Is May a good time to visit Santorini?

Yes. The second half of May is the start of the best window of the year: everything is open, days reach the mid-twenties, crowds are thin and prices are around half of August.

Is Santorini crowded in May?

Light in the first half and building visibly through the second, but nothing like July and August. Cruise ships are running from the start of the month.

What does Santorini cost in May?

150 to 300 euros for a caldera-view room and 80 to 150 for a good standard double in Fira, roughly half to a third of August.

Is May or June better in Santorini?

June is two to four degrees warmer with a 22 to 24 degree sea and the longest days, at a higher price. May is cheaper and quieter with a cooler sea.

Is Santorini still green in May?

Partly, in the first fortnight. By the end of May the winter growth has burnt off to the gold-and-white the island is known for.

Is May good for a honeymoon in Santorini?

Very. Warm evenings, everything open, and the sunset viewpoints are not yet full. It is also one of the main wedding months on the island.

The Greek name for the carnival season. It means away from meat, and refers to the three weeks of feasting before the Lenten fast.

Where are the best carnival parades in Santorini?

Fira for the main parade with floats, and Emporio, Pyrgos, Megalochori and Karterados for the smaller village versions.

Should you dress up for the Santorini carnival?

Yes, for the final weekend before Clean Monday. Adults and children both wear costume, and ordinary clothes stand out more than any outfit.

What is open in Santorini in carnival season?

Fira all month, plus Akrotiri, Ancient Thera, both museums and the cable car on winter hours, and a handful of wineries. Oia and the beach resorts are largely closed.

How cold is Santorini during carnival?

Twelve to sixteen degrees by day and eight to eleven at night, with six to nine wet days across the month and a sea at 15 to 16 degrees.

Do I need a transfer on race morning?

Almost certainly. The 15km and 10km routes start at 08:15 in Oia and the island's bus network does not run early enough to help.

What does a winter wine weekend in Santorini cost?

Roughly 600 to 900 euros for two people over three nights, excluding flights, which is a third of the summer equivalent.

How cold is Santorini in winter?

Ten to fifteen degrees by day and six to ten at night, with rain arriving in systems rather than as showers.

Is Oia open in winter?

Largely not. A handful of restaurants and hotels stay open and the streets can be walked without a crowd.

Can you see the sunset in winter?

Yes, and earlier - around 17:20 in December - with the caldera essentially to yourself.

Do the volcano boats run in winter?

Mostly not between November and March. Ferries and flights run all year, with weather cancellations.

How many wineries should you visit in a day?

Two. Three becomes a drinking session rather than a tasting.

Do you need a car in winter?

The estates are spread across the inland plain and the winter bus service is minimal, so a car or a driver is necessary.

How far ahead should you book a winter weekend?

Ten days is enough, which is one of the main reasons to come out of season.

SANTORINI PRIVATE GUIDED TOURS

September 8, 2026 By Stelios Karamolegkos

Santorini in May – The Month the Season Starts

Santorini in may is the month the season starts properly: everything open, highs of 20 to 24 degrees, nights of 14 to 17, two or three wet days at most, and a sea climbing from 19 to 21. Prices run at half to a third of August, with caldera-view rooms at 150 to 300 euros. The second half of the month is the start of the best window of the year.

Visit Santorini after Easter 2020

Government shielded Santorini before Easter 2020 – The ban on the movement of islanders by ships follows! Visit Santorini after Easter 2020.

The government is trying to shield the most touristic island of the Cyclades from the coronavirus before Easter. They will take additional measures to ban and restrict Santorini. That is why you should visit Santorini after Easter 2020. Book now Santorini Tours and take advantage of their special offers for early booking.

The choice of this island was not just a coincidence. It is the most popular in the Cyclades in terms of tourism. Under normal circumstances, Easter season would have already begun.

The political leadership wanted to eliminate even the slightest chance of developing the tourist activity in Santorini. They took the decision to tighten the measures by the end of April. These measures are satisfying the demands of the Municipality of Thira. They urgently called for strengthening the framework of restrictions during the local Easter days in Santorini.

Stricter traffic restriction measures Easter 2020

Although the pandemic is progressing satisfactorily in Greece so far, compared to the rest of the world, the government wants to send the message… “We must not relax and vigilance must continue.”

So in April, as experts and the prime minister himself point out, is the most critical month for the development of the pandemic coronavirus. New restrictions are on the way to paving the way for different Easter holidays this year.

Additional measures in Santorini

Among the extraordinary measures that will be in force for 14 days is the ban on traffic from 8 pm to 8 am every day. As well as the suspension of exceptions.

The measures, which will be implemented from today at 08.00 in the morning and for 14 days. There might be a possible extension, including, among other things, a traffic ban daily from 20.00 in the evening until 08.00 in the morning.

Even the exceptions to the general rule of thumb for exceptions for assistance to people in need, for ceremonies and for physical exercise are suspended under certain conditions, while the pet walk is only for 15 minutes and around the house. Stricter restrictions will also apply to public markets and supermarkets.

The police have already mobilized to enforce the measures. The Region and the Fire Brigade have been instructed to assist the municipality of Santorini with personnel and other means where necessary to meet the needs of the citizens. You can take a tour of Santorini!

Measures for Easter in Santorini

1. Exit home

The first step is likely to be done by numerically limiting the citizen’s daily travel, by sending up to two SMS. Competent sources explain that the majority of citizens combine their needs in one or two outings. However, the Cyprus model does not qualify with just one move per day.

2. Traffic at certain return time

In the same direction, the thought moves for a time limit (not more than three hours) for the movements. They report that there may be a margin per type of travel (another for the bank, another for the sport). The technical details for the first two measures to be implemented on their own or in combination are evolving into a “puzzle” and a big part is in the hands of the Ministry of Digital Government.

3. Exclusion of public spaces

The expansion of the closing model of Nea Paralia Thessaloniki should be taken for granted. The Prime Minister is increasingly calling for the immediate mobilization of mayors and regional governors in their “red zones” (parks, beaches, etc.).

4. Special written certificate of circulation for the elderly

In recent days, there have reportedly been speculations about the abolition of the hand written travel certificate. They seem to abandon the scenario, however, the possibility of mandatory completion of the document is only for a certain age group.

5. Police checks

In the operational part, the security forces drows special planning – especially in view of Easter 2020 – on national roads, ports, railway stations, bus stops. They already carry out checks, but the police presence will be strengthened on Holy Week.

6. Closing tolls

In Maximos’ fear of any attempted escape of citizens from urban centres in smaller towns, villages and islands, like Santorini, no one rules out “sealing” the national roads. Remember that the government does not allow walks in the villages and if there will be a violation of the rule, they will take any measure of deterrence.

7. Closed door services in selected metropolitan churches

Officially, Maximou treats as a “responsible and measured” the attitude of the Holy Synod for closed door church services on Holy Week. The government’s final response will come next week on the basis of scientific suggestions. According to information, they will process the possibility of “closed” church services in specific temples that will cover the whole country geographically.

8. Larger fine for unnecessary traffic

Government officials have left open the possibility of toughening fines and penalties, especially for persistent offenders. So far, the intention is not to immediately “upgrade” the fine, but warnings of austerity are growing as reckless behaviour intensifies.

9. Stricter ban on gatherings

In the same vein, the effectiveness of the ban on public gatherings. The need for reinforcement in view of Easter 2020 is something tat needs more discussion. There is a possibility of lowering the current limit of 10 people.

10. Once you move out of the municipality of permanent residence

The expansion of the circulation model of the permanent residents of the islands with the Certificate of Residential Special Use and E1. This process is for those who try to move outside their municipalities. In this case, however, they state that travel you are not allowed to go to holiday residence.

What you can do to visit Santorini after Easter 2020?

These measures will last only for 14 days for the island of Santorini. Therefore, you can relax at your home and make a more deep search about your accommodation in Santorini. Also, read our articles in our blog and learn more about the places you would like to visit when you arrive on the island.

Moreover, you can organise you Santorini daily tours in advance! On our website, Santorini Private Guided Tours you have the opportunity to see what we include in our tours. Choose the ones that meet your criteria!

Keep also in mind, that this period is a great opportunity to book in lower price because of coronavirus. Everything in Santorini is waiting you to explore it! Do not miss the chance.

For now, stay home and stay safe… visit our website and start scheduling your next Santorini vacations.

See more about Santorini tours:

Santorini in May: The Short Answer

Santorini in may is the month the season starts properly. Everything is open, the days reach the mid-twenties, the island is still green at the start and burning gold by the end, and the crowd is a fraction of what arrives six weeks later. The only reservation is the sea, which does not become genuinely comfortable until the last week.

Nine numbers cover most of what people ask about santorini in may.

Temperature. Highs of 20 to 24 degrees, climbing through the month. Nights of 14 to 17.

Sea. 19 degrees at the start of the month and 21 by the end. Swimmable from about mid-May for most people.

Rain. Two or three wet days at most, usually early. May is effectively the start of the dry season.

Daylight. Sunset moves from about eight o’clock to half past eight across the month.

Crowds in santorini in may. Light in the first half, building visibly through the second. Cruise ships are running.

Prices. Santorini in may runs at half to a third of August. Caldera-view rooms at 150 to 300 euros.

What is open. Everything, including the beach resorts, the boats and the direct European flights.

The verdict. The second half of May is the start of the best window of the year, and it runs to the end of June.

The Weather in Detail

May is the most reliable month on this island after September, and the change across it is substantial.

The first week of santorini in may still behaves like late spring: 20 to 21 degrees, an occasional front bringing an hour of rain, and a wind that has an edge to it after dark. The island is still green from the winter rain, the wild flowers are at their last, and the evenings need a jacket.

By the last week of santorini in may it is summer. 23 to 24 degrees, cloudless days, warm evenings on a terrace without a layer, and a sea that has climbed to 21. The green has burnt off the hillsides into the gold-and-white the island is known for, and the vines are in full leaf in their baskets.

Rainfall across santorini in may averages around 10 to 15 millimetres over two or three days, which is a quarter of April and effectively nothing. From the middle of the month you can plan outdoor days without a contingency for the first time since October.

Wind is the one variable in santorini in may. The meltemi has not started properly, but northerlies do appear, and they can be strong enough to move a boat trip. Nothing like July and August, and enough to check the forecast before booking a caldera cruise.

Humidity is low and the light is exceptional — still soft enough for photography and bright enough that the whitewash and the sea reach the colours the island is famous for.

Can You Swim in Santorini in May?

This is the question that decides whether santorini in may is the right month for you, and the answer changes across the four weeks.

Aegean water temperature lags the air by about two months, so the sea in May is still carrying winter. It sits at about 19 degrees in the first week and reaches 21 by the last. Nineteen degrees is bracing rather than pleasant for most people; twenty-one is comfortable for anybody used to a European sea.

Three things improve the picture for anybody set on swimming in santorini in may. The black volcanic sand on the east coast — Perissa, Perivolos, Kamari and Vlychada — absorbs heat all day and warms the shallows, so the first few metres of water are noticeably warmer than the open sea. Hotel pools are open by May and many are heated. And the hot springs at Palia Kameni, reached by boat, are warm all year.

The practical answer: if swimming is a bonus, book any week of May. If swimming is the point of the trip, book the last week or wait for June, when the sea reaches 22 to 24.

What to Do in Santorini in May

Nine things that are better in santorini in may than at almost any other point in the year.

Walk the caldera path. Oia to Fira, ten kilometres along the rim. May is the last comfortable month for this before the heat arrives, and it is the best of them.

Akrotiri before the season peaks. The Bronze Age town under its roof, with a queue in July and none of one in May.

The wineries. The vines are in full leaf in their low baskets and the estates have time. Late afternoon is the hour.

A caldera boat. Running properly from santorini in may onwards, with Nea Kameni, the hot springs and Thirasia, and far smaller groups than in August.

Ancient Thera. The Hellenistic city on the ridge above Kamari, with the whole southern half of the island below it.

Sunset without the crush. Skaros Rock, Imerovigli and the Akrotiri lighthouse are all genuinely calm in santorini in may.

The east coast beaches. Open, staffed and almost empty. The sunbeds are out before the crowd arrives.

Pyrgos and Emporio. The inland villages at their best, before the coach season begins.

The last of the green. The first two weeks still carry the winter growth on the terraces and in the vineyards. By June it is gone.

Crowds and Prices

The commercial curve on this island moves faster than the weather does, and santorini in may sits at the point where the two diverge most usefully.

Early May. Quiet. The island is fully open and the crowd has not arrived. Prices are close to April.

Mid May. Building. Cruise ships increase, direct flights fill, and rates begin to move.

Late May. Busy but not crowded, at roughly half of August prices for identical weather.

Accommodation in santorini in may. 150 to 300 euros for a caldera-view room, against 400 to 900 in August. Standard doubles in Fira at 80 to 150.

