The Santorini sunset is best watched from Imerovigli, Firostefani, the Akrotiri lighthouse or a boat. Not from Oia, unless you are willing to stand among several thousand people for an hour beforehand. Every viewpoint on the rim gets the same sun.
Santorini group tours
Santorini is synonymous with the volcano and the rare beauty, the island is definitely one of the most photographed and famous islands of Greece and the ideal guide tours in Santorini is synonymous with Santorini Tours.
It is considered to be one of the most popular tourist destination in the world, since every year visitors from all over the world visit it to enjoy its beauties.
Explore the villages on Santorini island
Thira, as it is called, is located in the Aegean Sea and belongs to the Cycladic islands. Together with the two neighboring islands, Thirassia and Aspronissi, it is a remnant of Strongylis, a large island sinking in part after a great volcanic eruption in the late 17th century BC.
Fira, Oia, Ammoudi, Imerovigli and Firostefani, as well as beautiful villages such as Pyrgos and Megalohori are only a small taste of the beautiful settlements that adorn Santorini.
In here you will find beaches for all tastes, a variety of choices in terms of your entertainment, and countless pictures and landscapes that will surely stay engraved in your memory. It is no coincidence that this particular island is a favorite destination for every bon viveur on the planet.
Explore the unique villages of Santorini with Santorini private transfers!
With the eyes of a tourist guy
The goal of a guide is to be able to stimulate the interest of the group of people ahead of him and to make the place where he guides them to move them.
The tour guide is invited to highlight the value of the space for the people of ancient time and with vitality to lure the audience into history. This is how the tour guide in Santorini from Santorini Tours describes her work.
Generally, with regard to young visitors, through a recreational description will allow them to see the space with a different look, as something vivid and dynamic, which may help them understand better everything they already knew about it, but also what they learned through the tour.
As far as older visitors are concerned, we believe that anyone who chooses to get a guide to an archaeological site, presumably means that he has some special interest in this place.
That does not mean, on the other hand, that I must tire him with technical terms and infinite details. The goal of a tour guide is not only to enrich the public’s knowledge but also to challenge it.
To be able to make visitors participate in the touring process, to have interactivity, so they can compare what they see with their own experiences and their own culture, depending on the country they come from.
Book now a Santorini historical private tour!
See more about Santorini island:
- Geological tour of Santorini
- Cycladic architecture, an unsurpassed heritage in Santorini
- Santorini car hire
- Red beach in the most most spectacular colorful beaches in the world
- Luxury vacations in Santorini
Santorini Sunset: The Short Answer
Watch it from Imerovigli, Firostefani, the Akrotiri lighthouse or a boat. Not from Oia, unless you are prepared to stand among several thousand people for an hour beforehand.
The santorini sunset is genuinely better than average, and the reason is geometry rather than magic: the caldera rim faces due west, the villages sit 250 metres above open sea, and there is no other island in the way. Everywhere along that rim gets the same santorini sunset. Only one of them gets the crowd.
What Time Is Sunset, Month by Month
Approximate santorini sunset times, and worth checking on the day.
January. About 17:30. February. About 18:00.
March. About 18:30, moving to 19:30 when the clocks change at the end of the month.
April. About 20:00. May. About 20:30.
June. About 20:50, the latest of the year around the solstice.
July. About 20:45. August. About 20:20.
September. About 19:40. October. About 19:00, dropping to 18:00 when the clocks go back.
November. About 17:20. December. About 17:15, the earliest of the year.
The golden hour. Starts roughly an hour before. The cliff turns gold about forty minutes out and the best colour on the villages is often ten minutes before the sun actually touches the horizon.
Afterwards. The twenty minutes after the sun has gone are frequently the best of the santorini sunset, and almost everybody has left by then.
Why the Sunset Here Is Different
Four things combine in the santorini sunset, and only this island has all four.
The orientation. The caldera rim runs north to south and faces west across open water. There is no landmass between you and the horizon.
The elevation. You are 250 to 350 metres up, which lengthens the santorini sunset and puts the sun below your eye line at the end of it.
The foreground. A line of white villages on a black cliff, which is what turns a sunset into a photograph. Most famous sunsets have sea and nothing else; the santorini sunset has a cliff full of villages.
The air. Dry summers, dust and a little haze scatter the light into oranges and reds far more reliably than a clear northern sky does.
Add the volcanic islets sitting in the middle of the flooded crater and the santorini sunset has a middle distance that almost nowhere else offers. That is the whole of it. It is a good sunset made extraordinary by what it happens to be falling behind.
Where Is the Best Santorini Sunset?
