Stories of a Vagabond: Rethimnon

May May 22, 2010
19:45
Plakias & Rethimnon, Crete, Greece

Today was a somewhat adventurous day. And by that, I mean we actually went to a different city here on Crete! Over the last week or so Jessica and I have been deciding what the best way to see Santorini is. There are several ferries that go there, there’s a “fast boat” and a “slow boat”, along with various day tours. The “slow boat” takes about four and a half hours, the “fast boat” takes less than two hours, and, of course, the day trips are essentially day cruises (some included meals) that leave early in the morning and get back in the evening. As you can imagine, the slow and fast boats differ greatly in price. They also differ how frequently they travel. The day cruises were also generally more expensive, and sometimes included meals and/or exclusions, depending on the company.

The problem was mostly that there’s limited information to be gathered online. Add to that the fact that Plakias is a very small town and there are no travel agents here that deal at all with Santorini trips. From the best I could gather online, the slow boat only takes two trips a week to and from Santorini. They were, however, by far the cheapest. 16.30 Euros to Santorini and 13 Euros back (I think you only got the return for 13 if you bought both tickets at the same time. Otherwise I think it’s 16.30 Euros back too if you buy them one at a time). I had trouble finding information about the fast boat that supposedly left every day, but from what I could tell online it was somewhat near 45-50 Euros each way. As for the day cruises, I was only able to find one online and it was 122 Euros for the whole trip, it included two meals, but did not include any excisions once you got to the island.

I, of course, being the cheap-ass that I am, figured we weren’t going to do better than the slow ferry for price, but the trade off was, of course, time. I wanted to spend several days there (which would’ve been required if we took the slow ferry) because I had heard the town of Oia on Santorini has famously amazing sunsets. And me being a huge sunset fan, I really wanted to see (and take pictures of) it. Jessica wasn’t hugely interested in seeing Santorini, so she was pushing more toward a day trip. She had heard from someone at the hostel that you could find day trips for as cheap as 40 Euros. None of my online checking supported that, but Jessica figured it’d be best if we found out for sure.

So we decided to get up semi-early in the morning and head to a bigger city (and one of the major port cities) on the other side of the island, Rethimnon. As fortune would prick us, one of our bunk mates in our hostel room had rented a car that he had to return today at Heraklion, and, Rethimnon being on the way to Heraklion, he was willing to give us a ride. The bus would’ve cost us 4.10 Euros each, so we figured we’d throw him a couple Euros each for petrol (him being an Aussie, I figured I’d use the terminology he’s familiar with—to be honest, the way we Americans call it “gas” is probably the least descriptive—not to mention just plain wrong—word for it. I mean, it’s made from petroleum, and it’s a liquid, not a gas. But that’s a blog entry for another time…). It’d save us a couple Euros each, and he’d get a couple extra Euros for fuel (that word I’m okay with…). He did have to be at the rental car company by a specified time, however, so that meant we had to leave at 8 in the morning. That’s not so bad, but I’ve become lazy here in Plakias and have gotten rather used to sleeping in.

It all worked out, though. We all hopped in the car and went to Rethimnon. We all ate a quick breakfast/lunch (the Aussie included), before Robert (That’s the Aussie’s name) headed off to Heraklion and we went on to try to find a travel agency.

Well, we succeeded at finding a travel agency, but the news was not good. As I had found online, the slow boat was the best and cheapest bet. The day trips ran from 90 Euros to 150 Euros (more if you wanted them to take you on an excursion once you got there), and the fast boat was 40-50 Euros each way depending on the day. As I found online, the slow boat was only 16.30 each way (13 on the way back if you book in advance). There were no deals on day trips for 40 Euros (at least not that we could find).

But the trip wasn’t a complete bust. Jessica’s shoes have been hurting her so we got to spend the day shoe shopping. She never found anything she liked for a price she liked, but at least she got a chance to look and see what was out there. Maybe on the way back out she’ll stop again and get something that doesn’t hurt her feet.

Plus, while we were waiting for the bus back to Plakias (had a couple hour wait), we saw there was some kind of ancient castle thingy (I know, descriptive, right?) that we went and took a look at.