OUR GREECE HONEYMOON: Itinerary

Can we talk for a hot minute about how insane honeymoons are? You spend probably a year or more planning and thinking about this ONE LITTLE DAY that becomes one of the most high intensity, unforgettable, emotional days of your life…and then like a sick joke you have to ALSO think about and PLAN an epic trip of a lifetime that you might not get to do again because when will you ever have that much time off of work without kids?! Did you get all that? WHEW. LIKE what the literal F. Don’t get me wrong, I get the reasoning behind it (after planning a wedding you deserve to lay back and relax!) and I certainly wouldn’t trade my honeymoon for the world, but the whole concept really just baffles me.

With that said, here’s a quick outline of our honeymoon in Greece + some of the ‘behind-the-scenes’ stuff that no one usually talks about! P.S. I really lucked out in that my husband, Tim, planned almost our entire honeymoon! He booked all of the plane tickets, hotels, and ferries which honestly made my LIFE. If you have ever traveled with me, you know I’m more of a, “let’s just go and see what happens” kind of gal, which isn’t always ideal in a foreign country. 🙂

DAY ONE: ATHENS

The flight from New York to Athens was bumpy. As in, we might go down in the middle of the ocean kind of bumpy. So by the time we landed, we were ready to seize the day even though it was 3:30am in New York.

We headed to Athens Gate Hotel, which is located in the historic district of Athens directly across from the Temple of Olympian Zeus. The rooms were TINY but the hotel itself was nice and the staff was extremely friendly. After checking in, we headed out to see the sites. Here’s a quick summary as I don’t feel like giving a play by play, and I’m pretty sure you don’t feel like reading one.

• First we walked over to check out the Temple of Olympian Zeus. We then continued on to the Panathenaic Stadium, which hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the first modern Olympics in 1896. We walked through a tunnel onto the field and I felt all kinds of FNL vibes.
• A hike up Mount Lycabettus to check out the Chapel of St. George was next, and it was worth it for the amazing view of the city. We stopped for beers and a bite to eat at Cafe Lycabettus before heading back down.
• By this point I decided that we had walked enough for the day (14 MILES) and that we should just skip the Acropolis, but Tim seemed to think it was important…hence my face in the photo below (haha). Come on, Tim.
• We ended our night with an amazing dinner at the roof top restaurant at our hotel. The Acropolis basically joined us for dinner. And the SUNSET. The first of many that blew my mind.

DAY TWO & THREE: MYKONOS

Mykonos was my favorite island. I think it gets a bad rap for being a party island, but unless you are actively seeking out the crazy club scene, it’s fairly easy to avoid. We arrived in Mykonos via an early morning Seajet ferry that left from Piraeus Port in Athens.

We stayed at a hotel called Ibiscus Boutique Hotel that was located in Kalon Technon, which overlooked Mykonos Town and the Aegean Sea. Talk about balcony goals. Also mad points for my travel agent husband.

I absolutely loved Mykonos Town – we legitimately got lost walking through the little streets which was on my bucket list of things to do in Greece. I also met my first stray dog, so that probably had something to do with why I loved it so much.

We stayed in Mykonos for two days which was nice because it meant we had time to explore one of the beaches called Paradise Beach. It was a bit of shit show getting there as we took a public bus…and it was an even BIGGER mess to get back on that same bus (there was a bit of a stampede!) but all in all we had a great day and drank a lot of Coronas.

DAY FOUR: IOS

We arrived in Ios from Mykonos via a Hellenic Seaways ferry and made our way to our hotel – Sunset Resort. Our room at the hotel wasn’t the best, but it had the most spectacular balcony that looked over the ocean. True to the resort’s name, it was perfect for sunset-gazing! The pool area was also amazing, as was the pool bar – where we spent happy hour plus a few hours. 🙂

My favorite part of Ios, however, was the time we spent on a little beach that was walking distance from our hotel. We were almost completely alone on the beach, which made it feel like we were the only ones on the island. That night we went into the town of Chora to have dinner and my nightly gelato. It was a fun town but felt a bit more ‘college spring break’ than we would have liked – I definitely liked Mykonos Town better!

