The best beaches in Santorini are Perivolos for organised comfort, Monolithos for children, Vlychada for strangeness and quiet, Kamari for facilities, and Red Beach for the photograph rather than the swim. All of them are volcanic, and none of them is soft golden sand.
The Red beach in the most spectacular colorful beaches in the world
The Red beach of Santorini is at the list of Conde Nast Traveler with the most spectacular colorful beaches in the world!
The fact that in our minds we regard the beaches with golden beauties as a dreamlike sandy beach, does not mean that they are the only ones that have this “exclusivity”. So imagine that you sunbathe on pink, orange, blue or red grains of sand, which would give you the most shocking images and thus the most memorable photo clicks on your vacation?
Conde Nast Traveler, therefore, puts color on our holiday, highlighting the most colorful beaches in the world, which owe their striking distinction to various minerals that have come to them from nearby volcanoes in the last millennium. Among them, of course,is one Greek, maybe one of the most beautiful and multi-photographed islands in our country.
Learn everything about from Santorini Tours!
What is most impressive with the Red Beach in Santorini?
So there are many reasons why the Red Beach in Santorini is the most impressive and the most photographed beach of the island. When you face the shore, you will be impressed as here everything is dyed red, from the huge rocks that surround the beach to the sand and pebbles. The perfect backdrop complements, the crystal clear waters and the mysterious landscape in general.
You can reach it in two ways: either by boat from Akrotiri (30 minutes) or walking through a path from Akrotiri (specifically from the chapel of Agios Nikolaos).
The dark blue water and the red and black mountain above (due to the volcano) make up a unique landscape you can see in a tour of Santorini. This interesting and distinctive morphological character makes Red Beach one of the most seductive and exciting beaches in the world. The beach with red sand, as its name betrays, has some sunbeds and nearby you will also find coffee-refreshments. Nudism is allowed on the beach.
How can I reach the Red Beach in Santorini?
The Red Beach of Santorini is one of these rare sceneries of Santorini that change year by year as it is formed by air, water or erosion. Reaching the area is difficult for those who are not familiar with the morphology of the island.
The better way to do this is to book a Red Beach private transfer for you and your friends!
Santorini private transfers, Private transfers to Santorini villages and private transfers to Oia and Foinikia will give you the opportunity to travel to any place on the island you wish without having any concerns about the route and the parking.
See more about Santorini island:
- Luxury vacations in Santorini
- Beach wedding in Santorini
- Spring destinations: Why Santorini is at the top of the list?
- Orthodox Easter in Santorini
Best Beaches in Santorini: The Short Answer
Perivolos for organised comfort, Monolithos for children, Vlychada for strangeness and quiet, Kamari for facilities, and Red Beach for the photograph rather than the swim. Those five cover it, and the honest framing of the best beaches in santorini is that they are interesting rather than beautiful.
Nobody comes to this island for the sand. The beaches are volcanic: black grit and small pebbles, red and white cliffs, water that drops away steeply into cold blue, and almost no natural shade anywhere. None of the best beaches in santorini is soft or golden. If your holiday is built around that, Naxos, Milos and Paros all beat this island comfortably.
What Santorini has instead is colour and geology. That is what the best beaches in santorini actually offer. There is nowhere else in Greece where you can swim below an oxidised iron cliff in the morning and off pale pumice sculpted by wind in the afternoon.
Why the Beaches Here Are Different
Everything about the best beaches in santorini follows from the eruption.
Around 1600 BC the volcano emptied its magma chamber and the centre of the island collapsed into the sea. What is left is a crescent with a 300-metre cliff on the west side and a long gentle slope on the east. That is why every swimmable beach on the island is on the east and south coasts, and why the caldera side has almost none.
Black sand. Ground-down basalt and scoria. It absorbs heat, and by two in the afternoon in July and August you cannot walk on it barefoot.
Red and white. Red Beach sits under an oxidised iron cliff; White Beach under pale pumice and ash. The colours are genuine and unretouched.
The shelf. Volcanic coasts drop away fast. Most beaches here are chest-deep within a few metres, which is fine for swimmers and a problem for toddlers.
The water. Clear, deep and cooler than the Aegean average because of that depth, at around 25 degrees in August and 16 in January.
No trees. Almost no shade unless somebody has built it, which is why the organised stretches dominate the best beaches in santorini.
Understanding that geology explains every ranking of the best beaches in santorini on this page.
Perissa
The longest continuous stretch on the island, and among the best beaches in santorini for sheer convenience.