Flights. All the seasonal European routes are running by May, and they are cheaper than in July.

Restaurants. Open, with full menus, and the good caldera-view tables are already worth booking a week or two ahead.

Car hire. 30 to 50 euros a day, with availability, which stops being true in July.

The one thing that fills. Weddings. May is a wedding month here, and the best photographers and venues go a year ahead.

Week by Week Through Santorini in May

No month here changes as much between its first and last week except April, and booking the wrong fortnight of santorini in may is the most common planning error people make about it.

1 to 7 May. 20 to 21 degrees, a sea at 19, the island still green from the winter, and the last of the wild flowers on the terraces. An occasional front still comes through. Everything is open and almost nobody is here. The cheapest week of the month, and the best one for walking.

8 to 14 May. 21 to 22 degrees, the rain effectively finished, cruise calls increasing, and the first proper warmth on a terrace in the evening. The sea reaches 20.

15 to 21 May. 22 to 23 degrees, a sea at 20 to 21, direct flights running from across Europe and the beach resorts fully staffed. This is where the season genuinely begins.

22 to 31 May. 23 to 24 degrees, cloudless, a sea at 21, sunset at half past eight, and the crowd building week on week without becoming the wall it is in July. The strongest fortnight of santorini in may, and arguably of the whole first half of the year.

The rule. If your dates are flexible and you intend to swim, take the last ten days. If the budget is the constraint and you would rather walk, take the first.

Santorini in May With Children and as a Couple

Heat is not a problem yet. This is the strongest family argument for santorini in may: no midday heat risk, which is the single largest constraint on a July or August trip with young children.

The sea is borderline. Twenty to twenty-one degrees is fine for adults and cold for most small children. The hotel pool matters more than the beach in early May.

Base on the flat. Kamari or Perissa with children, because the cliff villages are staircases and buggies do not work in them.

Akrotiri and the cable car. The two things children respond to most here, both comfortable in May temperatures.

For couples, the sunset is still yours. Skaros Rock and Imerovigli in May hold dozens of people rather than thousands.

Book the caldera dinner. The good tables begin filling this month, and a week or two ahead is enough.

Take the boat on a small catamaran. Twelve people instead of eighty, and the groups genuinely are smaller before June.

Weddings. May is one of the two main wedding months here. If you are attending one, book accommodation as early as the couple did.

What to Pack

Eight things to put in the bag for santorini in may.

Summer clothes, plus one warm layer. Days are warm and the first fortnight is cool after dark on an exposed terrace.

A light windproof. Northerlies still appear, and the rim is exposed.

Walking shoes. May is the last comfortable month for the caldera path, and sandals will not do it.

Grippy soles. Polished stone staircases in every village.

Sunglasses and strong sunscreen. The May sun is considerably stronger than the temperature suggests, and whitewash reflects.

Swimwear. For the second half of the month, the hotel pool, and the hot springs on a boat day.

A hat. There is no shade anywhere on the caldera path or at Ancient Thera.

Nothing heavy. A packable rain layer covers the two or three wet days, and a coat is unnecessary.

Santorini in May Against the Neighbouring Months

Santorini in may only makes sense next to the months on either side of it.

Against April. April is three to four degrees cooler with a 17-degree sea, still reopening, and cheaper. It has Greek Easter and the green island. May has warmth, reliability and everything open. May is the better holiday; April is the better bargain.

Against June. June is two to four degrees warmer with a 22 to 24 degree sea and the longest days of the year, at a noticeably higher price and with a real crowd building. If swimming matters, June wins. Otherwise the difference is small and May is cheaper.

Against September. The closest comparison. September has a 25 to 26 degree sea against May’s 21, and the harvest. May has a greener island, longer daylight and a smaller crowd in the first half. September wins for swimmers; santorini in may wins for walkers.

Against July and August. A completely different island: 30 to 34 degrees, cruise ships stacked in the caldera, peak prices and the meltemi. May is half the price and a fraction of the noise.

Against October. October has a warmer sea at 23 to 24 and golden light; May has an opening island rather than a closing one, and longer days. Close, and May is the safer bet.

The summary. The second half of May and the second half of September are the two best fortnights of the year on this island, for opposite reasons.

Practical Notes for Santorini in May

Eight practical points that santorini in may turns on.

Book the caldera-view dinner. The well-known tables start filling in May. A week or two ahead is enough.

Book the boat early in your stay. Northerlies can still move a sailing, and an early booking has somewhere to go.

Take a light jacket. Evenings in the first fortnight are cool on an exposed terrace.

Walking shoes. This is the last comfortable month for the caldera path, and it deserves proper shoes.

Sunscreen. The May sun is stronger than 22 degrees suggests, and the whitewash reflects.

Book the car ahead. Availability is fine in early May and tightening by the end of it.

Check for cruise days. Four ships in the caldera puts several thousand extra people into Fira and Oia between ten and six, even in May.

Do Oia at sunrise. Empty at seven, busy by ten, and standing room only at sunset from May onwards.

Santorini in May: Frequently Asked Questions

Is santorini in may a good time to visit? Yes. The second half of May is the start of the best window of the year: everything open, warm days, thin crowds and half of August’s prices.

How warm is santorini in may? Highs of 20 to 24 degrees, rising through the month, with nights of 14 to 17.

Can you swim in santorini in may? From about mid-May for most people. The sea is 19 degrees at the start of the month and 21 at the end.

Does it rain in santorini in may? Two or three days at most, usually early in the month. May is effectively the start of the dry season.

Is everything open in santorini in may? Yes, including the beach resorts, the boats, the wineries and the direct European flights.

Is it crowded? Light in the first half and building through the second. Nothing like July and August.

What does santorini in may cost? 150 to 300 euros for a caldera-view room and 80 to 150 for a standard double in Fira.

Where should I stay in santorini in may? Anywhere on the rim. Fira and Firostefani for convenience, Imerovigli for the view, the east coast for value.

Do I need a car? A car or a private driver. The buses run more often in May than in winter and still route everything through Fira.

Is May better than June? Cheaper and quieter, with a cooler sea. June is warmer and busier. For most people the difference is smaller than the price gap.

Is santorini in may good for a honeymoon? Very. Warm evenings, everything open, and the sunset viewpoints are not yet full.

Is the island still green? In the first fortnight, partly. By the end of May it has burnt off to gold.

Come Before the Season Fills

We are a local operator running private tours and transfers in our own vehicles, and santorini in may is the month our drivers point people towards when the dates are flexible.

Tell us your dates and we will build the days around the hours that matter, the boat forecast and where the light will be that week.

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 wine tours, 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 8, 2026 By Stelios Karamolegkos

Santorini Carnival – Apokries and Clean Monday on the Island

The santorini carnival, or Apokries in Greek, is the three-week run-up to Orthodox Lent, ending on Clean Monday seven weeks before Orthodox Easter, so usually between early February and mid-March. Village parades, school fancy dress, tsikna smoke over Fira on Smoky Thursday, and a kite-flying picnic on Clean Monday that half the island turns out for. It is free, entirely local, and it falls in the cheapest and emptiest weeks of the year.

Carnival season in Greece is an important holiday period that leading up to the Orthodox Easter Sunday! This year the celebrations start from 9th February until 1st of March the first day of Lent. So in total a celebration of twenty-two days, including 3 weekends, there are many private parties, parades and public events organized by municipalities and schools all over Greece. Book a Santorini Tours and spent the carnival season on the best island in Greece!

How Carnival weeks named and what you can eat?

The Greek carnival season is divided in 3 weeks and all the Greeks are preparing for the Lent with great festivals and parties. The first week opens the carnival and it is named Profoni, because everyone is shouting that the carnival season begins. The second week it is named Kreatini, because you can eat meat every day and the third week is called Tirini, because you only eat dairy products and fish.

Of course Carnival is a feast of great parties that takes place all over the country with masquerades, dancing and music. The name ‘Apokries’ means avoidance from meat because, after that, the period of Easter Lent begins, where there is no meat consumed for 40 days.

What is Tsiknopempti and how can you celebrate it in Greece?

On the second week of Carnival and on Thursday, Greeks celebrate the so called “Tsiknopempti”. On this particular day everyone grills and eats meat. The smell of grilled meat, which fills every neighbourhood, is called “tsikna”! Most Greeks gather with friends and family, in order to feast! This means, they will eat meat, smell the “tsikna”, drink and dance until late at night!

Where the Carnival take place in Santorini?

The unique aspect of Carnival is wearing costumes and masks. This festival, dates back to the period of Dionysos, the ancient Greek god of wine and theatre. The greatest Carnival that takes place in Patra. However, there are many other’s cities like Xanthi, Santorini, Naxos, Mytilini, Thessaloniki, and Athens that celebrate equally.

The carnival customs of Santorini differ from the rest of Greece. Something like that happens with everything on the island. We may not find similar customs, but the carnival in Fira Square is still here and fills the island with fun, dance and smiles, a sight worth watching and living. You can take a tour of Santorini!

What are the carnival customs of Santorini?

In the past, from the feast of St. Anthony to the Sunday of Tirini and the beginning of the Triodion, children and adults dressed in funny costumes and visited the various houses in the evenings. As soon as they got out of the door the masquerades shouted: “Can the masquerades get inside? And the master of the house replied, “Get in. Get in”

On the afternoon of the Carnival everybody is dressed up and change their voices according to the costume they wear. Because they couldn’t reveal their faces they had to play a short role in a story, only they know and the party begins. Book a Santorini Sunset Wine Tour, a Santorini Private Tour or a Santorini Popular Destination Tour and enjoy your stay there without wondering where to start from.

What is Clean Monday?

The name might sound weird but really, it is not that Greeks clean up their homes on this day. The Clean Monday is always placed every year 7 weeks before the Greek Orthodox Easter Sunday. This is an usual moveable feast that will introduce you to the Greek traditions and customs and make you feel like a local! The carnival ends this day and the Lent begins. On Kathara Deftera most of the Greeks leave the big cities and visit the countryside with friends and families to have a picnic and fly a kite.

Kathara Deftera (Clean Monday) is a day of joy and more tranquil celebrations. As in the rest of Greece, locals head for the nearby beach in the morning, where they fly colourful kites to the sky. At noon, they gather in the village centre to share the traditional meal of the day: “lagana” (traditional flatbread, originally prepared without yeast), “taramosalata” (Greek caviar paste), seafood, beans and other fasting delicacies.

How can you built a kite?

Making a kite is not as hard as it seems. Here’s the material you will need.

A rectangular piece of paper – A4 is good. Feel free to decorate it, either now or in step two.
String.
A paper hole punch.

Fold paper in half widthways. Bring the two short sides of your piece of paper together and press along the bend to make a crease. Now is a great time to decorate your kite! Use pens, pencils, crayons, felt-tip pens, a printer, but be careful not to weigh it down too much. If it’s too heavy it won’t be able to fly!

Bend the front corner of the top layer down to touch the crease. Repeat on the back layer and staple.The essential thing with this step is to only bend the corners down. If you fold them, the kite will not work. The exact position of the corner is not critical, but will affect how your kite flies. If you don’t have access to a functional stapler and staples, you can pierce through the two corners and the body of the kite with your hole making device.

Thread string through the hole and tie it off. The knot used is not important as long as it will keep the string attached to the kite. Find somewhere with a steady breeze free from things that could get in the way. Release your kite with one hand while holding the string in the other. Your kite should take off! Enjoy!

See more about Santorini Private Tours 2020:

Santorini Carnival: The Short Answer

The santorini carnival — Apokries in Greek — is the three-week run-up to Orthodox Lent, ending with Clean Monday. It is a local festival rather than a tourist event: village parades, fancy dress in the schools, tsikna smoke over Fira on Smoky Thursday, and a kite-flying picnic on Clean Monday that half the island turns out for.

Eight points cover almost everything people ask about the santorini carnival.

When. Movable, tied to Orthodox Easter. Usually somewhere between early February and mid-March, and it always ends on Clean Monday, seven weeks before Easter Sunday.

How long. Three weeks: Profani or Prophonia week, Meatfare week, and Cheesefare week.

The big days of the santorini carnival. Tsiknopempti, or Smoky Thursday, in the second week; the final Sunday of parades; and Clean Monday, which closes the whole thing.

Where. Fira for the main parade, and the villages — Emporio, Pyrgos, Megalochori, Karterados — for the parts that feel oldest.

What it costs. Nothing. Everything is street-level and free.

Who the santorini carnival is for. Anybody who wants Greece rather than a resort, and who does not mind a cold sea and a half-closed island.

The catch. It falls in the deepest part of the off season. Most of Oia is shut, direct flights do not exist, and the weather is a lottery.

What the Santorini Carnival Actually Is

The Greek carnival season is older than the Christian calendar it now sits inside, and understanding that explains most of what you will see.

