The santorini viewpoints fall into four groups: the caldera rim from Fira to Oia for the classic view, the inland high points at Pyrgos and Profitis Ilias for the whole island at once, the Akrotiri lighthouse in the south for a sun that sets into open sea, and the water for the only angle that shows how deep the crater is. Skaros Rock is the best of them, all of them are free, and every one is quiet before nine in the morning.
Santorini may be relatively small in size, the information you have, however, is so much that you find it quite difficult to arrange your schedule, so it’s better to trust Santorini Tours. You can find Santorini Tours and you can call us on 694 457 7918. A small island in the Cyclades has managed to become world famous and every summer thousands of tourists flock there for its surreal landscape, the abundant view of the Aegean and the sunset.
Of course summer is the season when Santorini knows its great glories as it is flooded with tourists who want to admire the beauty of the island. It is even considered the island of lovers who arrive there to live romantic moments. But what about winter?
Santorini is definitely not like most islands. This is because the season does not end in September or October but continues until November. Basically the winter for most tourist shops is the months of December, January and February.
Winter in Santorini
The island of dreams, as it is called worldwide, is re-established with winter colors, softer rhythms but with the same mysterious charm. Even in the winter months you will find ways to have a good time, eat nice food and find some of the nicest accommodation at lower prices.
Of course, the image that you will see as soon as you reach the most touristic points of the island, that is, all the villages on the Caldera, such as Fira and Oia, has nothing to do with summer.
In the heart of winter you will see closed hotels and restaurants, shops in a row with shutters down and sealed and few tourists and locals. The traffic in winter is transferred to the innermost villages of the island such as Messaria.
There you will find everything open. It is no coincidence that there live locals and professionals who have their businesses in the summer in the tourist places of the island. Life there in winter will remind you more of the daily life of a village than the cosmopolitan Santorini.
Seafood with winter flavor
Santorini is famous for its fava beans and seafood. What is certain is that in winter you will enjoy them better on the one hand because the restaurants are not so crowded to serve on the other hand because the prices are better.
Dare to take a trip to a different, calmer Santorini, but one can only enjoy it from the end of November until March. When the island moves at a slower pace. A Santorini that is now in the top tourist destinations in the world for at least 15 years.
Start from Pyrgos
Pyrgos, in the heart of the island, is a good, alternative choice for accommodation in Santorini, as long as you do not have a dream of a lifetime to sleep and wake up in the Caldera. It is almost equally far from the north and the south, built high – higher than any other settlement of Santorini – it overlooks land and sea may be one of the last villages that were used for tourism.
Indeed, a walk in the old part of the village, which was overtaken and characterized as traditional and preserved, is indicative of the relatively recent turn in tourism. However, it is also extremely interesting, as it passes through narrow cobbled streets with manicured buildings on the left and right, most of them tight-fitted together – this is how the villages with a fortified character on the islands- while all the roads seem to lead to the top.
In Kastelli and even more to the highest point of the village, where the church of the Entrances of the Virgin dominates, while nearby is the Virgin Mary who celebrates the Fifteenth of August and is one of the oldest churches on the island. You can take a tour of Santorini!
Pyrgos is a picturesque village, like the rest, less popular, villages that we visited and that still retain their color and architecture: Megalochori with the most beautiful square of Santorini, Emporio with the highest bell tower on the island of Palia Panagia or Mesaria with the old factories and mansions – some restored and others half-destroyed by the earthquake of ’56, when they were permanently abandoned.
Nice and the cave old houses that we meet here and there; the cave dwellings without foundations, which are narrow and long, carved either in whole or in part in the Thera land and have a vaulted roof.
Definitely you should go in Akrotiri
However, the prehistoric settlement revealed by the archeological dig at Akrotiri was also built with wisdom. It is necessary to visit the covered and well-preserved archeological site, where you will learn everything about the excavations and much more about the fact that the place you visit was first inhabited in the Late Neolithic period, around 4500 BC, while the 18th century BC had developed into a city.
The location was ideal for a safe anchorage, as it was protected from the north winds and the morphology of the soil favored the development of agricultural activities. It is a common secret, after all, that the fava made by Akrotiri and Emporio is the most delicious.