Black sand and small pebbles running for kilometres under the sheer rock of Mesa Vouno, with the whole front organised: sunbeds, umbrellas, beach bars, tavernas, watersports, showers and a bus from Fira. It is busy, cheap, easy and comfortable, and the accommodation behind it is a fraction of caldera prices.
Water. Clear and deep, shelving away within a few metres.
Best for. A straightforward beach day with everything on hand.
Watch for. Pebbles underfoot at the water’s edge and sand hot enough to burn by mid-afternoon.
Getting there. Twenty-five minutes from Fira by car or bus, with free parking behind the front. See Perissa.
It rarely tops anybody’s list of the best beaches in santorini and it is the one most visitors would happily return to.
Perivolos
The southern continuation of Perissa and, for most adults, the best of the organised best beaches in santorini.
Smarter beach bars, better food, sun loungers with proper service, music that runs from lunchtime into the evening at a few of them, and a younger crowd than Perissa without tipping into a party beach. Watersports along the front: paddleboards, jet skis, windsurfing and diving schools.
Water. The same clear deep water, and the calmest stretch on the island when the meltemi is blowing from the north.
Best for. A full day with lunch, drinks and a sunbed you do not want to leave. It is where we send people who ask about the best beaches in santorini for adults.
Cost. 15 to 40 euros a pair of loungers, and frequently free if you eat at the attached bar.
Getting there. Twenty-five minutes from Fira, plenty of parking. See Perivolos.
If somebody asks us for one of the best beaches in santorini for an adult day out, this is the answer.
Kamari
The other big organised beach, on the east coast directly under the ridge of Ancient Thira.
Coarser black sand and rounded pebbles, a paved promenade behind it lined with tavernas, shops and hotels, and an open-air cinema. It is the most resort-like of the best beaches in santorini and it works: everything you need within a hundred metres, level ground throughout, and a bus into Fira every half hour in season.
The cliff. Mesa Vouno rises straight off the southern end and puts the beach into shade earlier in the afternoon than anywhere else, which in August is a genuine advantage.
Water. Deep quickly, clear, and rougher than Perivolos in a northerly.
Best for. Families who want facilities, and anyone staying nearby.
Getting there. Ten minutes from the airport, fifteen from Fira, with parking behind the promenade. See Kamari.
Monolithos
The one genuine family beach among the best beaches in santorini, and the exception to almost everything above.
Fine dark sand rather than pebbles, water that stays waist-deep a long way out, tamarisk trees that give real shade, a playground, a football pitch, lifeguards in season and a couple of unpretentious tavernas. It is where islanders take their own children, which is a better recommendation than any list of the best beaches in santorini.
Water. Shallow, calm and sheltered. Nothing else here compares for small children.
Atmosphere. Local, quiet and unglamorous.
Best for. Toddlers, grandparents and anybody who wants to swim without a shelf.
Getting there. Ten minutes from the airport, twenty from Fira, free parking. See Monolithos.
It never appears in magazine lists of the best beaches in santorini and it is the one we recommend most often.
Vlychada
The strangest of the best beaches in santorini and, to our eyes, the most beautiful.
A long stretch of dark sand on the south coast backed by pale cliffs of compacted ash and pumice that the wind has carved into ridges, fins and hollows. It looks like a desert canyon dropped onto a Greek island, and photographs of it rarely convince people until they stand there.
Facilities. A few sunbeds at the eastern end near the marina, a taverna or two, and nothing at all along most of it.
Water. Deep, clean and often with a swell, because the coast is exposed.
Best for. Long walks, photographs and being on your own.
Watch for. Wind. When the meltemi blows this is the least comfortable of the southern beaches.
Nearby. The marina, the Tomato Industrial Museum, and a handful of good fish tavernas.
Getting there. Twenty minutes from Fira, easy parking. See Vlychada.
Red Beach
The most photographed of the best beaches in santorini, and the one that most often disappoints people who expected to spend a day there.
It sits below Akrotiri under a cliff of oxidised iron that really is deep rust-red, with dark red pebbles and sand at the foot of it and clear deep water in front. As a sight it is genuinely extraordinary and it deserves its place in every list of the best beaches in santorini.
The problems. It is small, it fills quickly, there is no shade at all, and access is over a rocky path around a headland. There is an ongoing rockfall risk from the cliff, warning signs are posted, and sections have been closed at times. Local advice varies and it should be checked on the day rather than assumed.
The alternative. Look at it from the viewpoint on the path, which is where the photographs are taken anyway, or see it from a boat, which is safer and better.
Best for. Twenty minutes and a camera. It is a viewpoint rather than one of the best beaches in santorini for a day out.
Getting there. Twenty-five minutes from Fira to the Akrotiri car park, then a ten-minute walk. See Red Beach.
