Hi all! I'm (33F) about to go into our third round of the European heatwave next week and am wondering what kind of methods / habits / products you recommend in high humidity / heat to reduce puffiness from the face (especially in the AM) in these conditions.
TY!!
My (33F) partner (34F) and I just returned from 5 days in Santorini. It was her first time visiting the island (having been to several other islands in Greece before), and my second time (my first time being on a pre-planned tour of a few Greek islands in 2015). We both absolutely fell in love with it and were kicking ourselves for only staying for 5 days!
We rented a car and stayed in Messaria. We loved staying in a neighbourhood where more locals live and is generally quieter. We had planned on having a quieter and more relaxing holiday, but there was so much we wanted to do on the island, we really wished we had taken 7 or more days to do it at a slower pace. We stayed at AVAL All Suites in Messaria (booked via a holiday package company). This is an adults only, quiet, boutique hotel run by a family. The vibes are immaculate and we would stay with them again in a heartbeat.
Renting a car made it so easy to drive around and explore the whole island (no drive is longer than 25m). It was also SO much cheaper than getting taxis. The total cost of our car and petrol for 5 days equated to 4 uber rides one way each.
Some of our favourite things we did were visiting Vlychada beach (now one of my favourite beaches ever), and doing the Fira to Oia hike. We wished we had more time to do more hiking around the island and spend more time on more of the beaches. But we may have just kept going back to Vlychada, because we loved the natural beauty and lowkey/local vibe of the beach.
We loved so much of the food we had, and found many restaurants outside of Fira and Oia to be reasonably priced. The food we had in Fira and Oia was definitely much more expensive, but still good quality. Some of our favourite places to eat and drink were: Omoo, Metaxi Mas, Balla Grill House, To Psaraki, Vlychada Beach Bar, PK Cocktail Bar. Again, there were many places with great reputations we couldn't make it out to due to lack of time.
Some things I would have liked to do but didn't have the chance to are: kayaking around Akrotiri, spending more time at the various beaches, visiting more restaurants, wandering around more of the less-touristy neighbourhoods on foot, hiking, and honestly just hanging out with locals.
Finally, what we enjoyed most was the hospitality of the Greek. Many people working were native to Santorini, and of course many are Greek people who come in for the summer to work the season. We found that everyone we met was genuinely welcoming, hospitable, and kind. A young woman we met our last night described this to us as a Greek value/term called "Filoxenia", meaning (in short) being a friend to a stranger. It couldn't be more true, and it is definitely a reason for why we will be back soon.
That's my rant! We will be back, Santorini! ❤️
Hi there! My partner and I are renting a car while we are in Santorini next week. We have 3 full days on the island. We both have full driving licenses, but mine is from Canada and my partner's is from the UK. Unfortunately, due to my poor planning, I can't get an IDP in time for the trip. We've seen online that it's not legally required to have an IDP to drive, but that it is good to have just in case. I'm not sure in case of what, but would rather avoid any issues with local enforcement/insurance/etc.
Do you think I might run into any issues driving on the island without the IDP?