Santorini Private Wine Tour

Started with tour guide calling us 40 min. in advance to let know that one of vineries is closed. Since we had to leave next day we couldn't rebook it for another day. So he promised to organize another one. So he did and with 30 min. delay we started our tour. Instead of 3 we got to visit 2. First one - Hatzidakis Winery was nice - private guide, really nice wines. A bit of bread and cheese to accompany the tasting. The second - not even listed in this tour "Koutsoyannopoulos Wine Museum". The only nice thing there was a museum - which we walked through with audio guides. After that we got to taste 4 poor wines in crowded shop and only dry bread to accompany those. Really a dissapointment.

So at the outset I should say I was part of a group of 9 taking part in this private tour. The day started badly with trying to get through the crowds and heat of Fira for a 30 minute walk to our pickup point. Now I understand that hotel pickup in Santorini, doesn’t mean at your front door. I understand that now. But just for the unaware, these vehicles cannot get to your front door and the pickup point can be quite a considerable distance from it. Our driver had sent us a photo of the building at the pickup point so we would know what we were looking for. All good. So we finally got there and we were very hot and rather exhausted. We went inside to enquire about our driver and were told very rudely that it was nothing to do with them. Oh okay sorry. Back outside and we were trying to contact our driver in the shade of their building. We were yelled at again for being too noisy (trying to call the driver to see where he was). We contacted the driver and he said we were in the right place and to wait for him. At this point the person from inside the building (Sunbird Travel Agency, from memory) came out and yelled at us again to get off her stairs, out of her shade as this was her footpath and not a pickup point. Fortunately at this point, our driver arrived and we jumped in his vehicle. But then the same angry woman shouted at our driver too as he was trying to drive away, yelling at him how he knew he wasn’t supposed to use this as a meeting area. Wow. Great start. Inside the safety of the vehicle, we then asked for some water (we were dying by this stage) only to be told that we could get some when we got to the winery (bottled water was supposed to be onboard the vehicle). Anyway, the driver was nice and we went to the Hatsidakis Winery which was wonderful and had a private tour there with a staff member who couldn’t do enough for us. She was lovely and very keen to answer questions. Things were looking up :) We then had a mixup as our group also thought we had paid for a trip to Akrotiri as well, but the driver assured us we hadn’t (Note for the unaware: Please read all fine print VERY carefully, and ask a million questions to make sure you are actually getting what you think you are paying for). Never mind, on to the next winery, Venetsanos. It was such a shame that we were herded through here like cattle as the winery itself and the history is incredible. So much for a private tour. I also heard another person from another group who had been bundled

Sun Bird made our stay on Santorini absolutely perfect. From guided tours to rides to and from the beach and dinner. Every recommendation was outstanding. They made our vacation fun and carefree.