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A Few Hours in London : South Kensington + Hyde Park

July 7, 2016

On our way back from Europe, we originally had booked to fly direct from Athens to the US, but when American Air called me a few weeks prior to our trip to tell me that that flight have been totally removed from their routes, we had to rebook through London and add a night to our trip. All in all, we didn’t mind too much as we love London and we know the city well, so it’s easy for us to stop over there.

London is one of those cities that I love stopping through, it has amazing energy, gorgeous architecture, amazing food and lovely people. This particular stop through saw us arriving around 1pm and leaving the next morning around 10am so we booked our favorite hotel for the night, The Ampersand, in South Kensington and spent the afternoon and the following morning wandering some of our favorite areas which included South Kensington and Chelsea and Hyde Park.

As luck would have it, I also ran into Selena from Oh, the Places We Will Go totally randomly at a pub that night and enjoyed meeting and getting to know her and her husband. So all in all, it was a wonderful few hours in London before heading home from Europe!

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A Hotel Review of the Sophia Suites in Santorini

July 4, 2016

Sophia Suites – Santorini, Greece

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When we knew Santorini would be the last stop of our trip, I looked at a bunch of different hotel options. When I came across the brand new Sophia Suites in Santorini with a Moroccan-style design, I reached out to them to see about hosting us for our stay. They accepted and finally, we arrived at this Santorini hotel with views out over the typical white washed buildings and caldera views!

LOVE

Views- The views in Santorini truly are incredible and our hotel didn’t disappoint for this. Our balcony overlooked the cliffside with views out over the caldera and all of the island.

Comfortable Bed – We slept well for our 2 nights in Santorini!

Decor – This was one thing that drew me to the hotel in the first place and the decor was a mix of modern Greek and a Middle-Eastern/Moroccan type vibe. In truth, our room didn’t have as much of this decor as other rooms that I’d seen photos of on the website, but nonetheless, I enjoyed the decor.

Breakfasts with a View – Each morning at the hotel, you get to choose from a menu of local favorites for breakfast. We chose to enjoy ours on our balcony and the food was delicious.

Location – When I was researching where to stay on Santorini, a lot of people recommend Imerovigli instead of Fira or Oia. And while I could see how it would be maybe more convenient for restaurants in the other cities, we did enjoy the quiet local feel of Imerovigli.

DIDN’T LOVE

Shower – I think this was just our room, but still this was something that really bothered us. Our shower was literally in the middle of the bedroom of our room and had no curtain or anything. When we showered, we didn’t have privacy and on top of that, water got everywhere and was just really annoying. And the super simple solution would be for them to hang a curtain and it would have been fine, but the way it was just odd.

Toilet/Bathroom – On top of the toilet paper issue that I spoke about yesterday, our toilet in the room was in a tiny little cave with a cracked wooden door to semi-close it. It again offered no privacy and was directly in the bedroom which seemed strange. It also was really dark.

Noisy Hot Tub that wasn’t hot – Our room had a balcony with what they called a “hot tub.” However, it was stone cold the whole time we were there. It also was super loud and noisy, which one night sounded so loud we thought it was thunder outside.

TIPS

Have the hotel arrange to pick you up from the airport – We did this before hand and it was so much easier to have someone there waiting for you upon your arrival.

When taking taxis, have them drop you at Blue note restaurant – The first day, we told our taxi the hotel and he dropped us in the completely wrong place. Tell them to drop you at Blue Note Restaurant, which is right next to the hotel and everyone knows that spot.

Land of Marvels was welcomed to the Sophia Suites as a guest, though all opinions are my own for this review.

Traveling to Greece?

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Exploring Fira : Caldera Views + Stone Pathways

July 1, 2016

We arrived in Santorini mid-day, grabbed our ride to the hotel, and settled in. And the view from our hotel was wonderful, but we wanted to get out and see more of this famous little island, so we set out to walk the 20 minutes to Fira for lunch and for some classic Santorini views. We set out along the main road (which has no sidewalks by the way) and wandered in the general direction of Fira. Finally we came across a pathway from the road into the town and wandered along stone pathways with views out over the ocean. Eventually we came across a little cafe situated with a view overlooking the water and ducked in for some Greek food, all while looking out over the white washed buildings and enjoying the scenic views.

