Welcome To Santorini!
In 2011, my wife Alex and I went to Greece for the first time and it was an incredible adventure!
The island of Santorini is incredible, and I will link to some of the stories I’ve already shared but here’s one that was something we never expected to find!
Caves!
One of the most fascinating parts of our Santorini day tour was to discover that there were secret caves on the island!
We were taken on a tour of some of the most unique aspects of Santorini, including the small hilltop villages away from the most populous towns…
Isn’t that a really cool pyramid of church bells?
It was great to see the less touristy parts of the island, but we weren’t done yet!
That included our terrific tour guide Dimitris taking us to the top of Santorini!
After driving to the top of the island, we headed to a small town where he had a secret to share!
It looks like a normal house outside, but when you go down the steps, you are literally heading into a carved out piece of the island!
This isn’t a basement – it’s a cave that is carved out of the island!
People lived here on purpose. Here’s how I found it explained online:
“the peculiarity of the volcanic terrain of Santorini offered a much cheaper alternative: it allowed the inhabitants to carve a building into the earth. These cave houses were once the smallest homes on the island.”
A bit of history…during WW2, there are stories that locals hid in the caves when the Nazis invaded the country.
It’s difficult to image a life like this, but going inside to see just what life would have been like in that situation is unique to be sure.
By the way, they weren’t single rooms – they went off in different directions – with multiple areas to inhabit!
And if you wondered if any of them had windows – well they did – and here’s what that was like!
After we did the cave tour, we finished with a wine tasting…Dimitris had just the place for us:
Considering that his island has virtually NO fresh water source, how do they grow grapes?
Like This!
Yes, those are vines – but they look nothing like regular ones – so how do they do it?
Click here for the story of Santorini’s unique method of growing grapes!
We also hiked half of this island – along the volcano’s ancient crater:
It’s more than 7 miles, and it was 93 degrees – with no shade!
Click here to see why it’s worth it!
Our incredible Santorini hotel is one of the most photographed – for good reason:
You see, photos shoots like this happen all day and night!
We also saw a Model on top of Skaros Rock, which is an imposing climb as well – so we did it!
Click here to see how we found the secret way to the top!
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Categories: Exotic Travel, Memoirs, nature, Pop Culture, Real Estate, Travel, Travel Adventures, Travel Memoir
johnrieber 
Very cool! Our son and his wife are flying to Europe today for their honeymoon. Their first stop is England, and then they are continuing to Greece. I’m not sure which part.
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How cool to find caves that functioned as homes and hiding places! Great history!
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Fabulous post, John. I am always interested in caves and there uses over time.
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We’ve been to Greek villages like those, and I think I’d prefer to live in that cave than try to function in the extreme heat. The heat is the main reason I don’t travel out of the UK anymore, although last summer we had our own heatwave to be sure.
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Yes it was broiling when we were there and Santorini has NO shade! Thanks for the comment!
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Those vines are interesting! The caves look like a dark and gloomy place to live, but also, an interesting piece of history!
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This solved a mystery for me. My father (I never met him) received $ from an inheritance and the story goes he went to give and lived in a cave for a year. Ha! It is fun to speculate his life during this time. Did you not recently go to Santorini a year ago, too? I’m going to Santorini in 2025, plus Naxos. I can’t wait to go back. It will be my third time.
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Be sure to spend time at the at st George beach away from the port where TRATA and naxaki are when you go to naxos!
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Thanks for that we are indeed going back to try all new islands!
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Love this post!
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so cool, and I plan to visit there myself, one day
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I can imagine that living in the caves would also be much cooler in a Greek summer, John. Great stuff as always, and makes me want to visit Santorini. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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