White Beach
The next cove west of Red Beach, under pale cliffs of ash and pumice, and reachable only by boat.
Small caiques run across from Akrotiri through the season, taking a few minutes, and there is usually a handful of sunbeds and a small canteen in high summer. Because access is controlled by the boat schedule it never gets truly crowded, and the contrast between the white cliff and the black pebbles is the reason to go.
Water. Deep, clear and cold, straight off the pebbles.
Best for. A half day with a swim and no crowd, and one of the best beaches in santorini precisely because there is no road.
Watch for. No shade beyond what is rented, and no way out except the boat.
See White Beach.
Which Are the Best Beaches in Santorini by Boat?
Several of the best swimming spots have no road to them at all, which is the strongest argument for seeing the best beaches in santorini from the water.
White Beach. As above, boat only.
Kambia. A rocky cove below the cliffs east of Akrotiri, deep and clear, popular with snorkellers.
The caldera coves under Thirasia. Sheltered, empty, and reached only on a catamaran itinerary.
Palia Kameni hot springs. Warm sulphurous water off the volcanic islet, more a curiosity than a swim, and it stains swimwear.
Manolas and the Thirasia shore. Small pebble beaches with a taverna above them and almost nobody there.
Amoudi Bay. Rock swimming below Oia, reached by three hundred steps or by boat.
A catamaran day covers three or four of these with lunch on board, and for a lot of visitors it is the best day of the trip. See the full list of tours.
Ammoudi, Armeni and the Caldera Side
The western cliff has none of the best beaches in santorini in the ordinary sense, and it has two of the best swimming spots on the island.
Ammoudi. The old fishing harbour below Oia, three hundred steps down from the village, with a line of fish tavernas along the quay and rock swimming off the flat stones around the corner past the last of them. There is a small rock you can jump from, and the water is deep, clean and cold. Go for lunch and stay for the swim, and take a taxi or a driver back up rather than the steps.
Armeni. The other harbour below Oia, smaller, quieter and with a single taverna. Boats to Thirasia leave from here.
Fira old port. Not a swimming spot, and worth knowing about only for the boats.
Why there are no beaches on the caldera. The western coast is the inside wall of a collapsed volcano, dropping vertically into 300 metres of water. There is nowhere for sand to accumulate, which is why every entry in a list of the best beaches in santorini sits on the other side of the island.
The Quiet Beaches Nobody Photographs
Half the coastline is unorganised and almost empty even in August, and these are the best beaches in santorini for anyone with a car and no interest in a crowd.
Baxedes and Paradisos. On the north coast below Oia, black sand and pebbles, a couple of tavernas, and a fraction of the crowd. Exposed to the north wind, which is exactly why nobody is there. See Baxedes.
Koloumbos. A remote dark cove on the northeast coast reached by a rough track, named after the submarine volcano five kilometres offshore. Unofficially the island’s naturist beach, and one of the emptiest of the best beaches in santorini.
Exo Gialos. A small strip below Karterados with a taverna, mostly used by locals, and ten minutes from Fira.
Agios Georgios. South of Perivolos, the far end of the great southern beach, organised at one end and empty at the other. See Agios Georgios.
Agia Paraskevi. Between Perissa and Perivolos, quieter than either. See Agia Paraskevi.
Cape Columbo and Mavro Rachidi. Wild, black and unshaded, for people who want a swim and nothing else.
None of these makes a magazine list of the best beaches in santorini, and on a busy August day they are worth more than the ones that do.
The Best Beaches in Santorini for Families
1. Monolithos. Shallow, shaded, calm, with a playground and lifeguards. Nothing else among the best beaches in santorini is close.
2. Kamari. Full facilities, a promenade for a pushchair, shade from the cliff after four, and shallow enough at the northern end.
3. Perissa. The same idea, longer and cheaper, with more space to spread out.
4. Agia Paraskevi. Quieter than Perissa with the same water.
What to avoid with children. Red Beach, because of the scramble and the rockfall. Vlychada, because of the wind and the drop. Ammoudi, because of three hundred steps. Any unorganised beach in August, because of the heat.
Two rules. Swimming shoes for everyone, always, because the black sand burns and the pebbles are sharp. And swim before eleven or after five, at every one of the best beaches in santorini.
The Best Beaches in Santorini for Couples
Vlychada. Walk the length of it in the late afternoon when the cliffs turn gold and there is nobody else on the sand.
Perivolos. A day bed, lunch that lasts two hours, and a drink as the light goes.
White Beach. The boat, the cove and the swim, and back before the crowds at Akrotiri.