Apokries means, literally, “away from meat” — the period of feasting and licence before the fasting of Lent. The three weeks are structured: the first is Profani, when the season is announced and the first fancy dress appears; the second is Kreatini, Meatfare week, whose Thursday is the great meat-eating day; the third is Tyrini, Cheesefare week, when meat has stopped and dairy is still permitted. Then Clean Monday, and seven weeks of fasting.

Underneath that Christian frame sits something considerably older. The masking, the transgressive costumes, the bells, the mock weddings and the ritual mockery of authority are pre-Christian — Dionysian festivals of exactly this kind ran in the Aegean for centuries before the Orthodox calendar absorbed them. On some Greek islands the connection is unmistakable: bell-wearers, phallic props and satirical processions that the church has periodically tried and failed to suppress.

The santorini carnival is a gentler version of that. It is a family and village festival rather than the enormous street party of Patras, or the archaic, slightly unsettling rituals of Skyros and Naoussa. What it offers instead is scale: on an island of 15,500 people, in February, you are not a spectator at a carnival. You are simply there while it happens.

Tsiknopempti: Smoky Thursday

The single best day of the santorini carnival, and the one to plan a trip around if you can only be here for one of them.

Tsiknopempti — from tsikna, the smell of meat grilling over charcoal — falls on the Thursday of the second carnival week, eleven days before Clean Monday. It is the last great meat day before Lent, and the whole country grills. On Santorini that means every taverna in Fira firing up outside, souvlaki and chops going on charcoal from lunchtime, tables spilling into the street, and a smell that hangs over the town all afternoon.

What happens practically: tavernas fill from about one o’clock and stay full. Groups book long tables and stay for hours. Wine goes round, music starts, and by evening a good number of places have people dancing between the tables. Fancy dress appears — not everywhere, and enough that you notice.

Where to go: Fira has the concentration, and the villages have the character. Karterados, Messaria, Pyrgos and Emporio all keep something on, and in the smaller places you will be the only visitor in the room. Book a table in Fira; do not bother in the villages, where turning up and asking works better.

What to eat: everything grilled. Souvlaki, paidakia, loukaniko, kokoretsi if it is on. This is not the day for fava and a salad.

One practical note. Tsiknopempti is a Thursday and it is a working day for most of the island, so the eating starts at lunch and runs into the evening rather than beginning late. Arrive at two rather than nine.

The Parades and the Final Sunday

The visible spine of the santorini carnival is a sequence of parades that build across the three weeks and peak on the last Sunday before Clean Monday.

Seven notes on the parades that form the spine of the santorini carnival.

The school parades. The largest participation of the whole season. Every school on the island turns out in costume, and the numbers are considerable relative to the island’s population. Parents, grandparents and half the village line the route.

Fira. The main parade, through the town, with floats built by local clubs and associations. Satirical rather than spectacular — the floats mock local politics, island issues and whatever has been in the news.

The village parades. Emporio, Pyrgos, Megalochori, Karterados and Vothonas all hold their own. Smaller, older, and considerably more interesting if you want to see the thing rather than photograph it.

Costume at the santorini carnival. Everyone dresses up, including adults. If you are here for the final weekend, buy something. Turning up in ordinary clothes marks you out more than any costume would.

Music and dancing. Village halls, club rooms and squares, running late into the night on the final Saturday and Sunday.

Timing. Santorini carnival parades are afternoon events, typically starting between eleven and one. Nothing here starts on time.

Finding out what is on. The municipality publishes a programme a week or two ahead, and posters go up in Fira. There is no reliable schedule further out than that, which is the single most frustrating thing about planning around it.

Clean Monday and the Kites

Kathara Deftera — Clean Monday — closes the santorini carnival and opens Lent, and it is a public holiday across Greece. It is also, unexpectedly, the best day of the season to be on this island.

The tradition is a picnic outdoors, with Lenten food, and kite flying. Both are taken seriously. Families drive out to open ground — the fields around the south, the ridges near Pyrgos and Profitis Ilias, the beaches at Perissa and Kamari, the flat land near Monolithos — and spend the whole day there. The sky fills with kites, which in the wind that this island gets in February is a genuinely impressive sight.

The food is specific and worth knowing about, because Clean Monday marks the start of a strict fast. No meat, no dairy, no eggs, and no fish with blood — which leaves shellfish, octopus, squid and everything from the vegetable garden. So: lagana, a flat unleavened bread baked only on this one day; taramosalata; olives; pickled vegetables; octopus grilled or in vinegar; squid; skordalia; halva for dessert. On Santorini, fava is inevitably on the table.

What this means for a visitor is that Clean Monday is one of the few days in the Greek year when eating well is easy, cheap and entirely traditional — and one of the few days when you can watch an entire island doing the same thing at the same time. Tavernas that open at all will be full of families. Shops close. Nothing else happens.

Practical points for the last day of the santorini carnival. Buy a kite in Fira in the days before; they appear in every shop. Expect wind, and expect it to be cold. Bring layers. And do not plan anything else for that day, because the island is closed.

When the Santorini Carnival Falls

The dates move by up to a month between years, which is the first thing to establish before booking anything.

Orthodox Easter is calculated from the Julian calendar and the paschal full moon, and it rarely coincides with Western Easter. Everything in the carnival season counts backwards from it: Clean Monday is exactly seven weeks before Easter Sunday, and the santorini carnival runs for the three weeks before that.

Seven dates to work out before booking a santorini carnival trip.

The practical range. Clean Monday can fall anywhere from mid-February to mid-March. The carnival season therefore starts somewhere between late January and mid-February.

Tsiknopempti. Eleven days before Clean Monday, always a Thursday.

The final weekend. The Saturday and Sunday immediately before Clean Monday, when the parades peak.

What this means for booking. Check the Orthodox Easter date for your specific year first, count back seven weeks to Clean Monday, and build the trip around the four days ending on it.

The ideal santorini carnival window. Arrive on the Wednesday before Clean Monday, catch the final weekend of parades, and stay through the Monday itself. Four nights.

The alternative window. The Tsiknopempti weekend, which is a week earlier and quieter.

What not to do. Book a February trip and hope. In some years the whole season is over before the middle of the month.

The Island in Carnival Season

This is the honest part. The santorini carnival falls in the deepest part of the off season, and the island in February is not the island in the photographs.

Eight things about the island during the santorini carnival, stated plainly.

Weather. 12 to 16 degrees by day, 8 to 11 at night. Six to nine wet days a month, arriving as fronts with real wind behind them. Occasional storms across the caldera, which are spectacular and disruptive in equal measure.

The sea. 15 to 16 degrees. Its coldest point of the year. Nobody swims.

Daylight. Sunset between six and half past six, moving later through the season.

What is open. Fira, all of it, all year: supermarkets, bakeries, pharmacies, banks, restaurants and bars. Akrotiri, Ancient Thera and both museums in Fira on winter hours. The cable car, reduced. A handful of wineries.

What is closed. Most of Oia. Almost all of Imerovigli. The entire beach strip at Kamari, Perissa and Perivolos. Most boat operators.

Getting there. No direct European flights. Athens connects year-round, several times a day, forty-five minutes. Conventional ferries from Piraeus run on a reduced winter timetable and the fast catamarans mostly do not.

Prices. The santorini carnival falls in the cheapest weeks of the year. Caldera-view rooms at 70 to 130 euros where August asks 500 to 900, and standard doubles in Fira from 40.

Where to stay for the santorini carnival. Fira. Not a debate — it is the only part of the island with genuine winter life, and it is where the carnival happens.

What Else to Do That Week

A carnival trip needs the days around the parades filled, and February on this island has more to offer than most visitors assume.

Nine things to fill the days around the santorini carnival programme.

Akrotiri in silence. The Bronze Age town under its roof, with entire rooms to yourself. Better now than at any other time of year.

The Museum of Prehistoric Thera. The frescoes from Akrotiri, indoors, and the correct answer to a wet afternoon.

The Archaeological Museum of Thera. Also in Fira, also open all winter.

The caldera path. Oia to Fira in 14 degrees with a green landscape underneath and nobody on it. The best walking conditions of the year.

Pyrgos and Emporio. The two best inland villages, at their most themselves in February, and both central to the carnival programme.

A winery. Reduced hours, no queue, and the vines being pruned in the fields.

Ancient Thera. Open, weather permitting, with storms moving across the whole southern half of the island.

The green island. Winter rain on volcanic soil produces six weeks of deep green across the terraces and the vineyards. It appears in almost no photograph of Santorini, and February is when it starts.

Eat like a local. Winter menus in Fira: fava, slow-cooked lamb, wild greens, and prices that bear no relation to July.

Santorini Carnival Costumes and What They Mean

Fancy dress is not decoration in a Greek carnival. It is the mechanism of the whole thing, and knowing what you are looking at makes the santorini carnival considerably more interesting than a parade of children in costume.

The Greek word is maskarema, and the point of it is inversion. For three weeks the ordinary social order is suspended: a mask allows anybody to say anything to anybody, and the tradition of teasing, mocking and impersonating — particularly authority — is protected by anonymity. In villages where everybody knows everybody, that matters. It is the same logic that produced the satirical floats, which on this island are aimed squarely at local politics, the tourism industry and whatever has annoyed the island that year.

What you will see falls into a few broad groups. Children dress as more or less anything, and school parades are the biggest participation of the season. Adults tend towards either the elaborate — full period or fantasy costume, made or hired — or the deliberately absurd, which is the older tradition. Cross-dressing is common and entirely unremarkable, and it is one of the oldest elements of the festival. Groups from village clubs often dress to a single theme and build a float to match.

The one thing that stands out on Santorini, relative to the mainland carnivals, is how much of it is family-organised. There is no professional carnival industry here. The floats are built in garages, the costumes are made at home or borrowed, and the music is whoever in the village plays. That is precisely what makes it worth watching.

If you are here for the final weekend, buy something. Costume shops appear in Fira for the season and every supermarket carries masks, wigs and hats. Turning up to a village parade in ordinary clothes marks you as a spectator; turning up in a bad wig marks you as a participant, and the difference in how the evening goes is substantial.

Where the Santorini Carnival Traditions Come From

The santorini carnival sits at the end of a very long line, and its individual elements have traceable origins that are worth knowing.

The masking. Almost certainly Dionysian in origin. Festivals of Dionysus involved masks, wine, licensed disorder and processions, and they ran across the Aegean for centuries. The Orthodox church absorbed the timing rather than the content, and the content survived largely intact.

The three-week structure. Byzantine. The graduated fast — meat, then dairy, then nothing — is a formal part of the Orthodox calendar and the carnival weeks are named after it: Meatfare and Cheesefare.

The satire. Medieval and Venetian. The Cyclades were under Venetian rule for three centuries after 1204, and the tradition of ridiculing authority in costume travelled with it.

Tsiknopempti. Practical rather than religious in origin. Meat had to be used before the fast, and grilling it outdoors is what a whole community does at the same time.

The kites on Clean Monday. The usual explanation is the soul rising towards God at the start of Lent. The unromantic explanation is that late February and early March are the windiest weeks of the Greek year and everybody is outdoors anyway.

Lagana. Unleavened bread, connected to the same symbolism of stripping things back that governs the whole Lenten fast. It is baked on one day a year.

The kites and the food together. Clean Monday is the only day in the Greek calendar on which an entire country picnics outdoors simultaneously, and it is the most visible surviving example of a communal seasonal ritual anywhere in Europe.

Photographing the Santorini Carnival

Eight notes on photographing the santorini carnival.

The light. February and March give the best light of the year here — low sun, real cloud and storm structure over the caldera. Nothing in August comes close.

Ask first. Children in costume are the heart of the santorini carnival and photographing them without asking a parent is not acceptable. A greeting first changes the answer almost every time.

Village over town. The Fira parade photographs like a parade. Emporio and Pyrgos photograph like something older.

Go wide. The lanes are narrow, the villages are stacked and the crowds are close.

Shoot the evening. Village halls and squares after dark, with a fast lens, are where the atmosphere is.

Clean Monday from above. A ridge above the picnic grounds, with kites in the air and the caldera behind. The single best photograph of the season.

Bring a waterproof for the camera. Fronts come through fast and hard in February.

The empty island as a bonus. Oia, Imerovigli and the caldera path in carnival season are as empty as they will ever be, and the green landscape underneath them is gone by June.

Carnival Food, Week by Week

The three weeks of the santorini carnival are organised around what you are allowed to eat, and following that is the easiest way to understand the season.

The santorini carnival is organised around what you are allowed to eat, week by week.

Week one, Profani. Nothing is restricted. The season is announced, the first costumes appear in the schools, and the eating is ordinary.

Week two, Kreatini or Meatfare. The great meat week, ending on the Sunday of Meatfare, which is the last day meat is permitted before Lent. Tsiknopempti falls on the Thursday, and the whole island grills.