Oia castle
The famous santorini sunset. The ruined Venetian castle at the western tip of the village looks straight down the caldera with the windmills behind it. In high season several thousand people gather from about ninety minutes beforehand, the lanes leading to it become a slow-moving crush, and people applaud when the sun goes.
Go if. You want to say you did it, and you are willing to arrive two hours early in July.
Do not go if. You have a pushchair, a bad knee, or any dislike of crowds. See Oia.
Imerovigli
The highest point on the rim, with Skaros Rock in the foreground and the same sun. A fraction of the crowd, and the view down the whole western cliff is arguably the better santorini sunset. Our usual recommendation for a santorini sunset on land. See Imerovigli.
Firostefani
Ten level minutes from Fira, with the church of Agios Theodoris and the whole caldera below. Quiet, easy to reach by road, and lined with terraces where you can watch the santorini sunset sitting down. See Firostefani.
Fira
The rim walk north of the cable car, with bars along it. Busy but never impassable, and the easiest santorini sunset if you are staying in town. See Fira.
The Akrotiri lighthouse
The southern tip of the island, looking back along the entire caldera in profile with the sun going down beside it. There is a car park, no village, no queue and no ticket. On a clear evening it is the best free santorini sunset on the island. See the lighthouse.
Skaros Rock
Twenty minutes down from Imerovigli on a loose path, out onto a spur in the caldera. Spectacular, and you have to walk back up in the dark, so take a torch and proper shoes.
Profitis Ilias
The monastery on the highest point of the island, 550 metres up, with the whole of Santorini below and the sun setting beyond the caldera. A completely different santorini sunset from the rim view, and almost nobody goes.
The Santorini Sunset From a Boat
This is the santorini sunset most people never see and the one we recommend most.
From the water in the middle of the caldera you are looking back at the cliff rather than standing on it, and the last twenty minutes of light turn the whole 300-metre face gold and then pink, with the villages lit along the top. It is the shot every photographer in Oia is trying to take and cannot, because they are standing in it.
Catamaran cruises. Five to six hours, leaving mid-afternoon, with swimming stops, dinner cooked on board and the sunset at the end. Semi-private trips take twelve to twenty people; private charters take whoever you bring.
Sailing yachts and traditional boats. Slower, quieter and the most atmospheric santorini sunset of all.
What to check. Shade on deck, whether dinner is included, the return time, and the cancellation policy for wind. The meltemi cancels boats in July and August, so book early in the week.
Cost. Roughly 100 to 180 euros a head with food on a shared boat, considerably more for a private charter.
A santorini sunset from the water costs more than standing in Oia and it is the only version nobody comes away disappointed by. See the sunset tour.
Wineries, Terraces and Inland Viewpoints
Several of the best places to watch the santorini sunset are not on the caldera at all.
The southern wineries. Santo Wines, Venetsanos and others sit on the slope above Athinios with terraces facing the caldera, tables, glasses of Assyrtiko and no queue at all. The most civilised santorini sunset there is. Book a table for about an hour before. See the wine tour.
Pyrgos. The Venetian castle ruin at the top of the village looks over the whole island with the santorini sunset going down beyond the rim. See Pyrgos.
Megalochori. Quiet lanes, a bell tower and a couple of restaurants with a western view. See Megalochori.
Emporio. The windmills on the ridge above the village catch the last light beautifully. See Emporio.
Ammoudi. Below Oia, at water level, with the red cliff above turning colour. Fish tables on the quay, the santorini sunset overhead, and the crowd two hundred metres above you.
Your own terrace. If you have booked a room on the rim, the santorini sunset is what you paid for. Use it at least twice.
Where the Locals Watch It
Nobody who lives here watches the santorini sunset from Oia in August, and the honest list is short.
The rim path between Fira and Firostefani, on a wall, with a beer. The lighthouse road, parked. A taverna terrace in Megalochori that happens to face the right way. Pyrgos castle, in winter, when the whole island is below you and there is nobody else on it. Or, most often, a roof or a balcony at home, because after twenty years the santorini sunset is still the best thing that happens on this island every day and it is free from almost anywhere on the western half of it.
The one date locals do turn out for is the first properly clear evening after a storm in winter, when the air is washed and the santorini sunset is extraordinary.
Photographing the Santorini Sunset
Oia blue domes. Not at sunset. The domes face east and are best in the early morning with the light behind you. This is the single most common mistake photographers make with the santorini sunset.
Imerovigli. Skaros Rock as a silhouette in the foreground with the sun behind it.
Firostefani. The church of Agios Theodoris with the caldera dropping away below.
The lighthouse. The entire island in profile with the sun beside it. The best single frame of the santorini sunset, and it needs a long lens.
From the water. The cliff lit gold, which no land position can give you.