The area of the excavations is close to 14 acres and only a small part of the prehistoric city has been discovered. Other interesting information is that the construction was dense and the buildings were multi-storey with rich murals, organized warehouses, craft spaces, excellent urban planning with streets, squares and a sewer system, which passed under the cobblestones and was directly connected to the houses.
Read more about Santorini Tours:
- Santorini Sightseeing Private Tour
- Exclusive Shore Santorini Private Tour
- Impressive Caldera Santorini Private Tour
- South Part Santorini Private Tour
- North Part Santorini Private Tour
- Santorini Historical Private Tour
- Santorini Sunset Private Tour
Santorini Viewpoints: The Short Answer
The santorini viewpoints worth planning a day around fall into four groups, and only one of them is the famous one. The caldera rim runs from Fira to Oia and gives the classic view; the inland high points give the whole island at once; the southern tip gives open sea rather than crater; and the water gives the only angle that shows the scale of the cliff.
The best of the santorini viewpoints overall. Skaros Rock, below Imerovigli. Forty minutes return on foot, free, and it looks back at Oia with the caldera on three sides.
The most famous of the santorini viewpoints. Oia castle at sunset, which is spectacular and holds several thousand people from May to October.
The best of the santorini viewpoints at sunrise. Oia’s main street at seven, empty, with the blue domes front-lit.
The best inland santorini viewpoints. Pyrgos castle, with both coasts, the caldera and the open sea visible at once.
The highest of the santorini viewpoints. Profitis Ilias monastery at 567 metres, and Ancient Thera on the ridge at 360.
The most different of the santorini viewpoints. The Akrotiri lighthouse, where the sun drops into open water rather than behind the rim.
The one nobody uses. The caldera from a boat, looking up at fifteen hundred feet of stratified rock.
The rule. Every one of the santorini viewpoints on this page is free. The only thing that costs anything is getting to them.
The Caldera Rim, North to South
The rim is a continuous ten-kilometre balcony from Fira to Oia, and the santorini viewpoints along it are close enough together to walk between.
Fira, the cliff path. The most central of the santorini viewpoints. The town’s western edge is a paved promenade with the caldera on one side and cafés on the other. Best in the early morning before the cable car starts and the cruise crowd arrives. The view south towards Athinios and the volcano is better here than anywhere north of it.
Firostefani, Agios Theodori. Ten minutes’ walk north of Fira, and the single most photographed church-and-caldera composition on the island. Front-lit in the first hour after sunrise, silhouetted at sunset. Fewer people than anywhere else on the rim at any hour.
Imerovigli. The highest of the rim santorini viewpoints, at around 300 metres, which is why it is called “the watchtower”. Oia is visible along the curve to the north, the volcano sits directly in front, and the sunset drops beside the rim rather than behind it.
Skaros Rock. A headland below Imerovigli that carried the island’s medieval capital until earthquakes destroyed it. The path down and out takes twenty minutes each way, the last section is loose, and the chapel of Theoskepasti on the far side is the best free viewpoint in the Cyclades.
The Oia to Fira path. Between Imerovigli and Oia the rim becomes open hillside: dirt, rock and volcanic gravel with a three-hundred-metre drop and no shade. Some of the best santorini viewpoints are simply points along this stretch with no name.
Oia castle. The ruined Venetian fort at the western tip of the village. The most congested viewpoint in Greece from May to October, with people arriving ninety minutes early. Extraordinary, and better at eight in the morning.
Oia’s main street. The three-blue-dome view, which is on the pedestrian street on the north side. Empty before eight and queuing by ten.
Ammoudi Bay. The only one of the santorini viewpoints that looks up rather than down. Three hundred steps below Oia, looking up at the red cliff rather than down from it. The inverse view, and the one people forget.
The Inland Santorini Viewpoints
Almost every visitor stays on the rim, which means the santorini viewpoints inland are empty at every hour of every day, and two of them are better than anything on the caldera.
Pyrgos castle. The best of the inland santorini viewpoints. The old fortified village stacks up a hill in the middle of the island, and the kastro at the top gives a genuine 360-degree view: the caldera to the west, Kamari and the east coast, Ancient Thera’s ridge to the south, and open Aegean in every gap. Fifteen minutes from Fira, no admission, and a handful of people at any time.