Week three, Tyrini or Cheesefare. No meat. Dairy, eggs and fish are still allowed, so the week runs on cheese pies, omelettes, macaroni with cheese, and everything that uses up what is in the house before the fast.

Clean Monday, the end of the santorini carnival. The fast begins. No meat, no dairy, no eggs, no fish with blood. Shellfish, octopus, squid, vegetables and pulses are permitted, which is why the Clean Monday table looks the way it does.

The santorini carnival additions. Fava with onion and capers, tomatokeftedes, white aubergine, chloro cheese in the cheese week and none of it on the Monday, and local capers and caper leaves throughout.

Lagana. The flat unleavened bread baked in Greece on one day a year, Clean Monday, and available in every bakery in Fira that morning.

Halva. The traditional Clean Monday dessert, since it contains no dairy or eggs.

What to drink. Local assyrtiko, which is on every table on the island whatever the calendar says.

Carnival Elsewhere in Greece, for Comparison

It is worth being clear about what the santorini carnival is not, so that expectations match what actually happens.

Seven Greek carnivals, and where the santorini carnival sits among them.

Patras. The largest carnival in Greece and one of the biggest in Europe, running for weeks with tens of thousands of participants, a treasure-hunt game and a final parade that fills the city. If spectacle is what you want, that is where it is.

Naoussa, in Macedonia. The Genitsari and Boules, an archaic masked ritual with white wax masks and a dance that is far older than anything Christian. Unsettling and remarkable.

Skyros. Goat-bell wearers in animal skins, an unbroken pre-Christian tradition, and one of the most anthropologically interesting festivals in Europe.

Rethymno, in Crete. A large, organised carnival with a treasure hunt and a substantial parade.

Xanthi and Tyrnavos. Northern carnivals, one for its scale and multicultural mix and the other for a fertility rite that is considerably franker than most visitors expect.

The santorini carnival. A village and family carnival on an island of 15,500 people, in the low season, with school parades, satirical floats, a grilling day and a kite-flying Monday. Small, warm, entirely unpackaged, and with no other visitors in the frame.

Which to choose. Patras or Naoussa if the carnival is the trip. Santorini if you want to be somewhere extraordinary at the cheapest and emptiest time of year, with a genuine local festival happening around you.

Practical Notes for a Santorini Carnival Trip

Eleven practical points that a santorini carnival trip turns on.

Base in Fira. The only part of the island with year-round life, and the centre of the santorini carnival programme.

Hire a car or book a driver. The village parades are the good ones and the bus network runs a skeleton winter timetable.

Confirm the hotel is actually open. February listings sometimes stay live after a property has closed for the season. Message directly.

Bring warm clothes. 13 degrees with wind and rain on an exposed cliff is colder than the number suggests.

Waterproofs and grippy shoes. Wet marble steps in a Cycladic village are genuinely dangerous.

Buy a costume. For the final weekend. Everyone else will have one.

Buy a kite. They appear in Fira shops in the week before Clean Monday.

Book Tsiknopempti. A table in Fira, for the early afternoon.

Expect nothing to be scheduled precisely. Parades start when they start.

Cash. Cards work in Fira; a village club room on a carnival night may not take them.

Do not book a ferry on the day you fly. February fronts cancel sailings at short notice.

A Four-Day Santorini Carnival Itinerary

Four nights is the right length for a santorini carnival trip, ending on Clean Monday.

Thursday. Fly in through Athens, transfer to Fira, and walk the rim to Firostefani in the afternoon. Sunset at about half past six. Dinner in town.

Friday. Akrotiri at opening with the place to yourself, lunch in Megalochori, a winery at three, and the Museum of Prehistoric Thera if the weather turns. Village parade in the evening if one is on.

Saturday. The caldera path from Oia to Fira in the morning, four hours at a walking pace through the green version of the island. Costume on in the afternoon for the parades, and out late.

Sunday. The peak day of the santorini carnival: the main parade in Fira, floats and school groups, followed by whatever the town does afterwards. This is the peak of the santorini carnival.

Monday. Clean Monday. Buy lagana at a bakery in the morning, take a kite, and go to open ground — the fields near Pyrgos, the ridge below Profitis Ilias, or Perissa beach. Eat octopus, taramosalata and halva, and fly the kite until the light goes.

Tuesday. Transfer to the airport. Everything is quiet again.

If it rains for two days. Both museums, the wine museum in a cave, a winery and long lunches. February here rarely loses a whole day.

Who Carnival Suits

The split between the travellers the santorini carnival works for and the ones it does not is unusually clean.

People who want Greece rather than a resort. This is the strongest reason to come. Nothing about the santorini carnival is staged for visitors.

Photographers. Storm light over the caldera, a green island, empty villages, and a genuine festival with no other cameras in it.

Walkers. The best walking conditions of the year: 14 degrees, green hillsides and an empty caldera path.

Budget travellers. The cheapest week of the entire year on this island.

Second and third visits. If you have done the sights in summer, this shows you what is underneath them.

Families with school-age children. The parades are school parades, and children are the point of them.

Not for a beach holiday. The sea is 15 degrees and the resorts are shut.

Not for a first-and-only visit. Too much is closed, and the weather is a lottery.

Not for nightlife. Beyond the carnival nights themselves, there is very little.

Santorini Carnival: Frequently Asked Questions

When is the santorini carnival? Movable, tied to Orthodox Easter. It runs for the three weeks before Clean Monday, which is seven weeks before Orthodox Easter Sunday — so usually somewhere between early February and mid-March.

What is Apokries at the santorini carnival? The Greek name for the carnival season. It means “away from meat” and refers to the feasting before the Lenten fast.

What is Tsiknopempti at the santorini carnival? Smoky Thursday, in the second carnival week. The great meat-grilling day, when every taverna cooks outside.

What is Clean Monday? Kathara Deftera, the first day of Lent and a public holiday. Families picnic outdoors on Lenten food and fly kites.

Why kites at the santorini carnival? The tradition is usually explained as the soul rising towards God at the start of the fast. It is also very windy in February, which helps.

What do people eat on Clean Monday? Lagana bread, taramosalata, olives, pickles, octopus, squid, skordalia, fava and halva. No meat, dairy, eggs or fish with blood.

Where are the best santorini carnival parades? Fira for the main one, and Emporio, Pyrgos, Megalochori and Karterados for the village versions.

Should I dress up for the santorini carnival? Yes, for the final weekend. Everyone else does.

Is the santorini carnival worth travelling for? As the whole reason for a trip, only if you want an off-season island and a genuine local festival. As part of a cheap February trip, absolutely.

What is open during the santorini carnival? Fira all month, Akrotiri, Ancient Thera, both museums and the cable car on winter hours, and some wineries. Oia and the beach resorts are largely closed.

How do I find the programme? The municipality publishes it a week or two ahead, and posters go up in Fira. There is no reliable long-range schedule.

How cold is the santorini carnival? 12 to 16 degrees by day, 8 to 11 at night, with six to nine wet days across the month.

See the Island at Its Most Greek

We are a local operator running private tours and transfers in our own vehicles, and we work through the winter — which means we know which villages have something on in any given carnival week, and which roads to take to get there.

Tell us your dates and we will build the days around the programme, the weather and what is actually open.

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 private 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 8, 2026 By Stelios Karamolegkos

Santorini Experience – Caldera Trail Races and the Volcano Swim

The Santorini Experience is the island’s sports tourism weekend, held every autumn since 2015 and co-organised by the Municipality of Thera and ActiveMedia Group. It runs 16 to 18 October 2026. Three trail routes of 15 km, 10 km and 5 km start and finish at the desalination plant in Oia and follow the caldera path through Imerovigli and Firostefani, and a 1.5-mile open-water swim crosses the caldera from the volcano to the Old Port of Fira.

Book a Santorini Private Tour to comfortably visit the 5th Santorini Experience

Santorini will once again be at the centre of the world sports map in October through the “Santorini Experience” event.

Amateur and professional athletes will discover for the 5th year, October 4 – 6, 2019, the athletic side of the island through running races, admiring the Cycladic architecture overlooking the Caldera and through a swim in the immense blue sea with the necessary volcanic energy.

We also suggest to book a Santorini Private Transfer to those who visit the event and the island for the period from 01/10/2019 – 10/10/2019.

“Santorini Experience” as every year, ensures the best services for all participants, creating the ideal conditions for all travellers. Visitors to Santorini by boat for the 5th “Santorini Experience” will be able to travel for another year with the safety and comfort of the official sponsor of Blue Star Ferries. The leading Greek passenger shipping company offers 50% discount on ferry tickets to and from Santorini. Every person who has completed their registration is entitled to the same discount for 3 additional persons (if they are his / her companions) or 4 persons (if they are his / her family).

For reservations and ticket issuance, participants will need to contact the following port offices in working hours and days, at least 3 business days prior to departure, upon completion of registration:

Piraeus, GELASAKIS SHIPPING & TRAVEL, tel. 210 4222440, tel
DAKOUTROS TRAVEL, tel. 22860 22201
Paros, ERKYNA TRAVEL, tel. 22840 23112
Syros, VASSILIKOS PREMIUM SERVICES, tel. 22810 844444
Naxos, ZAS TRAVEL, tel. 22850 23330

For reservation and admission day the discount will not be available.

At the same time, Santorini Private Guided Tours will be available to offer Mini Buses to the participants of the 5th “Santorini Experience” through online booking, for their trips to the island (with pick up from the airport or port). For reservations, participants should communicate in advance through the contact form.

On Friday, October 4, 2019, the award-winning Santo Maris Oia Luxury Suites & Spa will give people the opportunity to enjoy the magnificent view of the famed Oia Sunset by organizing as their official sponsor of “Santorini Experience” a unique Sunset Pilates Session Persaki. There will be limited seats for the session. Those interested can call: +30 28975 02151.

The foundation stone for the promotion of Santorini sports tourism and one of the most important factors for the success of the “Santorini Experience” are the sponsors of the event’s hospitality, who promote the institution with special offers and prices. So far this effort has been supported by: Santorini Hoteliers Association, Meltemi Hotels & Resorts, Athina Luxury Suites, Santo Maris Oia Luxury Suites & Spa, Canaves Oia, West East Suites, Andronis Arcadia, Vedema a Luxury Collection Resort, Mystique a Luxury Collection Hotel, Santo Houses, Desiterra Luxury Suites & Villas, 270 Oia’s View, Fanouris Condo, Monolithia, Casa Iphigenia, Sienna Resort, Esperas Santorini, Loizos Stylish Residencies, Iokasti Villa, Olive Cave Houses and Mesana Stone Houses while attendance continues.

Travel to Santorini under the perfect weather conditions of October 4 – 6 and take advantage of the accommodation offers of hosting sponsors and event partners, such as VitaNTravel, which offers a three-day stay package starting from 130€ / person and includes accommodation and ferry tickets. You can take a tour of Santorini!

Santorini Experience 2019 offers

The difficulties of the “Santorini Experience” are many, but the enjoyments and experiences you get from such a race are even greater.

Running and swimming
Attend the Real Madrid Camp in Santorini

“Santorini Experience” is part of the Greek actions of the European Commission’s BeactiveHellas 2019 program and is under the auspices of the General Secretariat of Sport.

“Santorini Experience” is a co-operation of the Municipality of Thera, the Santorini Municipal Athletic Cultural Environmental Organization (DAPPO) and the Active Media Group. The event is under the auspices of the Hellenic Tourism Organization (EOT), with the approval of the Hellenic Swimming Federation (JOC).

Santorini is an island in which transportation is necessary, so Santorini Tours provides its services for this purpose.

See more about Santorini island:

Santorini Experience: The Short Answer

The Santorini Experience is the island’s sports tourism weekend: trail running on the caldera rim and a 1.5-mile open-water swim from the volcano into the old port of Fira. It is co-organised by the Municipality of Thera, the municipality’s Department of Sports and Culture, and ActiveMedia Group, and it has run every autumn since 2015.

Seven facts cover most of what people want to know about the santorini experience before they enter.

2026 dates. 16 to 18 October 2026. The 2025 edition ran from 10 to 12 October.

Running at the santorini experience. Three trail routes — 15 km, 10 km and 5 km — starting and finishing at the desalination plant in Oia and running the Oia to Fira path through Imerovigli and Firostefani.

Swimming. One route, 1.5 miles or 2.4 km, starting at the volcano and finishing at the Old Port of Fira.

Who the santorini experience is for. Anyone. The 5 km is a walkable distance on a spectacular path, and the field runs from club athletes to families.

Free for residents. Citizens of the Municipality of Thira register free, in person, at Alafouzos Sport in Fira.

What it costs everyone else. A registration fee per route, plus flights and accommodation, both of which are at shoulder-season prices in mid-October.

What the Santorini Experience Actually Is

Most destination races put a marathon through a city and add a pasta party. This one is different in a way that only makes sense once you have seen the ground it runs on.