After lunch we sauntered down the sidewalk along the Caldera, stopping for photos and to browse little shops. Finally, we made our way back up to the main road, jumped in a cab and headed back to our hotel for our first Santorini sunset.

Everything You Need to Know Before going to Santorini

June 30, 2016

Our trip to Europe in April was a whirlwind, visiting 4 different countries and when we booked it, I really wanted a destination at the end of the trip that we could just relax a bit. Santorini has always been lingering on our travel list and so we figured it would be the perfect stop over for a bit of relaxation at the end of our travels.

In truth, it ended up being our least favorite spot on the trip, for a number of reasons. Overall, I felt it wasn’t very genuine, in that I didn’t really feel like if tourists didn’t come to the island, it wouldn’t really look like it does. I was also a little blown away by how just a few feet away from the tourist areas, the island is literally falling apart and overrun by garbage. Maybe this was just our experience and maybe just how we explored the island, but it’s not a spot I think I would return to in the future. In an effort to be completely transparent and honest here on Land of Marvels, I think it’s important to be open about our experiences while traveling. And while I’m not sure we’d return, this famous island is still pretty incredible to see in person as it’s known world-wide. If you’ve always wanted to visit this famous Greek Isle, here is everything you need to know before going to Santorini!

There are basically 3 main towns: Fira, Oia and Imerovigli.

When you look at Santorini, there are basically 3 main towns around the crescent shaped caldera of the island. The town of Fira is the capital of the island and a busy tourist hub. Oia (pronounced “ee-ya”) is the town that you always see the typical Santorini photos of. Oia is where the famous windmills are and the hillsides that you always see photos of. Imerovigli is a small, more local town, situated between the two others. There are definitely other sections of the island, but for tourists, these are the 3 main towns you’ll probably frequent the most.

It’s kind of a pain to get around the island.

We stayed in Imerovigli, which is located about 20 minute walk from Fira and about a 25 minute drive from Oia. One of the things that I didn’t like about Santorini was how hard it was to get around if you don’t want to rent a car. To walk, there are no sidewalks in many areas along the main roads. To get a taxi, it’s not an easy task. In Oia, we spent an hour wandering around trying to find the taxi stand which was not easy to find. Then when we finally found it, we had to call (thank goodness we had added cell service for our phones while traveling) for a taxi to come get us, which then took another 20+ minutes. I felt like for a destination with so many tourists, they don’t make it very easy to get around the island.

Now if you’re going and just staying at your hotel, then I guess it wouldn’t matter. But we wanted to explore a little and it wasn’t very easy without having to rent a car.

Don’t flush toilet paper.

One of the things that I found strange on Santorini, at least in Imerovigli, was that you can’t flush toilet paper. Now I get that the island is old but for some place that caters to millions of tourists each year, there are plenty of other old places in the world that have been able to upgrade their sewer systems to modern standards. Regardless it’s something to be aware of.

I’m not sure if all hotels are like this or if some of them have their own systems, but this was pretty standard in public areas and our hotel.

It’s a resort island and hence, everything is overpriced.

Greece has had a rough go of it lately with financial situations and so I was expecting everything to be cheaper than other spots in Europe. Not the case at all! Santorini is definitely charging prices for tourists since it’s a resort island. Food was not cheap, nor were souvenirs or anything else.

Expect to walk a lot.

Whether it’s long stretches of walking with caldera views or going up and down the stairs to your hotel, you’ll walk a ton on Santorini. Bring comfortable shoes and strong legs to get up and down those cliffsides!

Traveling to Greece?

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Vienna’s Old Town : Architecture + Cobblestones

June 27, 2016

Due to our flight schedule, we only had a half day in Vienna, which turned out to be not nearly enough. I’ve already posted about how much I loved this city and how hard I fell for it, but long story short, I loved it so much I would move there. The city is gorgeous, the people friendly, the food amazing. We spent our afternoon eating, wandering and taking it all in, from the architecture and cobblestone streets to the pedestrian only Old Town. It’s safe to say this won’t be our last visit to this amazing city and our afternoon there was one of my favorites of our entire trip!

Where to Stay in Vienna