Long before Angela Kariuki boarded a flight to Greece, she had seen the pictures, pinned them to her vision board, and imagined posing against Santorini’s blue-and-white backdrop. What she didn’t imagine, however, was arriving without her luggage.
‘My partner and I left for Greece on the 23rd of August,’ says the 41-year-old mother of two.
‘Normally, I never check in all my bags because I once went on a trip to Europe where the luggage was left behind and we never got it back until after the trip was over, but somehow, my partner convinced me to check everything in for this trip. So when we landed, we had no bags.’
The mishap turned their arrival into a scramble. Angela temporarily lost her cool. The taxi that was meant to pick them up left because filling out the paperwork needed to recover their luggage took too long. And then when they finally went out to buy some essentials, they discovered that stores in Athens close early on Sundays.
This was not the Greek welcome Angela had envisioned, but having a partner who stayed calm through the crisis and a travel agent who quickly stepped in to make alternative arrangements helped get the holiday back on track.
Over the next 10 days, they would explore three destinations: Athens, Santorini and Mykonos, starting with the Greek capital.
‘We stayed at the Grand Hyatt, which is essentially at the centre of the city,’ she says. ‘My partner chose it largely because it has incredible views. From the rooftop, you can see all of Athens around you.’
A glimpse of the Acropolis
The view also gave them their first glimpse of the Acropolis, which was the first place they visited during their three-day stay in Athens.
There, they walked through the monumental gates that separated mortal men from the immortals (the Propylae), learnt about the ancient Greek gods, and toured ancient temples, including one dedicated to Nike.
‘I like learning about the history of any country I visit. It opens up your eyes and makes you see things differently so that by the time you’re back home, you’re moving differently, including how you do business,’ says the founder of Angie’s Closet, a boutique specialising in women’s work-wear.
Absorbing city’s rhythm
‘The funny thing is, I hated History as a subject in school. I never performed well in it, but now, when I go to these places, it’s so exciting to see and learn. I even ended up buying five books about their history.’
They walked the streets to absorb the city’s rhythm, but also used the hop-on hop-off buses to get a rough idea of the place and mark spots they could revisit if the chance to return ever came up.
These buses, Angela says, have three main routes.
The Red Line takes you around central Athens, where the couple caught sight of Parliament and the changing of the guard; the Purple Line runs along the beach and Riviera, offering views of posh homes and recreational facilities along the coastline; while the Green Line takes you through Piraeus, the main port city, where they saw cruise ships and yachts.
‘There’s nothing quite like catching sunsets in a foreign land,’ Angela reminisces. ‘And with our hotel being at the top of a hill, we had the sun setting to one side, the Acropolis to the other side, and the city spread out below us. It was breathtaking.’
Santorini’s charm
From Athens, they flew to Santorini, the island that had been on Angela’s vision board since 2020.
‘There is the beautiful Santorini we see in photos, with whitewashed buildings and blue domes, but there is also the side we saw while driving from the airport to Oia, the town where we stayed,’ she says. ‘Santorini is an arid land, with little to no trees. Born from a volcanic eruption, the ground there is made of volcanic ash and pumice. They also don’t receive a lot of rain, so the plants that do well there are mostly grapes, eggplants, and cherry tomatoes.’
But while the dry landscape along the route blindsided her, their destination matched the postcard version that had appealed to Angela in the first place. The buildings, she discovered, were actually caves carved into the side of the cliffs. The blue and white colour scheme was also intentional.
‘White reflects the scorching sunlight and helps keep the interiors cooler, but also the limewash they use is not only affordable, but it also has antibacterial properties that help sanitise the surfaces,’ she says.
The three days in Santorini were spent walking, shopping, and absorbing the sights. The streets were narrow, winding and packed with tourists, but it did little to take away from the island’s charm.
‘We kept stopping because every corner made for a photographic moment.’
She also recalls one afternoon when they had planned to go swimming when they noticed crowds of people walking in the same direction. They decided to follow them, only to discover that everyone was going to watch the sunset.
‘The sun was right there. You could almost touch it,’ she says with nostalgia. ‘But it set very quickly. And once it set, everyone clapped.’
Pure YOLO moment
The dramatic landscape added to the experience. The cliffs were so steep that, from where they stood, it felt as though the slightest shift could send them tumbling into the sea. In the surrounding area, they could also see volcanic formations, some with steam rising from them, adding to the feeling that they could erupt at any time.
‘It was a pure YOLO moment,’ she says.
