TOURS

Santorini holidays

Santorini holidays work best at five to seven nights, in May, June, September or early October, with two or three nights on the caldera rim and the rest on the coast or inland. Santorini Tours is a local operator running private tours and transfers here. One of the unique locations in Europe is your Santorini vacation.

You can enjoy your time on one of the beaches on this enchanting island. The explosive history of the earth provides visitors with beaches for every taste. Spend your days enjoying the sun on the beach of white sand, which is a short walk from Akrotiri, a village at the southwestern edge of the island.

After a day you can enjoy this secluded beach, you can travel directly to the red beach to enjoy the world-famous sunsets of Santorini reflecting the crystal clear Aegean Sea and the red rocks surrounding the popular beach.

Experience of Santorini holidays 2011

It was August in the holidays of 2011. The sun began to sink behind a distant Greek island, the colors of the sky came out of gold and apricot in purple. Despite my perfect position on the roof of Koukoumalos, one of Santorini’s finest restaurants, I felt a magic of envy as I looked at the boats that rallied in the caldera much further down with the even better sunset view.

And then on my shoulder I heard: You should never watch a sunset yourself, especially on Santorini. I had not noticed the waiter but touched his romantic feeling.

I am completely satisfied with the trip and the food myself, but I only want to visit Santorini, as the island is almost synonymous with weddings and wedding festivals. As the only traveler with the two concepts of the word, I was afraid that even my ability for wonderful isolation can be challenged in these romantic environments.

Santorinitours is a company for travelers who want a variety of activities even for couples. Here you are given the opportunity to explore various historical places as well as to make the round of the island.

See more about Santorini Private Tours:

• Santorini Sightseeing Private Tour
• Santorini Exclusive Shore Private Tour
• Santorini Impressive Caldera Private Tour
• Santorini South Part Private Tour
• Santorini North Part Private Tour
• Santorini Historical Private Tour
• Santorini Sunset Private Tour

Santorini Holidays: The Complete Guide

Santorini holidays work best when you accept two things early. The island is small – eighteen kilometres long – but the roads follow the contours of a collapsed volcano, so nothing takes as little time as the map suggests. And the half of the island everybody photographs is not the half most people enjoy staying in.

Most Santorini holidays run five to seven nights, and that is the right length. Three is enough if you plan it tightly. Ten is comfortable only if you slow down and treat some days as beach days. Where you stay matters more here than on almost any other Greek island, because the caldera villages and the beach resorts are two completely different holidays on the same rock.

Santorini holidays are also the most over-planned holidays in Greece, which is the other thing to accept early. Nobody comes back saying they wished they had fitted in one more village.

What follows is the whole thing: when to come, where to sleep, what it costs, how to get around, what to do, what to eat, and the mistakes that cost people days. We live and work here, so the timings are the real ones.

Is Santorini Worth It?

Yes, with a caveat, and it is worth setting out before you commit a week to it. The caldera is genuinely one of the great sights in Europe: a flooded volcanic crater twelve kilometres across, with cliffs rising three hundred metres out of water four hundred metres deep, and white villages strung along the rim. Nothing prepares you for the first time you see it.

The caveat that shapes all Santorini holidays is crowding. Two million visitors a year arrive on an island whose permanent population is about fifteen thousand. In July and August, with five cruise ships anchored at once, Fira and Oia are genuinely unpleasant between eleven and five.

The people who love their Santorini holidays are the ones who go inland, get up early, and treat the famous villages as somewhere to visit rather than somewhere to sit. The people who leave disappointed are the ones who spent four days in a queue on the caldera rim in August.

Who it suits

Santorini holidays suit couples, honeymooners, photographers, people interested in archaeology and wine, and anyone who wants dramatic scenery rather than a beach holiday.

Who it suits less

Families wanting soft white sand and shallow water, people with mobility difficulties, and anyone on a tight budget in high season. All three are workable with planning, but they are working against the grain of the island.

How Many Days Do You Need?

Two nights. Enough for the caldera villages and one site or one beach. Rushed, but it works if you are island-hopping.

Three nights. The minimum for proper Santorini holidays. Villages, Akrotiri, a beach, a sunset, and one boat or one wine afternoon.

Five nights. The sweet spot for most Santorini holidays. Everything above plus the volcano or a catamaran, Ancient Thira, the wineries, and a day with nothing booked.

Seven nights. The most comfortable length for Santorini holidays. Adds Thirasia, a second beach, the caldera walk, and time to actually sit somewhere.

Ten or more. Only if you want a slow holiday with a lot of swimming, or you are combining it with Ios, Naxos or Crete.

The rule that governs all of it: three stops a day, not six. Santorini holidays are ruined more often by over-scheduling than by anything the island does.

When Should You Go?

The month you choose changes Santorini holidays more than anything else on this page. Here it is honestly, one by one.

April

Fifteen to twenty degrees, wildflowers on the terraces, and the island still half asleep. Sites and wineries are open, beaches are not. Prices are at their lowest of the open season. Excellent for walking and archaeology, poor for swimming.

May

The best all-round month for Santorini holidays. Warm days, cool evenings, everything open, and a fraction of the crowds. The sea is cold but swimmable by the end of the month. If you can only take one month off, take this one.

June

Warm, busy but not oppressive, sea temperature comfortable, and every boat and beach front running. The strongest month overall for Santorini holidays and priced accordingly.

