Hotels

1Euro=$1.36

I put the prices in Euro and dollars, sometimes the rate is not what I have here, but by the time they billed our card, that was the rate at the time.  Taxes are included in my prices, even though some places required we pay the taxes in cash.  Two hotels required cash as they didn't have a card machine.

All hotels had free wifi but one.  There we had to pay a total of 8E ($11)

All had a hairdryer, which was nice for me to not have to have taken mine.  Electricity had to have an adapter, which we bought before we left, but then I forgot it at one place and we had to get a new one.  Which actually, our hotel owner went and picked one up for us while we were at his place. Italy and Greece both used the same adapter.

All were clean, but small bathrooms according to US standards with zero space to put your things by the sink.  Some had small shelves.  One hotel had a US design that actually had a counter.  All had tiny showers, and a couple didn't even have a shower curtain, there was a drain in the bathroom floor. But we were not traveling in the US, so these kinds of things don't bother us. We saw in online reviews that beds in Greece were hard, but we thought they were just fine.    

Sometimes when we travel, John and I don't book our hotels ahead of time.  We arrive and look around and find something.  Sometimes that has worked out and other times, we have stayed the night at our first place and as soon as we wake up, John heads out and finds another place while I am getting ready.  So for the first part of our trip, we didn't really know which town along the Cinque Terre we wanted to stay.  We planned on hiking around and didn't know how much time we wanted to spend in just one town.  So no hotels were booked.  That was until a couple of nights before we left, I started thinking about it.  I knew from experience that John does not do well sleeping on planes, I knew it was a long flight and it would be 1am to us by the time we landed...add on the train ride down, by then it would be getting evening...I knew John would be toast and I would not want to deal with it.  So I went ahead and searched the internet for a place for that night at our first destination.  It was a good choice.  It is the yellow building right by the church tower.

It was right on the port front.  We didn't get a view room, but we were not in our room long enough to notice.  We decided to stay there two nights. 

 Rapallo-Hotel Miro

 100E ($131) a night.  

So the next destination was the Cinque Terre.  

We picked Vernazza.  My hairstylist/friend, Christie had told me about when she had been there about 25 years ago, they had arrived with no reservations.  They parked their car up top because cars are not allowed in the towns.  They stopped at the first restaurant and asked the owner John Lucca if he knew of anyplace to stay.  He set them up with a woman name Mrs. Bertalucci.  I put those notes in my phone just in case.  Well, we arrived in town on the ferry from the opposite side as my friend Christie.  We rolled our bags up and I stood there...no hotel signs like the US.  Hmmm....how do we find a place?  I had John stay on a bench with the bags and I went hunting.  I saw room to rent signs...but they were on locked doors with only a phone number listed.  At the moment, my phone was not working internationally.  So I walked on up the main street.  I came to a parking lot and there was a restaurant.  I thought "could this be the same place Christie was at?"  I went in and asked for John Lucca, feeling a little embarrassed.  To my amazement, the woman yelled out the door for him!  He popped out of a laundromat  I told him that Christie had sent me.  He remembered her!  I asked him if he knew if Mrs. Beralucci still was renting rooms.  He called her right there on his cell phone.  She was booked.  But he walked back into the laundromat and came out with a woman named Anna.  She said she had a room and took me to see it.   I thought it was cute and so we had a room for three nights.  Just like that...I was amazed. It is the third floor with the white curtains of the yellow building.  We had view of the main street.  The first night I thought I would regret it because we were just a few buildings from the train station...but after the first night we didn't even hear them!

80E-$108

Pisa

From there we went to Pisa for one night.  I had it booked because I knew it was a big tourist attraction and since we only had one night, I wanted to be close to the tower and not waste time getting to it.  We were only one block from the tower. No view. It was a cute room too and to our surprise the shower head and sink faucet had a little neon light that flashed and changed color when the water ran.  I have no idea why.  It made us laugh.

Window to the Tower

85E=$110

Rome

I booked our place in Rome so that we could walk to most of the sights.  It was only 3 blocks from the train station.  It was a nice room and included breakfast.  It had a separate tiny kitchen if we had wanted to cook we could have, but we were not there long enough for anything like that.  There was another private room for eating breakfast. When we got up a variety of croissants were on a plate and the table was set for us.  Hard boiled eggs, cold cereals, cookies, toast and bread was all there.  The fridge had milk and orange juice and there was coffee and tea. We stayed one night, but had two full days to see Rome.

Rhome86

98E=$126

Athens.  

John did a ton of research months ahead of time and picked out most of the hotels in Greece.  This place was next to the tourist area called the Plakka.  It is full of restaurants, all outdoors, gift shops and galleries.  Also, an easy hike up to the Acropolis/Parthenon.  There was an awesome view of the Acropolis from our rooftop.  Breakfast was included and it was a huge choice of foods.We stayed 3 nights.

89E=$115

  Olympia.  

