A santorini first time visit works best at five nights in May, June, September or early October, split between the caldera rim and the coast, out before nine and inland at midday. Three stops a day, not six.
First time on Santorini? Everything you need to know about that great Greek island
Santorini is not only one of the most popular Greek islands around, the world but is also the most photographed area of the country. There is a reason that so many people choose to make their vacations at this place every year.
If you haven’t been there before but you are planing to do it at your next time up this article is going to give you an idea of what you are going to see.
The magnetic volcano of Santorini
The most mysterious and magnetic sight of Santorini is the one that contains stories from the volcanic explosion. Thousands of years ago the great explosion of the volcano cut Santorini island into smaller parts. One of them is known as Thira and two others as Palia Kameni and Nea Kameni.
At that places you are going to have the opportunity to enjoy the swimming on the lukewarm waters of the Aegean sea. The temperature of the water is higher because of the brimstone.
The attractive Caldera
Caldera is one of the first things you can see as you reach the island by ship. The enormous cliffs that rise in front of your ayes are breath taking. This is the perfect place to enjoy the idyllic sunrise by taking a Santorini impressive Caldera private tour.
The traditional side of Santorini
At the east side of Santorini Toursyou are going to find Kameni and Perissa, two of the most traditional villages on the island where you can enjoy family vacations without be annoyed by the crowd. The multicolored beaches will make you feel the uniqueness of that earth.
Enjoy the delicious wine of Santorini’s famous vineyards by a Santorini Tours.
Santorini private tours
If you would like enjoy the island of Santorini and learn more about the people, the history and the wine choose some of the most preferend private tours:
Santorini Tours is the right place to book the activities you are going to have. Our company posses some new technology luxury mini buses in order to offer you the best travel experience you have ever had.
Learn more information about the isle of Santorini:
- Winter in Santorini, why you have to visit Santorini during winter
- Enjoying Greece by travel channel
- The amazing history of Santorini island and the volcano
- Santorini tours offering something for all of us
Santorini First Time: What Nobody Tells You
Ten things a santorini first time visitor almost always discovers too late.
1. The island is the rim of a volcano. One side is a three-hundred-metre cliff with no way down; the other slopes to black beaches. They are two different holidays.
2. Caldera hotels are frequently fifty to eighty steps below the nearest road, and you carry your own luggage.
3. There are about thirty licensed taxis for the whole island.
4. Every bus route changes in Fira, so a fifteen-minute drive can take an hour.
5. Dinner starts at nine. A restaurant full at seven is cooking for tourists.
6. The beaches are black, red or grey, and the water deepens within a few metres.
7. Eating on the caldera rim costs two to three times eating in a village fifteen minutes inland.
8. The Oia sunset holds several thousand people, and four other viewpoints give you the same sun with nobody there.
9. The meltemi wind cancels boats at short notice, so never book a ferry and a flight on the same day.
10. Three stops a day is the limit. Everyone who plans six regrets it.
Everything below expands on those. Get them right and a santorini first time trip is one of the best weeks in the Mediterranean.
What Should You Expect on Arrival?
By plane
A single runway and one small terminal in the middle of the island, ten minutes from Fira. Arrivals and departures share a small hall and it struggles when several flights land together. There is no meaningful taxi rank. The KTEL bus goes to Fira, where you change for anywhere else – with luggage, in August, that is an unpleasant hour.
By ferry
Athinios port, on the south-west coast: a single concrete quay at the foot of a cliff, one road out, eight hairpin bends and twenty-five minutes to Fira. When a large ferry unloads, several hundred people and a hundred cars come off at once into a space the size of a supermarket car park. Athinios port.
By cruise ship
Ships anchor in the caldera because it is four hundred metres deep, and you come ashore by tender at the old port below Fira. There is no road: cable car, 588 steps or donkey. Subtract two hours from your published call. Cruise guide.
What we would do
Book the transfer. It is the cheapest insurance on the trip: a driver with your name on a board, the flight or ferry tracked rather than the timetable trusted, no charge if you are late, and the vehicle takes you as close to the door as the lane allows. For a santorini first time arrival with luggage it removes the two worst moments of the holiday. Transfers.