Profitis Ilias. The highest of all the santorini viewpoints. The monastery on the island’s highest point at 567 metres, reached by a road that climbs past Pyrgos. From here Santorini is legible as a shape rather than a coastline, and on clear winter days you can see Ios, Anafi, Naxos and occasionally Crete.
Ancient Thera. The Hellenistic city on a ridge at 360 metres above Kamari, with both coasts visible from the site itself. The walk up from Perissa takes an hour; the switchback road takes fifteen minutes. Among the santorini viewpoints this is the only one that comes with a ruined city attached.
Emporio’s kastro. The most medieval of the santorini viewpoints. The largest medieval settlement on the island, with a bell tower above the maze of covered lanes and a view across the whole southern plain.
Megalochori’s bell towers. Freestanding stone towers above a village of vaulted cellars, with the vineyards spreading out below.
Exo Gonia. A terrace above the eastern plain, with Kamari and the ridge behind it, and one of the quietest sunsets on the island.
Vothonas. A ravine of cave houses cut into the ash, which is a view down rather than out and unlike anything else here.
Mesa Vouno. The rock between Kamari and Perissa, with the two beaches on either side of it and the sea beyond.
The South and the Open Sea
The southern end of the island faces away from the crater, and the santorini viewpoints down here show a completely different landscape.
The Akrotiri lighthouse. The southernmost of the santorini viewpoints, built in 1892, where the caldera rim ends and the open Aegean begins. The sun sets into water rather than behind land, which makes this the one place on the island where you see a true sea sunset. Almost nobody comes here before six, and the drive from Fira takes twenty-five minutes.
The Red Beach viewpoint. A short climb from the car park above the beach, looking down onto a cove backed by a cliff of oxidised iron-rich lava. The colour is genuine and the descent to the sand has been closed repeatedly for rockfall, which makes the viewpoint the safer and better option.
Vlychada’s pumice cliffs. The strangest of the southern santorini viewpoints. Wind-carved white rock behind a grey-black beach, at their most sculptural in the late afternoon.
Mesa Pigadia. A small bay under cliffs at the end of a rough track, reached by very few people.
Akrotiri village. The Venetian castle ruin above the archaeological site, with the whole southern coast below it.
Caldera Beach and the south-west shore. The inside of the crater at sea level, looking up rather than down.
Faros. The cluster around the lighthouse road, with the cliffs of Aspronisi visible offshore.
Santorini Viewpoints From the Water
The angle that almost nobody plans for, and the one that changes what the island means.
From a boat inside the caldera the geometry inverts completely. The villages that look like the whole of Santorini from above become a thin white line along the top of a wall you have to lean back to see. The cliff is fifteen hundred feet of stratified rock in bands of red, black and white, with a thick pale cap of pumice laid down by the eruption. Nothing on land conveys the depth of the crater; from the water it is obvious.
Below Fira. The most photographed of the santorini viewpoints from the water, with the cable car running down the cliff and the town balanced on top of it.
Below Oia. Red cliffs dropping into Ammoudi, with the village stacked above and the castle at the point.
Nea Kameni’s crater rim. Standing on new black land in the middle of the caldera with the ring of cliff all around you. The best of the santorini viewpoints for understanding what happened here.
Thirasia’s Manolas. The emptiest of the santorini viewpoints. The far wall of the crater, two hundred metres above the water, looking straight back at Oia. Three hundred residents and no coaches.
The sunset from a boat. Between Oia and Thirasia with the engines off, which is the same sun as the castle with nobody else in the frame.
How to get there. Any caldera boat from the Old Port or Vlychada, from about 40 euros a head, running April to October.
Santorini Viewpoints: Sunrise or Sunset at Each
The caldera faces west, which decides everything about when each of the santorini viewpoints works.
Oia, blue domes. Sunrise. The village is lit from the east by a low sun coming over the shoulder of the island, the domes are warm rather than flat, and the street is empty. At sunset the same view is backlit and crowded.