Ammoudi. Fish at a table on the water, then the swim off the rocks, then a driver back up the hill.
A private boat. Three coves, a swim in each, and lunch on board. The most romantic version of the best beaches in santorini, and it is not on the land at all.
See honeymoons for the rest of the itinerary.
The Best Beaches in Santorini for Swimming and Watersports
Serious swimming. Perivolos and Perissa are the best beaches in santorini for real swimming: the water is deep and clear a few strokes out and there is enough length to swim properly. Ammoudi for rock swimming in the deepest, cleanest water on the island.
Snorkelling. Kambia, the rocks at either end of Perivolos, and the caves along the Akrotiri cliffs. Visibility around the best beaches in santorini is excellent because there is no river silt anywhere in the Cyclades.
Diving. Several schools operate from Perivolos and Kamari, with wrecks, walls and volcanic reefs. The caldera itself drops to 400 metres.
Windsurfing and kitesurfing. The meltemi that ruins a sunbathing day makes the south coast good for this from June to September.
Paddleboarding and kayaking. Best early in the morning before the wind gets up, from Perivolos, Vlychada or Ammoudi.
Jet skis and parasailing. Along the Perissa and Perivolos front all season.
Water temperature. Around 18 degrees in May, 24 to 26 in August and September, 20 in late October.
Sunbeds, Shade and What to Take
Sunbeds. 15 to 40 euros for a pair with an umbrella at an organised beach, more at the smart bars on Perivolos. Most of the best beaches in santorini waive the charge if you eat or drink there, which is almost always the better deal.
Shade. There is essentially none that has not been built. Tamarisk trees at Monolithos are the one natural exception on the whole island.
Swimming shoes. Not optional at any of the best beaches in santorini. The black sand burns from early afternoon and every beach has pebbles at the waterline.
A parasol. Worth buying on day one if you plan to use the unorganised stretches.
Water. Bottled, and more than you think. The dry air and the wind hide how much you are losing.
A towel and a mat. Black sand holds heat long after the sun has moved.
Reef-safe sun cream. Applied twice, and again after swimming.
Cash. Small canteens on the quieter beaches may not take cards.
Get that list right and every entry among the best beaches in santorini becomes considerably more comfortable.
The Wind and Which Coast to Choose
The meltemi blows from the north through July and August, sometimes for days together, and it decides which of the best beaches in santorini you should use on any given morning.
With a strong northerly. Perivolos, Agios Georgios and the far south are the most sheltered. Baxedes and the whole north coast are unusable. Vlychada gets a swell.
With a southerly, which is rarer. The reverse: the north coast calms and the south picks up chop.
In a flat calm. Every one of the best beaches in santorini works, and this is the day for a boat.
How to check. Ask at the hotel each morning. Every local knows which side is working today, and it takes ten seconds.
Boat trips. Cancelled outright in a strong meltemi, so book early in the week and keep a spare day.
Choosing the coast by the wind rather than by the guidebook is the single most useful habit anybody visiting the best beaches in santorini can develop.
Getting to the Beaches
By car. The easiest way to reach the best beaches in santorini. All the southern and eastern ones have free parking behind them, and the drive from Fira is fifteen to twenty-five minutes. In August the popular car parks fill by eleven. See car hire.
By bus. Cheap and frequent to Perissa, Perivolos, Kamari and Vlychada, and every route goes through Fira, so a beach-to-beach journey means a change. The last service is earlier than you would like.
By quad or scooter. Common, and the commonest cause of holiday injuries here.
By taxi. Around thirty on the island. Not a plan.
By boat. The only access to White Beach and Kambia, and the best way to see Red Beach.
With a driver. Sensible on a day when you want two or three beaches and a lunch inland without hunting for a space. See transfers.
Distances from Fira. Kamari fifteen minutes, Perissa twenty-five, Perivolos twenty-five, Monolithos twenty, Vlychada twenty, Red Beach twenty-five, Baxedes twenty-five.
When to Go
May and early June. Everything open, few people, and a sea warm enough by June. The nicest time for the best beaches in santorini. The nicest weeks for a beach day.
July and August. The warmest water of the year and the worst of everything else: heat, crowds, prices and the meltemi.
Late September and early October. The best of all for the best beaches in santorini. The sea is at its warmest after a summer of heating, the crowds have thinned and the beach bars are still open.
Late October. Swimmable, quiet, and the organised stretches begin to shut.
November to April. Empty, dramatic and cold at 16 to 18 degrees, and the best beaches in santorini become walks rather than swims. Worth walking rather than swimming.