Where Should a First Timer Stay?
The single decision that shapes everything else, and the one most santorini first time visitors get wrong by booking the photograph rather than the practicality.
Firostefani
Our default santorini first time recommendation. Ten minutes’ walk north of Fira along the rim, the same caldera view, noticeably lower prices, and a much better night’s sleep. Close enough to walk to the bus station and the restaurants, far enough from the bars. Firostefani.
Fira
The capital and the transport hub. Every bus starts here, the museums are on the doorstep and it is the only place with late-night food. Also the noisiest, and where the cruise crowds land. Good for a first visit without a car. Fira.
Imerovigli
The highest point on the rim and the quietest of the caldera villages, with Skaros rock below. Expensive, beautiful, and almost every hotel is down a flight of steps. The honeymoon choice. Imerovigli.
Oia
The most photographed and most expensive village, packed from eleven until eight, with hotels reached on foot down stepped lanes. Wonderful to visit at seven in the morning. A difficult base for a santorini first time trip unless the budget is generous and the luggage is light.
Kamari or Perissa
Beach resorts on the outer slope with flat ground, proper pools, parking and a third of the rim price. The right answer for families and for anyone who wants to swim. Kamari · Perissa.
Karterados or Messaria
Working villages five to ten minutes from Fira with the cheapest decent rooms on the island and no view at all. Sensible on a budget with a car. Karterados.
Pyrgos or Megalochori
Central, quiet, and the best food. A car helps. Megalochori.
The split stay
Two or three nights on the rim for the view and the sunsets, then move to the coast or inland for the rest. You get both islands, you halve the accommodation bill, and almost nobody does it on a santorini first time visit – but everybody does it the second time.
Five things to check before booking
Steps. How many, and how far to the nearest road. Ask in writing. This is the santorini first time question people forget.
Vehicle access. Many rim hotels have none.
Pool size. Cave hotels often have a plunge pool the size of a bath.
“Sea view” is not “caldera view”. Different sides of the island, very different prices.
Airport noise. Kamari, Monolithos and Messaria sit under the flight path.
What Surprises Santorini First Time Visitors Most?
Twelve things that catch out a santorini first time visitor, collected from a decade of driving them around.
The scale of the caldera
No photograph conveys three hundred metres of vertical cliff with a cruise ship anchored below looking like a model. Everybody stops talking the first time they see it.
How slow the roads are
Eighteen kilometres long looks like an afternoon on a map. The roads follow the contours of a collapsed volcano and a twelve-kilometre journey takes thirty-five minutes.
How steep everything is
Not just the cliff. The villages are stepped, the lanes are stepped, and the hotel is usually below the road rather than beside it.
How hot the black sand gets
Painful by ten in the morning and genuinely dangerous by noon.
How good the tomatoes are
The most mentioned food item on the island, by people who had no interest in tomatoes.
How cheap the villages are
A full meal inland costs a third of the same meal on the rim. The gap surprises everyone.
How empty it is at seven in the morning
Oia has a queue at eleven and nobody at half past six. The same street, four hours apart.
How strong the wind is
The meltemi moves furniture, cancels boats and ends photo shoots.
How few taxis there are
About thirty, and the number does not change because a ferry has just arrived.
How late dinner is
Nine, and the good tables fill at ten.
How much there is beyond the view
A world-class archaeological site, ungrafted vines that exist nowhere else, and thirty villages most visitors never enter.
How much they wish they had stayed longer
The single most common thing anyone says at the end of a santorini first time trip.
Is It Right for You?
Couples and honeymooners
Yes, and it is close to the best in Europe for it. Imerovigli or Firostefani, one private boat, and dinners inland.
Families
Yes, from a coastal base with a vehicle. Monolithos or Kamari, Akrotiri under its roof, the volcano boat, and the open-air cinema. Monolithos.
Budget travellers
Yes, more easily than the santorini first time reputation suggests. Karterados or Perissa, village food, buses, and the free things: the rim walk, the villages, the beaches, the sunsets.
