Why does Santorini keep winning island awards?

Because it puts a live volcano, a Bronze Age city buried in ash, a unique wine region and a 300-metre caldera cliff inside fifty minutes of driving. No other Greek island has that density.

Which Greek island is best for families?

Naxos or Paros for flat towns and shallow water. Santorini works well from a flat base at Kamari, Perissa or Monolithos rather than the caldera villages.

Which Greek island is cheapest?

Crete, then Naxos. Santorini is affordable if you sleep inland or on a beach and eat inland, at roughly 60 to 120 euros a night for two.

How many days do you need in Santorini?

Five nights. Three is tight, two is a highlights reel, and a week is the version most people wish they had booked.

When was the big Santorini eruption?

The Minoan eruption, between about 1620 and 1600 BC. It erupted roughly 60 cubic kilometres of material and collapsed the centre of the island into the sea, creating the caldera.

Can you walk on the Santorini volcano?

Yes. Boats land on Nea Kameni and a thirty-minute climb over loose black scoria reaches the crater rim. There is a small entrance fee to the geological park.

How much does the volcano trip cost?

Roughly 30 to 45 euros a head on a group boat, plus the small entrance fee to the geological park on Nea Kameni.

Is it dangerous to visit the volcano?

No more than Etna or Vesuvius. The realistic hazards are heat, loose ground and sun exposure rather than eruption, and the system gives warning signals weeks to months ahead.

A separate submarine volcano about seven kilometres northeast of Santorini, its crater floor some 500 metres down. It erupted destructively in 1650 and remains hydrothermally active and monitored.

How cold is Santorini at Christmas?

Highs of 14 to 16 degrees and lows of 9 to 11, with rain in bursts, strong wind on the rim and high humidity.

When do Greeks exchange presents?

On the first of January, brought by Agios Vasilis, Saint Basil, rather than on the twenty-fifth of December.

Why is there a decorated boat?

The karavaki is the older Greek Christmas decoration, honouring sailors home for the holidays. It has returned strongly in coastal towns and sits alongside the tree in Fira.

Do boat trips run at Christmas?

No. The volcano boat and the catamaran trips stop for the winter and restart in spring.

Is Santorini cheaper at Christmas?

Considerably. Good rooms run 50 to 130 euros against 350 and up in August, with a modest rise over the holiday dates themselves.

How many nights should we stay?

Four or five, and longer if you can stay through New Year and Epiphany on the sixth of January.

Where is the best sunset in Santorini that is not Oia?

Imerovigli with Skaros rock in the foreground, or the Akrotiri lighthouse at the south-western tip, which has essentially no crowd at all.

Are the famous Santorini terraces public?

No. Almost every rooftop, courtyard and infinity pool in those photographs belongs to a hotel or a private home. Book the room or ask the owner.

Which month is best for photography in Santorini?

April, May, September and October, for softer light, fewer people and lower prices. Winter is spectacular and empty but much of the island is closed.

PRIVATE TOURS

September 6, 2026 By Stelios Karamolegkos

Best Island in Greece – Santorini and the Honest Alternatives

The best island in greece is Santorini if you are coming once, for a first visit or a honeymoon; Crete if you have two weeks and want variety; Naxos or Milos if you want beaches and value. Santorini keeps taking the awards because a live volcano, a buried Bronze Age city, a unique wine region and a 300-metre caldera cliff all sit within fifty minutes of each other.

Santorini: Europe’s Best Island at US Global Traveler Awards

Greece and Santorini again stood out at this year’s “Global Traveler” awards of FXExpress 2020, which took place through an online event on December 14, and won three new awards. In Santorini Tours we know better than anyone that Santorini is worthy of these awards and any other awards might win in the future! Anyway, every single person who has visited Santorini has experienced the unique beauty of the wonderful Cycladic island. Santorini it’s much more than its sunset.

Specifically, Greece emerged for the first time as a favorite tourist destination internationally, by the readers of the online magazine trazeetravel.com and took second place in the category “Best Wedding Destination” after Tahiti and before the Cook Islands. In the same event, Santorini was distinguished for the 7th time in a row as the best island in Europe and won the title “Best Island in Europe” of the “Leisure Lifestyle Awards”.

Totally won three new awards – Recognition of the Greek island by the US confirms its high position worldwide

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Santorini: Europe’s Best Island at US Global Traveler Awards

As stated by the General Secretary of EOT Dimitris Fraggakis: “The new distinctions of our country, this time from the United States of America, are another confirmation of the high position of preference that Greece holds as a destination abroad. But it is also an encouraging sign for 2021 – a year in which the recovery of Greek tourism will gradually begin. In an extremely competitive environment, our country will show its comparative advantages in international markets.

Especially the USA is a very important market for our country over time, but also especially in view of the new season, EOT is already elaborating a projection plan with the spearhead of the Organization’s office in the USA which is strengthened and takes a more active role. I want to thank the organizers of the awards and the international public who honored Greece once again with their trust “.

You can take a tour of Santorini!

Awards given to Santorini

As announced by the organizing company, the results of the competition for Europe’s Best Island at US Global Traveler Awards will be published in the December issue of “Global Traveler” and will be posted on the following websites: globaltravelerusa.com, trazeetravel.com and webfamily.com.

The EOT Service in the USA has already received the award of the online magazine “Trazee Travel” and is thankful for such an award.

The FXExpress 2020 event brought together – due to the conditions – a single internet connection:

-The 17th Annual “GT Tested Reader Survey” awards

-The 8th “Leisure Life Style Awards”

-The 6th “The Trazees” awards,

-The 3rd “Wherever Award”

-The “Wine on the Wines Airline Wine Survey”

Take a tour in Santorini anytime with Santorini tours

Santorini is Europe’s Best Island at US Global Traveler Awards for 2020. One of the greatest things that will happen if you visit Santorini is that you can explore it as much as you desire. In fact, it is even better because we offer our tours and there are many more available spaces in our schedule! This way you can see the archaeological sites, visit the volcano, have a private island tour and live a remarkable experience!

Our office offers a variety of tours which can be customized according to your wants and needs. You can contact us and book your own private tour anytime! Take the chance and explore Santorini with our private personalized tours and enjoy the marvelous scenery of the most famous Cycladic island!

See more about Santorini tours:

The Best Island in Greece: The Short Answer

The best island in greece is Santorini, if you want one answer and you are coming once. It was named Europe’s best island at the US Global Traveler awards, it wins the same category most years somewhere, and the reason is not the sunset photographs. It is that no other Greek island puts a live volcano, a 3,600-year-old buried city, a wine region growing vines in baskets and a 300-metre cliff inside fifty minutes of driving.

If you want the honest answer, it depends on what you are coming for, and this page gives the best island in greece for each kind of trip rather than a single winner. Crete is the best island in greece for a long, varied holiday. Naxos is the best for families on a budget. Milos is the best for beaches. Santorini is the best for a first visit, a honeymoon, and for seeing something no other island has.

There are around 227 inhabited Greek islands and six that seriously contend for the best island in greece on a first trip. The difference between them is much larger than the brochures suggest.

Why Santorini Keeps Winning the Awards

Awards juries picking the best island in greece are not measuring beaches, and this is where people misread the result. Santorini’s beaches are black, grey and red volcanic sand, and Naxos or Milos beat them comfortably. What Santorini has is a landscape nowhere else on earth reproduces.

The caldera. The island is the rim of a volcano that erupted around 1600 BC and collapsed into the sea. You are standing on the edge of the crater, 300 metres above the water, and the villages are built along that edge. Nothing about that view is engineered, and it is why the best island in greece is usually decided from a terrace in Imerovigli.

The volcano is still there. Nea Kameni sits in the middle of the bay and you can walk up it. The last eruption was 1950. It is the only place in the country where the island’s own geology is a day out.

Akrotiri. A Bronze Age town buried by the eruption and preserved under ash, with two-storey houses, drainage and frescoes. It is the closest thing Greece has to Pompeii, it is 1,500 years older, and no rival for best island in greece has anything like it.

The wine. Assyrtiko grown on ungrafted vines woven into ground-level baskets, in a wine region that has never had phylloxera. There are around fifteen wineries on 76 square kilometres.

The scale. All of that is reachable from one hotel, which is the real argument for the best island in greece. On Crete the equivalent list is four hours of driving apart.

Add those up and the case for the best island in greece stops being about scenery and starts being about density. Santorini simply has more per kilometre than anywhere else.

What the Award Actually Was

The Global Traveler awards are voted on by readers of the US business and luxury travel magazine, and Santorini has taken the European island category repeatedly. Condé Nast Traveler readers, Travel + Leisure and the World Travel Awards have all named it the best island in greece, or something close to it, in the same period.

What those results tell you is fairly narrow. They measure how a place is remembered by people who have travelled a great deal, which is a real signal, and they say nothing about crowds, prices or whether August is bearable. A jury does not stand in the cable car queue.

So treat the awards as evidence that the island rewards the visit, not as a claim that the best island in greece is easy in high season. It is not. It is spectacular and it is busy, and the difference between a wonderful week and a disappointing one here is entirely a matter of timing.

The Honest Case Against It

Any page arguing for the best island in greece owes you the other side.

The best island in greece is expensive. Caldera rooms run 250 to 400 euros a night in season and dinner on the rim is triple the inland price.

It is crowded. Five cruise ships in the bay puts several thousand extra people into two villages that were built for donkeys.

It is steep. The caldera villages are stepped throughout, and Oia has no vehicle access at all.

