2025 Volendam, Fira, Santorini, Greece...

We took the first tender to the island and the cable car up to Fira to meet our guide, Theadora. Fira is the capital of Santorini with its cobblestone streets, wonderful views and one of the best places to see the caldera. Our tour started with a stop at the Caldera viewpoint where you can appreciate the astonishing beauty of Santorini. Next we drove to Firostefani for great views of the blue domes. We did a stroll through the cliffside village of Meroviglia. Next, we went to Oia, famous for its sunsets, white buildings, and blue domed churches…the two churches Agios Spiridonas and Agios Anastasis are some of the most recognizable Greek island's icons. With only our ship in port today, it was a pleasure to walk the streets of Oia with very little people to really take in this picturesque village perched on the northern tip of the island. After touring Oia, we drove across a vineyard covered landscape to the island’s highest point to the Prophet Elias monastery built in 1711. We visited the monastery to see the views from the highest point on the island. On our drive back towards Fira we stopped to see the old windmills before heading to Akrotiri. Akrotiri is an archaeological site in Santorini that has been called the Pompeii of the Aegean. It was once a city of the Minoan people until it got buried under a volcanic eruption in the 1600 BC. Theadora delivered us back to Fira and we returned to the ship by the cable car. We had a great tour of Santorini…we all agreed that this was by far our best tour of the island yet.