Oia castle. Sunset, and it is the reason the crowd exists. Also excellent at sunrise, with nobody there.
Imerovigli and Skaros. Both. Sunrise gives Skaros itself lit from behind you; sunset gives the sun dropping beside the rim with Oia in the frame.
Firostefani. Sunrise for the church, sunset for the terraces.
Fira cliff path. Early morning, before the cable car starts.
Pyrgos. Late afternoon and sunset. The sun goes down over the whole island rather than over water.
Profitis Ilias. Any hour, and best in the clear air of winter.
Ancient Thera. Morning, before the ridge heats up and while the light is still on the eastern coast.
Akrotiri lighthouse. Sunset only, and it is a genuinely different sunset from the caldera version.
Red Beach. Late morning, when the sun is high enough to strike the red rock directly.
From a boat. Late afternoon into sunset.
The blue hour. Twenty minutes after the sun disappears, at every one of the santorini viewpoints on the rim. Almost everybody leaves and the best colour arrives after they have gone.
Santorini Viewpoints Without the Crowd
The crowd on this island is concentrated by hour and by place rather than spread evenly, which means the santorini viewpoints below are quiet at times when the famous ones are not.
Skaros Rock. Twenty minutes of walking filters out ninety per cent of people.
Firostefani. Ten minutes from Fira on foot, and consistently the emptiest stretch of the rim.
Pyrgos castle. Inland, so the coaches do not come.
Profitis Ilias. Requires a car, which is enough.
Akrotiri lighthouse. Busy for forty minutes at sunset in August and empty every other hour of the year.
Ancient Thera. A switchback road or a steep climb, and almost never busy.
Emporio. A medieval maze that most visitors never enter.
Exo Gonia and Mesa Gonia. Terraces above the eastern plain with nobody on them.
Thirasia. The far rim, three hundred residents, and a ferry ride that discourages day trippers.
The middle of the Oia to Fira path. Empty even in August after nine in the morning, because most walkers turn back.
Any of them before nine. This is the real answer. Every one of the santorini viewpoints, including Oia castle, is quiet at seven in the morning in every month of the year.
Santorini Viewpoints for Photographers
Direction of light at the santorini viewpoints. The caldera faces west, so the rim villages are front-lit at sunrise and backlit at sunset. If you want detail in the whitewash, shoot in the morning.
The best hour. The forty minutes after sunrise and the twenty minutes after sunset. Not the sunset itself, which is a bright disc against a dark cliff.
Compression. A 70-200mm from Imerovigli stacks Oia’s roofs into the shot everybody assumes was taken inside the village.
Wide. 16-35mm for the lanes and the domes, where you cannot step back.
Polariser. Takes the haze off the caldera and deepens a sky that is already close to unreal.
Midday is not wasted at the inland santorini viewpoints. Cycladic architecture was built for a vertical sun. Pyrgos, Emporio and Megalochori are at their most graphic at one in the afternoon.
Storm light. The half hour after a front clears over the caldera in October or March is the best light of the year at any of the santorini viewpoints.
Blue hour from Imerovigli. The rim lights coming on along the curve towards Oia, with the sky still holding colour.
Drones. Legal with EU registration and a pilot certificate, and prohibited near the airport, over crowds and at archaeological sites.
The one to avoid. Oia castle with a tripod at sunset in August, which is antisocial and produces a photograph a thousand other people took that evening.
Getting to Each of the Santorini Viewpoints
On foot from Fira. Firostefani ten minutes, Imerovigli thirty, Skaros fifty, Oia three to four hours along the rim.
By bus. Fira to Oia every half hour in season, twenty-five minutes. Everything else routes through Fira.
By car. Fira to Oia 25 minutes, to Pyrgos 15, to Profitis Ilias 25, to the Akrotiri lighthouse 25, to Ancient Thera 30 including the climb.
Parking. Difficult in Oia and Fira from June to September, and easy everywhere inland.
By boat. From the Old Port below Fira, reached by cable car, or from Vlychada marina on the south coast.
With a driver. The efficient way to cover the inland santorini viewpoints, which are spread out and have no bus connections between them.