The beaches are ordinary. Black sand gets extremely hot, and the water shelves quickly.

None of that changes the answer for a first visit. All of it changes when you should come and where you should sleep, which the rest of this page covers.

The Best Island in Greece for Each Kind of Trip

One winner is a magazine answer. Here is the useful version, because the best island in greece changes with the trip.

First visit. Santorini. You want the view you have seen a hundred times, and you want it to be better in person, which it is.

Honeymoon. Santorini, and it is not close. Caldera terraces, private boats and dinner above the crater are what the island sells.

Families with young children. Naxos or Paros. Flat towns, shallow sandy beaches, short walks and half the price. Santorini works from a flat base at Kamari or Perissa, but the caldera villages and small children are a bad combination.

Beaches. Milos, then Naxos. Milos has 70-odd beaches and one of them, Sarakiniko, looks like the moon.

Nightlife. Mykonos, then Ios. Nothing else is in the conversation.

Hiking. Crete for the gorges, Naxos for the villages, Santorini for one exceptional ten-kilometre walk along the crater rim.

Food. Crete, comfortably. Santorini is very good and expensive; Crete is very good and cheap.

Two weeks without repeating yourself. Crete. It is 260 kilometres long with mountains, gorges, Minoan palaces and two coasts.

Quiet. Folegandros, Sifnos, Amorgos, Tinos. All within a few hours of the ones everybody names.

Archaeology. Crete for Knossos, Santorini for Akrotiri, Delos as a day trip from Mykonos.

Wine. Santorini is the best island in greece for wine, and nowhere else is close on this scale.

Read that list and the best island in greece for you is usually obvious within two lines. Most people want two of those things at once, which is what island hopping is for.

Santorini Against the Other Contenders

The comparisons that actually get made when people argue about the best island in greece, answered plainly.

Santorini or Mykonos. Landscape against nightlife. Mykonos has better beaches, better beach clubs and a better town to wander at midnight; Santorini has the view, the volcano and the wine. Couples generally call Santorini the best island in greece, groups in their twenties generally say Mykonos, and both are expensive. See Santorini or Mykonos.

Santorini or Crete. Depth against concentration. Crete is a country pretending to be an island and needs ten days; Santorini needs five and delivers more per day. For one week, Santorini. For two, Crete, or both. See Santorini vs Crete.

Santorini or Naxos. Spectacle against value. Naxos has the beaches, the mountain villages, the food and the prices, and no view like the caldera. Families call Naxos the best island in greece; couples call it Santorini.

Santorini or Milos. Milos is what Santorini’s coastline would be without the hotels, and its beaches are the best in the Cyclades. It has no equivalent of the caldera villages and far fewer flights.

Santorini or Paros. Paros is the sensible middle: pretty towns, good beaches, good ferries, half the cost, and none of the drama.

Santorini or Rhodes and Corfu. Those are bigger, greener, cheaper and better for a fortnight with a hire car. Neither is Cycladic, and neither is what people mean when they picture Greece.

In every one of those pairings the argument for the best island in greece comes down to the same thing: Santorini wins on what you will remember and loses on what you will pay.

How Much It Costs Compared With the Others

Rough numbers for two people per night in the shoulder season, because price is what usually settles the best island in greece question.

Santorini. 60 to 120 inland or on a beach, 180 to 300 on the caldera, 400 and up for a cave suite.

Mykonos. Comparable, and higher in August.

Crete. 50 to 100 for the same standard, and dinner for two under 40 euros almost anywhere.

Naxos and Paros. 60 to 110, with better value at the top of the range.

Milos and Folegandros. Similar to Naxos, with fewer rooms, so book earlier.

The gap is smaller than people expect once you stay off the rim. A week here at inland prices costs roughly what a week on Naxos costs on the water, which is why the best island in greece argument is really an argument about where you sleep rather than which ferry you take.

When to Come

The month changes the best island in greece answer more than the island does.

May, June, late September, early October. Warm, swimmable, everything open, and the villages walkable at midday. This is when the best island in greece feels like the award it won.

July and August. Hot, dry, extremely busy, and the meltemi wind cancels boats. Come if you must, move everything before eleven and after five, and add a night.

April and late October. Cool sea, low prices, green fields, and a real chance of a windy day. Excellent for walking and wine, poor for the beach.

November to March. No boats, half of Oia shut, and a caldera under cloud that almost no visitor ever sees. Cheap, quiet, and genuinely lovely for three or four days.

Easter. The best week in the Greek calendar anywhere in the country, and Pyrgos on Good Friday is the finest version of it in the Cyclades.

Pick the month before you pick the island. A wet week on the best island in greece is worse than a bright week on the fourth best. See the weather month by month.

How Long to Give It

Two days. A highlights reel. The postcard and very little else.

Three days. Reasonable. Two sights, a boat and a sunset.

Five nights. The right number for the best island in greece. Akrotiri, a boat day, the wineries, Oia at dawn, a beach and one day with nothing in it.

A week. The island rather than the sights, with two afternoons doing nothing.

Combined. Five nights here and five on Naxos or Milos is the best two-week trip in the Cyclades, and it answers the best island in greece question by refusing to choose.

See the full itinerary and how many days you need.

What Actually Makes It Win

Six things make the case for the best island in greece, and every one of them is a half-day or less.

Akrotiri. Ninety minutes, roofed, best at opening, and far better with a licensed guide because there is almost no interpretation on the ground. See Akrotiri.

The caldera from the water. Five to seven hours on a catamaran with swimming stops and lunch on board, and the cliff turning gold at the end of the afternoon. It is the single view that no land position gives you.

Three wineries after four. Assyrtiko, Nykteri and Vinsanto, tasted in the order they were made, on a terrace above the vineyards.

Oia at half past seven in the morning. Empty, level, cool, and the light behind you. By eleven it is impassable.

The rim path. Fira to Imerovigli for twenty easy minutes, or the full ten kilometres to Oia in three to four hours.

Dinner inland. Pyrgos, Megalochori, Exo Gonia or Vothonas, at nine, at a third of the caldera price and better food.

Do those six and you will understand exactly why it keeps being called the best island in greece. Do the cruise-coach version instead and you will not.

Where to Sleep

On the best island in greece the village decides the holiday more than the hotel does.

Firostefani. The caldera view with road access, ten level minutes from Fira, and cheaper than Oia. The best base on the island for most trips. See Firostefani.

Imerovigli. The best view in Greece and a great many steps.

Fira. Central, on the bus network, walkable, noisiest.

Oia. Beautiful and impractical: no vehicle access and hotels fifty to eighty steps below the road. See Oia.

Kamari, Perissa, Monolithos. Flat, cheap, on a beach, and the sensible choice with children. See Kamari.

Megalochori and Pyrgos. Inland, quiet, the best food, and a car essential. See Megalochori.

Ask for the number of steps in writing before you book anything on the rim. It is the detail that turns the best island in greece into a week of climbing.

Getting Here and Getting Around

Practicalities, because the best island in greece is also one of the easiest to reach.

Flights to the best island in greece. Direct from most of Europe between April and October, and via Athens the rest of the year. Athens to Santorini is forty-five minutes.

Ferries. Five to eight hours from Piraeus depending on the boat, two hours from Mykonos, two from Heraklion, forty minutes from Ios. Everything docks at Athinios, thirty minutes from Fira, and there is no shade at the quay.

Never a ferry on a flight day. Boats are cancelled for wind far more often than planes are.

Car hire. 25 to 45 euros a day out of season, 60 to 70 in August. The driving is easy; parking in Fira and Oia is the problem. See car hire.

Buses. Cheap and frequent, and every route runs through Fira, so any cross-island trip is two buses and a wait.

Private transfers and drivers. Priced per vehicle rather than per person, which is usually cheaper than a small group tour for four people, and it removes the parking entirely. See transfers.

Best Island in Greece: Frequently Asked Questions

Which is the best island in greece overall? Santorini for a first visit, a honeymoon or a single week; Crete if you have two weeks and want variety; Naxos if you want the best value.

Is Santorini overrated? Only if you visit it badly. Oia at noon in August in a coach party is overrated. Akrotiri at opening, the caldera from a boat at six and dinner in Pyrgos is not.

Which Greek island has the best beaches? Milos, then Naxos and Crete. Santorini’s are volcanic, dramatic and second-tier for swimming.

Which is best for families? Naxos or Paros for flat towns and shallow water; Santorini works well from Kamari or Perissa.

Which is best for couples? Santorini, and it is the reason the best island in greece awards keep landing here.

Which is cheapest? Crete, then Naxos. Santorini is affordable if you sleep inland and eat inland.

Can you do two islands in a week? Yes, if one of them is next door. Santorini with Ios, Naxos or Paros works; Santorini with Corfu does not.

How many days do you need here? Five nights. Three is tight, two is a highlights reel, a week is the version people wish they had booked.

When is the best time to come? Late May, June, late September or early October.

Is it worth it in winter? For three or four quiet days, yes. For a beach holiday, no.

Do you need a car? It helps and is not essential. A driver for the winery afternoon and the guided day solves the only real problem, which is parking.

What is the one thing not to miss? The caldera from the water at the end of the afternoon.

We Live on It, and We Will Show You Why It Wins

We are a local operator running private tours and transfers in our own vehicles, and most of what we sell is timing rather than transport: Akrotiri before the coaches, the wineries after four, the villages once the ships have gone, and Oia at an hour when you can walk down the main street.

