I wanted to go to Santorini for two reasons. First reason, Pinterest – I kept being sent gorgeous photos of blue-domed churches and white houses, all squashed together in a labyrinth of steps and alleyways on the side of a volcano. It looked unlike anywhere we’d been before, and it wasn’t far from Cyprus. Perfect for a half-term holiday.

The second reason was Atlantis. I’m interested in Atlantis; whether it existed and where. I’ve read lots of theories but I heard the most convincing one on an archaeology course last year. The archaeologist told me he thought that Plato had based mythical Atlantis on Santorini. Santorini is a big volcano, and in approximately 1600BC it had one of the biggest eruptions in history. The eruption was heard thousands of kilometres away, caused tsunamis and created an ash cloud that plunged nearby regions into darkness and plighted crops worldwide for months to come.  When the volcano blew its top, the top collapsed back into the earth’s mantle beneath the sea. The Minoans were an advanced civilization who used to live on Santorini and disappeared after the eruption.  Atlantis supposedly sank into the sea, wiping out the Atlanteans, also an advanced civilization. Could they be the same? Fascinating! I wanted to see the place for myself.

We decided to travel to Santorini by boat from Athens. Goobie likes boats and sailing through the Greek islands would give us a stronger sense of place than flying directly there (which you can do from Cyprus). We boarded our little Seajet at Athens’s port early in the morning and had a chilled-out five-hour journey, stopping at various island ports along the way. We even saw dolphins! The boat was cheap, comfortable and had a café selling snacks and endless cups of tea. Goobie spent the time drawing pictures of Medusa, minotaurs, Erymanthian boars – and boats sinking.

Nearly five hours into the boat trip we caught our first glimpse of Santorini’s huge cliffs and the white houses of Oia clinging to the top. Since the top of the original volcano sank into the sea, Santorini is basically the circular edge of this volcano. On the outer side, the land slopes gently down to the sea. The inner side is the volcano’s caldera which is a sheer cliff face that drops hundreds of feet into the sea. In the middle on Santorini is the inner sea, enclosed on all sides apart from in two places where the edge of the volcano sank into the sea in the distant past, breaking off Thirasia and Aspronisi from the rest of the island. The boat sailed into the inner sea and the edges of the caldera loomed above us. I was so pleased we’d come by boat – it was a very impressive arrival.

The boat took us to the main port where we disembarked without much ado. I looked upwards and saw a tight, zig-zag road leading to the top. My stomach lurched – roads with sheer drops aren’t my favourite things. The port was lined with tour operators and we paid 25 Euros for a mini-bus transfer to our hotel. In retrospect, this was a rip-off when you realise that hiring a car for the day is only 35 Euros (which you can also do at the port). We were packed into the bus with other tourists and spent the next 45 minutes being driven all over the island dropping everyone off. There were a few grumbles about this, but it was a great way to get a quick introduction to the island.

Our hotel, the Iriana Apartments, was in Fira, right on the edge of the caldera. We figured that since we couldn’t go out late every night with Goobie, we’d at least book a hotel with a good view so we could chill-out on the balcony and soak it all up. As the hotel is on a steep slope, it is built on a number of levels. At the top, just off the main street is the entrance to Iriana Café. We hauled our luggage through the café then downstairs to our room on the next level. And honestly, those stairs looked like they led straight to the inner sea hundreds of feet below!  The white of the steps and the blue of the sea – it was like being in a postcard. Surreal and amazing.

Our room was nice and a comfortable size. But the pièce de résistance was the view from the balcony. It was, quite literally, sensational. It was everything I’d dreamed of. You could see the whole of the inner sea with Santorini encircling it. And right in front of us was Nea Kameni, the small – active – volcano that sits in the inner sea. Far below, enormous cruise ships were dwarfed by caldera. To our left and right, traditional-looking hotels, bars and churches clung to the edge of the caldera, the many alleyways and steps so tangled that it was hard to know where one began and the other ended.

There are lots of hotels on the caldera that offer these amazing views. I can’t recommend the Iriana Apartments though, because, while the place was lovely, the room was noisy in the evenings (being just under the café) and the hotel manager messed us about. See my Trip Advisor review for details.

We didn’t waste any time before heading out to explore Fira. Fira is the main town in Santorini and I loved it. It is a warren of tourist shops, bars and restaurants. A bit further out from the main shopping area are pharmacies, little supermarkets and tour operators where you can book boat trips etc. Goobie wanted to try one of the fish spas. Exquisite torture for the ticklish, but the key is to relax and not think about it. Goobie thought it was hilarious.

We realised a number of things quite quickly about Santorini:

• Santorini is pretty up-market. It has some gorgeous shops selling white and blue cotton clothes and various arty things. There are some swish restaurants and hotels too.

• Santorini is expensive – because it’s upmarket and because things have to be imported (I guess). A main course at a mid-range restaurant costs upwards of 18 Euros. The restaurants on the caldera edge with the views are even pricier. To give you an idea, a glass of coke in the Iriana Café cost 4 Euros, cocktails 10+ Euros. That’s not a reason not to go, just save beforehand.

• There are very few children on Santorini. It actually took us a few days to notice this. Perhaps it was due to the time of the year – schools in other countries don’t necessarily have holidays the same time as in the UK. However, we didn’t come across loads of things to do that were tailored for children. In Fira and Oia at any rate – perhaps there’s more elsewhere. Goobie was happy doing what we did and being entertained by us, but I suspect if we had more than one child, particularly if they were a bit older, they may have got fed up after a while.

• Santorini is PERFECT for couples. So romantic and there aren’t many kids about.