The running courses use the Oia to Fira hiking trail — the caldera rim path — which is not a road, not flat, and not a normal race surface. It climbs and drops along the edge of a flooded volcanic crater, past Imerovigli and Firostefani, with a 300-metre drop on one side and whitewashed villages on the other. There are stretches of stone paving, stretches of dirt and volcanic scree, and steps. Anyone expecting a fast time is in the wrong place, which is precisely the point of the santorini experience.

The swim is stranger still. Competitors are taken by boat from the Old Port of Fira out to the volcanic islet of Nea Kameni, put into the water in the middle of the caldera, and swim 2.4 km back across it to the port they left from. The water is deep, warm in October, and the crater wall rises 300 metres above you for the entire crossing. There is no other open-water event in Greece with that backdrop, and it is the single image the santorini experience is known for.

Around the two race days sits a programme of talks, clinics and exhibition events with Greek and international sports figures, a free sunset party in Fira, and a set of community activities aimed at the island’s schools. The Santorini Experience is deliberately built as a weekend for the island as much as for the visiting field.

The Running Routes in Detail

All three routes start and finish at the desalination plant in Oia, and all three use the same path in one direction or another. The start times below are the 2025 schedule and the pattern repeats each year.

15 km trail route. Oia to Fira and back, the full length of the caldera path twice. Start 08:15. The serious option, with cumulative climb that surprises road runners and a surface that punishes anyone who has never run on trail.

10 km trail route. Oia towards Fira and back, turning short of the town. Start 08:15, alongside the 15 km. The most popular distance in the field.

5 km trail route. The “Aristides Alafouzos” route, Oia towards Fira and back. Start 11:00. Runnable, walkable, and the one to enter if this is a holiday with a race in it rather than a race with a holiday attached.

The surface. Mixed. Paved village lanes through Imerovigli and Firostefani, then dirt, loose volcanic gravel and rock. Trail shoes, not road shoes.

The climb. The path is a rollercoaster rather than a hill. It never climbs far in one go and it never stops climbing.

The heat. Mid-October on Santorini, when the santorini experience is held, is warm rather than hot, usually low twenties by mid-morning, with almost no shade anywhere on the route.

The view. Constant on every santorini experience route, and the reason nobody complains about the times.

The Open Water Swim Across the Caldera

The swim runs on the Friday, the day before the running, and it is the event that people who have done both remember longest.

The logistics are simple and slightly surreal. Swimmers collect their kit at the registration area at the Old Port of Fira from around half past eight. At half past nine they board boats and are taken out to the volcano. At ten they are put into the water beside a black lava islet in the middle of a caldera, and they swim 2.4 km back to the port.

Eight things worth knowing before you enter the santorini experience swim.

Distance. 1.5 miles, 2.4 km. A moderate open-water distance and a serious one if you have only ever swum in a pool.

Water temperature. Mid-October in the Aegean is usually 23 to 24 degrees, which is the warmest sea of the Greek year and warmer than most people expect.

Depth. The caldera is several hundred metres deep in places. There is nothing beneath you at all, which is a psychological factor rather than a practical one.

Conditions. The caldera is sheltered from the northerlies by the rim itself, which is why the crossing is viable in October at all. A strong meltemi can still move the schedule.

Wetsuits. Optional at santorini experience water temperatures, and most of the field swims without one.

Support. Escort boats, kayaks and lifeguards along the route, which is standard for the Santorini Experience swim and worth confirming in the year’s technical guide.

The finish. Into the Old Port under the cliff, with the cable car running overhead and Fira 300 metres above you.

How to Train for a Trail Race on a Volcano

The single most common mistake is treating this as a road race with a view. It is a trail event, and the difference shows up in the last three kilometres of every santorini experience route.

Seven pieces of preparation that change the santorini experience more than any training plan.

Train on trail. Even one session a week on uneven ground changes how your ankles handle the volcanic gravel on the Oia path.

Train the descents. The climbing is honest and the descending is what wrecks quadriceps. This course goes down as much as it goes up.

Train steps. Sections of the caldera path are stepped, and stepped running is a specific skill.

Do not chase a personal best. Expect to be ten to twenty per cent slower than your road pace for the same distance.

Swimmers: get in open water. Sighting, chop and starting in a crowd cannot be practised in a lane.

Swimmers: practise the distance twice. Two 3 km sessions before the event, and 2.4 km on the day feels comfortable.

Both: arrive two days early. The flight, the ferry, the heat and the altitude change of a cliff-top hotel all take a day out of you.

Getting to Santorini for the Santorini Experience

Mid-October is the tail of the season, and that changes the transport picture in ways that catch people out every year.

Six things to check before you book travel to the santorini experience.

Direct flights. Many European carriers stop flying to Santorini in the second half of October. Check that your return still exists on the date you need it.

Via Athens. Always available, forty-five minutes in the air, and several flights a day year-round.

Ferry from Piraeus. Five hours on a fast catamaran, eight on a conventional ferry. October ferry schedules thin out and the fast boats are weather-dependent.

From Crete, Naxos, Paros or Ios. Regular connections through the season, reducing sharply from late October.

Arrive Thursday at the latest. The swim is Friday morning and kit collection is Thursday and Friday. A Friday arrival is cutting it fine.

Leave Monday. Sunday is the community programme and the day everybody actually enjoys the island.

Airport and Port Transfers on Race Weekend

This is where the Santorini Experience differs from a city marathon, and where most of the avoidable stress comes from. The island’s public transport is a hub-and-spoke bus network running through Fira, taxis number in the low twenties for the whole island, and race mornings start before any of it does.

The 15 km and 10 km routes start at 08:15 at the desalination plant in Oia. If you are staying in Kamari, Perissa or Akrotiri, that means being on the road before seven, on a morning when several thousand other people want the same roads. There is no bus that solves this.

We run private transfers in our own vehicles, per vehicle rather than per person, with hotel pickup anywhere on the island. For a race weekend that usually means three bookings: airport or port on arrival, an early start to Oia on the race morning, and and the return leg when the santorini experience is over and do not want to walk another metre.

Prices are per vehicle, so a group of four or six splits one fare. An 80 EUR deposit confirms a date, pickup is included from anywhere on the island, and our drivers guide in twelve languages. If you are flying in on the Thursday of the Santorini Experience, book the airport leg first — that is the day the arrivals stack up.

Where to Stay for the Santorini Experience

Accommodation choice matters more here than at almost any other destination race, because the island is long, the roads are slow and the start is at one end of it.

Oia. The obvious base for the santorini experience. Start and finish are both here, you can walk to the line, and you are in the most beautiful village on the island. It is also the most expensive place to sleep in Greece, and mid-October only softens that a little.

Imerovigli. On the course, halfway along the rim, with caldera views and a fifteen-minute drive to the start. The best compromise on the island for the Santorini Experience.

Firostefani. Also on the course, marginally cheaper than Imerovigli, and a walk into Fira for dinner.

Fira. The centre of the santorini experience: kit collection at Alafouzos Sport, the swim start and finish at the Old Port, the sunset party at the Metropolitan Church, restaurants, and the bus hub. Twenty-five minutes from the running start.

Kamari and Perissa. Beach hotels, half the price, flat, and good for recovery. Forty minutes from Oia on a race morning, so budget for a transfer.

Akrotiri and the south. Quiet and cheap. The furthest from everything, and only sensible with a vehicle.

Book early. The santorini experience fills the caldera villages, and the official accommodation offers on the organisers’ site are usually the cheapest way into Oia and Imerovigli that weekend.

The Weekend Programme Beyond the Races

Roughly half of what happens over the Santorini Experience weekend has nothing to do with racing, and it is a genuine part of the reason the santorini experience has survived a decade.

The 2025 programme included flag football camps and an exhibition game with the Los Angeles Chargers at the municipal stadium, basketball clinics with Evina Maltsi and Joe Arlauckas, talks by the European champion footballer Kostas Katsouranis and the basketball player Dimitris Papanikolaou at the Bellonio Cultural Center and in village clubs, a financial literacy session at the vocational high school, a guided hike at Ancient Thera, and a free sunset party with a DJ set at the Metropolitan Church in Fira on the Saturday evening.

Two things are worth noticing about that list. The first is that most of it is aimed at the island’s own children and clubs rather than at visitors, which is why the municipality co-organises it. The second is that the parts open to everyone — the sunset party in particular — are free, and are the best evening of the weekend.

What Else to Do on the Island That Week

Mid-October is one of the two best weeks of the year to be on Santorini, and a race weekend is a poor reason to see nothing else. The crowds have gone, the sea is still at its warmest, the light has turned golden, and the vineyards have just finished the harvest.

Six of these fit comfortably around a santorini experience weekend without touching a race day.

Akrotiri. The Bronze Age town buried by the eruption, under a roof, and cool at any hour. Twenty minutes from Fira.

Ancient Thera. The Hellenistic city on the ridge above Kamari, with the best all-round view on the island.

The wineries. Assyrtiko from ungrafted vines trained into baskets on the ground, and Vinsanto. Late afternoon is the hour.

The volcano and hot springs. Nea Kameni on foot and Palia Kameni from the water — the same caldera the swimmers cross.

Pyrgos and Emporio. The two best inland villages, both fortified, both quiet, both nothing like the rim.

The east coast beaches. Kamari, Perissa and Vlychada, all still swimmable in October and all empty by then.

A boat in the caldera. The only way to understand the scale of the crater the Santorini Experience swim crosses.

Thirasia. The other side of the caldera, with about three hundred residents and no coaches at all.

Registration, Kit and Practicalities

Eight practical points that the santorini experience entry process turns on.

Where to register. Online through the organisers’ site, on the entry page for the year’s edition. Places are not usually a lottery, and popular distances do close.

Residents of Thira. Free entry, registered in person at Alafouzos Sport in Fira, the event’s official sports store.

Kit collection. At Alafouzos Sport in Fira on the days before, and at the start areas on the mornings — the Old Port for swimmers, the desalination plant in Oia for runners.

Bring proof of entry and ID. Standard, and easy to leave in a hotel safe.

Medical certificate. Greek events routinely require one for competitive entry. Check the year’s terms before you fly, not after you land.

Timing chips. Issued with the kit and returned at the finish.

Baggage. A drop at the start and finish areas, both of which are the same place for the running routes.

Results. Published on the santorini experience site, edition by edition, going back to 2015.

What to Pack

Eight items that matter at the santorini experience, in order.

Trail shoes. The single most important item. Road shoes on volcanic gravel are how people fall.

A cap and sunglasses. There is no shade on the caldera path, at any point, in either direction.

Sunscreen. The October sun is lower and no gentler, and the reflection off whitewash is real.

A light windproof. Mornings on the rim in mid-October are cool and windy before the sun gets up.

Goggles you have used before. Two pairs. Bright conditions, so a tinted pair and a clear pair.

A swim cap and anti-chafe. Salt water for 2.4 km finds every seam.

Something warm for the boat. The transfer out to the volcano at half past nine is exposed and wet.

Proper walking shoes for the rest of the trip. The villages are staircases, and polished stone in a stepped lane is slippery.

Santorini Experience: A Realistic Four-Day Plan

Thursday. Fly or sail in for the santorini experience. Transfer to the hotel. Collect the kit at Alafouzos Sport in Fira in the afternoon. Walk part of the caldera path so you know the surface. Eat early.

Friday. Swimmers at the Old Port from half past eight, boats at half past nine, in the water at ten, back on land by late morning. Runners take the day off the legs, see Akrotiri, and go to bed early.

Saturday. Transfer to Oia before seven. Kit and bag drop at the desalination plant. 15 km and 10 km away at 08:15, 5 km at 11:00. Finish, eat in Oia, sleep in the afternoon, and go to the sunset party at the Metropolitan Church in Fira in the evening.

Sunday. The santorini experience community programme runs, and otherwise a winery in the afternoon, a boat into the caldera, or nothing at all. This is the day the island gives back.

Monday. Transfer to the airport or the port. Book it the moment you book the flight, because the whole field leaves on the same morning.

Why October Is the Right Month for the Santorini Experience

The organisers did not put the Santorini Experience in October by accident, and understanding why makes the whole weekend easier to plan.

Racing on this island in July would be dangerous. Mid-summer means 30 degrees or more by nine in the morning, a caldera path with no shade at all, and a hundred thousand cruise passengers on the same trail. Mid-October means low twenties, thin crowds, a sea still holding its summer warmth at 23 or 24 degrees, and hotel prices at a fraction of August.

There is a second reason, and it is the one the island cares about. October is the end of the season, the point at which the tourism economy would otherwise switch off for six months. A weekend that brings several thousand athletes, families and support crews to Santorini after the last cruise ship has gone is worth a great deal to hotels, tavernas and transfer operators who are otherwise closing up. That is why the municipality runs it, why residents enter free, and why half the programme is aimed at the island’s own schools and clubs.