Tell us how many nights you have and we will build the days around the light, the wind and the cruise schedule, which is the difference between visiting the best island in greece and actually seeing it.

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 full day 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

September 5, 2026 By Stelios Karamolegkos

The Santorini Volcano – Still Active, and How to See It

The Santorini volcano is the island itself. The caldera is its flooded crater, formed when the centre collapsed around 1600 BC, and the cliff you photograph is the inside wall. It is still active: Nea Kameni last erupted in 1950 and the system is monitored continuously. Santorini Tours is a local operator running private tours and transfers on the island.

The amazing history of Santorini island and the volcano

Santorini is one of the most known islands of Greece and one of the most loved destinations for a great number of tourists from all over the world. Many of the people come here because of the cosmopolitan life you can enjoy in your vacations. The truth is that Santorini is much more than this.

Santorini have been a homeland for the ancient Greek since the 4th millennium BC. People have lived in here for a lot of centuries in a row so there is a lot of history and places with a great archaeological interest. Everything on the island is celestial. It is like a living paradise.

We have found some very great suggestions of how you can spend your time here on this magnetic island and learn everything about the history, the lifestyle and the volcano explosions during the past.

1. Oia

Oia is definitely one of the most visited and most photographed place in Greece. Lovely sunsets and idelyc local sights, were a source of inspiration to a great number of artists.

The village of Oia is set in half by a central road. The first part faces Caldera and you can see the houses into the rocks, at the other side you can enjoy the view of the houses of the captains. Here you can also find a lot of orthodox churches and catholic basilicas and a lovely castle with a panoramic view on the island.

Take a Santorini impressive Caldera private tour and enjoy the place with your company. You can choose to stay in one of the most known hotels in Santorini.

2. The historical Santorini

A Santorini historical private tour will give you the chance to make a travel on the past years and see how the people used to lived and how they raised after the distractions of the volcano.

An Akrotiri private guided transfer is the ideal thing to do in order to visit the archaeological place and get well informed about the ancient culture and see the magnificent constructions that survived from the destruction.

3. Taste the great wines of Santorini

Santorini has a lot of traditional vineyards and they produce some of the most great wines in Greece. If you fancy to see more about the traditional local wines you can choose a private tour. Take the chance to taste that ambrosia.

If you visit Santorini, we recommend, for the wine lovers to book a private tour. With that way you are going to have some enjoyable and romantic moments that you are going to remember for ever.

Explore Santorini island with Santorinitours

Vacations in Santorini island can be an unforgettable experience if you choose to explore the place with people that have all the needed knowledge and the means of transportation to guide you around this big island, you can take look to our luxury mini buses.

You don’t have to be in the queue for hours in order to visit a place or even take a photo. Private tours and private transfers will make everything easier and more enjoyable.

Would you like to feel like a living God; If the answer is yes, Satorini is the ideal place for your vacations!

See more about your vacations on Santorini island:

The Santorini Volcano: The Short Answer

The island is the volcano. What visitors call the caldera is the crater of the santorini volcano, flooded by the sea after the centre of the island collapsed into an emptied magma chamber around 1600 BC. The cliff you photograph from Oia is the inside wall of it.

The santorini volcano is still active. The two black islets in the middle of the bay, Nea Kameni and Palia Kameni, are the modern cone growing back, and the most recent eruption was in 1950. The system is monitored continuously and there is no current cause for alarm.

You can walk on it: boats from the old port below Fira land on Nea Kameni, and a thirty-minute climb over loose scoria takes you to the crater rim of the santorini volcano.

Is the Santorini Volcano Still Active?

Yes, and it surprises a great many visitors who assume the santorini volcano blew itself out in the Bronze Age.

The record. Eruptions have been recorded repeatedly since antiquity, building the Kameni islets in the middle of the caldera. The last one was in 1950, a small event that added to Nea Kameni.

2011 to 2012. A period of unrest with ground inflation and increased seismicity, closely studied and not followed by an eruption.

Early 2025. An intense earthquake swarm in the sea between Santorini and Amorgos prompted precautionary measures and a great deal of international coverage. Scientists linked most of it to tectonic activity rather than to the santorini volcano itself, and life returned to normal.

What that means for a visit. Nothing, in practice. The island receives more than two million people a year, the system is instrumented and monitored, and the authorities publish guidance when anything changes. Check official advice before travelling if there has been recent news, and otherwise treat it as you would any visit to Etna or Vesuvius.

The Minoan Eruption

The eruption of the santorini volcano that made everything else on this island possible.

When. Somewhere between about 1620 and 1600 BC. The exact date is still argued, because radiocarbon dating and the Egyptian historical chronology do not agree, and the argument has run for forty years.

How big. Estimates put the erupted volume at around 60 cubic kilometres, which places it among the largest volcanic events of the last ten thousand years, on the scale of Krakatoa in 1883 and probably larger.

The sequence. Four phases: a tall plinian ash column that dropped metres of pumice across the island; pyroclastic surges; a violently steam-driven phase when seawater broke into the emptied chamber; and finally the collapse of the chamber roof, which dropped the centre of the island into the sea.

The tsunami. Almost certainly, reaching Crete a hundred kilometres south, and it is the most plausible mechanism by which the santorini volcano contributed to the decline of Minoan power.

The evidence. Ash from the eruption has been identified in Greenland ice cores and across the sea floor of the eastern Mediterranean.

The town. Akrotiri was buried under the ash and preserved. No bodies and no jewellery have been found, so the inhabitants left before the end. See Akrotiri.

The Santorini Volcano in Numbers

The caldera. About 12 kilometres by 7, with the water inside the santorini volcano 300 to 400 metres deep.

The cliff. Up to 300 metres, almost vertical, banded in red, black, grey and white.

The island. 76 square kilometres, with a highest point of 567 metres at Profitis Ilias.

The eruption. Around 60 cubic kilometres of erupted material, roughly 3,600 years ago.

Nea Kameni. About 3.4 square kilometres, rising to around 130 metres, and still growing.

The Kameni islets. First appeared above water in the second century BC and have been added to by roughly a dozen eruptions since.

The last eruption. 1950.

Kolumbo. A separate submarine crater about seven kilometres northeast of the island, some 500 metres below the surface, which erupted violently in 1650.

Population at risk. Around 15,500 residents plus more than two million annual visitors, which is why the monitoring matters.

Those figures are the santorini volcano in one page, and they explain the cliff, the black beaches, the wine and the shape of every village on the rim.

Nea Kameni and Palia Kameni

The two islets in the middle of the caldera are the santorini volcano as it exists today.

Palia Kameni. The older one, first emerging in the second century AD, low, dark and largely uninhabited. The warm sulphurous springs are on its shore.

Nea Kameni. The newer and larger, built up through eruptions from 1707 onwards, with the most recent additions in 1950. Black scoria, no vegetation, no shade and no fresh water. This is the santorini volcano at ground level.

The craters. Several, with fumaroles that still steam and ground that is warm to the touch in places. The rock smells faintly of sulphur.

The walk. About thirty minutes up a loose zig-zag path from the landing to the rim, and the same back down. There is a small entrance fee to the geological park.

What it looks like. Not a green island. Black, lunar and completely bare, with the white villages on the cliff two kilometres away and 300 metres above.

Standing on it is the only way to grasp that the santorini volcano is not history but geography.

Kolumbo, the Volcano Nobody Sees

Worth knowing about, because it is the part of the santorini volcano field that scientists watch most closely.

Kolumbo is a submarine crater about seven kilometres northeast of the island, roughly 1,500 metres across, with its floor some 500 metres down. It erupted in 1650 in an event that killed around seventy people on Santorini through ash fall and a tsunami, and it remains hydrothermally active, with vents on the crater floor.

Why it matters. It has its own magma system, separate from the main santorini volcano, and recent research has mapped a body of magma beneath it. That is normal for an active field and is monitored.

Can you see it? No. There is nothing on the surface. Boats pass over it and nothing marks the spot, which is why nobody counts it as part of the santorini volcano.

Why it appears in the news. Because research vessels work there regularly and any paper about magma beneath the Aegean tends to be reported as an imminent threat, which is not what the science says.

Visiting the Santorini Volcano

How you get there. Boats to the santorini volcano leave from the old port below Fira, from Athinios and from Ammoudi below Oia. Most trips are half or full day and combine Nea Kameni with the hot springs and often Thirasia.

How long. Allow four to five hours for the standard trip, of which about an hour is on the islet itself.

The climb. Thirty minutes up loose black scoria, with an ascent of a little over a hundred metres. Not technical, and the santorini volcano is genuinely unpleasant to climb in August heat.

What to take. Closed shoes with grip, a hat, sun cream and more water than you think. There is no shade and nothing to buy on the island.

Cost. Roughly 30 to 45 euros a head for a group boat, plus the small entrance fee to the geological park.

When. The first boat of the day, or a late afternoon departure. Not the middle of the day between June and September.

Season. Boats to the santorini volcano run from roughly April to October and stop for the winter.

Who should skip it. Anyone with mobility problems, small children, or a low tolerance for heat. The santorini volcano is better seen from the rim than climbed if any of those apply.

See Nea Kameni and the full list of tours.

The Hot Springs

Included in almost every santorini volcano trip and consistently the most over-sold part of it.

What they are. Warm sulphurous water seeping into a small bay off Palia Kameni, staining the sea a rusty ochre.

The reality. Boats anchor offshore and you swim in, which means several minutes in cold open water before you reach the warm patch. The water is lukewarm rather than hot, roughly twenty-five to thirty degrees in the warmest spots.

