Greece & Italy

Mum, Dad, Jo, Lionel and I booked a holiday away to Greece and Italy before Jo and Lionel started their travels in the motorhome. This was their splurge!

We flew from Gatwick airport, UK to Mykonos (3 nights), took a ferry from Mykonos to Paros (3 nights), then ferry from Paros to Santorini (3 nights), we then flew from Santorini to Naples and we had arranged a transfer from Naples to Positano (1 nights) and a return transfer to Naples (1 night) and then a flight from Naples back to the UK.

Mykonos, Greece

In Mykonos we stayed at Leonis Summer Houses it was a great location for us as it wasn't in the centre of town but it was only a short 5-10 minute walk to Ornos beach/town. Leonis was a small boutique hotel with private suites and a beautiful pool to relax.

We hired motor bikes as the quad bikes are apparently quite dangerous around corners as they can flip easily. We found that as you walk further away from the beach the bikes tend to be cheaper, in the end we got a bike each for €15. We spent the days exploring on the motorbikes and visiting different

beaches. We spent time at Kalafatis as Dad and Mum were going to windsurf but the wind was too strong but Lionel went scuba diving for €65 which was good but he said there wasn't too much to see. We also visited Agia Anna around the corner from Kalafatis which was beautiful and also Kalo Livadi which was a lot bigger and windy. Ornos beach is nice but very busy due to its location.

I loved Mykonos Town (Chora) as it was worth getting lost in the maze of alleyways as they are absolutely beautiful and venturing to find Little Venice which is on the water. We booked at a bar called Katarina's for sunset and as we booked we got seats on the balcony overlooking the water and the sunset. It did end up a tad expensive as Mum accidentally over ordered as the waiters did not understand her but it was great for cocktails and nibbles at sunset. We were recommended a restaurant called Maerio's in Chora. It was a great Greek restaurant where a lot of the locals went as it was very authentic and was definitely worth the visit. After Mykonos I discovered my love for fried cheese, cheese pies and Greek salads!


Paros, Greece

To get to Paros from Mykonos we took a Blue Star Ferry. The ferry ride was something I have never experienced before as it was a ginormous boat that fit so many people and cars. Organised chaos! Our hotel in Paros was Minios Village and it was in a great location as it was only a 10 minute motor bike ride from Paros village where the ferry port is. Our room had an amazing view over the ocean and the restaurant at the hotel was incredible. They invited us to a welcome drink and the restaurant on our first night and next thing we knew we were having nibbles and more wine and then dinner and dessert. The service, wine and food was too good to miss out on!

Paros village has beautiful white alleyways that are quiet and are great to explore with a lot of restaurants. Bikes were again a great way to explore the island and the beaches were more beautiful than Mykonos in my opinion. We spent some time at Chrisi Atki (Golden Beach) as Mum and Dad went windsurfing but this wasn't my favourite beach however we stumbled upon paradise on the ride back to the hotel. We saw crystal clear water from the road and decided to venture down and find it - we rode down to where a few cars were parked and walked the rest. We found water that was crystal clear and a beach with only a few others! It is worth the adventure! We also visited Pounta beach - I have never seen so many kite surfers in one place. The atmosphere and location was almost enough to make me want to learn to kite surf.

We also ventured up to Naousso town which is on the water - we didn't have dinner there but I can only imagine it would be packed with a great atmosphere and fresh seafood as all the restaurants seem to be based around the harbour. When venturing to Naousso we visited Kolymbithres - this is a gorgeous bay named after the natural cavities formed in the granite rock by salt erosion. The water was so clear and turquoise and was definitely worth the visit as surroundings are so different to the usual sand beach. We also visited Santa Maria beach, it has beautiful water but is busy and filled with beach umbrellas as most of the other main beaches. I found Paros to be more calm and relaxing as it wasn't as busy and touristy as Mykonos.


Santorini , Greece

In Santorini we stayed at Cosmopolitan Villas - perfect location in Fira, in the middle of town yet a private oasis with an amazing pool looking over the caldera. It was paradise!

We walked down to the Old Port past all the donkeys that were lined up on the stairs ready to give tourists a ride up or down all the stairs. It is a long way down to Old Port with lots of steps and it smells like donkey urine as you are surrounded by donkeys for a large part of it but I enjoyed it as it was a different experience. Even though the donkeys were only €5 to hire to get a ride back up we decided to walk the around 600

stairs for exercise! It was so hot and tiring but the pool was paradise after.