And, of course, what would a trip to Santorini be without the famous flying-dress photos? Angela had hers done away from Oia, where the crowds can make getting the perfect shot a lengthy affair. At the popular Three Domes, she says, visitors can wait up to 30 minutes just for a chance to take a photograph at the spot, and that’s before factoring in the time needed for the photoshoot.
So, on the recommendation of her travel agent, they drove to a quieter town for the shoot. There, Angela chose a gold dress instead of the more common blue.
‘Everyone does blue, so I was like, can I do something different?’ she says, urging anyone visiting Santorini with these photos in mind to consider choosing a colour that contrasts with the island’s blue-and-white backdrop. ‘Experiment with colours. Be part of the beauty.’
Full vacation mode
From Santorini, they took a three-hour ferry, which had proper seating and a VIP area, to Mykonos. If Santorini had felt like a honeymoon, Angela says, Mykonos was where they switched into full vacation mode.
‘I was a bit apprehensive about Mykonos because everyone portrays it as a party town. And while I enjoy a good party, I’m not a party person,’ she says. ‘My partner isn’t either, so I was curious about what it had to offer beyond the nightlife.’
They stayed at Mykonos Riviera, a five-star hotel with sweeping views of the sea and harbour, where cruise ships and yachts came and went. Mornings were unhurried, with long breakfasts overlooking the sea before they headed out to explore.
Their afternoons included exploring Mykonos town and beaches on foot, a boat tour to a nearby UNESCO heritage site, and a sunset cruise which took them along the coastline, past beach clubs and some of the impressive yachts anchored off the island. They also enjoyed a seafood dinner served on board.
At one point, the boat stopped, and passengers jumped into the sea for a swim. Back on board, with music playing, wine flowing, and the sun setting over the sea, the reality of the holiday finally hit her.
‘This is the life we see in the movies. It’s a dream life, but there I was. Me, a girl from Ruiru,’ she says.
Lessons
A dream though it was, the trip was not without its lessons. Getting into Greece in the first place took some planning and readjustments.
The couple had initially hoped to travel in April, but securing a visa appointment pushed their plans back. They applied in January, hoping to make the April trip, but were given an appointment at the Greek embassy in July. Once they attended the appointment, however, the visa came through within a week, allowing them to finally set off on August 23.
Angela Kariuki, founder of Angela’s Closet and Angie on Bonds, enjoys a holiday in Mykonos, Greece, in August 2026.
Pool
‘I wish we knew that the Greek embassy sometimes takes time to issue a visa appointment,’ she says. ‘We would have applied for it about six months in advance.’
She also wishes they had familiarised themselves with local transport and food-delivery apps before arriving. In Athens, they initially used Bolt but sometimes waited as long as 15 minutes for a ride. On another occasion, after a long day of walking, they returned to their hotel wanting to order food, only to discover they had not downloaded the relevant delivery apps. They had to get help from reception to place an order.
The weather and crowds are another consideration she says travellers should factor in.
‘You can go earlier like in April, or later like in October when the prices are much better, the temperatures are much cooler, and the crowds are more manageable, particularly for destinations such as Santorini, which can get extremely busy.’
Trip cost
The trip cost about $12,000 (roughly Sh1.55 million) for the two of them, covering flights, hotels, transfers, activities, meals, and shopping.
‘The cost was heavy on the hotels. We spent about $4800 (Sh620,000) for hotels for the 10 days, but it can be cheaper if you do Airbnbs,’ she says. ‘There are plenty of mini-markets, so you can also cut costs by buying and making some of your own meals. We spent about $ 1,450 (Sh187,000) on meals and shopping.’
Her bigger lesson, however, one that she has learned over more than a decade of travelling, is to approach each destination with an open mind. A foreign country, she says, should not be expected to look, feel or operate like home. The traveller is the one who has to be willing to learn and adapt.
That mindset is part of what has kept Angela travelling since the first trip she intentionally took.
‘It was right after my divorce,’ she says. ‘I was handling crisis after crisis, and I just needed to see what more is there, so I took my children and went to Zanzibar.’
Since then, Angela has travelled with her children, her partner and, at times, on her own, to destinations across the world, including Italy, the Maldives, Japan, and Turkey.
Each trip, she says, gives her a chance to step outside the familiar and see life from a different perspective. Travel, therefore, is not something she leaves for ‘when everything else is sorted’. It is something she deliberately plans and invests toward, and she actively encourages others, particularly women, to do the same.
As the founder of Angie on Bonds, a financial consultancy firm specialising in Treasury bonds, Angela says one of her main goals for investing is to fund her travels.
‘There’s more to life than working and paying bills,’ she says. ‘You can parent, chase careers and run businesses, but we are already in this small space, so why not go out and see what’s out there?’