The stain. The iron oxide marks swimwear permanently. Wear something you do not care about.

Worth it? As a curiosity, once. It is not a spa and anyone expecting one is disappointed.

Better. Swim off Thirasia or off the boat in clear water on the far side of the santorini volcano, and treat the springs as the odd bit in the middle.

Seeing the Volcano From Land

The best views of the santorini volcano are free and involve no boat at all.

The rim path. Fira to Firostefani to Imerovigli, level and twenty minutes between each, looking straight down onto the santorini volcano.

Imerovigli. The highest point of the rim, with Skaros Rock in the foreground.

The Akrotiri lighthouse. The whole caldera in profile with both islets in the middle. The best single view on the island and almost nobody goes. See the lighthouse.

Oia castle. The northern end of the crater, and the sunset that everybody comes for.

Profitis Ilias. The monastery at 567 metres, which puts the whole structure into one frame.

The Athinios road. Pull over on the hairpins and read the eruption sequence in the banded cliff face. Every stripe is a separate eruption of the santorini volcano.

Thirasia. The far rim of the santorini volcano, looking back, and the emptiest viewpoint of them all.

The Volcano, Atlantis and the Wine

Two things the santorini volcano is credited with, one shaky and one certain.

Atlantis. Plato described a circular island civilisation that sank in a day and a night, writing around 360 BC. The Greek archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos proposed in 1939 that he was working from a folk memory of this eruption. It is a good hypothesis and not a proven one: Plato’s location and date fit neither the island nor the event. What is certain is that the eruption ended the settlement here and that Minoan Crete never recovered its dominance.

The wine. Entirely certain. The vines grow in aspa, a mix of pumice, ash and pozzolana with almost no organic content, which is why phylloxera never took hold and why the vines are ungrafted with root systems counted in centuries. The salinity and the flinty edge in a glass of Assyrtiko come straight from the volcano. See the wine tour.

And the beaches. Black basalt and scoria at Perissa and Kamari, oxidised iron at Red Beach, pale ash at White Beach and Vlychada. Every colour on this coast is a different volcanic product.

The Volcano and Everyday Life

The eruption is not a historical footnote here. It decides how people build, farm, drink and get about, and once you notice it you see it everywhere.

The houses. The yposkafo, the traditional cave dwelling, is dug horizontally into soft pumice. It needs no timber on an island with almost no trees, it holds about 18 degrees all year, and it can be extended by digging further in. Half the boutique hotels on the caldera are converted ones, and the barrel-vaulted ceiling in your room is the original roof.

The building material. Theran earth, the local pozzolanic ash, sets hard with lime and water. It was quarried in bulk in the nineteenth century and shipped for major works abroad, and the pumice quarries on the north coast are still visible scars.

The water. There are no rivers, no springs worth the name and no aquifer to speak of, because the ground drains instantly. Cisterns collected winter rain for three thousand years and the island now runs on desalination.

The steps. The caldera side is a cliff, so every village on it is a stack of stepped lanes with no road through the middle. That is why the hotels have eighty steps and why nothing here is accessible.

The port. The water inside the crater is 300 to 400 metres deep, which is why cruise ships anchor rather than moor and why passengers arrive by tender at the foot of a cliff.

The earthquakes. The 1956 Amorgos earthquake, around 7.5, destroyed a great deal of the island and emptied villages such as Oia, which had only a few hundred residents by the 1970s. The tourism boom rebuilt them.

Everything a visitor finds charming or difficult about this island traces back to the same event, which is a fair summary of what the santorini volcano actually is.

Monitoring, Risk and Common Sense

Who watches it. The Institute for the Study and Monitoring of the Santorini Volcano, together with Greek university and research institutions, using GPS ground deformation, seismometers, gas measurement and satellite data trained on the santorini volcano.

What they look for. Ground inflation, changes in seismicity, and shifts in the gas coming out of the fumaroles on Nea Kameni.

Warning time. The santorini volcano is of a type that gives signals weeks to months in advance. The 2011 to 2012 unrest was detected, published and discussed openly, and no eruption followed.

Earthquakes. The Aegean is seismically active independently of the santorini volcano. The 2025 swarm between Santorini and Amorgos was largely tectonic and was handled with precautionary measures.

Should it change your plans? No, in normal conditions. Check the Greek civil protection guidance if there has been recent news, and otherwise plan as you would for Naples or Sicily.

The realistic hazards. None of them volcanic. Heat, cliff edges, slippery marble lanes, loose scoria on the crater path and quad bikes on narrow roads account for essentially every incident here.

Mistakes People Make

Climbing it at midday in August. Thirty minutes of loose black rock on the santorini volcano with no shade and no water.

Flip-flops. Scoria is sharp and the path is loose.

Expecting lava. There is none flowing. The santorini volcano is a quiet cone with fumaroles.

Expecting a spa at the hot springs. It is a lukewarm ochre patch you swim to.

Wearing good swimwear. The iron stains it permanently.

Booking it on a cruise stop. The tender and the cable car will not leave time to climb the santorini volcano.

Skipping the geology on the drive up. The banded cliff on the Athinios road is the clearest section through a volcano most people will ever see.

Assuming the caldera is a bay. It is a crater, and the difference is the whole point.

How the Caldera Formed, Step by Step

The shape of the island is a sequence rather than a single event, and it is legible from the road.

Before. A roughly circular island the Greeks called Strongyle, meaning round, built up by earlier eruptions over hundreds of thousands of years. There had been at least four caldera-forming cycles before the famous one.

The magma chamber. A body of gas-rich magma several kilometres beneath the summit, pressurising slowly.

The column. When it vented, a plinian eruption column rose tens of kilometres and dropped pumice across the island to a depth of several metres, which is the white layer you can see at the top of the cliff.

The surges. Ground-hugging flows of hot ash and gas swept outward, laying the grey and pink bands.

The sea. Water broke into the emptied chamber and the eruption turned violently steam-driven, which is what made it so much larger than a dry eruption of the same volume.

The collapse. With the chamber emptied, the roof gave way and the centre of the island dropped, in places by hundreds of metres, and the sea poured in through the northwest gap.

Afterwards. A crescent of cliff, two smaller fragments at Thirasia and Aspronisi, and a flooded crater. The santorini volcano then began rebuilding from the floor, which is what the Kameni islets are.

Every one of those stages is a visible band in the cliff on the drive up from the old port, which makes this the most legible large volcano in Europe.

Santorini Volcano: Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Santorini volcano still active? Yes. The most recent eruption was in 1950 at Nea Kameni, and the system is monitored continuously with GPS, seismometers and gas measurement.

When did Santorini last erupt? In 1950. Before that there were eruptions in 1939 to 1941, 1925 to 1928 and repeatedly since the Kameni islets first appeared.

When was the big eruption? The Minoan eruption, between about 1620 and 1600 BC, which erupted roughly 60 cubic kilometres and collapsed the centre of the island into the sea.

Can you walk on the volcano? Yes. Boats land on Nea Kameni and a thirty-minute climb over loose scoria reaches the crater rim. There is a small park entrance fee.

How long does a volcano trip take? Four to five hours for the standard boat trip including the hot springs, with about an hour on the islet.

How much does it cost? Roughly 30 to 45 euros a head on a group boat, plus the entrance fee.

Is it dangerous to visit? No more than Etna or Vesuvius. The realistic hazards are heat, loose ground and sun rather than eruption.

Are the hot springs worth it? As a curiosity. The water is lukewarm, you swim in from the boat and the iron stains swimwear.

What is Kolumbo? A separate submarine volcano seven kilometres northeast, about 500 metres below the surface, which erupted destructively in 1650 and remains monitored.

Did the eruption destroy the Minoans? It ended the settlement at Akrotiri and probably sent a tsunami to Crete. Minoan Crete declined afterwards rather than vanishing overnight.

Is Santorini really Atlantis? Probably not. It is the most plausible real event behind Plato’s story and neither his location nor his date fits.

Where is the best view of the volcano? The Akrotiri lighthouse for the whole caldera in profile, Imerovigli for the rim, or a boat from the water.

See It From the Water and From the Rim

We are a local operator running private tours and transfers in our own vehicles, and the santorini volcano is the thing most people come to look at without quite realising it.

The version we recommend is both: a boat that lands on Nea Kameni early in the day, and then the lighthouse or Imerovigli in the evening so you can see from land what you climbed in the morning. Akrotiri in between explains what the eruption did.

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 historical 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

September 5, 2026 By Stelios Karamolegkos

Christmas in Santorini – What Is Open and What It Is Like

Christmas in Santorini is quiet, cheap and genuinely lovely, provided you know that most of the caldera is shut. Lights across Fira, a decorated boat instead of a tree, carol singers on Christmas Eve, and the whole cliff to yourself at sunset.

Visit Santorini for Christmas Holidays

The countdown to Christmas and New Years Eve has already begun. The Municipality of Thira along with the Santorini Municipal Athletic Cultural and Environmental Organization could not remain a shareholder in such a beloved period for young and old alike.

With the aim of staying in Santorini Tours these days to give them the opportunity to let in the magic of the holidays and to feel the message of love and solidarity invite all Santorini residents and visitors to participate in this year’s events.

Private Guided Tours in Santorini at Christmas

Who says that winter does not have its own unique beauty. Visit the most popular destinations in Santorini with a private guided tour. Make the most of your stay on the island! See below the 8 most wanted Santorini private tours and decide which one suits you best.

Christmas in Santorini!