Solo travellers
Yes. Fira for transport and company, and everything walkable from it.
Older travellers
Yes, with a level base and a driver. Avoid caldera hotels with step access.
Anyone with limited mobility
Qualified. Akrotiri is roofed and largely level, the Vlychada marina is flat, and a private vehicle removes most of the rest. Ancient Thira, Skaros and the caldera lanes are not realistic. Tell us before you book.
Beach holiday travellers
No, not as the whole trip. Come for three or four days and take the beach week to Naxos or Crete.
Party travellers
Not really. Fira has bars and a handful of clubs; Mykonos and Ios do this properly. Santorini nightlife.
What Should You See on a Santorini First Time Visit?
Eight things, in the order we would do them. This is the santorini first time list and it deliberately leaves out most of the island.
Akrotiri
The one santorini first time visitors most often nearly skip. A Bronze Age town buried by the eruption of around 1600 BC and preserved under ash: paved streets, three-storey houses, indoor drainage, frescoes. Roofed and shaded, so it is the best midday stop on the island. Take a guide – there is almost no signage and without one much of it reads as low walls. Akrotiri.
The caldera villages
The spine of every santorini first time itinerary. Fira, Firostefani, Imerovigli and Oia along ten kilometres of cliff. Walkable end to end in three to four hours. Early morning or after seven in the evening.
A boat into the caldera
Either the volcano trip to Nea Kameni with the hot springs, or a catamaran with lunch on board. The crater only makes sense from inside it, and no land viewpoint gives you the scale. Volcano tour.
A winery
Ungrafted vines woven flat into low baskets in black ash, with no irrigation at all. Assyrtiko is bone dry and saline, Vinsanto is sweet and sun-dried. Three estates in an afternoon with somebody else driving. Wine tour.
An inland village
Pyrgos for the Venetian castle and the view over the whole island, or Megalochori for the bell towers and the lunch. Fifteen minutes from Fira and almost empty at midday. The part of a santorini first time trip people most often skip and most often regret skipping. Pyrgos.
One beach
Perissa or Perivolos for the beach fronts, Kamari for families, Vlychada for the lunar cliffs and the quiet. All volcanic, all deep, all with sand hot enough to hurt by ten in the morning.
One sunset that is not Oia
Imerovigli with Skaros in the foreground, or the Akrotiri lighthouse where there is nobody at all. Same sun, a tenth of the people. Sunset tour.
One morning before nine
Oia at half past six, or the caldera path north from Fira. The best hour of any santorini first time trip. Free, empty, and the thing everybody says afterwards was the best hour of the trip.
What to leave for the second visit
Ancient Thira, Thirasia, the Akrotiri lighthouse at length, the far south coast and the other twenty-eight villages. They are excellent and they are not what a santorini first time trip is for.
A Santorini First Time Itinerary
Three nights
Day 1. Arrive, drop bags, walk the rim from Fira to Firostefani, sunset from Imerovigli, dinner in Fira at nine.
Day 2. Akrotiri at half past eight with a guide, the Red Beach or the lighthouse at eleven, lunch in Megalochori, a winery at two, Pyrgos castle at four, Oia at six when the excursions have gone.
Day 3. A catamaran or the volcano boat, five hours, back for a late dinner. Nothing else booked.
Five nights
The three above, plus:
Day 4. A beach day at Perissa or Kamari. Nothing planned.
Day 5. The caldera walk from Fira to Oia at first light, a long lunch at Ammoudi, and an early night.
Seven nights
Add Ancient Thira in the morning while it is cool, three wineries in an afternoon, and one entirely unbooked day. Seven nights is where a santorini first time trip stops being a sprint.
The rule that governs all of it
Three stops a day, grouped by corner of the island. Never Oia in the morning and Akrotiri in the afternoon – that is two hours in a vehicle on roads not built for it. One day in Santorini.
How Do You Get Around?
Buses. Cheap, frequent on the main routes in season, and every one of them changes in Fira. Fine for Oia, Kamari, Perissa, Akrotiri and the airport. Useless for Ancient Thira, the wineries and the lighthouse, and they finish early. Santorini bus.