DAY FIVE – NINE: MILOS

We left Ios early the next day on a SeaJet ferry and arrived in Milos by 11am. Our first hotel was the Laganda Beach Hotel, which was amazing location-wise (located in the harbor town of Adamantas)  but not so great in terms of interior design. AKA the entire room was white concrete (or so we thought until I spilled an entire glass of red wine down one of the walls and the white ‘concrete’ started to bubble and peel. Oops!).

Milos island is definitely way less touristy and more of a ‘natural’ island. Tim and I agreed that it felt sort of like a Martha’s Vineyard type place – most of the people on the island were Greeks who were enjoying their summer vacation. This meant that it was definitely more culturally interesting, but we did feel a little like we were intruding. This was especially true at dinner when our waiter got frustrated with us as he barely spoke any English.

Tim had really wanted to rent ATVs when we were on Mykonos, but the tiny winding roads had given me so much anxiety that I had vetoed it (my first uncool wife moment). But on Milos we decided to go for it as it seemed to be the best and most logical way to explore the island. We set out on the open road (selfie stick in hand) and checked out a few towns and beaches along the main ‘highway.’ I even took the ol’ ATV for a spin too, which was kind of thrilling considering my driver’s license was expired and I hadn’t driven in years. A highlight of the day was also a random stop at a winery in a cave. We bought a bottle of wine that we ended up drinking later that night (okay who am I kidding–we bought two and drank them both). The whole day was full of Bachelorette one-on-one vibes. Spoiler alert: he accepted the rose! Ha. Ha.

The next day we decided to explore the island via boat. We signed up for an all day sailing adventure (the night before) that took off from the harbor near our hotel. Tim brought a BOOK to READ. What?! I hit up the beer fridge and we hung out on the deck as we sailed around the island and saw all the sights. My favorite bit was when a crew member took us in a little dingy to explore some caves along the shore–and the whole time he pretended to be a pirate! Pure gold.

We ended up switching hotels for our last night in Milos and I’m SO GLAD we did. The second resort (Psaravolda Resort) was so insanely beautiful, and the dinner we shared at the restaurant there was one of my favorites of the entire trip. Our waiter was so friendly and even *tried* to teach us the Greek alphabet. (I knew a few letters from my sorority days! HAHA!) I ordered grilled squid and it literally came out as an entire squid just chillin’ on my plate – with no sides and no sauce – but it was so good!

Before catching the ferry to Santorini, we ended our stay on Milos with the most amazing (nutella drenched) waffles at this breakfast place. We both ate every last bite – so long wedding diets!

DAY NINE – THIRTEEN: SANTORINI

Our last stop on our itinerary was the island that is definitely the most famous – and most touristy. For good reason! Because it was our last couple of nights, Tim went big on our accommodations and booked a room with our own private infinity pool at West East Suites in Imerovigli. It was located between the two main towns Oia and Thera where you’ll find most of the restaurants and nightlife. I’d now like to have a moment of silence for all the other hotels that I have stayed at and will stay at in the future, as no hotel will ever compare to West East Suites. Thank you, Tim, for ruining my hotel expectations for life and for creating a sunset viewing–wine drinking–infinity pool swimming monster.

Santorini was less about DOING things and more about simply enjoying the view. Although, we DID end up going on what the hotel front desk said was a ‘scenic walk,’ which turned into a pretty challenging 4 mile hike from the hotel to Oia. It was so worth it though! I just would have worn different shoes and called my family to tell them I love them (we both had close calls where we almost went off the side of the mountain HAHA). We also were all set to ride the donkeys while in Oia, but I lost my nerve at the last minute because the poor things looked SO miserable. Also the smell radiating from the trail where they walked up and down was suuuper intense. We decided to walk around and do some shopping instead, and ended up meeting some stray puppies which obviously was another highlight for me! One night I actually met two stray dogs who ended up following me around the entire night! It was amazing but also so heartbreaking when I finally had to jump in an Uber when they weren’t looking to head back to our hotel.