From December 12 until December 16, Santa Claus and his elves will visit Kindergarten and Primary School on the island bringing the Christmas spirit to schoolchildren, loaded with sweet surprises and taking pictures with them.

Also, from December 13 until December 15 there will be free children’s theatres. This is the Christmas play “The Spirit of Christmas“.

The show is based on the masterpiece of Charles Dickens and is the world’s most popular Christmas story by Uncle Scrooge! It combines theatre, dance, music with Mozart and Beethoven, Christmas songs with guitar and percussion, great classical texts in theatricals full of children’s messages, laughter and interactivity.

Why visit Santorini for Christmas Holidays

Christmas is mostly a time for shopping and gifts, food experience tours and wine with friends and family. Cities have traffic jams and lots of noise. In Santorini things are more simple and romantic during December and especially on Christmas Eve.

Locals celebrate a lot, with an emphasis on their traditional cuisine. The traditional Santorini fava and tomato bites from the traditional tomatoes of Santorini take the lead. They are served with the famous, tasty Vinsanto wine of the island. You can take a tour of Santorini!

An advantage could also be the fact that the prices during this period of time are really very low!

The sequence of performances is as follows:

Cultural Hall of Commerce
Multipurpose hall of Messaria Gymnasium
Kallistis Thiras Fireplace
Fira Christian Home

But… the heart of Christmas will be ringing for another year at the “Christmas Village”. From December 17 until January 3, daily 12:00 – 21:00 all the magic of the festivities will be at KTEL Central Station in Fira.

Train, ice rink, bungee trampoline, playgrounds, Santa Claus, face painting, candy wool, popcorn, fairy tales and many more surprises awaiting us all to celebrate Christmas and the coming of the new year together. Book a Santorini Tours and spend your holidays on the island making it worth!

See more about Santorini Private Guided Tours:

Christmas in Santorini: The Short Answer

Quiet, domestic, cheap and genuinely lovely, provided you know that most of the caldera is shut. Christmas in santorini is a village holiday rather than a resort one: about 15,500 residents, lights strung across Fira, a decorated boat rather than a tree in some squares, and the whole cliff to yourself at sunset.

Christmas in santorini rewards a simple plan. Come for four or five nights, base yourself in Fira, and treat the days as walking and eating rather than as an itinerary. Do not come expecting markets on a German scale, boat trips or a beach.

What Actually Happens

The lights. Christmas in santorini starts with decorations up in Fira and the larger villages from early December, and the main square in Fira is the centre of it. The municipality runs a modest programme of concerts, children’s events and choirs through the month.

The kalanta. On Christmas Eve morning, children go door to door singing carols with triangles, and they will sing at your table in a taverna if you are sitting in one. Say yes and give them a euro or two. It is the most charming moment of christmas in santorini.

Christmas Day. Church in the morning, then a long family lunch that runs into the evening. It is quieter and far less commercial than in northern Europe, which is the character of christmas in santorini.

The gifts. Not today. Agios Vasilis, Saint Basil, brings the presents on the first of January, which surprises visitors every year.

The following week. New Year’s Eve with fireworks over Fira, and Epiphany on the sixth of January with the cross thrown into the sea at Ammoudi and at the ports.

What is not here. A large Christmas market, an ice rink, a season of shows. Christmas in santorini is small by design.

The Boat, Not the Tree

The detail visitors like most about christmas in santorini, and the one nobody expects.

The older Greek tradition is to decorate a wooden boat, the karavaki, rather than a tree. It is a maritime country and the boat honoured the men who came home from the sea for the holidays. The tree arrived in Greece in the nineteenth century and largely displaced it, but the boat has come back strongly in the last two decades and coastal municipalities now put one up in the main square.

On an island whose nineteenth-century wealth came from shipping, the boat means something specific. Oia’s fleet traded across the eastern Mediterranean and the captains’ mansions along its main street were built on it.

Christmas in santorini gives you both, a tree and a boat, in Fira, and the boat in several of the villages. It is a small thing and it is the most photographed detail of christmas in santorini.

Christmas in Santorini: What Is Open

Fira. The whole town functions through christmas in santorini, because people live there. Supermarkets, bakeries, pharmacies, banks, tavernas, a few bars and the museums.

Akrotiri. Open on winter hours and roofed, which makes it the best wet-weather day of the trip. Closed on the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth. See Akrotiri.

Museums. Both Fira museums open, on holiday hours over the days themselves.

Wineries. Several of the larger estates keep shorter hours. Ring ahead rather than turning up. See the wine tour.

Inland villages. Pyrgos, Megalochori, Emporio and Exo Gonia all have tavernas open, and this is where the food is.

Hotels. A limited number in Fira, Firostefani and inland stay open for christmas in santorini. Most of the caldera is closed.

What is shut. Most of Oia, all the boat trips, the beach bars, and direct international flights.

The days themselves. Shops close on the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth and on the first of January, the three quiet days of christmas in santorini. Supermarkets are busy beforehand.

The Food

Christmas in santorini is pork rather than turkey, and the sweets matter more than the main course.

Melomakarona. Soft honey and walnut biscuits with clove and orange. The sweet of christmas in santorini, in every bakery from the start of December.

Kourabiedes. Butter shortbread buried in icing sugar. The other one, and the argument about which is better runs in every family.

Christopsomo. Christ’s bread, baked on Christmas Eve and marked with a cross.

Pork. Roasted, slow-cooked with celery and avgolemono, or preserved. The traditional centre of the table.

The island’s own. Fava, white aubergine, capers, chloro cheese and tomato preserved from the summer, all of it still on the menu in winter.

Vasilopita. Cut at midnight on New Year’s Eve with a coin baked inside.

Where to eat. Inland at Pyrgos, Megalochori, Emporio and Vothonas, where the tavernas are full of locals and the prices are a third of the caldera. Book nothing except Christmas Day itself, which needs a reservation.

The eating is the best argument for christmas in santorini after the emptiness.

Weather and What to Pack

Temperature. Christmas in santorini runs 14 to 16 degrees by day and 9 to 11 at night. It very rarely freezes and snow is a once-a-decade event.

Rain. This is the wet season, in bursts rather than all day. A dry week of christmas in santorini is entirely possible and so is a wet one.

Wind. The real factor. Northerlies take several degrees off the rim at christmas in santorini and cancel ferries.

Humidity. High, and it matters more than the thermometer. Cave rooms hold damp, so check the heating before booking.

Daylight. About half past seven to half past five, so sunset falls at a civilised hour and you can watch it from an empty terrace with a coat on.

Pack. A waterproof with a hood, a jumper and a jacket, shoes with grip for wet marble, a hat and sunglasses for the bright days, and nothing heavier than that.

Where to Stay

Fira. The obvious base for christmas in santorini. The only village that stays fully alive, with shops, tavernas, bars and the museums, and a caldera view from the rim. See Fira.

Firostefani. A few hotels open, the same view, and a ten-minute level walk into Fira. See Firostefani.

Karterados and Messaria. Cheap, central and close to the airport, and open right through christmas in santorini.

Megalochori and Pyrgos. Quiet, inland, with the best winter tavernas and no wind off the caldera. A car is essential. See Megalochori.

Not Oia. Beautiful, empty and almost entirely shut. Visit in daylight and sleep elsewhere. See Oia.

Prices. 50 to 130 euros a night for a good room, against 350 and up in August, with a modest rise over christmas in santorini itself.

Two questions before booking christmas in santorini: is the property actually open on your dates, and does the heating run all night.

Getting There and Around

Flights. Domestic only, from Athens and Thessaloniki, several times a day and usually cheap. There are no direct international services in December, so christmas in santorini means routing through Athens.

The connection. Leave a proper gap in Athens. Winter weather delays the island hop more often than the long-haul leg.

Ferries. Blue Star runs year round from Piraeus in about eight hours. The fast catamarans stop for the season and gales cancel sailings for days at a time, so never book a crossing for a flight day.

Booking. Greeks travel home for the holidays, so the Athens flights and the ferries fill around the twenty-third and again on the second of January.

Car hire. Twenty to thirty-five euros a day, empty roads, and free parking everywhere including Oia and Fira. Rain makes the steeper lanes slippery.

Buses. A reduced winter timetable with an early last service, and nothing at all on the holiday days themselves.

Taxis. Around thirty on the island and fewer working now. Book a transfer instead. See transfers.

Mistakes People Make

Booking Oia. Beautiful, empty, shut, and a long drive from anywhere open for dinner.

Expecting a Christmas market. There is not one, and christmas in santorini is smaller and quieter than the photographs suggest.

Not checking the hotel heating. Cave rooms hold damp and some systems run on a timer.

Booking a ferry on a flight day. Gales cancel sailings with no notice.

Two nights only. One storm and the trip is gone.

Turning up at a winery. Ring first, every time.

Assuming shops are open on the twenty-fifth. They are not, nor on the twenty-sixth or the first.

Leaving before Epiphany. The sixth of January is the best single day of the whole period.

What to Do on the Days Between

The rim path. Fira to Firostefani to Imerovigli, level and lovely, with almost nobody on it. Continue to Oia if the wind allows.

Oia in daylight. Empty, shuttered and startlingly beautiful. Oia at christmas in santorini is the picture nobody has. Walk out to the castle ruin with nobody there.

Akrotiri. Roofed and quiet, and the best thing to do on a wet morning of christmas in santorini.

The museums. The Museum of Prehistoric Thera for the Akrotiri frescoes, and the Archaeological Museum next to it.