Private driver. Priced per vehicle rather than per person, hotel pickup, reaches the roads coaches cannot, and nobody drives after a tasting. What most santorini first time visitors wish they had booked for the sightseeing days.
Hire car. Good for three days, expensive for seven once you add paid parking in Fira and Oia. Many non-EU licences need an International Driving Permit and it is checked.
Taxi. About thirty for the whole island. Not a plan.
Quad or scooter. Cheap, popular, and responsible for a great many holiday injuries on narrow unlit roads with gravel on the bends.
On foot. Excellent along the rim and inside any village. Useless between them.
The combination that works. Transfer in, buses for the beaches and Oia, a driver for the two or three days with real sightseeing in them. Cheaper than a week of car hire and it misses nothing. Daily tours.
A Day-by-Day Look at the First Week
What a santorini first time week actually feels like, rather than what the itinerary says.
Day one: adjusting
You arrive, you climb some steps with your luggage, and you see the caldera for the first time. Nothing else happens and nothing else needs to. Eat near where you are staying, go to bed early, and do not book anything.
Day two: the shock of the crowds
The first full day is usually the one where a santorini first time visitor discovers what midday in Fira and Oia is like. Get this out of the way by going early and going inland afterwards, and the rest of the week improves immediately.
Day three: the island opens up
Akrotiri with a guide, a village lunch, a winery, and the realisation that there is a second island fifteen minutes behind the rim. This is usually the day people say the trip turned.
Day four: on the water
The boat. The caldera from inside it, the climb on Nea Kameni, the warm swim off Palia Kameni. Everybody is tired afterwards, and that is fine.
Day five: slowing down
A beach, a long lunch, a sunset from somewhere quiet. By now you know when to be where.
Day six: the early morning
The one anyone who does it says was the best hour of the trip. Oia at half past six, or the rim path north from Fira.
Day seven: nothing
Keep the last day of a santorini first time week empty. Weather takes an afternoon somewhere in every week, and if it does not, an unplanned day on a terrace is the thing people describe afterwards.
What to Do if Something Goes Wrong
Something goes wrong on most trips. None of it need spoil a santorini first time week.
Your boat is cancelled. The meltemi does this at short notice. Switch to Akrotiri, the wine museum, the inland villages and the museums, none of which care about wind.
Your ferry is cancelled. Ask about the conventional ferry before rebooking anything – they sail when the fast boats do not.
You cannot find a taxi. You will not. Call a driver or walk.
The hotel has more steps than expected. Ask them to arrange a porter, and ask your driver how close the vehicle can get.
The site is closed. Ancient Thira shuts in the early afternoon and one day a week in low season. Kamari beach is directly below it.
It is too hot to do anything. That is what the roofed sites, the underground wine museum and a long inland lunch are for.
You are running out of time. Cut the last stop, not the lunch. A santorini first time trip with three good stops beats one with five rushed ones, every time.
When Should a First Timer Come?
May
The best month for a santorini first time visit. Twenty to twenty-five degrees, everything open, few crowds, moderate prices. The sea is cold at the start and swimmable by the end.
June
The strongest santorini first time month. Warm, busy but not oppressive, sea comfortable, every boat and beach front running. The strongest all-round month.
September
The warmest sea of the year, thinning crowds after the first week, softening light and falling prices. Many people’s favourite.
Early October
Good walking weather, real value, quiet villages. Things begin closing from the middle of the month.
April
Wildflowers, empty archaeological sites and low prices. Too cold to swim, and some boats have not started.
July
Thirty degrees and up, the meltemi building, cruise ships daily, peak prices. Workable with early starts and inland middays.
August
The hardest month, and the wrong one for a santorini first time trip if you have any choice. Thirty-five degrees, maximum crowds, maximum prices and boats cancelled by wind.
November to March
Quiet, cheap and genuinely beautiful, with Akrotiri, the museums and the wineries open on winter hours. No boats, no beach fronts, most of Oia closed, and flights to Athens only. Not a first visit. Santorini in winter.
