We had been wanting to visit the famous Santorini for a while and we had always been discouraged by the millions of tourists who visit the island. On our way back from Italy, we tried to figure out a new 5-day-trip and we decided that Santorini in October was probably the best time. But first, we checked out the weather and the October forecast was perfect, between 12 to 25° C (70 to 77°F). October is the end of the high season, which means fewer people on-site, but that's what we thought. As the weather is great, plane tickets are expensive because Santorini is one of the last European destinations where temperatures are still warm in October.

Getting to Santorini

Living in Europe gives us access to direct flights to many beautiful destinations. And Santorini is one of them, only 3.5 hours from Paris.

It was a last-minute trip, so we couldn't find a direct flight back. We paid 330€ per ticket, probably the highest price. Usually, airline tickets can be less than 100€! On the way back, we made a short stopover in Athens.

Once you arrive in Santorini, you have two options to get to your hotel depending on the location: taxi or bus. A taxi can cost you 50€ to get to Oia so the bus will cost you about 3€. But the travel time will be much longer by bus. We took the private transfer from the hotel to Oia.

Exploring the Perivolas Hotel

We spent 3 nights at the Perivolas Hotel located south of Oia, about 1.3 km from the village center. You could say it's far away, but honestly, Oia is so crowded that we enjoyed being there.

Perivolas is a 5-star hotel with 20 luxurious individual white troglodyte suites. It is a very charming and quiet hotel, attached to a cliff.

The decoration of the rooms is minimalist in a Santorini-style. Our Junior Suite (#16) was well located, below the hotel, with no access at all. The hotel provides all the amenities but the rooms do not have television. They all have a terrace with breathtaking views of Calderas and the Aegean Sea.

It should be noted that the hotel has a spa and a magnificent infinity pool. It’s the best place to sunbathe and cool off with a cocktail at sunset.

There is a restaurant where you can enjoy all meals, from breakfast to dinner. The best surprise is that they offer a vegan menu. We will detail this part in the section below.

Things to do in Oia Santorini

Oia is a village suspended north of Santorini. It is quite small and can be visited in a few hours. It is well known for offering one of the most beautiful sunsets in the world. The problem today is that we all want to visit the same places for the same reasons. Oia is no exception, it is probably one of the most visited villages in the world and the main problem is that a few hours before sunset, you can't even walk the streets because all the boat cruises stop here. And honestly, it's a nightmare, you can't appreciate anything because of the crowd, the selfies and so on.

We went there for the first sunset and decided to visit the city in the morning when the streets are less crowded.

Despite this problem, the white and blue village is very pretty and very clean, maybe too much. Every morning we saw municipal employees cleaning the streets. It gives the feeling that the village is not as authentic as we thought, and it's more like Disneyland.

Every morning, I woke up before sunrise, around 7 am in October. I don't particularly like sunrises and sunsets, and I don't like taking pictures of them, but I find the morning light fascinating to catch. So, I enjoyed walking the streets of Oia in the morning to appreciate the beauty of the light as it began to filter through the streets.

We strongly recommend that you visit the city in the morning before 9 am if you do not want to be oppressed by the crowd.

Just after my morning walk, I joined Daisy for breakfast, then we spent the whole day relaxing at the hotel. Daisy had a treatment at the spa. Instead of going to Oia to watch the sunset, we watched it from the hotel and the view was magnificent, especially when the sunset reflected in the pool.

We took the opportunity to take some great pictures on the rooftops of the hotel.

How we can manage to be Vegan in Oia Santorini

Santorini is probably the place where we had the most difficulty with eating vegetarian or vegan food. But we were so surprised when we came back from Oia to the hotel on the first night, without finding a place to eat. We discovered that the restaurant offers a vegan menu with gluten-free options!

The chef has been trying to offer a real vegan menu with lots of choices. And we tried all the dishes and they were all so tasty.

Can you imagine? At the end of October, we had candlelit dinners on the terrace around the pool? The temperature was still so pleasant at this time of year.

Another pleasant surprise was that they also offer vegan breakfast options, such as avocado cake.