A winery. Indoors, warm, and in this season it is often the winemaker pouring.

The inland villages. Pyrgos, Emporio and Exo Gonia, all decorated and all functioning as villages. See Pyrgos.

The Akrotiri lighthouse. The whole caldera in profile, and the car park to yourself.

The beaches, empty. Perissa, Perivolos and Vlychada with nothing on them at all, which is christmas in santorini in one image.

Nothing. A long lunch and a fire is a legitimate use of a day at christmas in santorini.

Christmas in Santorini with Children

Workable, and christmas in santorini is completely different from a summer trip.

What works. The lights in Fira, the decorated boat, the carol singers on Christmas Eve morning, Akrotiri under its roof, the underground wine museum, and empty beaches to run on.

What does not. Swimming, boat trips, and long walks on the rim in a gale.

The presents problem. Greek children get theirs on the first of January, so a family keeping to the twenty-fifth through christmas in santorini will be doing it privately.

Where to stay. Fira or somewhere level and inland, with heating that works and a restaurant within walking distance for wet evenings.

Pace. One outing a day, indoors if the weather turns. Christmas in santorini is not an itinerary.

Is Christmas in Santorini Worth It?

Yes if you want the caldera empty, the archaeology without a queue, tavernas full of Greeks rather than tourists, prices at a fraction of summer, and a small, genuine village holiday. Yes if you photograph places, because the light at christmas in santorini is the best of the year.

No if you want a large Christmas market, nightlife, swimming, boat trips, or the full run of caldera hotels and restaurants. No if a wet, windy day would ruin the trip.

Our own view is that christmas in santorini is a rest rather than a holiday, and that staying through to Epiphany on the sixth turns it from a long weekend into something people talk about for years.

Christmas in Santorini: Frequently Asked Questions

Is Santorini worth visiting at Christmas? Yes if you want an empty caldera, the archaeology without a queue and prices at a fraction of summer. No if you want a market, nightlife or a beach.

Is anything open? Fira functions normally, Akrotiri and the museums are open on winter hours, several wineries keep shorter hours and the inland villages have tavernas. Most caldera hotels and much of Oia are shut.

How cold is it? Highs of 14 to 16 degrees and lows of 9 to 11, with rain in bursts, wind and high humidity.

Are there Christmas markets? Nothing on a northern European scale. Fira has lights, a tree, a decorated boat and a modest municipal programme of concerts and children’s events.

When do Greeks give presents? On the first of January, from Agios Vasilis, rather than on the twenty-fifth.

What is the boat about? The karavaki is the older Greek decoration, honouring sailors home for the holidays, and it has come back strongly in coastal towns.

How do you get there? Domestic flights from Athens and Thessaloniki, or the year-round Blue Star ferry from Piraeus in about eight hours. No direct international flights.

Do boat trips run? No. The volcano and catamaran trips stop for the winter.

Is it cheaper? Considerably, with a modest rise over the holiday dates themselves.

How many nights? Four or five, and longer if you can stay for New Year and Epiphany.

Should we hire a car? Yes. Empty roads, free parking everywhere including Oia and Fira, and buses on a reduced timetable.

Can you swim? The sea is around 17 degrees. A few people do on the sixth of January.

Spend the Week With a Local Driver

We live here and we work right through christmas in santorini. Airport and port transfers, Akrotiri and the museums on the wet days, the wineries and the inland villages on the clear ones, and the caldera at an hour when there is nobody on it.

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. Tell us your dates and we will say honestly what is open.

See the personalised tour, transfers, 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

September 4, 2026 By Stelios Karamolegkos

Santorini Instagram Spots – Where to Shoot and When

Santorini

The best Santorini Instagram spots are the three blue domes and the windmills in Oia, Skaros rock from Imerovigli, the Firostefani campanile, Ammoudi, Pyrgos castle and the Akrotiri lighthouse. Shoot them before nine or after six. Santorini Tours will drive you at half past five in the morning if the light needs it.

is the most popular island of Greece with the most posts in Instagram! Yes, you read right! This app has only one purpose… to create experiences that bring people together and encourage authentic communication.

You can book a Santorini Private Tour to visit all the popular destinations and share your best moments in your favourite social media like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.

Outrageous number of photos posted in Instagram

More than five million photos of the Santorini island have been posted in Instagram!

Santorini is the most photographed region in Greece, based on Instagram data collectors, as its unique landscape has “climbed” at the top of the specific social network more than five million times.

Santorini’s splendid sunset, volcano, whitewashed houses, and blue-domed churches that look like hanging on the caldera are extinguishing visitors, and the #Santorini hashtag at Instagram is becoming more and more popular. Indeed, many people were attracted by the wave of visitors over the past few years and the “action” of Instagram and the other social media that also share stories, photos and videos.

Santorini sightseeing

Santorini offers a wide variety of sightseeings, which you can enjoy by booking one of the following Santorini private tours to take the best photos and share them with your followers in Instagram or the other social media.

Popular attractions in Santorini

Santorini like most Greek islands has so many places to visit that you have to be organised to manage to see most of them. Apart from the famous destinations you can also book a Santorini Private Tour and Food Experience.

See below the most popular Santorini attractions

Ancient Thira
Museum of Prehistoric Thera
Art Space
Red (Kokkini) Beach
White (Aspri) Beach
Akrotiri Lighthouse
Vlihada Beach
Black (Mesa Pigadia) Beach
Ancient Akrotiri
Skaros Rock
Ammoudi
Tomato Industrial Museum
Wine Museum
Old Port
Maritime Museum
Gyzi Megaron
Perissa Beach
Kamari Beach
Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral
Agios Georgios Beach
Catholic Cathedral
Archaeological Museum
Cultural Village

Discover the best things to do in Santorini. Book now a Santorini Private Tour and visit the most popular beaches and attractions and live the greatest experience you will ever have!

See more about Santorini island:

Santorini Instagram Spots: The Short List

The twelve santorini instagram spots that actually deliver, in the order we would shoot them.

1. The three blue domes, Oia. The single most photographed frame in Greece. Empty before seven in the morning.

2. Skaros rock, Imerovigli. A ruined castle headland jutting into the caldera. Best at sunset.

3. The Oia castle. Sunset, and three thousand other people.

4. Firostefani’s campanile. The three-bell tower above the caldera, best in late afternoon.

5. Ammoudi Bay. Red cliffs, blue boats, 300 steps down from Oia.

6. Vlychada’s lunar cliffs. Wind-carved grey rock that looks like another planet.

7. Pyrgos castle. The whole island in one frame, and almost nobody there.

8. The Akrotiri lighthouse. The entire caldera and Thirasia, with zero crowd.

9. Red Beach. Iron-red cliffs over a small cove.

10. Oia’s windmills. The northern tip, at the very end of the village.

11. The vineyards. Basket-trained vines in black ash, unlike anything in Europe.

12. Megalochori’s bell tower. An arched campanile over a lane with no traffic.

The single rule that governs all of them: be there before nine or after six. Every one of these santorini instagram spots is transformed by the hour you arrive, and none of them is improved by midday.

Why Does the Timing Matter So Much?

Two million visitors a year come to an island of fifteen thousand people, and almost all of them are in the same two villages between eleven and five.

Oia at seven in the morning is silent. The same lane at noon has a queue for a photograph. Nothing about the santorini instagram spots themselves changes; the difference is entirely who else is standing in them.

Light. The white walls at most santorini instagram spots blow out badly under overhead sun. Early morning and the hour before sunset give you the warm side-light that makes the blue domes read as blue rather than grey.

Crowds. Cruise ships tender passengers ashore from about eight and take them back from about four. Check how many ships are in on your dates: a one-ship day and a five-ship day are different islands.

Shadow. The caldera faces west. Mornings put the villages in soft shade with the sea lit behind them; evenings light the faces of the buildings directly.

Wind. The meltemi in July and August will ruin long hair, light dresses and tripods, and it is strongest in the afternoon.

The practical answer. Shoot the Oia santorini instagram spots between six and eight in the morning. Shoot the western rim – Imerovigli, Firostefani, the lighthouse – in the last ninety minutes of daylight. Do everything else in between, inland, where nobody is.

Which Santorini Instagram Spots Are in Oia?

Oia holds more santorini instagram spots per square metre than anywhere else in Greece, which is exactly the problem.

The three blue domes

The most famous of all santorini instagram spots. The frame everyone comes for: three blue-domed churches stacked below you with the caldera behind. It sits on the main pedestrian street towards the northern end of the village, reached on foot only. In August there is a queue for the position by nine in the morning. At half past six there is nobody.

The Oia castle ruins

The old Venetian fortress at the western tip, and the classic sunset viewpoint. Several thousand people gather here on a July evening, arriving up to two hours early to hold a spot on the wall. As a photograph it is fine; as an experience it is a crush. If you want it, be in place ninety minutes before. Oia.

The windmills

Two restored windmills at the far northern end of the village, past the castle. Fewer people than the domes and a cleaner background. Good at sunrise with the sea behind them.

Ammoudi Bay

One of the most under-shot santorini instagram spots. Three hundred steps down from Oia, or a switchback road. Red volcanic cliffs, blue fishing boats, tavernas on the water and the rock of Agios Nikolaos to swim from. Shoot it from the steps on the way down in the late afternoon, and from the water if you take a boat. One of the most under-shot santorini instagram spots because most people only see it at dinner.

The blue-shuttered lanes

The whole village is white lanes and blue doors, and the quietest santorini instagram spots here have no landmark in them at all. and the best frames are the ones without a landmark in them. Walk the back lanes rather than the main street. Almost all of them are private property, so shoot from the public path.