Time of day. Before eleven and after five in high summer, always. The best beaches in santorini are genuinely unpleasant between one and four in August.
Beach Bars and Where to Eat
Most of a day at the best beaches in santorini is spent eating, and the standard is better than the setting suggests.
Perivolos. The best of it. A run of smart beach clubs with day beds, proper kitchens, cocktails and music that builds through the afternoon. Fish, salads, small plates and prices that sit between a taverna and a caldera restaurant.
Perissa. Cheaper and more relaxed, with tavernas along the front doing grilled fish, souvlaki and the usual mezedes at ordinary prices.
Kamari. A paved promenade of restaurants, a few of them genuinely good, several aimed squarely at the passing trade. Walk to the southern end for the better ones.
Vlychada. Two or three fish tavernas by the marina, quiet, local and excellent.
Monolithos. Two family tavernas under the trees, unpretentious, and the closest thing to eating in a Greek village on a beach.
Ammoudi. The famous one: fish tables on the quay below Oia, with the catch chosen from the ice. Book in season and go for lunch rather than sunset.
Baxedes. A couple of tavernas on the north coast that almost nobody finds.
The pattern. Sunbeds are free at most places if you eat, which usually makes lunch the cheapest way to spend the day at the best beaches in santorini.
Beach by Beach: Which Village to Stay In
If the beach is the point of the trip, the base decides how much of the best beaches in santorini you actually get.
Kamari. Hotels of every grade directly behind the promenade, level ground, restaurants, shops, a bus to Fira and ten minutes from the airport. The best all-round base for the best beaches in santorini. See Kamari.
Perissa. Cheaper, longer, younger, with more budget accommodation than anywhere else on the island. See Perissa.
Perivolos. Smarter hotels behind the beach clubs, and the best stretch of sand to walk out onto. See Perivolos.
Vlychada and Akrotiri. Quiet, level and residential, with a car essential.
Monolithos. A handful of small hotels and apartments, mostly used by families and by Greeks.
The caldera villages. Beautiful, stepped and twenty-five minutes from any swimming. Fine for a view holiday, poor for a beach one.
Anybody planning a week around the best beaches in santorini should sleep on the east or south coast and visit the caldera rather than the other way round.
Naturist and Secluded Beaches
Greece designates none of the best beaches in santorini for naturism, and custom does the work instead.
Koloumbos. The best known, on the remote northeast coast down a rough track. Black, wild and almost always empty.
Vlychada, western end. Long, unorganised and far enough from the marina to be quiet.
Kambia. A rocky cove below the cliffs east of Akrotiri, reached by a scramble or by boat.
Cape Mavros and Mavro Rachidi. Remote, exposed and beautiful, with nothing at all in the way of facilities.
Manners. Discretion is the rule everywhere, and none of these is a designated beach, so behave as the people already there are behaving.
Practicalities. No shade, no water, no toilets, no lifeguard and no phone signal in places. Take everything you need.
Accessibility on the Beaches
This is a difficult island for anyone with limited mobility, and the best beaches in santorini are the easier half of it.
Kamari. A long paved promenade running the whole length, level throughout, with restaurants and hotels opening directly onto it. The most accessible of the best beaches in santorini.
Perissa and Perivolos. Flat approaches, paved sections, and organised areas with boardwalks in places.
Monolithos. Level ground, parking beside the sand and shade.
Vlychada. Level, though the sand is soft and deep.
What to avoid. Red Beach, which needs a rocky scramble. Ammoudi, which is three hundred steps below Oia. White Beach, which is boat access only. Koloumbos, which is a track and a slope.
Sea access. Ramps and Seatrac-style systems appear at some organised beaches in season and provision varies year to year, so check locally rather than assuming.
For anyone weighing the best beaches in santorini on access rather than looks, the answer is Kamari first and Monolithos second.
A Three-Day Beach Plan
Day one: the south coast. Perivolos from ten until one, lunch at a beach club with the sunbeds thrown in, then move down to the quiet end at Agios Georgios for the afternoon. Dinner at Perissa.
Day two: the colours. Akrotiri at opening, the Red Beach viewpoint at half past ten, the boat across to White Beach for a swim, back for a late lunch at Vlychada, then walk the pale cliffs at the western end when the light goes gold.
Day three: the water. A catamaran round the caldera with swimming stops at Kambia and the Thirasia coves, lunch on board, and the cliff from below at the end of the day. Nothing booked in the evening.
With children, swap day three. Monolithos all morning, the playground and a taverna lunch, and Kamari in the late afternoon when the cliff puts the beach in shade.
If the meltemi is blowing. Cancel the boat, stay south, and use the day for the wine museum and a long lunch inland.