Our favorite little town and hotel on the mainland.So quiet after all the bustle of the touristy cities we had been in.  I expected as many tourists, but it was deserted.  I loved it.  The hotel was the most US styled of all the places we stayed in.  I actually had a counter for my things!  When we checked in the owners son showed us a map of the town.  He circled everything and as he circled one place, he said, "if you want to swim, go here, my uncle owns it."  We laughed, thinking it was a joke, but it was not.  We actually spent a whole afternoon there alone in his uncle's hotel's pool, which was a Best Western, finishing off that day with dinner there overlooking the town.  We loved this place, family run and so friendly. One block from the bus stop.  We stayed two nights.

Hotel Pelops

40E=$51

Kalambaka or Meteores

Such a cozy little town. Reminded me of the little mountain towns on Mt. Hood. I made sure when I booked this room to ask for a room with a view.  Turns our every hotel had rooms with a view.  The top picture was the view from our room.  We had a corner room with our own little deck.  The middle photo shows our hotel (first one) looking down from our hike up to the monasteries.  It was family run and we loved it there.  Breakfast was included and was my first Greek yogurt with honey.  So good!  We stayed 2 nights.

48E=$65

Skopelos

We got off the ferry and could see our hotel from the port.  It was a nice place and all rooms had a view of the port.  We got the third floor.  It had a pool. The pool had a place to order drinks and lunch food, but not dinner. A huge buffet breakfast was included.  A close walk to the shops and restaurants.  

Aeolos Hotel

$95 a night

We booked through Hotels.com and this one was paid in advance so we never saw the Euro price.

We had to spend a night back in Athens at the Pireaus port before our morning ferry.  No photos, but our hotel was nice and had a restaurant for our dinner.  

Hotel Triton

51E=$69

Sifnos

Our favorite island and we loved this hotel.  There are only 5 rooms.  Our room was right on the front and the beach and water was only a few steps from our door!  When we arrived a woman came out and hugged me, giving me the kiss kiss on each cheek and a two hand handshake for John.  She was talking in Greek as fast as she could, as if we could understand her.  She took my bag and pulled it around to the room.  She then showed us every part of the room and took us next door to the restaurant where her son the owner was.  She was so sweet!  That night she brought us a bowl of Greek cookies that were so good.  Before we left, she brought me a handmade pottery bowl that her sister next door made in her pottery shop.  Such a nice place!   I was a little leery at first when I saw that there was only a sheet for cover.  I like a lot of blankets, but it ends up that it was all that was needed.  I included a photo of the bathroom on this one.  All of the bathrooms looked similar to this, except this was the one that didn't have a curtain on the shower, it reminded me of how the bathrooms are on cruise ships.   This place said online that it took charge, but when we arrived we found out that his machine was out of order and we had to pay in cash.  He warned us that if we needed to get cash, there was only 1 ATM on the island and it was in the main town back down the road. We stayed here 3 nights, but had 4 full days. We ate all our meals in the restaurant.  Breakfast was included.  Cappuccino, bread and jam and orange juice, each morning on the patio by the water. Our favorite place of all and the cheapest!

Pension Flora

40E=$55

Santorini

The island that started the whole trip.  I had seen photos from here that I wanted to take for myself. Prices on this island were the highest.  It is a top destination for most people when they go to Greece for the first time.  It is also a stop for the cruise ships.  We decided to stay in the middle of the island because the cost of the rooms in Oia were so high.  I liked the clean white airy room.  It had kind of a view from both windows, one you could see the ocean side of the island over the rooftops and the other if you leaned out, you could see the caldera.  The main patio had chairs and loungers and a hot tub with a gorgeous view of the caldera.  It was close to the bus stop so we could get to Oia for the sunset photos and an easy walk on the pedestrian trail to Fira and Firostefani, two other popular towns.  The first night was not so good with the bed.  It was sweaty and hard to turn over.  The next morning, John took a close look and realized that it was a plastic lined mattress cover causing the problem, so he took it off and we slept great after that.  Breakfast was included and was served on the patio, except two days it was really windy, so they brought it to our room.  We had a little chart to fill in for what we wanted each morning.  One of the boxes was bacon.  John asked for it but didn't get it.  They didn't say anything.  The next day was the same. and each day after.  He never asked why no bacon, they never offered a reason.  But there was plenty else he had anyway.  It was just kind of funny.  We stayed 5 nights.

Casa Florina

119E=$161

 but by the time it was billed the exchange rate changed so we only paid $150 a night. 

our room was the top floor blue door by the stairs.  Breakfast was served on that patio by the blue door.  This was the view of the caldera from the main deck.

We had one last hotel when we arrived back to Milan for our return flight to Portland.  It was a good place with a restaurant.  Since we were only there because we had a flight the next morning, it was a great deal, breakfast included and also a free shuttle from the airport where we had just flown in from Athens and a free shuttle back the next morning for our flight.  

Hotel Sempione/Hotel Ristorante

50E=$67