Accessibility of the santorini viewpoints. Fira’s cliff path, Firostefani, the Akrotiri lighthouse and Profitis Ilias are all reachable without steps. Skaros, Ancient Thera, Ammoudi and Oia’s castle are not.
Shoes. The rim path is loose volcanic gravel and the villages are polished stone. Neither is sandal terrain.
Why the View Looks Like That
The santorini viewpoints are all looking at the same object from different sides, and knowing what that object is turns a nice view into an interesting one.
Around 1600 BC the volcano occupying this position erupted with a force several times that of Krakatoa. It ejected tens of cubic kilometres of magma, and when the chamber beneath emptied, the centre of the island collapsed into the void. What remains is the rim: the crescent of Thira that every rim viewpoint stands on, Thirasia opposite, and the uninhabited islet of Aspronisi to the south-west. The gaps between them are where the wall failed and the sea poured in.
The water inside reaches four hundred metres deep, which is why cruise ships anchor rather than dock and why there are no beaches on the inner side. The cliff you look down is a vertical cross-section of the volcano’s own history: bands of red and black lava from successive eruptions, layers of grey ash between them, and a thick white cap of pumice laid down by the final event. That white band is thicker at the northern end, which is why the cliff below Oia looks paler than the cliff at Akrotiri, and it is the single most useful thing to know at any of the santorini viewpoints.
Nea Kameni and Palia Kameni in the centre are the volcano rebuilding itself. Palia first broke the surface in AD 46 and Nea in 1707, and both have grown through eruptions since, the last in 1950. From Imerovigli you are looking at land younger than the United States.
The villages are a response to the same geology. There is almost no timber on the island, so roofs are vaults and walls are thick. Houses on the rim are cut back into compacted ash, which is soft enough to excavate and holds a stable temperature all year — which is why a cave house looks like a doorway with a hill behind it. The old inland settlements are kastelia, fortified rings where the outer houses form the wall, built because the Aegean was a pirate coast for four centuries. That is why Pyrgos and Emporio sit inland and high, out of sight of the sea, and why they make such good viewpoints today.
Even the vineyards below the inland santorini viewpoints are geology in action: ungrafted assyrtiko trained into low baskets on the ground, because there is no rain in the growing season, no irrigation, and a wind that would otherwise destroy the fruit.
Santorini Viewpoints by What You Want to See
The classic postcard. Firostefani’s Agios Theodori, or Oia’s main street. Blue dome, white wall, blue sea.
The whole crater at once. Imerovigli or Skaros Rock, both high enough on the rim’s outward curve to see north and south simultaneously.
The whole island at once. Profitis Ilias or Pyrgos castle, inland and high, with both coasts in the frame.
The volcano. Fira’s cliff path looks straight at Nea Kameni; standing on its crater rim is better.
Open sea rather than crater. The Akrotiri lighthouse, at the southern tip.
Colour. The Red Beach viewpoint in late morning, when the sun strikes the oxidised cliff directly.
Scale. Only one of the santorini viewpoints conveys it. Only from the water. The cliff from below is the one view that conveys how deep the caldera is.
Archaeology with a view. Ancient Thera on its ridge, where the Hellenistic city and both coastlines appear together.
Villages stacked up a hill. Pyrgos from the road below it, or Emporio from its bell tower.
Something nobody else photographs. Vothonas’s ravine of cave houses, or Mesa Vouno between the two black beaches.
Night. The rim from Imerovigli at blue hour, with the village lights running along the curve towards Oia.
Stars. Two of the santorini viewpoints are far enough from town lights. Profitis Ilias or the south, both far enough from Fira’s light to see the Milky Way in summer.
Practical Notes for a Viewpoint Day
Start before eight. The single instruction that matters most. Every one of the santorini viewpoints is quiet at seven and busy at eleven.
Take water. Several of the santorini viewpoints have no shop and no shade. There is no shade and no shop on the middle of the rim path, or at Ancient Thera, or at Profitis Ilias.
Wear proper shoes. Loose volcanic gravel on the rim path, polished marble in the villages, and a steep climb at Ancient Thera.
Respect the fences. The caldera edge is unstable pumice and there are fatalities most years.
