Perissa Hotel Reviews

A good all round place to stay,good beaches,tavernas,bars and shops.

At the beach road you can either turn right to a handful of bars and taverns or left towards Perissa where you will find more bars, some beach music and dance bars (that cater for the young during the day and then close at 10.00pm). It is about a 40 minute hike to Perissa. We found the food on offer in the restaurants to be similar throughout the resort with all the menus being the same and the costs decreasing the further you travelled into Perissa. (Perivolos is very expensive to eat and drink). We had nice meals in Perissa at The Akropolis, The Volcano and The Forum – we returned the disgusting food at Charlinas (near the Veggarra Hotel) and the owner became quite aggressive, although when we told him to call the police (as he had threatened) he started to calm down. If you don’t fancy the hike into Perissa then I’d recommend The Best as a nice option, avoid Meteora as they do not provide a bill and charge the earth for poor quality food – Irene “Fire Fire” the owner of this “restaurant/tobacco store” is keen to get you in but once visited I guarantee you will not return. It is also noticeable that the majority of restaurant staff/owners in Perissa and Perivolos are Romanian, Albanian, Australian Greeks or Lebanese and the majority of the “Greek” staff are from Athens. The capital Thira is well worth a visit as it is a myriad of small streets with many shops, bars, taverns and shops selling local produce – there is a Gyros shop (on a corner); that sells the best Gyros (2.5euro each) I have had. One evening we ate at a restaurant in the back streets and the food was no more expensive than Perissa and was probably of better quality. In Thira we walked down the 588 steps to the harbour and then took the cable car back up, there are lots of cruise ship tourists using the poor ill treated donkeys as a means of transport up and down the steps – if you have any strong feelings towards animal welfare I suggest you avoid the steps at Thira and Oia as you will be disgusted at the way these poor animals are treated. The rest of the island is worth a visit, probably easier to use your own vehicle – although you can get a bus to Thira for 2 euro per person and use local transport to reach the rest of the island. Oia was disappointing (a 2 street town), Pyrgos is worth a visit during the day and we went for a meal in the Pyrgos Tavern (food was very expensive – you pay for the view) this restaurant is very popular for weddings, we had 3 separate receptions going on.

The resort is full of bars and rstaurants but beware very few are actually run by Santorini Greeks. We have been cooked for by Romanians, Albanaians, Lithuanians, Lebonese [Charlinas] and Australians just to name a few. Forum and Volcano were the best restaurants we found. Meteorar is poor, no bill at end so keep a record of what you spend as the owner arrives with a calculator, flying fingers and writes price on tablecloth. The Best is fair food but expensive. Acropolosis is also not too bad. The further you walk into town the cheaper the food and drink but about a 45 minute walk. The bars are very loud until 10pm when they shut and the clubbers move into Thira. If eating out about 9-10 is ok as this is the time of the best food and service. If more than 4 eating together the restaurants struggle to get food out.

Perissa is a small resort with numerous restaurants and bars with a few souvenier shops. The restaurant menus are all very similar so it's a case of finding the ones that serve the best food. Aquarius and Atlantis were our favourites. Chocolat was excellent because they served snacks too and their food was delicious. The waffles were light as a feather and the chocolate sauce was delicious. All the restaurants cooked food using fresh local produce. There are no McDonalds, Starbucks, etc on the island. We found it to be very uncommercialised which is great. Two restaurants which I found to be under par were Gods Garden where I had grilled fish which tasted like it had been cooked on dirty ashes and the Veggera where the carbonara tasted like it had been through an oil slick. Both very disappointing. At the end of the beach in Perissa you can get the boat to Kamari which is worth a visit. The boat costs 4 euros one way. Or you can climb the mountain which separates the two resorts and visit Ancient Thira while you're there. The climb will take about an hour and is signposted from the end of the village. Kamari is a larger resort with more shopping and a cinema. We didn't go to the cinema as we weren't sure if we could get a bus home. The buses run regularly and cost 2 euros but they don't always run through the night. All the buses go to Thira then you have to change to get the bus to your next destination which is a bit of a nuisance. If you're booking any trips use the tour shops as it's half the price of the tour operator. The volcano/sunset tour was our favourite and cost half the price of the Thomas Cook outing. Public transport is very easy to use and outings are well organised. Thira is exactly like the postcards - beautiful. Beware the steps to the harbour, you need to be reasonably fit as there are 580 steps, but also the smell from the donkeys is foul. You can get the chairlift back up to Thira which costs 4 euros each. Oia is a smaller version of Thira and equally as beautiful. We watched the sunset there which everyone raves about but I have to say we were a bit disappointed. Maybe we've been spoilt by the beautiful sunsets we see in Scotland. We spent most time at Perivolos beach. Most of the beach has a pebble or rocky shore so it can sometimes be sore on the feet. We sat at Valentinos beach, sandy shoreline, which was 7 euros for sunbeds/parasols but you had music all day from the beach bar. All bars had beach service.

the beach at monolithos is worth hiring a car to get to,the beaches at perissa and perivolos are good for watersports. there are loads of great restaraunts,here's a few the best,the charlina,gods garden,xania,the volcano,the smaragdi hotel. akrotiri is a must but unfortuneatly it was closed when we went, but having been before i can still reccomend it. you must go to fira for the caldera views and the shopping. although santorini is a small island it has a huge heart and is a stunningly beautiful island.i have said that this holiday is suitable for families with teenagers because what i wanted to say wasn't on the list, THIS HOLIDAY IS SUITABLE FOR EVERYONE OF ANY AGE,just give it a try.