How long
Three nights is the workable minimum for a santorini first time visit, five is the sweet spot, seven is comfortable. Two is a stopover.
What Does It Cost?
A santorini first time budget in bands rather than prices, per person per day, excluding flights.
Accommodation. The largest santorini first time line by a distance. A room inland or on the coast is a fraction of a caldera cave hotel, and in Oia more again.
Bakery breakfast. A few euro, and the easiest saving on the trip.
Gyros lunch. Single figures, genuinely good.
Village taverna dinner. Ordinary Greek prices.
Caldera-view dinner. Two to three times that for the same food.
Bus. A couple of euro a journey, cash to the conductor.
Airport transfer. From 40 EUR, priced per vehicle rather than per head.
Private tour. From 220 EUR per vehicle for a personalised day, 280 EUR for the five-hour south part tour, 460 EUR for the eight-hour full day.
Sites. Modest fees at Akrotiri and Ancient Thira, with a combined ticket.
Catamaran. The largest single activity cost, and worth it.
The honest summary. A santorini first time trip is expensive in exactly one strip of the island. Sleep and eat away from the caldera rim and it costs what the rest of Greece costs.
What Should You Pack?
Shoes with grip. The single most useful item. Marble lanes polished smooth by two million visitors a year, uneven archaeological sites and stepped paths everywhere.
Something for hot sand. Black sand is painful barefoot by mid-morning.
A hat and high-factor cream. There is essentially no natural shade on this island.
A light layer for the evening. The wind on the rim is cool after dark even in August.
A windproof. The meltemi is stronger than most visitors expect.
Cash. Cards are widely taken, but the cable car, bakeries, small tavernas and boat fares want notes.
A refillable bottle. Tap water is desalinated; buy large bottles and refill.
Dark or old swimwear if you are doing the hot springs, because the iron stains.
Motion sickness tablets for a fast ferry or a boat trip in wind.
Nothing you cannot carry up steps. This applies to every caldera hotel, and it is the santorini first time packing rule that matters most.
What Do Santorini First Time Visitors Get Wrong?
Booking the whole stay on the caldera rim. Two to three times the price and nowhere to swim.
Not asking how many steps. The most common complaint about caldera hotels, and entirely avoidable with one email.
Planning six stops a day. The roads allow three.
Being in Fira or Oia at midday. That is exactly when every cruise passenger is there.
Watching the sunset from the Oia castle. Several thousand people for a sun that sets identically over four quieter places.
Connecting a ferry to a same-day flight. The wind cancels sailings at short notice. This is the mistake that ruins holidays.
Expecting a taxi. Thirty for the whole island.
Hiring a quad. Narrow unlit roads, gravel on the bends, and a great many injuries every summer.
Skipping Akrotiri. The best thing on the island after the caldera, and it sounds dull in a brochure.
Never leaving the rim. Half the island is fifteen minutes inland and almost nobody sees it.
Eating every dinner with a view. Triple the price for worse food.
Turning up at a taverna at seven. Dinner is at nine.
Wearing sandals to the volcano. Thirty minutes on sharp loose scoria.
Booking two nights. That is a stopover, not a santorini first time visit.
Local Etiquette and Practicalities
A santorini first time visitor meets most of these in the first two days.
Meal times. Lunch from half past one, dinner from nine, busiest between half past nine and eleven.
Shared plates. Greek eating is mezedes in the middle of the table, not a main each.
Tipping. Not obligatory. Rounding up is normal, ten percent is generous.
Bread is charged. A small cover, standard across Greece, and it is on the menu.
Churches. Cover shoulders and knees inside, and do not photograph a service.
Private property. Almost every terrace, roof and pool you have seen in a photograph belongs to a hotel or a family. Shoot from the public path.
Lanes. People get to work through them. Do not block one for twenty minutes.
Water. The island runs on desalination. Drink bottled.
Electricity. 230V, European two-pin.
Emergencies. 112, with a health centre in Fira and anything serious flown to Athens. Travel insurance is not optional here.