Timing. Arrive ninety minutes early. Shoot the golden hour, then the sun, then stay for the twenty minutes afterwards when the sky goes pink and the village lights come on. Most people leave before the best of the santorini sunset.
Kit. A tripod is worth carrying for the blue hour. Drones are heavily restricted in Greece and prohibited over archaeological sites, so do not plan around one.
Weather. A completely clear sky gives a plain santorini sunset. A few clouds give the good ones.
And the Sunrise, Which Nobody Watches
Every visitor comes for one end of the day and almost none of them sees the other, which is a shame because the morning is arguably the better half.
The sun comes up over the sea to the east, behind Kamari and Ancient Thira, and it lights the caldera villages from the front rather than silhouetting them. That is why the blue domes photograph so well at seven in the morning and so badly at eight in the evening. Oia at that hour is empty, level and cool, the shops are shut, and you can walk the main street end to end without meeting anybody.
Sunrise runs from about 5:00 in June to 7:45 in December. In high summer it means a very early alarm; in the shoulder months it is entirely civilised, and in October you can be up, out and back for breakfast by nine.
Where to go: Oia main street and the castle, Imerovigli looking north along the rim, the rim path from Fira, or Kamari beach if you want the sun coming straight out of the water. All of them free, all of them empty.
If you do one thing on this island that nobody in your photographs is doing, make it that.
What It Costs
Standing on the rim. Free, everywhere. The santorini sunset has never cost anybody anything.
A drink on a terrace. 10 to 18 euros for a cocktail on the caldera in Fira or Firostefani.
Dinner on the rim. 60 to 120 euros a head with wine, and a booking is essential in season for the two hours around the santorini sunset.
A winery terrace. 15 to 30 euros a head for a tasting flight, with the same santorini sunset and a table to watch it from.
Shared catamaran with dinner. Roughly 100 to 180 euros a head.
Private charter. From several hundred euros for the boat.
A driver for the evening. Priced per vehicle, and the sensible option if you want the santorini sunset from the lighthouse and would rather not park in the dark.
The cheapest santorini sunset and the best one are frequently the same thing: a wall on the rim path at Firostefani with a bottle of something cold.
Mistakes People Make
Going to Oia in August. Ninety minutes of standing, and the santorini sunset looks identical from a mile away.
Arriving fifteen minutes before. You will see the backs of several thousand heads and none of the santorini sunset.
Leaving the moment the sun goes. The best colour comes afterwards.
Booking a rim restaurant without a reservation. They are full for weeks in season.
Photographing the blue domes at sunset. They face east. Go at seven in the morning.
Driving to Oia at seven in the evening. There is nowhere to park and the road out afterwards is a queue.
Doing it every night from the same spot. See the santorini sunset once from Oia, once from a boat, once from the lighthouse, and the rest from wherever you are sitting.
Assuming a clear sky is best. Cloud makes the colour.
Santorini Sunset: Frequently Asked Questions
Where is the best place to watch the sunset in Santorini? Imerovigli and Firostefani on the rim, the Akrotiri lighthouse for the whole island in profile, or a boat in the caldera. Oia has the same sun and by far the largest crowd.
What time is sunset in Santorini? About 20:50 in June, 20:20 in August, 19:40 in September and 17:15 in December. The best light is in the hour before and the twenty minutes after.
Is the sunset in Oia worth it? Once. Arrive ninety minutes early in season, expect several thousand people, and do not attempt it with a pushchair.
How early should we arrive? Ninety minutes for Oia in high season, twenty minutes anywhere else.
Can you see the sunset from Fira? Yes, from the rim path and the bars along it, and from Firostefani ten minutes north.
Is a sunset cruise worth it? It is the version most people never see: the cliff lit gold from the water. Book early in the week because wind cancels boats.
Where do you photograph it? Imerovigli with Skaros, the lighthouse with a long lens, or from the water. Not the blue domes, which face east.
Do you need to book anything? Restaurants and boats yes, viewpoints no. Every viewpoint on the island is free.
Is it better in winter? Often, yes. The air is clearer after rain, the light is lower, sunset falls at a civilised hour and there is nobody there.
Can you watch it from the beach? No. All the beaches are on the eastern and southern coasts, facing away. The caldera side has the sunset and no beaches.
Where can you sit down? Terraces in Firostefani and Fira, the winery terraces in the south, or a taverna in Megalochori. Oia is standing only.
Let Us Drive You to the Right Side of the Island
We are a local operator running private tours and transfers in our own vehicles, and a santorini sunset evening is mostly about being in the right place without having parked.
The lighthouse for the profile view, a winery terrace with a table and a glass, Imerovigli when the light is good, or a boat in the middle of the caldera. We will tell you honestly which santorini sunset suits the evening and the wind.
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 sunset tour, the personalised 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