Everyone recommended watching the sunset from Oia so that was definitely on my to do list but on the first night we stayed in the pool and watched the sunset with cocktails. It was absolutely breath taking and as it was only a boutique hotel it was so private and relaxing. Oia for sunset was definitely an experience but as there are so many people who have the same idea it was so crowded and a tad overwhelming. As the view of the sunset from our pool was incredible enough we decided to leave the crowds and try and hunt down the postcard photo of Santorini with the blue churches. I pictured the blue churches to be all throughout Santorini and especially Oia but as this wasn't the case I really wanted to find them! We didn't watch the sunset over the water as we found the postcard location with the iconic blue church. I think it was almost more beautiful watching the lighting change over the buildings with a lot less people. To find the post card location, once you are in the square in Oia take the alleyway toward the right and then take the second alleyway on your left - follow it down all the way until you get the perfect view of the churches (the alleyway keeps going down to the right).

On our last night in Santorini we wanted to go to a nice authentic Greek restaurant in Fira. Argo was recommended to us by Vicky from the hotel but the only time we could be seated was 9:15pm as it was also a very popular restaurant. Argo has great Greek food and was reasonably priced with a great location.

Positano, Italy

We flew into Naples from Santorini for a 2 night stop over on our way back to the UK. We decided to spend 1 night in Positano down on the Amalfi Coast to see it whilst we were there and 1 night in Naples. The airport in Santorini was chaos. People were pushing and queuing in all different ways at the gates and when we arrived at Naples with Air Meridiana we had to wait almost an hour for our bags. I don't know if it was Air Medidana's fault or the airport in Napolia but it was a nightmare. Luckily I had pre-arranged a transfer to Positano from Naples as everyone was exhausted by the time our bags came through. The transfer was through Jonnys Tour Service

for €100 each way. Joanna the driver was wonderful and took a lot of stress out of the transfer and saved us time on our quick stopover. Hotel Savoia was in a great location in Positano with a great view of all the buildings built on the cliff with a partial ocean view from our room. It is only a 5 minute walk down to the beach and is at the start of the pedestrian only walkway down to the beach. I was happy with the location as I was worried the hotel may have been a lot higher up the cliff which would mean a longer walk down and a lot of steps back up.

We had dinner at Ristorante Bruno's which was up the road from the hotel. It was amazing - the pasta was delicious and we all left extremely satisfied and saying it was one of our best meals.

We hired a private boat from the beach through Blue Star for 4 hours for €190 that fit up to 7 people. The boat was an amazing large wooden boat and we spent the day cruising the Almalfi Coast and stopped off and swum. The cliffs along the Almalfi coast were breath taking.

Naples, Italy

We hired a transfer through Johnny's Tour Service again but it wasn't Joanna again unfortunately - we had an extremely grumpy driver who made no attempt to communicate with us and didn't know where the hotel was. In the end, the driver would have had no idea where Vivi Napoli was as the accommodation was definitely not we expected as we thought we booked a hotel. It was almost impossible to find with no signage so someone had to come and meet our driver to show him where to go. We were then taken into a building which was not a hotel and there was no foyer - we went up to level 4 in a tiny dark lift hoping that it would open up to a hotel foyer but no, the lift opened to a level of apartments with bicycles and helmets etc outside their doors. We then went into one of the doors to our apartment - inside the actually apartment was fairly clean but it was so hot at night in both bedrooms. Jo and Lionel ended up in bed with me in the living room under the air conditioning!

We went to L'Antiga Pizzeria da Michele for dinner as it was recommended highly by Becky and Kelly who claimed it was the best pizza in the world and was featured in Eat Pray Love. We stood around for a while outside before we realise we had to go inside to get a number and then wait outside until they call your number. They call the numbers out in Italian so this really threw us and we had to quickly work out what 52 was in Italian. When we were seated the waiter came over and asked if we wanted pizza, we thought of course we want pizza isn't that why we are all here! Apparently that is how you order as there are no menus and there are only 2 types of pizzas, cheese or no cheese, so we said yes to pizza. Next thing we knew there were 5 HUGE margarita pizzas on our table. There is no way you each need a pizza but as we worked out in the end they were fairly cheap at only 5€ each so it wasn't too bad and we all gave it a good go to finish them. The pizzas are supposed to be the best in the world and our friends agreed however we didn't rave about them as they were soggy and nothing amazing- we have had better pizza elsewhere such as Positano. We did however go to a gelateria down the road, Polo Noro, which has been run through 4 generations - the gelato was delicious so it did make the venture out into Naples semi worth it.

Naples was a city that I have no desire to revisit as it all seemed so scummy and dangerous. We all did not feel very comfortable there and were glad to be heading home the next day.