Getting to and from another country and then all around said country is not always an easy feat. It requires a lot of planning, a whole heaping helping of patience, and is often one of the largest vacation budget items, behind lodging and food.
Over the course of two weeks, The Stars utilized just about every method of transportation possible. But don't worry, we documented it so you would know what you were getting into :)
This is on the train to Newark airport from NYC. We weren't even an hour into our honeymoon and Mr. Star was busting out the crazy faces. Transportation count: 1.
My Stepdad so graciously let us use his airmiles to get a flight to Greece on Lufthansa (thank you, Doc!). Our flight from Newark into Athens, went through Frankfurt and took about twelve hours, which I would like to say is the reason for Mr. Star's goofiness, but I think you all know better than that by now.
We opted to take a ferry to get from Athens to Santorini and back, rather than a flight, which would have been much faster. We did this both because it was much cheaper and because we thought it would be a lot more fun than spending more time in an airplane cabin. When I think of ferries in the U.S., I think small ships that make trips of less than an hour or so. In Greece, a nation of islands, they are not kidding around with their ferries. This one looked more like a small cruise ship to me, and had food to buy onboard and even wifi internet access! Yes, I checked Weddingbee from the ocean in Greece...
The ferry trip was pretty long (about 8 hours each way), but we weren't complaining with views like this. And we got an amazing first look at Santorini from sea that we totally would have missed from a plane.
Our resort outside of Athens was in a pretty rural spot, even though it was only about 20 miles outside of the center of the city. Luckily, public transportation in the Athens suburbs (and in all of Greece that we saw) is pretty extensive. We took the bus in and out of the city and one night got off about halfway back to Vravrona to eat dinner at a restaurant that was right on the beach. We were very amused to find that two wooden chairs with broken wicker seats comprised the bus stop there. We're not in New York anymore, baby...
We decided to rent a car for two days so that we could explore a little more of mainland Greece before we took off for Santorini. This required us buying a roadmap, of course. Now I'm a pretty good navigator and I am ALWAYS the designated navigator on trips with my family or friends, but this was Hard with a capital H. Luckily, I had practiced on my Rosetta Stone enough to be able to read signs pretty well (because many are in both Greek and English, but not all!), but they always whizzed by so fast on the road that I wasn't always able to sound them out in time. We did pretty well, though, and renting a car allowed us to see Delphi, Epidaurus, Corinth, and Marathon in two days. We never could have done that any other way.
For our pains, we were rewarded with some pretty stellar views! Check out those crazy turns. You should have seen how fast the Greeks take these roads!
I wanted a picture of Mr. Star with the car I was so proud of him not crashing in two whole days. He did ALL the driving. It was because he's terrible with directions and wanted me to have the map, but I gave him credit for all his hard work and dilligence in not getting us killed anyways :)
This was the cable car in Fira on Santorini that takes you from the top of the cliffs in Fira all the way down to the old port. The alternative to the cable car is about 500 steps each way, so that four euros seems well worth it! And the views were gorgeous!
Our favorite mode of transportation by far was the ATV that we rented for most of the time we were on Santorini. What an awesome time we had with that thing! I think it was Mr. Star's favorite part of the trip! If I could recommend one thing to people visiting Santorini, it would be to rent one of these puppies. At fifteen euros a day, it cost us about the same as it would have to take the public bus a couple of times to get around the island, and it was such an adventure to go exploring the remote villages and beaches on an ATV with my husband. We loved feeling the wind in our hair and having the freedom to go anywhere we wanted at any time, instead of waiting on the bus schedule or a taxi to show up.
Lastly, we took the metro in Athens, which was surprisingly cheap and clean and efficient. I was very impressed that it cost less than the NYC subway and was so much cleaner. One of my biggest laughs in Greece was the first time we got into the subway station and they were playing the theme from Star Trek in an elevator music style!
Well, that takes our total number of methods of transportation up to a whopping 9, if you count the one taxi we took on Santorini (sorry, no pictures!). It was certainly an adventure, but worth every second :)
How did you or how do you plan on getting around during your honeymoon?
P.S. I finished my final batch of thank-you notes and dropped them in the mailbox yesterday, just short of a month out from the wedding (including two weeks out of the country!). For brides who are procrastinating -- just do it! It feels so good to be done!
If you're following along, the Star honeymoon recaps are:
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