We ate at several different restaurants in Santorini, but two to note were Onar Restaurant and Bar and Senor Zorba. Both were great but 1) I wish we had gone to the restaurant before it was dark because the view was just blackness and 2) I should have brought a sweater (more on that below)! I had the best crepe in my life at a place called Hungry Donkey, and the absolute BEST FETA CHEESE at a lunch spot called Mezzo Cafe. We also stopped at Volkan on the Rocks Cafe and tried their beer that they brew with lava rock filtered mineral water!

After our time in Santorini was up, we caught a flight back to Athens and then flew back to the US the following day. Our once-in-a-lifetime-trip-of-our-lives-honeymoon was OVER FOREVER. Cue the tears.

Now for the fun part. The part of the honeymoon that NO ONE talks about. The real life!

1. Post party depression is a real thing. At least it is for me, and the days immediately following my wedding were really hard. (That sentence sounds so pathetic. But it’s true so – sorry I’m not sorry.)  I could have cried for three days straight if that was at all acceptable. I think I actually did cry for at least one. I remember calling my mom before we left for Greece and I was hysterical. It was over! And I hate when things are over! I wanted to do it all again – I wanted to live the day over and over and over again. I kept thinking back on moments from the day and wondering if I had remembered every detail, if I had enjoyed every single second, if I had soaked up every ounce of this little day that only happens once in a lifetime. It felt like a really bad emotional hangover and the only way to make it better was to talk about the day nonstop until Tim was over it. Then I called my mom and we talked about it nonstop until I realized phone calls might not have been included in my international phone plan. The only thing that really helped, however, was the pictures. Thankfully our photographer was amazing and had our photos edited and ready before our honeymoon was over (still not sure if Tim paid him to speed things along…haha!)

2. Food. Drinks. Food. Drinks. Repeat. After a week of straight eating and drinking, I must say I started to get a bit cranky. Which of course made me feel super guilty because HELLO I’m on my honeymoon in GREECE! But that feeling of guilt was actually part of the problem. I think both Tim and I felt a lot of pressure to LIVE IT UP every single day and night. During the day we wanted to see all the sites and pack as much into the day as possible (well I did anyway because I have vacation ADD) and at night we felt like we should be going all out with dinner and drinks. The only issue was that we started to get really tired–like extreme exhaustion tired. But alas, we forced each other to drink some wine, decided we would sleep when we’re dead and made the best of the time we had left.

3. I’m going to go ahead and say it–I didn’t love the food. GASP. I know. I’m sorry Greece, but besides the hummus, the feta and the fresh tomatoes, I just wasn’t a huge fan. I felt really bad for Tim because each night he would pick these amazing restaurants based specifically on things he knows I like, and yet it seemed like something always wasn’t quite right! All of it was most certainly my own fault, like panic ordering the wrong thing and not bringing a sweater when it was SUPER windy. But lesson learned that full on straight from the sea sea food (like prawns with the head on and nothing else on the plate) is not really for me. I just love a side and a dipping sauce! HAHA.

4. We definitely ran out of things to talk about. After I was done obsessing over the wedding (or at least when I stopped actually talking about it out loud) we found that it was a bit challenging to keep our conversations fresh and vibrant after 10 days of spending every waking minute together. We were also both fairly cut off from the rest of the world which didn’t help provide us with intriguing topics. I feel like everyone envisions honeymoons like one big bachelorette date where you’re telling each other your hopes and dreams and mapping out the rest of your lives together – but we had already done all that! Someone once told me, though, that you know you really love someone when moments of silence aren’t awkward. Well, I’ll just leave it at that!

5. This one is totally random – but take a look at what my legs looked like the morning after the wedding. One thing is for sure, I left it ALL out on the dance floor. I also bruise like a peach. Oh! And I wasn’t lying about the puppies that followed me around in Santorini. Tim actually got upset with me because after a couple glasses of wine I invited them into a restaurant where they laid next to our table until we left. The waiter wasn’t thrilled either…