Three days covers the best beaches in santorini properly, which is more than most visitors give them.
What a Beach Day Costs
Sunbeds and umbrella. 15 to 40 euros a pair, and free at a great many places if you eat there.
Lunch at a beach taverna. 15 to 25 euros a head with a drink.
Lunch at a Perivolos beach club. 30 to 60 euros a head.
Fish at Ammoudi. Priced by the kilo, and it adds up fast. Ask before it goes on the grill.
Boat to White Beach. A few euros each way from Akrotiri.
Catamaran day. 100 to 150 euros a head with lunch, less on a semi-private trip.
Watersports. Paddleboard hire from about 15 euros an hour; jet ski considerably more.
Parking. Free at every one of the best beaches in santorini.
Bus. Around two euros a journey from Fira.
A full day at the best beaches in santorini costs less than a single dinner on the caldera rim, which is worth knowing when the budget is being argued over.
Safety in the Water
The shelf. Almost every one of the best beaches in santorini drops away within a few metres. Non-swimmers and small children should be at Monolithos and nowhere else.
Lifeguards. At the main organised beaches in high season only. Everywhere else, nobody is watching.
Currents. Noticeable off the exposed north coast and around the headlands. Do not swim out at Baxedes or Koloumbos in a strong wind.
Sea urchins. Common on the rocks at Ammoudi, Kambia and the ends of the organised beaches. Water shoes solve it.
Jellyfish. Occasional and rarely a problem.
Boat traffic. Watch for jet skis off Perivolos and for excursion boats at Ammoudi and White Beach.
Rockfall. A genuine, posted risk at Red Beach and along parts of the Akrotiri cliffs.
Heat. Sunstroke and dehydration are what the island’s pharmacists treat most in visitors. Hat, water, shade at midday.
Emergencies. 112.
Photographing the Beaches
Red Beach. Late morning, from the viewpoint on the path rather than the sand, when the sun is on the cliff and the colour is at its strongest.
Vlychada. The last hour of daylight, when the pale cliffs turn amber and the shadows model the carved ridges. The single best photographic hour among the best beaches in santorini.
White Beach. From the boat, on the approach.
Perivolos. Straight down the sand at sunrise, when the beach is empty and the loungers are still stacked.
Kamari. Early, with Mesa Vouno rising black behind the promenade.
Ammoudi. Late afternoon from the water, with the red cliff above the harbour.
Kit. A cloth for the salt spray and something to keep black grit out of the lens mount. It gets everywhere.
Drones. Heavily restricted in Greece and prohibited over archaeological sites, so do not build a shot list around one.
What Else Is Near the Beaches
A day at the best beaches in santorini does not have to be only a beach day, because everything is fifteen minutes from everything else.
Near Vlychada. The Tomato Industrial Museum in the old cannery, the marina, and the wineries of the south. See the wine tour.
Near Red Beach. Akrotiri, the most important archaeological site on the island, roofed and cool. See Akrotiri.
Near Kamari. Ancient Thira on the ridge directly above, and the open-air cinema in the evening. See Ancient Thira.
Near Perissa. Emporio and its medieval kasteli, ten minutes inland. See Emporio.
Near Monolithos. The airport, Messaria and the eastern wineries.
Near Baxedes. Oia and Finikia, and the Akrotiri lighthouse is at the opposite end of the island entirely.
Pair one of the best beaches in santorini with one inland stop and the day stops being a sunbed and becomes an itinerary.
Month by Month on the Coast
April. The sea is around 17 degrees and the organised beaches are only just waking up. Wonderful for walking the length of Vlychada with nobody on it, cold for swimming.
May. Everything reopens through the month. Water at about 18 to 19 degrees, hardy in the first half and pleasant by the end. Sunbeds go out, prices are low and the sand is empty.
June. The first genuinely good month. Sea at 22 degrees, everything open, and the crowds have not yet arrived. If you want the best beaches in santorini at their most civilised, come now.
July. Hot, busy and windy. The sea reaches 24 degrees and the meltemi starts to dictate which coast works.
August. The warmest water at 25 to 26 degrees, the hottest sand, the largest crowds and the strongest wind of the year.
September. Arguably the best month of all. The sea holds its August warmth, the crowds thin steadily, prices fall and the light softens.
October. The first half is still fully swimmable at 22 to 23 degrees and the beach bars begin to close from the middle of the month.
November to March. Sixteen to eighteen degrees, nothing open, and the coast belongs to walkers, photographers and the occasional local swimmer.
The pattern is simple: the best beaches in santorini are at their best in June and September, and worst in the fortnight either side of the fifteenth of August.
