Santorini Private Scenic Shore Excursion: Oia, Mt Profitis and Ilias Monastery
Overview
Inclusions
- Port pickup and drop-off
- Professional guide
- Transport by private air-conditoned vehicle and professional driver
- Worry-Free Shore Excursion Guarantee
- Cable Car Transfers roundtrip
What to expect
This is a typical itinerary for this product
Stop At: Monastery of Profitis Ilias, Epar. Od. Pirgou Kallistis 3 km from Pyrgo Thira, Moni Profitou Ilia, Moni Profitou Iliou 847 00 Greece
You will be transferred from the ship by a colourful local boat to Athinios where you will join the waiting motor coach. A short journey brings you to Santorini’s highest peak, crowned by the Mt. Profitis Ilias monastery. Here you will have an ideal photo opportunity to capture the beauty of this island.
Duration: 40 minutes
Stop At: Oia, Oia, Santorini, Cyclades, South Aegean
Proceed to the most northern tip of the island to experience the unique village of Oia. This dramatic small village built on a steep slope of the caldera has many of its dwellings nestled in niches hewn into the volcanic rock. As you walk through its narrow cobbled streets, you will come across many tiny shops which offer a varied and unusual collection of hand-made works of ceramic art, paintings and semi-precious jewelry. Oia, perched on the edge of the cliffs offers spectacular views of Fira and the volcano.
Duration: 40 minutes
Stop At: Fira, Fira, Santorini, Cyclades, South Aegean
After your tour, you will be taken to Fira town. You will have some time to explore Fira and take some pictures. Then, enjoy a short cable car ride down to the pier.
Duration: 30 minutes
Additional information
- At time of booking, Cruise Ship passengers must provide the following details under Special Requirements: Ship name, docking time, disembarkation time and re-boarding time
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Please enter your preferred pickup time in the Special Requirements box at the time of booking, and reconfirm 48 hours prior to the tour’s departure time
- Near public transportation
- Infants must sit on laps
- Infant seats available
- Travelers should have a moderate physical fitness level
- Children who do not occupy a seat are free of charge. Children who occupy a seat and are up to 11 years old, benefit from a discount
- Face masks required for travelers in public areas
- Hand sanitizer available to travelers and staff
- Social distancing enforced throughout experience
- - To avoid congestion, vehicle seats will always be in abundance comparing to group comparing to group's size. -Passengers will always have to carry their own protection masks during the activity
- This is a private tour/activity. Only your group will participate
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking, unless booked within 5 days of travel. In this case confirmation will be received within 48 hours, subject to availability
Ticket delivery
Cancellation
Santorini is a beautiful island but with 4 cruise ships in port on the same day, it was overwhelmingly crowded. We started our tour in Fira and took the cable car to the top of the cliff to reach the town. Our tour guide met us at the bottom and we rode up to meet the driver. It was early in...
Santorini is a beautiful island but with 4 cruise ships in port on the same day, it was overwhelmingly crowded. We started our tour in Fira and took the cable car to the top of the cliff to reach the town. Our tour guide met us at the bottom and we rode up to meet the driver. It was early in the morning and our first stop was Mt. Profitis Ilias, the highest point and the location of a monastery. As we are driving for about 30 minutes, there was a lot of fog and once we reached the top, we could see nothing! The tour guide also told us that she had never been to the monastery when it was open so she wasn't sure we could get in. She should have told us this and offered another alternative than going to some spot with fog and nowhere to go! That was very disappointing. We would have preferred to spend the time in beautiful Oia. Oia was the highlight of the tour but it was very crowded due to the number of ships in port. The trip was also scheduled to last 4.5 hours but she took us back to Fira after 3 hours. She seemed to be in a hurry to leave us! Once in Fira, we had a wonderful lunch on our own overlooking the water and left to catch the cable car around 2 pm. The line was probably at least 2 hours so we walked down the donkey trail to catch the tender boat at the bottom. That was horrible! The smell and the number of donkeys was unbearable. The trail is also uneven and difficult to navigate, trying to avoid donkeys and their deposits along the route! Santorini is beautiful but these annoyances will probably be what we remember the most!
Zina was excellent and new everything about this beautiful
island. I wish we could of had her longer though.
She even called ahead and got us a amazing table for lunch
Zina was excellent and new everything about this beautiful
island. I wish we could of had her longer though.
She even called ahead and got us a amazing table for lunch
Simone is an excellent guide: courteous, informative, and sensitive to our needs. He met us on the pier at 8.30am (we were scheduled at 9.00am). Santorini is a "tendered" port so we took a boat early enough to make it by 9.00am. We rode the aerial tram up to Fiar and walked through the town...
Simone is an excellent guide: courteous, informative, and sensitive to our needs. He met us on the pier at 8.30am (we were scheduled at 9.00am). Santorini is a "tendered" port so we took a boat early enough to make it by 9.00am. We rode the aerial tram up to Fiar and walked through the town (shops) to the van waiting for us at the bottom of the hill ( I was thinking that the hill was a breeze going down but the trip back would be hard and that is correct). We drove first to the highest point of Santorini and visited the chapel there looking over spectacular scenery....you can see the entire island which is actually one edge of the caldera. Then on to Oia (eea). This is where most of the pictures that are seen worldwide are taken of the white buildings and churches with the blue domes sitting on a side of a cliff with the blue, blue, Aegean Sea in the background. Fantastic scenery. Again, not easy for the walking challenged but well worth going through the efforts. The gelato there is mahvelous. Back to Fiar for lunch and shopping. Ate at the Volcano Blue restaurant and finally had a taste of authentic Spanakopita which interestingly, they called Spinach Pie. Portions were huge and tasty. More shopping and back to the ship by aerial tram where the tender is waiting to take you back to the ship.
Although tour and guide were good, we were very disappointed that it was not as advertised.
Excursion was supposed to begin with a boat ride from harbor to Actinios. We specifically chose this excursion for that reason, to avoid the cable car ride (or donkey ride, or walk) up to Fira. Wh...
Although tour and guide were good, we were very disappointed that it was not as advertised.
Excursion was supposed to begin with a boat ride from harbor to Actinios. We specifically chose this excursion for that reason, to avoid the cable car ride (or donkey ride, or walk) up to Fira. When we arrived, our guide, Simone, claimed to know nothing about the boat ride, and we took the cable car to the top.
Very disappointing.
Our tour guide was a nice man named Simone - It was over 100F but we had a nice Van with A/C to take our group of 6 around to the sites. The guy was very patient with our shopping wanderings and was very knowledgable about the areas - a great tour I would recommend highly.
Our tour guide was a nice man named Simone - It was over 100F but we had a nice Van with A/C to take our group of 6 around to the sites. The guy was very patient with our shopping wanderings and was very knowledgable about the areas - a great tour I would recommend highly.
It was a very wonderful experience. Our tour guide was professional and give us a lot of photo opportunities!
It was a very wonderful experience. Our tour guide was professional and give us a lot of photo opportunities!