For a visitor, the practical consequence is a rare combination: a genuinely spectacular event, held in the best week of the Greek autumn, on an island that finally has room for you. That combination is what the santorini experience sells.

Ten Years of the Santorini Experience

The event has been held every autumn since 2015, and the archive on the organisers’ site carries routes, schedules and results edition by edition — 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2024 and 2025 — which makes the Santorini Experience one of the better-documented sports weekends in Greece.

Two things stand out reading through them. The first is how little the core has changed: the same caldera path, the same three running distances, the same swim across the crater. The second is how much has been added around it. What began as a race weekend now carries clinics, exhibition games, school programmes and a free public party, and the sporting names attached to each edition have grown with it.

The practical value of that archive is planning. Previous years’ schedules tell you almost exactly what the next edition will look like: kit collection on the Thursday and Friday, the swim on the Friday morning, the running on the Saturday morning, the community programme on the Sunday. Anyone booking flights months ahead can build a Santorini Experience trip against last year’s timetable and be right within an hour.

Is the Santorini Experience Worth Travelling For?

If the question is whether it is a fast, well-organised race with a good field, the answer is that it is well-organised and it is not fast, and the field is mixed rather than elite.

If the question is whether it is worth flying to a Greek island in October for, the answer is straightforward. There is no other event where you run along the rim of a flooded volcano with a three-hundred-metre drop beside you, or swim across the crater itself from a lava islet to a port under a cliff. The Santorini Experience exists because that geography exists, and no amount of organisation elsewhere can replicate it.

The people who get the most out of it treat the racing as one part of a five-day trip: two days of event, three days of island, in the best week of the Greek autumn, at shoulder-season prices, with the summer crowds gone and the sea still warm. Approached that way it is one of the best value trips in the Mediterranean calendar.

The people who get the least out of it fly in on the Friday, race on the Saturday, fly out on the Sunday, and see a trail and an airport. Everything on this page is written to stop that happening.

The Caldera Path, Explained

Everything about the running routes comes down to one trail, and it is worth knowing what it is before you enter.

The Oia to Fira path runs about ten kilometres along the top of the caldera rim, linking four settlements — Fira, Firostefani, Imerovigli and Oia — on a route that has existed as long as the villages have. It is the classic Santorini walk, done by thousands of visitors a year in three to four hours, and the Santorini Experience runs it as a race course in both directions.

The first section, from Fira through Firostefani to Imerovigli, is paved and easy: village lanes, hotel terraces on both sides, and a continuous view down into the crater. After Imerovigli the character changes completely. The paving stops, the path climbs around the flank of Skaros and then out onto open hillside, and the surface becomes dirt, rock and loose volcanic scree. It undulates hard for several kilometres, passes the chapel of Profitis Ilias on a ridge, and finally drops down into Oia past the desalination plant where the race starts.

There is no water on the middle section, no shade anywhere, and no shelter from the wind. There is also nothing between you and a three-hundred-metre drop for long stretches, which is spectacular and demands attention. On a normal day it is a walk with a view. On a race morning it is the most beautiful ten kilometres in Greece and the reason people come back to the santorini experience year after year.

Common Mistakes on Race Weekend

Eight mistakes we watch visitors make at the santorini experience every October.

Booking a hotel on the wrong side of the island. Kamari to Oia is forty minutes on a good day, and race morning is not a good day.

Flying in on the Friday. Kit collection, the swim and any chance of walking the course all disappear.

Wearing road shoes. The most common injury cause on the course.

Treating the 5 km as trivial. It is short, it is not flat, and it starts at eleven when the sun is up.

Underestimating the swim’s depth. Physically irrelevant, psychologically significant for anyone who has only raced in a lake.

Relying on buses. The network runs through Fira and does not run at half past six.

Booking the flight home for the Sunday. You will want the Sunday, and the island is at its best that day.

Skipping the island. Coming to Santorini for the santorini experience and seeing nothing but the trail is the one regret people mention afterwards.

Santorini Experience: Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Santorini Experience? Santorini’s sports tourism weekend, with trail running routes of 15 km, 10 km and 5 km on the caldera path and a 1.5-mile open-water swim from the volcano to the Old Port of Fira.

When is the santorini experience held? Mid-October each year. The 2026 edition runs 16 to 18 October; the 2025 edition ran 10 to 12 October.

Who organises the santorini experience? The Municipality of Thera, the municipality’s Department of Sports and Culture, and ActiveMedia Group. It has run since 2015.

Where do the running routes start? At the desalination plant in Oia, with all three distances starting and finishing there.

How long is the santorini experience swim? 1.5 miles, or 2.4 km, from the volcano to the Old Port of Fira.

Is the santorini experience course difficult? Yes, by road-running standards. It is a trail with mixed surfaces, steps and constant undulation. Expect to be slower than your road pace.

Can beginners take part in the santorini experience? Yes. The 5 km route is walkable and the field is mixed.

How warm is the sea in October? Usually 23 to 24 degrees, the warmest sea of the Greek year.

Do residents pay? No. Citizens of the Municipality of Thira register free at Alafouzos Sport in Fira.

Where should I stay for the santorini experience? Oia to walk to the start, Imerovigli or Firostefani for the best compromise, Fira for everything else, and the beaches if you want the price to drop.

Do I need a transfer for the santorini experience? On the race morning, almost certainly. The start is at 08:15 in Oia and the buses do not help.

Is there anything for non-racers? Yes — clinics, talks, exhibition games and a free sunset party in Fira, plus the best week of the year to see the island.

Get to the Start Line Without the Stress

We are a local operator running private tours and transfers in our own vehicles, and santorini experience weekend is one of the few times a year when the timing genuinely matters more than the route.

Tell us your arrival, your start time and where you are staying, and we will have a vehicle at the door before six if that is what 08:15 in Oia requires. Prices are per vehicle rather than per person, hotel pickup anywhere on the island is included, our drivers guide in twelve languages, and an 80 EUR deposit confirms a date.

See the private transfers, the personalised tour, or contact us.

Every Village and Site on the Island

Any of these can be built into a private day. Each has its own page with what to see and how long to allow.

Caldera villages: Fira · Firostefani · Imerovigli · Oia · Finikia · Baxedes

Inland villages: Pyrgos · Megalochori · Emporio · Mesaria · Karterados · Vothonas · Vourvoulos · Exo Gonia · Mesa Gonia · Pigadia

Beaches: Perissa · Perivolos · Kamari · Vlychada · Monolithos · Red Beach · White Beach · Agios Georgios · Agia Paraskevi

Sites and landmarks: Akrotiri · Ancient Thira · Akrotiri Lighthouse · Nea Kameni · Palia Kameni · Thirasia · Athinios Port

September 7, 2026 By Stelios Karamolegkos

Santorini Winter Wine Tasting Weekend – How to Spend It

A santorini winter wine tasting weekend is the version of this island almost nobody books: three days between November and March, with the estates open, the caldera empty, the light enormous and rooms at a third of the August rate. Most of the serious wineries stay open year-round, some by appointment; what closes is the beach infrastructure, most of Oia and a good share of the caldera hotels.

How to spend a winter tasting weekend in Santorini!

Santorini has officially “worn her winter clothes“. There are few tourists, but the island is never evacuated. Many hotels, restaurants, wineries and other Santorini businesses are still operating and serve visitors. Santorini Tours are also available to travel you to all the beauties Santorini has to offer apart from swimming at the most famous beaches. Winter is the best season to enjoy the special food tastes Santorini has to offer!

3 reasons why one should visit Santorini in winter

It is really quiet. In the summer, Santorini becomes a crowded holiday spot filled up with tourists and everything a popular destination includes. However, there are people who also appreciate the calmness of winter. You can spend hours walking around undisturbed through the stoned roads or just watching the endless blue sea.
It’s cheaper. From flights to accommodation… everything is much cheaper than full season.
Due to the weather conditions photos are much more beautiful. Stormy skies, cloudy skies and a pinch of the sun can give you a photo for your memory book that stands out!

The weather generally in Santorini and all the other Greek islands is mild with a lot of sunshine. But it can also be rainy and windy.

Book a Santorini Private Tour and make the most of your winter experience!

SANTORINI IMPRESSIVE CALDERA PRIVATE TOUR

A 5-hour tour that will allow you to discover the most prominent locations of the island. With a professional guide at your aid, travel in luxurious fully equipped private mini-buses through breathtaking landscape and explore scenic villages as well as ancient ruins, admire the local architecture and be impressed by the spectacular views and sunset.

SANTORINI PRIVATE TOUR AND FOOD EXPERIENCE

Aided by our knowledgeable guide, embark on this unique journey through some of the most magical and alluring highlights of the island. Soak up the scenic villages and footpaths, traditional houses, blue-roofed churches, majestic landscapes and seascapes before sitting down to enjoy delicious traditional favourites of the island. You can take a tour of Santorini!

SANTORINI PRIVATE PERSONALIZED TOUR

Our customized tours enable you to shape your experience of the island according to your individual preferences and desires. Our knowledgeable guide will be your assistant in determining the ideal Santorini island tour for you and there is no shortage of wonders to select from: idyllic villages, places of historical interest, majestic views, local cuisine and wine and many more.

Plus, during the winter, every first Sunday of the month offers free entrance to all the museums and archaeologic sites across Greece which can lead to some significant savings.

SANTORINI SUNSET PRIVATE TOUR

The tangerine sunset of Santorini is without a doubt the most celebrated one – a true inspiration and uplifting sight for so many… This tour captures the magic of the evening sky and makes sure your breath will be taken away by visiting locations with the most spectacular views. After a stop at a famous winery overlooking the caldera, we will visit the iconic Blue Dome Church in Firostefani, and finish our Santorini private tour with watching the sunset at the scenic village of Oia.

See more about Santorini Private Tours in winter:

Santorini Winter Wine Tasting Weekend: The Short Answer

A santorini winter wine tasting weekend is the version of this island almost nobody books: three days between November and March, with the wineries open, the caldera empty, the light enormous, and rooms at a third of what they cost in August.

Most of the serious estates stay open year-round — Santo Wines, Venetsanos, Estate Argyros, Domaine Sigalas and Gavalas among them — some on reduced hours and some by appointment. What closes is the beach infrastructure, most of Oia’s shops and a good share of the caldera hotels.

You will not swim, and you may get a day of rain and a day of wind. In exchange you get an assyrtiko tasting on a terrace with nobody else on it, a table in any restaurant that is open, and a village you can actually walk through.

Why a Santorini Winter Wine Tasting Weekend Beats August

On a santorini winter wine tasting weekend nobody else is in the room. A tasting in August is twenty people at a counter. In February it is you, the host and as long as you want.

On a santorini winter wine tasting weekend the people pouring are the people who made it. In summer the estates run on seasonal staff. Out of season you frequently get the owner or the winemaker.

The vines are legible. Pruned back to the bare kouloura baskets, the shape of Santorini viticulture is visible in a way the summer canopy hides.

The wines are showing properly. A tasting room at eighteen degrees does things for an assyrtiko that a terrace at thirty-four does not.

Prices. Rooms at a third of the summer rate, no minimum-stay rules, and tasting fees unchanged.

The caldera in winter light. Low sun, cloud, and a cliff that looks bigger and stranger than it does in July.

Availability. A santorini winter wine tasting weekend can be booked ten days ahead. Nothing else about this island can.

What Is Open on a Santorini Winter Wine Tasting Weekend

Open all year for a santorini winter wine tasting weekend. Santo Wines at Pyrgos, Venetsanos above the port, Estate Argyros at Episkopi, Domaine Sigalas at Baxedes, Gavalas at Megalochori, and the Wine Museum at Vothonas.

By appointment. Several of the smaller estates take winter visits with a phone call rather than an online booking. Call two or three days ahead.

Fira, the base for a santorini winter wine tasting weekend. Open, functioning and inhabited: supermarkets, bakeries, banks, a dozen restaurants and the museums.

Oia. Largely shut. A handful of restaurants and hotels, empty streets and no crowd at the castle.

The beaches. Perissa and Kamari are closed for business — no sunbeds, most tavernas shuttered, and a black beach in the rain that is worth seeing once.

Akrotiri and Ancient Thera. Open with winter hours, and Akrotiri is a better visit in February than in July.

The boats. The volcano trips mostly stop. Ferries and flights run all year, with weather cancellations.

The Santorini Winter Wine Tasting Weekend, Hour by Hour

Friday, 16:00. Land, drop the bags inland at Megalochori or Pyrgos, and walk the village while the light goes. Nothing is booked.

Friday, 20:00. Dinner somewhere open and local, with a bottle of assyrtiko and a plate of fava.

Saturday, 10:30. The first estate. Take the structured tasting rather than the quick one; there is no queue behind you.

Saturday, 13:00. Lunch inland, slowly, out of the weather.

Saturday, 15:30. The second estate, ideally one with a caldera terrace, and stay for the light.

