2-Night Independent Santorini Experience from Athens

We were first greeted by a man with our names on a sign for the ride the port. We was very kind, gave us our boat tickets and let us know what time we needed to be at the port the following two days. He was 5 stars. The boat ride was long 8hrs but that was expected. Arriving in Santorini, our taxi ride was not there. We called the Keytours company and they said they didn't know what keytours was. I called another number listed on our voucher, where they told us our driver was there with a sign. The port had cleared out at that time with no in sight of a sign with our names. We didn't have the hotel listed on the voucher so we wouldn't have been able to figure out the ride on our own. We called again giving our name and a man drove up to us with a different person's name saying we were suppose to go with him. Finally after a total of 45mins keytours coordinated a ride with a taxi, but didn't tell them where our hotel was. We called again...and gave the phone to the taxi driver where they dropped us off at the hotel. The hotel we stayed at was wonderful right on the beach, with the hotel staff was wonderful. No one contacted us to coordinate our return taxi to the port and we tried to coordinate with the hotel staff. The hotel staff was very kind in calling and coordinating for us but the taxi did not come to the hotel at the time and place as they had said. After waiting 30mins worried of no arrival we called the company that said they were waiting down the street. No number or description of the car was given but to go to a the centralized place that they had asked for. As we walked up no one was waiting for us. I called twice where I finally got an answer and 10mins later our van came as promised. I was under the impression our return tickets would be in the morning of the last day but didn't depart until 1530 where we didn't arrive on the mainland until 2300 missing our dinner reservations. The taxi man we had prior to leaving Athens was the same man with the sign with our names and promptly dropped us off at our hotel. I am floored at the disorganization of this company once we landed in Santorini. I was clear they had never coordinated a ride for us, and were trying to stall us while they found someone to come get us. You could tell they calling around for hotels the day of to where we would be staying. The hotel staff didn't know we were going to be a guest until 30mins prior. For the price we paid, I would hope we paid the extra to not have to worry about the logistics in a country we haven't visited in yet and was very disappointed and will never book with keytours again. I was very pleased by the taxi driver in Athens and the hotel staff with the hotel right on the beach though. If my friend and I were not proactive and had international phone plans...we would have been stranded without a doubt.

The island is awesome. But the services weren't so good. And the accommodation is way too far from the touristic parts of the island. However, if you just want to go to the beaches and relax, this is the tour for you.

Would be helpful to have advance info/email re: pickup, times etc. Disorganized. Would be nice to have an option of getting into a faster mode of transport superferries, plane, etc not an 8-hour ferry. Then we took a trip via Kamari Tours explore Nea Kameni, Thirasia- not recommended if you have other options to explore the area on your own. Wished our hotel was in Fira or Oia. The hotel we stayed at in Kamari was beautiful but quite far from Fira or Oia.

The island is absolutely magical. Ferry ride is long, but to be expected. Finding bussing after the ferry ride is a bit of a mad house and could use a little work in the organizational department. Had a bad experience with getting pushed around, ignored, and luggage kicked by random people due to the poor organization. Otherwise, the trip was amazing!

Directions to hotel on date of arrival and to pick up spot on date of departure were limited. Pick up at port was also confusing. Appreciate that pick-up letter was available at the hotel reception on date of departure, but advance email details regarding these specifics would have been helpful.