How the Eruption Made This Coastline
The colours are not decorative. Each one is a different volcanic product and you can read the island’s history along the shore.
Black. Basaltic lava and scoria, ground down by the sea over three and a half thousand years. Perissa, Perivolos, Kamari, Monolithos and most of the east and south.
Red. Oxidised iron in a scoria cone. Red Beach sits inside the remains of one, and the colour is rust in the literal sense.
White. Ash and pumice from the Minoan eruption itself, compacted into soft pale cliffs. White Beach and the western end of Vlychada.
The carved cliffs at Vlychada. Wind and rain working on that compacted ash for millennia, cutting fins and hollows into it.
The missing beaches. The caldera side has none because it is the inside wall of the collapsed volcano, dropping vertically into 300 metres of water with nowhere for sediment to settle.
Nea Kameni. New land, still growing, last erupted in 1950, with black shores nobody swims from.
Knowing that turns a list of the best beaches in santorini into something closer to a geology walk, which is how a good many of our guests end up treating it.
Beach Etiquette and Local Rules
Sunbeds. Pay, or eat at the bar that owns them. Sitting on an unpaid lounger is the one thing that will actually annoy people.
Reserving with a towel. Frowned on and widely practised.
Topless. Common and unremarked at all the organised beaches.
Naturism. Confined by custom to the remote coves; not at Perissa or Kamari.
Music. The beach clubs play theirs; personal speakers are poor form.
Litter. Take it with you. There are bins at the organised beaches and nothing at all at the quiet ones.
Pebbles and sand. Do not take them. Removing volcanic material is discouraged and, at protected sites, prohibited.
Dogs. Tolerated on the unorganised stretches, less so among the loungers.
Smoking. Legal outdoors, and the beaches stay noticeably cleaner if people use the bins.
Shoes. Wear them to the waterline. This is practical rather than social, and everybody here does it.
Two the Guidebooks Miss
Katharos. A small dark cove on the northwest coast below Oia, reached down a dirt track past a single beach bar. It sits at the foot of the caldera cliff, so it has the drama of the west coast and a patch of sand, which almost nowhere else on that side does. Sunset from it is extraordinary and very few visitors ever find it.
Vourvoulos. A pebbled inlet on the northeast coast below the village of the same name, ten minutes from Fira, with a taverna and a scatter of local families at the weekend. No sunbeds, no music, no coaches, and a bay that catches the morning light. See Vourvoulos.
Neither appears on any published ranking of the best beaches in santorini, and both are half an hour from Fira with a car. That is the general lesson of this page: the coastline here is far more varied than the four names everybody arrives with, and the best of it is usually the part with no sign pointing at it.
A Note on What This Island Is For
It is worth saying plainly, because it saves people a disappointment they blame on the wrong thing.
Nobody flies here for the swimming. They come for a collapsed volcano with villages balanced on the rim of it, for a Bronze Age town preserved under ash, for wine grown in pumice on ungrafted vines, and for a light that has kept photographers in work for forty years. The coast is a bonus, and it is a strange and rewarding one if you take it on its own terms.
Take it as a substitute for a sandy resort and it will let you down every time. Black grit that burns, water that drops away at your ankles, a wind that decides your morning for you, and shade only where somebody has built it. Those are not flaws in the best beaches in santorini; they are what a volcano leaves behind.
The visitors who enjoy this coastline most are the ones who plan two mornings on it and spend the rest of the week looking at the cliff. Book the beach days around the wind, take the shoes, eat where the sunbeds are free, and treat Red Beach as a photograph rather than an afternoon. Do that and the sea here is as good as anywhere in Greece, whatever the sand is doing.
Best Beaches in Santorini Compared With Other Islands
An honest page has to put the island in context, because a great many visitors arrive expecting the best beaches in santorini to be something the geology cannot supply.
Naxos. Long golden sand at Agios Prokopios, Plaka and Agia Anna, shallow warm water, tamarisk shade and a fraction of the price. The best beach island in the Cyclades, and it beats the best beaches in santorini on sand alone.
Milos. Also volcanic, and stranger: Sarakiniko is white lunar rock, Kleftiko is a sea cave complex reached by boat, and Firiplaka and Tsigrado are extraordinary. If you like the best beaches in santorini, you will love that island.
Paros. Good sandy beaches, excellent ferry links, and Kolymbithres among the more unusual coastlines in the group.
Mykonos. Around thirty beaches of pale sand with shallow entries, organised and quiet in equal number. Better than here for sand by a wide margin.
Crete. Elafonisi, Balos and Falassarna are among the best beaches in Greece full stop.