Saturday, 18:00. The rim at Imerovigli or Fira with a coat on, and the caldera to yourself.

Sunday, 10:00. Akrotiri, roofed and warm, then the Wine Museum at Vothonas or a third estate before the flight.

That is a santorini winter wine tasting weekend done properly: two estates a day, no rushing, and everything within twenty minutes of everything else.

What You Taste on a Santorini Winter Wine Tasting Weekend

Assyrtiko, the point of a santorini winter wine tasting weekend. The island’s white: bone dry, high acid, saline, and grown on ungrafted vines in volcanic ash with no irrigation. It is the reason anybody comes.

Nykteri. Assyrtiko harvested riper and fermented in barrel, traditionally overnight — the name means “working through the night”. Fuller, rounder and more serious.

Athiri and Aidani. The other two local whites, softer and more aromatic, usually blended with assyrtiko.

Vinsanto, the santorini winter wine tasting weekend souvenir. Sun-dried grapes, years in barrel, sweet without being cloying, and the bottle most visitors carry home.

Mavrotragano. The island’s red, nearly extinct thirty years ago and revived by a handful of growers. Dark, structured and worth asking for by name.

Mandilaria. The other red, tannic and rustic, usually blended.

What winter adds. On a santorini winter wine tasting weekend the estates will open older vintages and library bottles that never come out in August, because they have the time and you are the only person asking.

Santorini Winter Wine Tasting Weekend Weather, Honestly

December to February on Santorini runs at ten to fifteen degrees in the day and six to ten at night, which is mild by northern European standards and colder than most visitors expect from a Greek island. Rain arrives in systems rather than showers: several wet days in a row and then a week of clear, still, extraordinarily bright weather. Total annual rainfall is around 350 millimetres and almost all of it falls between November and March.

The wind is the real variable on a santorini winter wine tasting weekend. Winter storms in the Aegean are serious, and they close ferries for a day or two at a time and occasionally divert flights. If your weekend is built around a Sunday afternoon flight, that is usually fine; if it is built around a ferry connection, build in a spare day.

Heating is the other santorini winter wine tasting weekend problem nobody mentions. Many caldera properties are built for summer and heated by a single air-conditioning unit, and a cave room cut into rock holds cold as efficiently as it holds cool. Ask specifically about heating when booking a santorini winter wine tasting weekend, and prefer the inland villages, where the houses are built for a winter that the rim properties treat as an afterthought.

What you get in exchange is the light. Low winter sun across the caldera, cloud shadows moving over Thirasia, and a cliff face that shows its layers better in January than in any other month of the year. Photographers who come here repeatedly come in winter.

Santorini Winter Wine Tasting Weekend Month by Month

November. The season has just ended and the island exhales. Temperatures of sixteen to twenty degrees, the first rain systems, and a large share of the summer businesses closing in the first fortnight. The vineyards have been harvested and the leaves are turning. Of the winter months this is the mildest and the one with the most still open, and a santorini winter wine tasting weekend in the second half of November is the gentlest introduction to the off-season.

December. Cool and increasingly wet, with sunset at around twenty past five and a genuinely Greek Christmas in the villages: bakeries selling melomakarona and kourabiedes, church services, and decorations in Fira that are for the residents rather than for anybody’s photographs. The estates are quiet and welcoming. Flights thin out to Athens connections.

January. The coldest month for a santorini winter wine tasting weekend, ten to fourteen degrees by day, and the clearest air of the year between the storm systems. This is when the caldera cliff shows its layers best, when the island is greenest, and when you will have entire villages to yourself. It is also the month with the highest chance of a ferry cancellation and the lowest room rates.

February. Similar to January with the first hint of the turn: almond blossom in the inland fields, longer afternoons, and the pruning under way in the vineyards. Apokries — the Greek carnival — falls in February or early March and is celebrated properly in the villages.

March. The santorini winter wine tasting weekend season ends as the island wakes up. Temperatures climbing to sixteen or eighteen, wild flowers across the terraces, more businesses reopening every week, and the first cruise ships appearing at the end of the month. For a santorini winter wine tasting weekend that wants some warmth with the emptiness, the second half of March is the sweet spot.

The one to avoid. Early to mid-January, when a number of estates and restaurants close entirely for two or three weeks after the Greek holidays. Check before booking rather than after.

The Vineyard Year a Santorini Winter Wine Tasting Weekend Walks Into

Coming out of season means arriving in the middle of the working year rather than the display year, and it is worth knowing what stage the vines are at because the estates will talk about it if you ask.

November. The leaves fall. The kouloura baskets — the woven circular vines unique to this island — are visible as bare structures for the first time since spring, and this is the clearest month for actually understanding how they are built.

December and January. Dormancy. In the cellar this is when the previous harvest is settling, when the barrels are topped up, and when the winemaker actually has time to talk to visitors, which is precisely why a santorini winter wine tasting weekend gets a different quality of attention from an August one.

February. Pruning, and the best santorini winter wine tasting weekend to watch it. Each basket is cut back and rewoven by hand, a skilled job done by people who have been doing it since childhood, and if your visit coincides with it you can watch a two-hundred-year-old vine being maintained the way it has been for generations.

March. Bud break, weather permitting. Small green shoots appear on what looked like dead wood a fortnight earlier.

What is in the bottle. The previous September’s assyrtiko is released from around February onwards, so a late-winter visit often catches the new vintage at the estate before it reaches any shop.

Vinsanto. Ageing in barrel through all of this, for anything from four to twenty years, which is why the estates always have some to pour whatever the month.

Why any of it matters. Because tasting a wine in the place it was made, from the person who made it, standing next to the bare vine it came off, is a different experience from drinking it on a terrace in July, and it is available for four months of the year to almost nobody.

The Villages on a Santorini Winter Wine Tasting Weekend

The thing that changes most between August and January is not the weather; it is who the villages are for. In summer Fira, Oia and Imerovigli are a service industry with a residential population hidden behind it. In winter that inverts, and what is left is a working island of about fifteen thousand people going about a normal year.

Fira. Fully alive all winter. The supermarkets, the bakeries, the banks, the schools and a dozen restaurants that serve locals rather than visitors. The museums are open on winter hours. The cable car runs a reduced service and the main square has people in it who live here.

Pyrgos. The best village on a santorini winter wine tasting weekend. The castle at the top is open ground, the lanes are steep and empty, several tavernas stay open all year, and on a clear January day you can see both coasts from the summit with nobody else on it.

Megalochori. Quiet, handsome and inhabited, with a shaded square, a bakery, and the kind of restaurant that has the same six tables occupied by the same people every Sunday.

Emporio. The medieval kasteli is a residential warren rather than a curiosity in winter, with washing on the lines and cats on the steps and doors that are open because people live behind them.

Oia on a santorini winter wine tasting weekend. Largely shuttered and worth one visit for exactly that reason. Walking the main street in February with four other people on it, in the place that holds four hundred at sunset in August, reorganises your sense of the island permanently.

Kamari and Perissa. Closed. A boarded promenade, a black beach in the rain and a couple of tavernas serving the year-round residents.

What this adds to a santorini winter wine tasting weekend. The wine is the reason to come and the villages are what you remember, because you have seen the island rather than the performance of it.

Eating on a Santorini Winter Wine Tasting Weekend

Fewer places are open and the ones that are, are better, which is a trade almost everybody takes once they have made it. The restaurants that close in November are the ones with a view and a summer clientele; the ones that stay open are the ones the island itself eats in.

What changes on the plate during a santorini winter wine tasting weekend is seasonality. Summer menus here are built around tomatoes, aubergine, capers and grilled fish. Winter menus are built around what the island actually has in the cold months: pulses, wild greens, slow-cooked meat, and preserved things. Fava — the yellow split-pea purée made from Santorini’s own legume — is a winter dish that has been colonised by summer menus, and it is at its best served hot in February with raw onion and a spoonful of new oil.

Look for horta, the wild greens gathered from the terraces after the first rains and boiled with lemon and oil; for chickpea stews baked overnight in a wood oven, which is a Cycladic Sunday tradition rather than a restaurant invention; for slow-cooked goat and rabbit; and for the island’s fresh chloro cheese, which is made year-round. Fish depends entirely on the weather — a week of storms means no boats and no fish, and any honest kitchen will tell you so rather than serving you something frozen.

The practical points for a santorini winter wine tasting weekend are straightforward. Book, or at least call — a village taverna with eight tables in January will not necessarily be expecting anybody. Eat earlier than you would in August, because kitchens close earlier when the island is quiet. And ask what is on rather than reading the menu, because the printed one is the summer menu and the real one is whatever came in that morning.

Prices are the same as summer at the local places, which is to say about half of what the caldera terraces charge in season. Twenty-five to forty-five euros a head with wine is a proper dinner.

Getting to a Santorini Winter Wine Tasting Weekend

Flights. Every santorini winter wine tasting weekend routes through Athens, because the direct European charters stop at the end of October. What runs all winter is Athens to Santorini, several times a day, forty-five minutes, at 50 to 120 euros return. Fly into Athens, connect, and you are on the island the same afternoon.

Ferries. The conventional ferries from Piraeus run year-round, eight to nine hours, cheap and steady. The fast catamarans reduce drastically or stop. Winter storms cancel sailings, so a ferry-based santorini winter wine tasting weekend needs a spare day at the end.

The airport. Open all year with a much shorter queue than in summer, and a five-minute walk from the door to the car park rather than a crowd.

Buses. A skeleton winter timetable connecting Fira with the main villages, and effectively nothing on Sundays. Do not plan around it.

Taxis. The same thirty vehicles as in summer, serving a fraction of the demand, so they are actually available — but not at seven in the morning in a storm.

Car hire. 25 to 40 euros a day, no queue, no parking problem, and roads that are wet, unlit and edged with drops. Winter driving here needs more care than the summer version, not less.

A driver. The sensible answer for a santorini winter wine tasting weekend, because two estates a day and a bottle at dinner does not combine with a mountain road at ten at night.

What to Pack for a Santorini Winter Wine Tasting Weekend

A proper jacket. Windproof and waterproof. This is not a fleece island in January; the wind off the caldera at fifteen degrees feels like eight.

Layers. The temperature swing between a sunny terrace at two o’clock and the rim at six is larger than the numbers suggest.

Shoes with grip. Village lanes are polished stone and they are slippery wet. This is the single most common winter injury here.

An umbrella that survives wind. Or, more realistically, a hood, because a normal umbrella lasts about ninety seconds on the rim.

Something warm for the room. Heating in older properties is inconsistent, and a cave room holds cold as well as it holds cool.

Sunglasses. Low winter sun off whitewash is genuinely blinding, and nobody packs them for a February trip.

Space in the bag. A santorini winter wine tasting weekend that does not come home with four bottles in it has not been done properly.

Taking the Wine Home From a Santorini Winter Wine Tasting Weekend

Buy at the estate. Prices are the same or better than the shops, the range is wider, and library vintages are only available at the door.

What travels. Vinsanto is essentially indestructible and will still be improving in ten years. Assyrtiko travels perfectly well and is best drunk within two to four years, longer for a good Nykteri.

Hold luggage only. Wine is a liquid. Six bottles is roughly eight kilos, which matters on the low-cost baggage allowances most people fly Athens on.

Packing. Wine skins or bubble wrap and clothes around them. Most estates sell padded shipping boxes and several will pack a case properly for you.

Shipping. Several of the larger estates ship within the EU, which for more than six bottles is cheaper than paying excess baggage twice.

Duty. Within the EU there is no practical limit for personal use. Outside it, your own allowances apply and they are lower than you think.

What to buy. One Vinsanto, two assyrtiko from different estates so you can taste the difference at home, and a Mavrotragano if you found one — which is the whole argument for a santorini winter wine tasting weekend in one sentence, because in August they will have sold out of it.

The Greek Calendar Around a Santorini Winter Wine Tasting Weekend

Coming out of season means arriving inside a calendar that has nothing to do with tourism, and it is the part of a santorini winter wine tasting weekend that visitors consistently describe as the reason they came back.

Christmas and New Year. Greek Christmas is quieter than the northern European version and the emphasis falls on New Year and on Epiphany rather than on the 25th. Children sing kalanda — carols — door to door on Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and Epiphany Eve, and are given coins for it. Bakeries fill with melomakarona, honey-soaked and spiced, and kourabiedes buried in icing sugar. On New Year’s Day families cut the vasilopita, a cake with a coin baked into it, and whoever finds the coin has a good year.

Epiphany, the best santorini winter wine tasting weekend date. The Blessing of the Waters. A priest throws a cross into the sea at the old port or at Ammoudi and young men dive for it in ten-degree water. It is the most photographed local event of the winter and there are no photographers there.

