more!" Looking forward to the next trip!