Language. English is spoken everywhere in tourism. Kalimera and efcharisto cost nothing and change the room. We guide in twelve languages. Languages.
Sun and wind. Both stronger than a santorini first time visitor expects, particularly on the rim.
Santorini First Time Versus a Second Visit
Worth knowing now, because it changes what you do with your five days.
What the first visit is for
The caldera, Oia and the rim villages, Akrotiri, one boat, one winery and one sunset. Those six things are the reason the island has the reputation it has, and a santorini first time trip should cover them and stop.
What the second visit is for
Ancient Thira on the ridge above Kamari, Thirasia across the water, three or four wineries rather than one, Emporio’s medieval kastelli, the far south coast and the Akrotiri lighthouse. Almost none of it is crowded even in August.
Why not do both at once
Because you cannot. The roads allow three stops a day and a five-night trip holds fifteen. Trying to fold the second visit into the first is exactly how people end up describing a minibus rather than an island.
What almost everyone changes the second time
They split the stay between the rim and the coast, they eat inland, they get up early at least twice, and they book a driver instead of a hire car. That list is the whole difference between a good santorini first time week and a very good second one – and there is no reason not to do it now.
Three Things to Decide Before You Book
Whether you want the view or the water. The rim gives you the caldera, the steps and the price. The coast gives you swimming, flat ground and a third of the cost. A split stay gives you both, and it is what we would do.
How much you will actually move. If the answer is “not much”, stay in Fira or Firostefani and use buses. If it is “we want to see the island”, book a driver for two days and stop thinking about parking.
Which month. This decides more than any other choice. A santorini first time visit in May and the same trip in August are two different holidays at two different prices, and only one of them is the one in the photographs.
Santorini First Time on a Cruise Call
A santorini first time visit that lasts one day works differently from a week, and the arithmetic is unforgiving.
Subtract two hours. Your published call is not your time ashore. Tendering plus the cable car queue in both directions takes about that.
Take the first tender. The queue at the cable car is the whole game, and it is shortest at eight in the morning.
Pick two stops. Akrotiri and an inland village, or Oia and a lunch. A santorini first time day ashore does not hold three.
Nobody can collect you at the quay. There is no road to the old port. Drivers meet you at the top of the cable car in Fira.
Be back ninety minutes early. The down queue is worse than the up queue, because every ship leaves at once.
Eat inland. Fifteen minutes from the cable car, a third of the rim price, and no queue at the busiest hour of the day.
Check ship time. Ships frequently run an hour off island time.
Done that way a santorini first time cruise call is a genuinely good day. Done the other way it is two queues and a crowd, which is the version most passengers describe.
Questions Worth Asking Before You Go
Eight things a santorini first time visitor should establish in writing, because none of them can be fixed on arrival.
How many steps to the room?
The first santorini first time question. Ask the number, not “a few”. Ask how far the nearest road is and whether a vehicle can reach it. This single question prevents the most common complaint on the island.
Is it a caldera view or a sea view?
Different sides of the island and very different prices. “Sea view” means the open Aegean on the eastern coast.
How big is the pool?
Cave hotels frequently have a plunge pool the size of a bath. If you want to swim, that matters.
Does the hotel restaurant open in my month?
Many close outside high season even when the hotel does not.
Does my licence work here?
A santorini first time trap for drivers. Many non-EU licences require an International Driving Permit, it is checked, and you cannot get one after you arrive.
What time is my last bus?
Earlier than you think, and it decides where you can eat.
Does my boat trip land on the volcano?
Some catamarans view Nea Kameni rather than landing on it. Confirm before paying.
What is the wind plan?
Ask any boat operator what happens if the meltemi blows. A good one will tell you their cancellation policy without being pushed.
Eight questions, ten minutes, and they remove most of what goes wrong on a santorini first time trip.
The Honest Summary
A santorini first time visit is one of the best short trips in Europe, and it is also one of the easiest to book badly. The island is small, dramatic and under real pressure from its own popularity, and almost everything that disappoints people is a consequence of when and where they chose to be rather than of the place itself.