Apokries. The three weeks of carnival before Lent, falling in February or early March depending on when Orthodox Easter is. Costumes, village parties and a general suspension of seriousness, ending with Clean Monday — Kathara Deftera — when the island eats lent food outdoors and flies kites, and the whole thing looks exactly like a nineteenth-century painting.

Lent. Forty days of nistisima food — no meat, no dairy, and on many days no oil — which sounds austere and produces some of the best cooking of the Greek year: pulses, greens, seafood, and a lot of very good bread.

Easter. The largest event in the Greek calendar by a distance, usually in April and sometimes late enough to be outside the winter window. Fireworks at midnight on Holy Saturday, the whole island in church, and a lamb on every spit on the Sunday.

What this means for the weekend. Check the date of Orthodox Easter before you book, because it moves by up to five weeks, and if your santorini winter wine tasting weekend can be arranged to overlap with Apokries or Epiphany, it should be.

Photographing the Island on a Santorini Winter Wine Tasting Weekend

Every serious photograph of Santorini that is not a sunset was taken in winter, and there are specific reasons why.

The first reason to photograph a santorini winter wine tasting weekend is light. Summer here delivers a high, hard overhead sun and a haze that sits over the caldera from June to September, flattening the cliff and washing the colour out of everything between ten and five. Winter delivers a low sun that rakes across the layers of the cliff face, cloud that gives the sky something to do, and air scrubbed clean by rain. On a clear January afternoon you can see the mountains of Crete from Profitis Ilias, which is a hundred and ten kilometres away and invisible for most of the year.

The second is emptiness. The Oia castle at sunset in August holds several hundred people and every frame contains other cameras. In January it holds nobody. The blue-domed churches that appear on every postcard are photographed in summer from a queue on a narrow path; in winter you can stand there for twenty minutes and take your time.

The third is weather. Storms in the Aegean produce cloud structure and light that the summer sky simply does not have — squalls crossing the caldera, sun breaking through onto Thirasia, and a sea that goes slate grey and then turquoise within an hour. Photographers who come back repeatedly come for that and not for the postcard.

The practical notes. Sunset is early, around 17:20 in December and 18:20 by mid-March, which means golden hour happens while you are still awake and functioning rather than at the end of a long day. Bring a lens cloth and expect spray on the rim. Nothing is closed that you would photograph from the outside. And a santorini winter wine tasting weekend gives you an entirely legitimate reason to be standing on a clifftop in a gale at half past five in the afternoon in February, which is when the best pictures of this island are made.

Who a Santorini Winter Wine Tasting Weekend Suits

A santorini winter wine tasting weekend suits people who came here before in summer. The second visit is where a santorini winter wine tasting weekend lands hardest, because you already know what the island looks like full and the contrast does the work.

It suits anybody who actually cares about wine. The attention you get from an estate in January is not available in August at any price.

It suits photographers. For all the reasons above.

It suits couples looking for quiet. There is no quieter beautiful place in Europe in February than a caldera village with nobody in it.

It suits a short break. Three nights is exactly right, and Athens is forty-five minutes away if you want to bolt a city weekend onto it.

It does not suit a first visit with limited time. If you have never been and have one shot at it, come in May or September and see the island working.

It does not suit families with small children. No beach, no boats, shorter days and a lot of driving between the things that are open.

Combining a Santorini Winter Wine Tasting Weekend With Athens

The Athens connection is the obvious santorini winter wine tasting weekend extension and the one that makes the arithmetic work. Flights run several times a day all winter, the hop is forty-five minutes, and Athens in January is an excellent city: the Acropolis Museum with nobody in it, the National Archaeological Museum, and a food scene that is at its best when the tourists have gone. Two nights in Athens and three on Santorini is a genuinely good week and it costs less in February than three nights on Santorini alone does in August.

The archaeological argument for that pairing is strong. The frescoes excavated at Akrotiri — the Fleet Procession, the Fisherman, the Boxing Boys, the Spring Fresco — are mostly in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens rather than on the island, with an excellent selection at the Museum of Prehistoric Thera in Fira. Seeing the town in the morning on Santorini and the paintings from its walls two days later in Athens is the correct order and almost nobody does it.

Island hopping in winter is a different proposition and mostly not advisable. The fast ferries reduce or stop, the conventional ones run but are subject to cancellation in storms, and the smaller islands close far more comprehensively than Santorini does. Naxos and Paros both keep a year-round population and some winter life; Ios, Milos and the smaller Cyclades largely shut. If you want two islands in winter, allow spare days and accept that the sea decides.

Crete is the exception worth considering. Heraklion and Chania are cities rather than resorts, they function all year, and the ferry from Santorini takes two hours when it runs. A santorini winter wine tasting weekend followed by three days in Crete gives you two wine cultures, two archaeological sites of the first rank, and a plausible reason to be in Greece in February that nobody at home will understand until you show them the photographs.

Why Almost Nobody Books a Santorini Winter Wine Tasting Weekend

Santorini receives something in the order of two million visitors a year and the overwhelming majority of them arrive between June and September. The winter share is tiny, and the reasons are worth stating because most of them are assumptions rather than facts.

The first assumption about a santorini winter wine tasting weekend is that everything is shut. Substantially true of Oia and the beach resorts, substantially false of Fira, the inland villages and the estates. The island has a permanent population of around fifteen thousand people who need bakeries, supermarkets, restaurants and schools in January, and all of that continues.

The second is that the weather is bad. It is mild and changeable rather than bad — ten to fifteen degrees, sunshine between systems, and rain that arrives in clusters. Anybody from northern Europe will find a Santorini January warmer than the place they left.

The third is that there is nothing to do. There is no swimming and no boat to the volcano, and there is the entire archaeological and wine half of the island, which is the half that survives contact with a second visit. A santorini winter wine tasting weekend exists precisely because those things are indoors, open and better without a crowd.

The fourth is that it is not worth the flight. That one depends entirely on what you came for. If it is a beach, they are right. If it is the caldera, the wine, the villages and the light, then February on this island is one of the best-value short breaks in Europe, and the reason it stays that way is that almost nobody has worked it out.

The Estates on a Santorini Winter Wine Tasting Weekend

Two a day is the right number and the choice matters more in winter than in summer, because opening patterns vary and because with time on your hands the differences between the estates become the interesting part rather than a blur.

Santo Wines, Pyrgos: the standard santorini winter wine tasting weekend stop. The growers’ cooperative, founded in 1947, representing most of the island’s farmers, and by a distance the largest operation here. The terrace above the caldera is the most visited tasting room on Santorini and in winter it is nearly empty. Ask about the difference between their single-vineyard bottlings and the standard range, and ask to taste the Nykteri next to the standard assyrtiko — the cooperative structure means they can show you fruit from a dozen different parts of the island in one flight, which no single estate can.

Venetsanos, the best-sited santorini winter wine tasting weekend terrace. The oldest industrial winery on the island, built into the cliff in 1947 so that gravity moved the wine down through the building and out to ships at the port below. Ask them to explain the building itself: the gravity flow, the loading chute to the harbour, and why a winery was sited on a cliff rather than next to its vineyards. The view from the terrace is the best of any estate and in January you will have it entirely.

Estate Argyros, Episkopi. Four generations, some of the oldest vines on the island, and the estate serious drinkers name first. Ask about vine age and about Vinsanto — their aged bottlings go back decades, and in a quiet season they will open things that never appear on a summer flight.

Domaine Sigalas, Baxedes. Inland at the northern end, no caldera view, and consistently the tasting that people who work in wine rate highest. Ask about single-vineyard assyrtiko and about their work with Mavrotragano, the red that was almost extinct and that a handful of producers here brought back.

Gavalas, Megalochori. Small, family-run, in a village rather than on a viewpoint, and the estate that will most likely have the owner behind the counter in February. Ask about Katsano and Voudomato, the rare local varieties almost nobody else bottles.

Koutsogiannopoulos and the Wine Museum, Vothonas. An underground museum in a natural cave, eight metres down and three hundred metres long, showing the island’s wine history with a walk-through model. Unfashionable, open all year, and the right stop on a wet afternoon.

Two practical notes for a santorini winter wine tasting weekend. Call ahead rather than booking online, because winter hours are often decided week by week and a phone call gets a straight answer. And ask, at every estate, what they are drinking themselves at this time of year — in August nobody has time to answer that question, and in January it is how you end up tasting the thing that is not on the list.

Why a Santorini Winter Wine Tasting Weekend Needs Three Nights

The temptation with a short santorini winter wine tasting weekend is to fly in on Saturday and out on Sunday evening, and it does not work here for a reason that has nothing to do with the wine. Winter weather on this island arrives in systems. A two-night trip that catches a storm has lost its entire outdoor half; a three-night trip almost never does, because the pattern is rarely three consecutive days of rain and wind.

The second reason is the flight. Almost every winter arrival routes through Athens, which means the outbound day is largely consumed by the connection and the return day starts with an airport. Two nights leaves you with one usable day. Three leaves you with two, which is exactly the number a santorini winter wine tasting weekend needs: two estates on each of them, with an archaeological site or a village walk in between.

The third is that the island is cheap enough out of season for the extra night to be trivial. A room that costs 300 euros in August costs 90 in February, and adding a night to the trip costs less than the taxi from the airport at the other end.

And the fourth is the one nobody plans for: the weather turns and you get a January day of the kind this island produces two or three times a winter — utterly clear, no wind, fifteen degrees, Crete visible on the horizon and the caldera looking like something out of a geology textbook. If your trip is two nights long, you have a fifty per cent chance of missing it entirely.

What a Santorini Winter Wine Tasting Weekend Costs

Accommodation on a santorini winter wine tasting weekend. 45 to 110 euros a night for good inland or Fira rooms, against 150 to 400 for the same properties in August.

Caldera-view rooms. Where they stay open, 90 to 200 rather than 350 and upwards.

Tastings. 20 to 45 euros a head, unchanged year-round, and with far more of the winemaker’s time in it.

Dinner. 25 to 45 a head at the places that stay open, which are the local ones rather than the view ones.

Car hire. 25 to 40 a day, against 60 to 90 in season, with no parking problem anywhere.

Flights. Athens to Santorini runs all year at 50 to 120 return, and the direct European routes largely stop.

The whole weekend. Two people, three nights, two estates a day, eating well: 600 to 900 euros excluding flights. A santorini winter wine tasting weekend is the cheapest serious wine trip in Greece.

Beyond the Wine on a Santorini Winter Wine Tasting Weekend

Akrotiri, the indoor half of a santorini winter wine tasting weekend. Roofed, heated by its own thermal mass, and empty. The best time of year to see it.

The Museum of Prehistoric Thera. The frescoes, with nobody in front of them.

The rim path. Fira to Oia in ten degrees with a jacket, green underfoot, and perhaps four other walkers on the whole route.

Pyrgos and Emporio. Medieval villages that are inhabited rather than performed in winter, with shops that serve locals.

Profitis Ilias. The monastery and the highest point on the island, often above the cloud in January.

The caper and the fava fields. Bare, terraced and legible, which they are not under a summer canopy.

Greek Christmas and Easter. Both spectacular here and both entirely local, with no visitors and every church full.

Santorini Winter Wine Tasting Weekend: Frequently Asked Questions

Are the wineries open in winter? The major estates are, some on reduced hours and some by appointment. Call two or three days ahead.

What does a santorini winter wine tasting weekend cost? 600 to 900 euros for two people over three nights, excluding flights.

How cold is it? Ten to fifteen degrees by day, six to ten at night, with rain in systems rather than showers.

Is Oia open? Largely not. A handful of restaurants and hotels, and streets you can walk without a crowd.

Can you still see the sunset? Yes, and earlier — around 17:20 in December — with the caldera to yourself.

Are the beaches worth visiting? Closed for business and worth one walk. The black sand in winter light is a different thing entirely.

Do the volcano boats run? Mostly not between November and March. Ferries and flights do, with weather cancellations.

Which wines should you ask for? Assyrtiko and Nykteri, a Vinsanto to take home, and Mavrotragano if the estate has any.

How many estates a day? Two. Three is a drinking session rather than a tasting.

Do you need a car? The estates are spread across the inland plain and there is almost no bus service in winter, so yes — or a driver.

Is heating a problem? It can be. Ask specifically, and prefer inland properties built for a winter rather than caldera cave rooms.

How far ahead should you book? Ten days is enough, which is the whole point of coming out of season.

We Will Drive the Whole Weekend

We are a local operator running private tours and transfers in our own vehicles, and a santorini winter wine tasting weekend is the one trip where a driver stops being a convenience and becomes the thing that makes it possible: the buses barely run, the estates are spread across the plain, and nobody should be driving between three tastings on a wet island road at eight in the evening.

Tell us your dates and we will call ahead to the estates that are open, book the slots, and drive the two days: Pyrgos and Megalochori on the Saturday, the caldera terrace for the light, Akrotiri on the Sunday, and the airport when it is time.

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 private wine tours, the personalised tour, or contact us.