Last year, we traveled with our friends Ali and Andrew to Italy & it was easily the highlight of our year. Experiencing different cultures is so fun, tasting new foods and wines is amazing, and traveling with friends is such a sweet adventure. To read all about our trip last July, hop on over to these posts!

So, the four of us have been semi-joking / semi-seriously throwing out the idea of another trip. The idea of Thailand got thrown out, Italy round two, Greece, etc. It felt like we toyed with the idea for months, but once August rolled around it started to seem less and less likely. Mid-August we got a text from Andrew, “Greece? Let’s do it.”

We met at the Aloft hotel downtown that Sunday night and had a booking marathon. We didn’t get up until flights were booked & we had a solid plan of where we were heading in Greece! Yep, you read that right, we booked our flights mid-August and we traveled the second week of October, aka we planned this entire trip in 6 weeks!

Each of us were able to fly on points which was such a blessing & a great way to save a little money. We searched air b&b options, hotels, villas, you name it and kept striking out. There honestly wasn’t a ton of availability, or if it was available it was extremely expensive or was lacking an important amenity.

We didn’t nail down where we were staying until a week or so later, Andrew was the real MVP here. He found one last availability at the Santorini Princess Hotel & Spa and y’all, this place was a dream. I’ll touch more on that later, but I promise, if you go to Santorini you have to stay here!

Okay, let’s dive into our trip!

Braden and I flew out of Greenville on Friday morning & connected in Atlanta to Athens, Greece. Praise the Lord, we had no delays or travel hiccups, everything was super smooth. The longest leg of the flight was Atlanta to Athens, it was around 8ish hours aka an introverts dream to watch all the movies! Ali and Andrew took a different route. They flew out of Charlotte and spent a day in London, then met us in Athens the next morning. So, they spent Saturday in London and we spent Saturday in Athens.

After we landed in Athens, Braden and I hopped over to hotel that was literally across the street from the airport. Super convenient. While Braden exchanged some dollars for euros I grabbed a coffee at the hotel restaurant, then we ate lunch at the hotel restaurant. The restaurant is beautiful, blue velvet furniture with copper chairs and details, yes please!

After lunch, we rested for a bit in the room, got ready and headed to the coast. Porto Rafti was a short little uber drive from Athens & it was the perfect vibe for a chill afternoon. It’s a very cute coastal town with the prettiest views!

We spent a little time walking and stretching our legs, and naturally second coffee / diet coke had to happen. We were both pretty tired from the early morning flights plus jet lag, so it was nice to be chill on day one.

We found a cute little dinner spot that overlooked the water. Braden and I totally judge a town by how good its food is, and this little restaurant definitely set the bar for Porto Rafti. It was cheap, huge portions, and a large variety of fresh seafoods. Seafood was by the kilo that day, so we split some calamari, sardines (not my fav, haha), white fish, greek salad, fries, and finished with a little dessert.

We grabbed a taxi from Porto Rafti back to our hotel & called it a night. The next morning, we walked over to the airport and met Ali and Andrew for our 5am flight to Santorini!