Do not stand on terraces. They are hotel rooms and houses, and it is the commonest complaint about visitors here.
Check for cruise ships. Four large ships in the caldera puts several thousand extra people onto the rim between ten and six.
Plan the drive between the santorini viewpoints. Fira to Oia is 25 minutes, to Pyrgos 15, to Profitis Ilias 25 and to the lighthouse 25. Parking is the problem, not distance.
Book dinner near your last viewpoint. Driving across the island after dark on a full stomach is the least pleasant part of a good day.
Stay for the blue hour. Twenty minutes after sunset at any rim viewpoint, when almost everybody has gone.
Layer up. The rim is exposed and it is ten degrees cooler at eight in the evening than it was at six.
The Viewpoints Nobody Writes About
Beyond the dozen santorini viewpoints that appear on every list, the island has a second tier that is genuinely good and almost entirely unvisited, mostly because none of them has a car park with a sign.
The Theoskepasti chapel behind Skaros. Most people reach Skaros Rock, photograph it and turn round. The path continues around the back of the rock to a tiny chapel on the seaward side, and from there you are looking north up the entire caldera with the rock itself between you and the village. Ten more minutes, and a completely different photograph.
The steps below Firostefani. A staircase drops from the rim towards the water past a handful of houses, and forty steps down the view opens under the terraces rather than over them.
Agios Nikolaos at Imerovigli. A small monastery on the inland side of the village, looking east across the plain to Kamari rather than west into the crater. The reverse view, and empty.
The Oia windmills. Past the castle at the western end, where the crowd thins by ninety per cent within two hundred metres.
Finikia. The village immediately inland from Oia, three minutes away, with the same light and none of the people.
The road above Athinios. A switchback with a lay-by halfway down, looking straight across the caldera at Thirasia with the ferries below.
Kokkini Ammos. The second red beach, west of the famous one, reached on foot along the shore.
The Venetian castle at Akrotiri village. A ruin above the modern village with the whole southern coast and the lighthouse in view.
Mesa Gonia’s church. Above a village largely abandoned after the 1956 earthquake, looking across the vineyards to the ridge.
The cemetery road at Pyrgos. Higher than the castle and quieter, with the same 360-degree view.
Baxedes and the north coast. The outside of the island, where the sea is open and the cliffs face north into the meltemi.
The plateau above Vlychada. Farm tracks between the vineyards with the white pumice cliffs dropping away below.
What the Photographs Do Not Show
Every one of the santorini viewpoints looks better in a photograph than in a first thirty seconds, and knowing why prevents the small disappointments.
Scale is flattened. A wide lens makes the caldera look like a bay. It is eleven kilometres across and four hundred metres deep, and the only way to feel that is from a boat inside it.
The crowd is cropped out. The three-dome shot is taken from a spot with a queue behind it for most of the day. The photograph is true; the framing is not.
The colour is the hour. The saturated blue and gold in every image is the first hour after sunrise or the twenty minutes after sunset. At two in the afternoon the same view is white, grey and hazy.
The heat is invisible. There is no shade at any rim viewpoint, and the stone radiates until well after dark in August.
The steps do not appear. Reaching Ammoudi is three hundred steps down and three hundred back. Skaros is twenty minutes each way on loose ground.
The wind is not in the frame. The rim is exposed, and in a July meltemi a tripod is unusable and a hat is gone.
The private terraces. Half the iconic angles are taken from hotel property. Standing on one is trespassing, and it is the commonest complaint made about visitors here.
What is better in person. The depth of the crater, the layered colour in the cliff, and the twenty minutes of blue after everybody else has gone. None of the santorini viewpoints photograph that well, and all of them deliver it.
A One-Day Viewpoint Circuit
If you want the santorini viewpoints in a single day, this is the order that works, and it moves against the crowd all day.
06:45. Leave for Oia. Twenty-five minutes from Fira.
07:15. The blue domes on the main street, empty and front-lit.
07:45. Oia castle, with perhaps five other people on it.
08:30. Ammoudi Bay, three hundred steps down, looking back up at the red cliff.
10:00. Imerovigli, then the path out to Skaros Rock and the chapel behind it.
