This is post fifteen of sixteen of our summer trip to Greece. Check out our other posts in the series here:

• Greece Lightning: Heading to Greece
• Acropolis for Breakfast: Staying at the Hilton Athens
• Starting at the Top: The Acropolis
• Oompa! Eating Athens
• Taking it Indoors: Athen’s Museums
• Athen’s Other Sites
• Room with a View: Staying in Santorini
• Santorini’s Spectacular Sights: Part 1
• Santorini’s Spectacular Sights: Part 2
• Looking for Santorini’s Best Eats
• It’s All Greek to Me: Heading to Naxos
• There’s a Meat Town in Naxos!
• Shots! Shots! ShotsShotsShots! Heading to Mykonos
• A Delightful Day Trip to Delos
• The Trashy Side of the Greek Islands
• Bling Bling y’all! Upgraded at the Hyatt Regency Montreal

Visiting the Greek Islands was a dream for Mrs. Selfish and I, and they certainly are beautiful. This is not to say that the trip was perfect, however. Our trips frequently aren’t, and we tend to gloss over some of the crappier parts of traveling: food poisoning, scams, mediocre foods, gross hotels, etc.

I have often found, however, that our experiences are tinged by our expectations and for better or worse my expectations usually match the pictures I see online: a solitary monk visiting Angkor Wat in the morning omitting the tourist hordes just off camera, the perfectly framed cafe in Paris minus the next door McDonald’s, the Great Wall of China at sunset with the silhouetted screaming hawkers pushing their wares.

Stunning… so what’s the catch?

So here, in no particular order, are the many downsides of visiting Santorini and Mykonos. Hopefully they help you make your own informed decisions when traveling to these high profile hot spots.

The crappier side of Donkeys

Donkeys are everywhere in Santorini. Thanks to Oia’s narrow streets, it’s nearly impossible for a car to maneuver, so donkeys are used to haul trash and tourists around.

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