Matt and I arrived in Santorini feeling exhausted and strung-out after a busy few months. We were determined to balance out exploring and resting, and so our week in Santorini fell into a nice pattern. We had chilled-out mornings, eating breakfast slowly in the Iriana Café while admiring the view, playing with Goobie and drinking countless cups of tea. We’d head out for lunch and exploring late morning and return to the hotel after dinner early evening.

Matt can’t quite believe this, but my favourite activity on Santorini was the donkey-riding. Goobie’s was going on the cable car. There is an old harbour at the bottom of the cliffs under Fira – this is where many of the boat trips depart from. You can get down there (and up!) in three ways: walk the 500+ steps, ride a donkey or take the cable car. We got the cable car down and Goobie and I rode a donkey up. Actually, they are mules and I found them a comfortable ride. They are handsome things, much bigger than a donkey but with massive donkey ears.  There wasn’t a huge amount of shade and I didn’t like how they stood in the sun without obvious signs of water. Plus, I didn’t like the look of their rope girths which I thought could rub if an unbalanced rider got on them. Apparently an international charity is monitoring their welfare and making recommendations to the municipality. I’ve heard things have improved and the ones I saw looked healthy, otherwise I wouldn’t have ridden them. Donkeys have been walking the steps up and down to the harbour for decades, to the point that the cable car gives some of its profits to the guys with the donkeys to help this tradition continue. Somewhere along the route a person with a camera takes your photo, which you can buy for 5 Euros.

We went up and down by cable car a few times too. The cable car doesn’t feel half as fast as it looks and it’s a fabulous experience going down the side of the cliff. Goobie loved it.

One afternoon, we went on a boat trip to Nea Kameni (meaning ‘Newly Burnt’), the active volcano in the middle of the inner sea.  The boat looked a bit like a pirate ship, which thrilled Goobie. We were packed in with loads of other tourists, which I didn’t enjoy so much, though an Ouzo from the on-board bar was my chill-pill. It only takes 10 minutes to get to the volcano and we had an hour there to climb to the peak and back. It was hard-going for Goobie to keep up a good pace, so Matt carried him on his shoulders part of the way. The landscape on the volcano is surreal – massive boulders of black solidified lava. When you reach the peak, there are a number of craters but you can tell which one is active by the smell of sulphur and the white gases rising from it. It last erupted in the 1950s.

From the volcano, our boat took us to the small islet next door, called Palea Kameni. Palea and Nea Kameni are the peaks of the underwater volcano – and another sign that the volcano is active is the hot springs around both islets. Our boat anchored just off the coast of Palea Kameni for people to swim a short distance to a hot spring. Goobie got in the sea but found it too cold, so I stayed with him on the boat while Matt swam to the springs. We were only there for 30 minutes, so not enough time for us both to go separately.

On one afternoon, we visited the village of Oia at the northern end of the island. A convenient bus service runs half-hourly between Fira and Oia and it only takes about 20 minutes, tops. Oia – oh my! The whole place had an air of unreality to it. It was stunning, very up-market and more polished than Fira. The hotels and apartments on the edge of the caldera looked amazing. I can imagine this would be a great place to come on a honeymoon.  It was too quaint to feel like a resort, but equally it didn’t feel like a real village either, despite the signs that it is (school, church etc).  I’ve never been anywhere like it and quickly realised that it was photos of Oia, not Fira, that I’d seen all over Pinterest. Still, I was happy in Fira, there seemed to be more going on there.

On Pinterest I’d seen photos of the gorgeous Atlantis bookshop, which I’d been keen to visit. It was even more gorgeous in real life! A cosy book-cave with walls covered in literary quotes and a sofa in the far room. Goobie got stuck into an illustrated book called ‘The Misunderstood Monsters of Greek Mythology.’ He’d been obsessed with Greek myths since our visit to Athens. I was insanely excited to find a book I’d published stocked there.  I bought a copy of Lawrence Durrell’s The Greek Islands – mainly because I loved Bitter Lemons of Cyprus, but partly because it had a photo of Santorini on the front cover and it felt appropriate.

Our final excursion was the one I’d most wanted to see – Ancient Akrotiri, a Minoan town that was destroyed by the volcanic eruption in 1600BC. Because of the Atlantis speculation, I was interested to look around this unearthed town. We hired a car to get there for only 35 Euros. Akrotiri is preserved in a massive building with walkways that take you round and through the ruins. Some of the buildings have more than one storey and some amazing frescos were found in them which have been taken away for preservation. Other artefacts, such as pottery, are now in the Museum of Prehistoric Thera in Fira.  No human remains were found in Akrotiri, suggesting that the people had been evacuated, possibly to Crete.

After Ancient Akrotiri, we drove a short way round the coast and stopped to visit Red Beach. Getting to Red Beach involves a 10-minute walk along a condemned path (due to landslides), but we took our chances. We rounded a corner and were surprised to see that it was actually red! It was extremely striking, formed from black and red volcanic rock. Goobie loved building a sandcastle out of black and red sand. Apparently, there’s White Beach and Black Beach further along the coast, but it was too late in the day to visit them.

In the evenings we tried out various restaurants, some more expensive ones on the caldera edge, some cheaper ones further inland and some in-between ones on rooftops. Our favourite was Fanari – it was reasonably priced for a caldera-edge restaurant, the staff were friendly and the food was nice. We watched a couple of sunsets from that restaurant.

Of course, the main attraction in Santorini is its incredible sunsets. We let Goobie stay up to watch a few and we watched the rest from our balcony. Everyone stops for the sunsets. You can see people crowded round good viewpoints. Far below, a flotilla of boats head out to Oia every night for the very best view. When the sun goes down and it gets dark, Santorini lights up in a different way. Hundreds of twinkling lights from bars and hotels, the hum of people enjoying their night out. Also an amazing sight, albeit in a different way.

We loved our stay in Santorini. It felt unreal, dreamlike. Totally magical.