Come in a shoulder month. Give it five nights. Split the stay. Be out early. Go inland at midday. Do three things a day and eat away from the view. That is the entire santorini first time formula, and it costs less than the version most people book.
What Should You Book Before You Arrive?
Order matters, and a santorini first time trip usually gets it backwards.
1. Dates. Pick the month for the weather rather than the price. May, June, September and early October make everything easy.
2. Flights or ferries. Never a same-day onward connection after a ferry.
3. Accommodation. Six to nine months ahead for July and August, three or four for the shoulder months. Ask about steps and vehicle access before you pay.
4. Boats. Catamarans and volcano trips run on set departures and sell out. Fix these before anything flexible.
5. Transfers. Arrival and departure, by name, with the flight tracked. Cheap, and it removes the two worst moments of the trip.
6. Sightseeing days. A private driver for the two or three days that actually contain sightseeing.
7. Restaurants. Only the caldera-view ones, and only in high season.
8. Nothing else. Leave the last afternoon and one whole day unbooked. Weather takes an afternoon, or something is good enough that you want longer at it.
The Santorini First Time One-Paragraph Version
Come in May, June, September or early October for five nights. Stay two of them on the rim at Firostefani or Imerovigli and three on the coast or inland. Be out before nine every day and go inland between eleven and five. Do Akrotiri with a guide, one boat into the caldera, three wineries with a driver, and one sunset from Imerovigli rather than Oia. Eat in the villages, carry cash, wear shoes with grip, and plan three stops a day rather than six. Do that and a santorini first time visit is one of the best weeks in the Mediterranean; do the opposite and it is a queue with a view.
Santorini First Time: Frequently Asked Questions
How many days do I need for a santorini first time visit? Three nights is the workable minimum, five is the sweet spot and seven is comfortable. Two nights is a stopover rather than a visit.
When should I come for a santorini first time visit? May, June, September or early October. July and August are hot, crowded, expensive and windy.
Where should a santorini first time visitor stay? Firostefani for the view at a sensible price, Fira for transport, Kamari or Perissa for a beach holiday, Pyrgos or Megalochori for value and central access with a car.
Do I need a car? Not for a short stay. For a week away from Fira, either a car for part of it or a private driver for the sightseeing days.
Is it expensive? On the caldera rim, yes. Everywhere else it is priced like the rest of Greece.
Are the beaches good? They are black, red or grey volcanic sand with steeply shelving water. Dramatic rather than soft, and the best swimming is from a boat.
What is the one unmissable thing? Akrotiri, with a guide.
Should I watch the sunset in Oia? Go to Oia in the morning and watch the sunset from Imerovigli, Firostefani, Pyrgos or the Akrotiri lighthouse instead.
Can I get around by bus? Yes for the beaches, Oia and the airport. No for Ancient Thira, the wineries and the lighthouse. Every route changes in Fira.
How do I get from the airport? A pre-booked transfer, or the KTEL bus to Fira and then a change. There is no reliable taxi rank.
Is Santorini good with children? Yes, from a coastal base with a vehicle. Not from a cave hotel down sixty steps.
What should I book before I arrive? Accommodation first, then boats, then transfers, then the sightseeing days. Restaurants last, and only the caldera-view ones.
What is the biggest santorini first time mistake? Trying to do too much. Three stops a day, grouped by corner of the island.
Let Us Plan Your First Visit
We are a local operator, based on the island, running private tours and transfers in our own vehicles. Almost everything on this page – the early start, the inland midday, the three stops, the guide at Akrotiri, the transfer that tracks your flight – is what we spend the working week arranging for people on their santorini first time trip.
Tell us your dates, where you are staying, how you are arriving and what you have already booked, and we will build the days around the island rather than against it. Prices are per vehicle rather than per person, so a family of four pays what a couple pays. Hotel pickup anywhere on the island is included, flights and ferries are tracked rather than assumed, child seats are available on request, and an 80 EUR deposit confirms a date.
Start with the full list of tours, the personalised tour if you already know what you want, or the FAQ.
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