The staircase down to Ammoudi

Switchbacks cut into a red cliff with the sea below. Best from halfway down looking back up.

What to know about Oia

Nearly everything with a good angle in this village is somebody’s terrace, roof or hotel. The genuinely good santorini instagram spots here are all reachable from public paths; the ones that are not are people’s homes.

Which Ones Are on the Caldera Rim?

Skaros rock, Imerovigli

The best of the non-Oia santorini instagram spots. A rock headland pushing out into the caldera with the ruins of a medieval castle on it, reached by a steep path and a short scramble. The classic frame is from the Imerovigli path looking across at it with the sun going down behind. The best sunset on the island and a fraction of the Oia crowd. Imerovigli.

The chapel of Theoskepasti

A small white chapel on the far side of Skaros, and one of the emptiest santorini instagram spots on the rim. reached along the headland. Worth the walk, and often completely empty.

Firostefani’s three-bell campanile

The arched bell tower with the caldera framed through it. Ten minutes’ walk north of Fira and one of the most reliable santorini instagram spots for late afternoon light. Firostefani.

The Fira caldera path

The whole ten-kilometre rim walk from Fira to Oia is a chain of santorini instagram spots. is a sequence of viewpoints. The stretch between Firostefani and Imerovigli is the best of it, and at first light you will have it to yourself.

Fira’s cable car and the old port

The 588 zig-zag steps down the cliff photograph well from above, particularly in low light with the ships anchored below. Fira.

Agios Minas church, Fira

The blue-domed white church on the cliff edge below Fira, seen from the path above. One of the island’s signature frames and far less crowded than the Oia domes.

Which Santorini Instagram Spots Have No Crowd?

Everything below is as good as the famous frames and none of it has a queue. These are the santorini instagram spots we take guests to when they say they want something nobody else has.

Pyrgos castle

The best of the inland santorini instagram spots. The highest village on the island, fifteen minutes from Fira, with a Venetian kastelli at the top reached through stepped lanes. From the walls you see the whole of Santorini at once: the caldera on one side, the airport and the open sea on the other. At two in the afternoon you will pass six people. Pyrgos.

The Akrotiri lighthouse

The far south-western tip, twenty minutes past the archaeological site on a road that ends at a gate. The entire caldera, Thirasia and the open sea in one frame, with the sun setting straight into it. There is essentially never anybody there. Akrotiri lighthouse.

Vlychada’s lunar cliffs

Grey pumice carved by the wind into folds and spires that look like a moonscape, running along the back of the beach. Flat afternoon light or overcast days work best. Almost nobody photographs it and it is one of the strangest santorini instagram spots on the island. Vlychada.

Megalochori

An arched bell tower over an empty lane, cave houses, walled captains’ mansions and vines growing out of the pavement. Ten minutes from Pyrgos and effectively undiscovered by photographers. Megalochori.

Emporio’s kastelli

The most atmospheric of the inland santorini instagram spots. A medieval defensive village with lanes built deliberately to confuse pirates, plus the Goulas tower and the windmills on the ridge above. The most atmospheric village on the island and the least visited. Emporio.

The vineyards

Basket-trained kouloura vines lying flat in black volcanic ash, with the sea behind. There is no other vineyard landscape in Europe that looks like this, and it photographs best in the low light of early morning. Wine tour.

Ancient Thira

The only archaeological entry on this list of santorini instagram spots. A Greek and Roman city on a ridge eight hundred feet above Kamari, with a theatre looking out over open sea. The road up is a series of hairpins and the site closes in the early afternoon, so it is a morning shoot. Ancient Thira.

Red Beach

Iron-red cliffs over a small cove near Akrotiri. Dramatic, and subject to rockfall closures – check what is open before you drive down. Red Beach.

Thirasia

The island across the caldera, reached by boat from Ammoudi or Athinios. One village at the top of a stair, a handful of tavernas, and the reverse view: Santorini itself as a cliff on the horizon. Thirasia.

Nea Kameni

The black cinder island in the middle of the caldera, with a crater rim you can walk to in half an hour. Black rock, blue water and the cliffs of Santorini all around. Nea Kameni.

From a boat

The caldera only makes sense from inside it. A catamaran gives you the one angle no land-based visitor gets: the whole three-hundred-metre cliff with the villages balanced along the top edge. Of all the santorini instagram spots this is the one that most surprises people.

Kamari and the cliff of Mesa Vouno

Black pebble beach with the enormous rock of Ancient Thira rising straight out of it. Dramatic at the end of the day. Kamari.

When Should You Shoot Each One?

An hour-by-hour plan, because the santorini instagram spots are all the same places at different times and the time is what makes the picture.

05:30 to 07:00 – sunrise

Oia. The blue domes, the windmills, the lanes, all empty. Every one of the famous santorini instagram spots, with nobody in them. The sun comes up behind the island rather than over the caldera, so the light is soft and indirect on the western faces. This is the single most valuable hour of the day for photography here and almost nobody uses it.

07:00 to 09:00

Still Oia, or the caldera path from Fira north. Warm light, few people, and shops beginning to open behind you.

09:00 to 11:00

Ancient Thira before it closes, or the vineyards, or Emporio. Inland and archaeological, while the rim fills up.

11:00 to 16:00

The worst light and the worst crowds at every one of the santorini instagram spots. Shoot indoors, shoot the lunar cliffs at Vlychada where flat light suits the rock, shoot Akrotiri under its roof, or do not shoot at all and have lunch inland.

16:00 to 18:00

Pyrgos and Megalochori as the light lengthens. The inland villages take late afternoon better than the rim does.

18:00 to sunset

The western rim, which holds the best evening santorini instagram spots. Imerovigli and Skaros, Firostefani’s campanile, or the Akrotiri lighthouse. If you must do the Oia castle, be there ninety minutes early.

After sunset

Twenty minutes of afterglow that most of the crowd walks away from, and it is often the better light. Then blue hour over Fira with the lights coming on down the cliff.

Night

Very little light pollution once you are inland. The Milky Way is visible from the road above Emporio on a clear night, with the villages glowing on the horizon.

How Does the Season Change Things?

April and May

Green terraces, wildflowers, clear air and a fraction of the summer crowd. Arguably the best months for the santorini instagram spots, and the accommodation costs half.

June

Long days, everything open, and the crowd building. Sunset around half past eight.

July and August

Harsh overhead light, haze, up to five cruise ships a day and the strongest wind of the year. Everything on this page still works but only at the edges of the day.

September

The light softens, the crowds thin after the first week, and the sea is at its warmest. Many photographers’ favourite month.

October

Low sun, dramatic cloud, real value, and quiet villages. Excellent, with a small weather risk.

November to March

Empty. The santorini instagram spots belong to you in January. Oia at midday has the population of a small village, which is what it is. Low winter sun, long shadows, storms crossing the caldera and no people in frame. The santorini instagram spots are at their most photogenic and least accessible at the same time – many businesses are shut and flights are Athens-only. Santorini in winter.

The one seasonal warning

The meltemi blows hardest in July and August. It will move a tripod, ruin loose fabric and blow sand across the beaches. Check the forecast before planning anything that needs stillness.

What Are the Best Photo Routes?

Three worked routes, because the santorini instagram spots are scattered and the roads are slower than they look.

The sunrise route

Every famous frame before breakfast. 05:30 Leave for Oia in the dark. 06:00 The blue domes, empty. 06:45 The windmills at the northern tip. 07:15 Down the steps towards Ammoudi for the switchbacks and the red cliff. 08:00 Coffee in the village as it wakes up. You will have shot the three most famous frames on the island before most visitors have had breakfast.

The sunset route

The three best evening santorini instagram spots in one walk. 17:00 Firostefani campanile in the lengthening light. 17:45 Walk north along the rim to Imerovigli. 18:30 The Skaros viewpoint, with the rock in silhouette. 19:30 Stay for the afterglow that everybody else walks away from. This is the best sunset sequence on the island and it is not the one in the guidebooks.

The no-crowd route

09:00 Ancient Thira before it closes. 11:00 Emporio’s kastelli and windmills. 13:00 Lunch in Megalochori. 14:30 The vineyards and a winery. 16:00 Pyrgos castle. 18:30 The Akrotiri lighthouse for sunset. A whole day of santorini instagram spots without queuing once.

The one-day version

Three santorini instagram spots and nothing else. Oia at six, inland from ten to four, the western rim from six. Three locations, and you will have covered the island properly.

What About Couples, Proposals and Solo Travellers?

Couples

Imerovigli rather than Oia. The light is the same, the crowd is a tenth, and Skaros in the background gives you a foreground subject that the flat Oia castle shot does not.

Proposals

The two quietest santorini instagram spots: the Akrotiri lighthouse at sunset, or the Skaros headland. Both are quiet enough to actually hear each other, which the Oia castle at eight in the evening is not.

Solo travellers

A tripod and a timer work fine at the quiet santorini instagram spots and badly at the busy ones. Sunrise in Oia is the exception: you will have the frame to yourself and can take as long as you like.

Families

Shoot early, keep it short, and put the beach after it. Nobody under ten is waiting ninety minutes for a sunset.

Hiring a photographer

Common here and worth it for one session rather than a week. The good ones start before seven and know which lanes are public. Ask to see a full gallery from a single shoot rather than a highlights reel.

Wedding shoots

Book the venue and the photographer nine to twelve months ahead for summer, and check what permits the location needs. Santorini weddings.