Where Santorini wins. Colour and geology. The best beaches in santorini let you swim under a red cliff or a white one. Nowhere else offers that.
Ranking the best beaches in santorini against Naxos or Milos on sand alone misses the point, and pretending the sand is competitive would be dishonest.
Mistakes People Make
Arriving barefoot at two in the afternoon. The black sand at the best beaches in santorini is genuinely too hot to walk on.
Expecting shallow water. Everywhere except Monolithos shelves away within a few metres.
Going to Red Beach for the day. It is a viewpoint, not one of the best beaches in santorini for a whole day.
Ignoring the wind. The north coast in a meltemi is unusable while the south is calm.
Booking a boat for the last day. If it is cancelled there is no second chance.
Choosing a beach hotel for the caldera view. There is no caldera view from any beach on this island; the two coasts are opposite sides.
Relying on the bus between beaches. Every route goes through Fira.
Skipping Monolithos because it is unglamorous. It is the best of the best beaches in santorini with children.
Assuming sunbeds are free. They are not, unless you eat.
Avoid those nine and the best beaches in santorini deliver exactly what they should.
Best Beaches in Santorini: Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the best beach in Santorini? Perivolos for an organised adult day, Monolithos for children, Vlychada for scenery and quiet, and Kamari for facilities. Red Beach is the most photogenic and the least practical.
Why is the sand black? It is ground-down volcanic basalt and scoria from the eruptions that built the island.
Is the black sand hot? Very. From about two in the afternoon in July and August it is too hot to walk on barefoot, so swimming shoes are essential.
Which beach is best for children? Monolithos, by a distance: shallow, sheltered, shaded by tamarisk trees, with a playground and lifeguards in season.
Can you swim at Red Beach? Yes, though it is small, unshaded and reached over a rocky path with a posted rockfall risk. Check the current advice locally.
How do you get to White Beach? By small boat from Akrotiri only. There is no road.
Are there sandy beaches? Monolithos has fine dark sand and the rest are a mix of sand, grit and pebbles. Nothing here is soft and golden.
Which beach is quietest? Koloumbos, Baxedes, Exo Gialos and the far end of Agios Georgios.
Are the beaches free? The beaches are public. Sunbeds cost 15 to 40 euros a pair, often waived if you eat at the bar.
Is there shade? Almost none that has not been built. Monolithos has the only real trees.
How warm is the sea? About 18 degrees in May, 24 to 26 in August and September, and 16 to 18 in winter.
Which side should we swim on? Ask about the wind. In a northerly the south coast is calm and the north is not.
Do we need a car? It helps a great deal. Buses run to the main beaches but every journey routes through Fira.
Are the beaches better on other islands? On sand, yes: Naxos, Milos, Paros and Crete all beat this island. On colour and geology, no.
See Three of Them in a Day
We are a local operator running private tours and transfers in our own vehicles, and a beach day here works best when somebody else is doing the parking.
Red Beach and Akrotiri in the morning, lunch at Vlychada or inland, and Perivolos or Monolithos for the afternoon. Or the water version: a catamaran round the caldera with swimming stops that no road reaches.
Prices are per vehicle rather than per person, hotel pickup anywhere on the island is included, we guide in twelve languages, and an 80 EUR deposit confirms a date.
See the personalised tour, the south part tour, or contact us.
Every Village and Site on the Island
Any of these can be built into a private day. Each has its own page with what to see and how long to allow.
Caldera villages: Fira · Firostefani · Imerovigli · Oia · Finikia · Baxedes
Inland villages: Pyrgos · Megalochori · Emporio · Mesaria · Karterados · Vothonas · Vourvoulos · Exo Gonia · Mesa Gonia · Pigadia
Beaches: Perissa · Perivolos · Kamari · Vlychada · Monolithos · Red Beach · White Beach · Agios Georgios · Agia Paraskevi
Sites and landmarks: Akrotiri · Ancient Thira · Akrotiri Lighthouse · Nea Kameni · Palia Kameni · Thirasia · Athinios Port
All our tours: All Santorini tours · Full day tour · Sightseeing tour · Personalised tour · North part tour · Horse riding · South part tour · Sunset tour · Shore excursion · Caldera tour · Food experience · Wine tour · Historical tour · Small group tour
Planning and services: Famous sights tour · Private transfers · Transfers to Oia and Finikia · Transfers to other villages · Villages of Santorini · History of Santorini · Tours near you · Languages we guide in · Food and fun tours · Gay friendly tours · Our tour buses · Daily tours · Day tours · FAQ · Gallery · Tour photo gallery · About us · Contact · Blog