11:30. Firostefani and the church of Agios Theodori.
12:30. Lunch in Fira, one street back from the cliff.
14:00. Pyrgos castle, for the 360-degree view over the whole island.
15:00. Profitis Ilias, at the highest point.
16:00. Ancient Thera on the ridge, or Emporio’s kastro if the legs have gone.
18:00. The Akrotiri lighthouse, for a sunset into open sea.
20:00. Dinner in Megalochori or Emporio.
What this circuit of the santorini viewpoints misses. The view from the water, which needs its own half day and is the one genuinely irreplaceable item on the list.
The Santorini Viewpoints Season by Season
Winter, November to February. The clearest air of the year. From Profitis Ilias on a good December day you can see four islands and occasionally Crete. Storm light over the caldera is spectacular, and every one of the santorini viewpoints is empty.
Spring, March to May. Green hillsides for about six weeks, wild flowers along the rim path, and comfortable walking temperatures. The best combination of light and landscape.
June. Long days, hard clean light, and the crowd building. Sunset at half past eight.
July and August. Haze in the middle of the day, the meltemi making the exposed viewpoints uncomfortable, and the rim busy from ten until six. Sunrise becomes essential rather than optional.
September. Warm, clear, harvest in the vineyards below the inland viewpoints, and the crowd thinning from the second week.
October. Golden low light, the first cloud since spring, and the best month of the year for photography at the santorini viewpoints.
Daylight. Sunset moves from half past eight in June to just after five in December, which changes the whole shape of a viewpoint day.
Mistakes People Make at the Santorini Viewpoints
Going only to Oia. One village out of a dozen, and not the best viewpoint on the island.
Going at sunset only. The rim is backlit then. Sunrise gives the same places with light on them.
Standing on a private terrace. Almost every white cube with a pool is a hotel room or a house, and this is the commonest complaint about visitors in Oia.
Ignoring the inland santorini viewpoints. Pyrgos and Profitis Ilias are better than most of the rim and almost nobody goes.
Leaving when the sun disappears. The twenty minutes afterwards are the best of the evening.
Wearing the wrong shoes. The rim path is loose gravel and the villages are polished marble steps.
Climbing the fences. The caldera edge is unstable pumice and people fall from it every year.
Skipping the water. The view up at the cliff is the one nobody plans for and the one everybody remembers.
Santorini Viewpoints: Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best santorini viewpoints? Skaros Rock below Imerovigli, Oia castle, Firostefani’s church, Pyrgos castle, Profitis Ilias, Ancient Thera and the Akrotiri lighthouse. All are free.
Which of the santorini viewpoints is best at sunset? Skaros Rock or Imerovigli for the classic caldera sunset, and the Akrotiri lighthouse for a sun that drops into open sea.
Is Oia castle worth it? Once, if you arrive ninety minutes early. At sunrise it is empty and just as good.
Where is the three blue domes view? On the main pedestrian street in Oia, north side. Be there before eight.
Which santorini viewpoints are free? All of them. Only Ancient Thera has an admission charge, and that is for the archaeological site rather than the view.
Which of the santorini viewpoints is best at sunrise? Oia, because the caldera faces west and the villages are front-lit in the morning.
What is the highest point on Santorini? Profitis Ilias at 567 metres, with a monastery on top and a road to it.
Are there viewpoints without steps? Fira’s cliff path, Firostefani, the Akrotiri lighthouse and Profitis Ilias are all reachable without stairs.
How long is the Fira to Oia walk? Ten kilometres and three to four hours, along the whole rim, past most of the best santorini viewpoints.
Do I need a car for the santorini viewpoints? For the inland and southern viewpoints, yes, or a driver. The rim is walkable.
When are the santorini viewpoints least crowded? Before nine in the morning, in any month.
What is the best month for the santorini viewpoints? October and March for light, and any month before nine for emptiness.
See Them at the Right Hour
We are a local operator running private tours and transfers in our own vehicles, and the thing we actually sell on a viewpoint day is timing: which spot is empty at which hour, and which road avoids the coaches.
Tell us your dates and we will build the circuit around sunrise, the light and where the crowd is not.
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 sunset 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