How Do You Get Between Them?

This is the part that decides whether a photography day works, because the santorini instagram spots are spread across an island with about thirty licensed taxis.

Private driver. The only realistic way to shoot the santorini instagram spots at both ends of the same day. to shoot sunrise and sunset in the same day. We collect at half past five in the morning if that is what the light needs, wait while you shoot, and move you between the rim and the inland villages without you parking anywhere. Priced per vehicle rather than per person. Personalised tour.

Hire car. Workable, except that Oia and Fira parking in season is genuinely difficult and you will lose the golden hour looking for a space.

Buses. Cheap, and every route changes in Fira. The first service is far too late for sunrise and the last is too early for a proper sunset in Oia.

Taxis. At half past five in the morning, no.

On foot. Excellent within Oia, Fira, Firostefani and Imerovigli, and along the caldera path between them. Useless for everything else.

By boat. The caldera from the water, Thirasia, the volcano and the coloured beaches, none of which are reachable any other way.

What Are the Rules and the Etiquette?

Worth taking seriously, because a good number of the best santorini instagram spots sit on or beside private property and residents have had enough.

Private terraces are private

Almost every rooftop, courtyard and infinity pool you have seen in a photograph belongs to a hotel or a family home. Walking onto one without asking is trespass, and it is the single behaviour that has soured residents on photographers. If you want a terrace shot, book the room or ask the owner.

Blocking lanes

Those white pedestrian streets are how people get to work, move deliveries and take children to school. A twenty-minute shoot in the middle of one at nine in the morning is genuinely obstructive.

Churches

Shoot the outside freely. Inside, ask, cover shoulders and knees, and do not shoot during a service.

Drones

Greek rules follow the EU framework: registration as an operator, restrictions near airports and crowds, and archaeological sites generally require permission from the authorities. Santorini’s airport sits in the middle of the island and the caldera villages are dense with people. Check the current rules before you travel rather than after you are stopped.

Tripods

Fine on paths and viewpoints, difficult in a crowded lane, and impossible in wind on an exposed rim.

Commercial shoots

Weddings and paid photo sessions in some locations require permits and fees. Your photographer should know; if they do not, that is a warning sign.

The donkeys

A picture of a donkey ride on the 588 steps reads as an endorsement, and the animals work all day in extreme heat under loads well above the legal limit. Do not post it. Why we ask you not to ride.

People in your frame

Residents did not consent to being content. Wide shots of a village are fine; close portraits of strangers are not.

What Should You Bring and Wear?

Kit

Wide angle for the caldera and the lanes – the depth here is the subject. A short telephoto for compressing the villages along the rim, which is how those layered cliff-edge shots are made. A polariser for the sea. Spare batteries, because heat drains them. A cloth, because sea spray and dust get on everything.

Phone shooting

Entirely adequate for every one of the santorini instagram spots on this page. Lock exposure on the white walls or they blow out; the domes are the thing that has to be exposed correctly, not the sky.

Clothes

The classic santorini instagram spots frames use a strong solid colour against white and blue – red, yellow and deep blue all work. Flowing fabric photographs well and behaves badly in the meltemi, so bring something you can hold. White on white disappears.

Shoes

Grip, always. The marble lanes are polished smooth by two million visitors a year and the paths to Skaros and Ancient Thira are rough. Heels in Oia are a photograph, not footwear.

Sun

There is essentially no shade anywhere. Hat, cream, water, and a reason to be indoors between noon and four.

Cash

The cable car, small tavernas and the boats all prefer notes.

What Santorini Instagram Spots Mistakes Do People Make?

Arriving at midday. Harsh overhead light, blown-out walls and a queue. Every problem with the santorini instagram spots starts here.

Only shooting Oia. There are santorini instagram spots in thirty-one other villages. One village out of thirty-two, and the most crowded one.

Believing the sunset has to be from the Oia castle. It does not, and four other places are better.

Trespassing for a terrace. Those are people’s homes and hotel rooms.

Planning one shoot per day. The light gives you two hours in the morning and ninety minutes in the evening. Use both.

Booking a hire car and losing the light to parking. Oia in July is not a place to look for a space at seven in the evening.

Wearing white. It vanishes against the walls. Use one strong colour.

Ignoring the wind. Loose fabric and tripods do not survive an August afternoon on the rim.

Flying a drone without checking the rules. Airport, crowds and archaeological sites all restrict them.

Not scouting the day before. Ten minutes walking a route in daylight saves an hour at the santorini instagram spots at sunrise. Ten minutes walking a route in daylight saves an hour at sunrise.

Leaving after the sun goes down. The twenty minutes of afterglow are often the best light of the day, and the crowd has gone.

Posting the donkey ride. It reads as a recommendation for a trade that should not exist.

Santorini Instagram Spots: Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best santorini instagram spots? The three blue domes and the windmills in Oia, Skaros rock from Imerovigli, the Firostefani campanile, Ammoudi Bay, Pyrgos castle, the Akrotiri lighthouse and the lunar cliffs at Vlychada.

Where are the three blue domes? On the main pedestrian street towards the northern end of Oia, reachable on foot only. Go before seven in the morning.

What time should I photograph Oia? Between six and eight in the morning. It is empty, the light is soft and there is no queue for any position.

Where is the best sunset that is not Oia? Imerovigli with Skaros in the foreground, or the Akrotiri lighthouse, which has essentially no crowd at all.

Can I fly a drone in Santorini? Only within the current Greek and EU rules. There are restrictions around the airport, over crowds and at archaeological sites, and permission is generally required for the latter.

Are the famous terraces public? No. Almost every rooftop and infinity pool you have seen belongs to a hotel or a private home. Book the room or ask.

Which month is best for photography? April, May, September and October. Softer light, fewer people, lower prices. Winter is spectacular and much is closed.

Do I need a professional camera? No. Every spot on this page works on a phone. Lock the exposure on the white walls.

How do I get around for sunrise and sunset? A private driver. Buses start too late and finish too early, and there are around thirty taxis on the whole island.

How many days do I need? Two, if you use both ends of each day. One is possible if you shoot Oia at sunrise and the western rim at sunset.

Is Oia worth it despite the crowds? Yes, at the right hour. At the wrong hour it is the most crowded place in Greece.

Can you take us to these places? Yes, including at half past five in the morning.

Shoot the Island Properly

We are a local operator and we run santorini instagram spots photography days as private tours: an early start for the sunrise frames, the inland villages and the archaeology while the rim is full, and the western rim for the last hour of light.

The driver waits while you shoot, which is the whole point – no parking, no bus timetable, no missed light. Prices are per vehicle rather than per person, so a family or a group of friends pays what a couple pays, hotel pickup anywhere on the island is included, and an 80 EUR deposit confirms a date.

See the personalised tour, the sunset tour, the full list of tours, 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

PRIVATE TOURS

Santorini: Europe’s Best Island at US Global Traveler Awards

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Santorini: Europe’s Best Island at US Global Traveler Awards

Awards given to Santorini

Take a tour in Santorini anytime with Santorini tours

See more about Santorini tours:

The Best Island in Greece: The Short Answer

Why Santorini Keeps Winning the Awards

What the Award Actually Was

The Honest Case Against It

The Best Island in Greece for Each Kind of Trip

Santorini Against the Other Contenders

How Much It Costs Compared With the Others

When to Come

How Long to Give It

What Actually Makes It Win

Where to Sleep

Getting Here and Getting Around

Best Island in Greece: Frequently Asked Questions

We Live on It, and We Will Show You Why It Wins

Every Village and Site on the Island

The amazing history of Santorini island and the volcano

1. Oia

2. The historical Santorini

3. Taste the great wines of Santorini

Explore Santorini island with Santorinitours

See more about your vacations on Santorini island:

The Santorini Volcano: The Short Answer

Is the Santorini Volcano Still Active?

The Minoan Eruption

The Santorini Volcano in Numbers

Nea Kameni and Palia Kameni

Kolumbo, the Volcano Nobody Sees

Visiting the Santorini Volcano

The Hot Springs

Seeing the Volcano From Land

The Volcano, Atlantis and the Wine

The Volcano and Everyday Life

Monitoring, Risk and Common Sense

Mistakes People Make

How the Caldera Formed, Step by Step

Santorini Volcano: Frequently Asked Questions

See It From the Water and From the Rim

Every Village and Site on the Island

Visit Santorini for Christmas Holidays

Private Guided Tours in Santorini at Christmas

Christmas in Santorini!

Why visit Santorini for Christmas Holidays

The sequence of performances is as follows:

See more about Santorini Private Guided Tours:

Christmas in Santorini: The Short Answer

What Actually Happens

The Boat, Not the Tree

Christmas in Santorini: What Is Open

The Food

Weather and What to Pack

Where to Stay

Getting There and Around

Mistakes People Make

What to Do on the Days Between

Christmas in Santorini with Children

Is Christmas in Santorini Worth It?

Christmas in Santorini: Frequently Asked Questions

Spend the Week With a Local Driver

Every Village and Site on the Island

Outrageous number of photos posted in Instagram

Santorini sightseeing

Popular attractions in Santorini

See below the most popular Santorini attractions

Santorini Instagram Spots: The Short List

Why Does the Timing Matter So Much?

Which Santorini Instagram Spots Are in Oia?

The three blue domes

The Oia castle ruins

The windmills

Ammoudi Bay

The blue-shuttered lanes

The staircase down to Ammoudi

What to know about Oia

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