July

Thirty degrees and climbing, the meltemi wind building, four or five cruise ships a day, and hotel prices at their peak. Doable with an early-start, inland-lunch strategy. Not otherwise.

August

The hardest month for Santorini holidays. Thirty-five degrees, the strongest wind of the year, the whole of Greece on holiday, and the highest prices. Boats cancel. Book everything months ahead or come another time.

September

Many people’s favourite month for Santorini holidays. The sea is at its warmest of the year, the light softens, the crowds thin after the first week, and prices drop. Wine harvest has just finished.

October

Pleasant days, cool evenings, real value, and the walking is good again. Some businesses close in the second half of the month and boat trips thin out.

November to March

The island belongs to the people who live here. Akrotiri, the museums and the wineries stay open on winter hours. Most beach fronts, boats and a good share of restaurants close. Ferries and flights are frequently disrupted. Cheap, quiet, and genuinely beautiful if that is what you want.

The wind

The meltemi blows from the north through July and August. It cancels boat trips at short notice, makes the south coast beaches unusable on a given afternoon, and is the reason you should never connect a ferry to a same-day flight.

Where Should You Stay?

This is the decision that shapes the whole trip. Santorini holidays split into two kinds – caldera-rim and beach-side – and they are not interchangeable.

The rim gives you the view, the sunset, the cave hotels and the photographs. It also gives you stepped lanes, no vehicle access to many hotels, small or no pools, prices two to three times higher, and no swimming.

The east and south coasts give you the sea, flat ground, large hotels with proper pools, parking, and a third of the price. They give you no caldera view at all.

Most people who have taken Santorini holidays more than once split the stay: two or three nights on the rim, the rest on the coast.

Fira

The capital and the transport hub of most Santorini holidays. Everything routes through here: buses, the cable car, the museums, the nightlife. Good if you want to be able to walk to a restaurant at eleven at night and get a bus anywhere in the morning. Bad if you want quiet – the cruise crowds land here and the bars run late.

Suits: first visits, no hire car, younger travellers. Fira.

Firostefani

The most under-rated base for Santorini holidays. Ten minutes’ walk north of Fira along the rim, and immediately calmer. The same view, most of the same convenience, noticeably lower prices and a much better night’s sleep. The single most under-rated base for Santorini holidays. Firostefani.

Imerovigli

The highest point on the rim, twenty-five minutes’ walk from Fira, and the quietest of the caldera villages. Skaros rock in the foreground and the best sunsets on the island without the Oia crush. Almost every hotel is down a flight of steps.

Suits: couples, honeymoons, anyone who will pay for the view and does not mind the walk. Imerovigli.

Oia

The most photographed village in Greece and the most expensive place to sleep. Blue domes, the Ammoudi steps, the sunset crowd. Between five and eight in the evening it is genuinely packed. At seven in the morning it is empty and extraordinary.

Suits: honeymooners and photographers with the budget. Not families, not anyone with heavy luggage – many hotels are 80 steps from the nearest road. Oia.

Finikia

Five minutes from Oia and a completely different world: a small inland village built into a ravine, with cave houses and no crowds. Half the price of Oia and a short walk or drive from it. Finikia.

Kamari

The default base for beach-led Santorini holidays. Black pebble beach under the cliff of Ancient Thira, a long promenade, an open-air cinema and a proper resort infrastructure. Flat, family-friendly, and the water shelves less steeply than at Perissa. Ten minutes from the airport, which is also the drawback – you hear it.

Suits: families, beach holidays, anyone who wants a hotel with a real pool. Kamari.

Perissa and Perivolos

The best value for beach-led Santorini holidays. Seven kilometres of black sand on the south-east coast, the best organised beach front on the island, beach bars, water sports and dozens of tavernas. Cheaper than Kamari and livelier. The far end at Perivolos is the quieter half.

Suits: beach holidays on a budget, groups, longer stays. Perissa · Perivolos.

Akrotiri and the south-west

Near the archaeological site and the Red Beach, with wide views over the caldera from the outside of the rim. Quiet, cheaper, and a car is essential.

Suits: second visits, drivers, people who want space. Akrotiri.

Megalochori and Pyrgos

The best-value base for Santorini holidays with a car. The two best inland villages: bell towers, cave houses, walled mansions, wineries within walking distance and lunch at a third of caldera prices. Central, so nothing on the island is more than twenty minutes away. This is where we would stay.

Suits: repeat visitors, food and wine travellers, anyone with a car. Megalochori · Pyrgos.

Vlychada

Wind-carved grey cliffs, a marina, the fewest people of any organised beach, and where most catamarans leave from. Very quiet in the evening. Vlychada.

Karterados, Messaria and Vothonas

Working villages within ten minutes of Fira, with the cheapest decent accommodation on the island and no view at all. If the budget is tight and you have a car, this is the sensible compromise. Karterados · Messaria.

Monolithos

Where the island’s own families take their children: shallow, sheltered water, playgrounds and tavernas, next to the airport. Not scenic, but the easiest beach on the island with small children. Monolithos.

What to check before you book

Five things to confirm before you book anything, because they decide the shape of your Santorini holidays.

Steps. Ask the hotel exactly how many, and how far the nearest road is. This is the single most common complaint about caldera hotels.

Vehicle access. Many rim hotels cannot be reached by car at all. Your driver will get as close as the lane allows.

Pool. Cave hotels often have a plunge pool the size of a bath. If you want to swim lengths, stay on the coast.

Airport noise. Kamari, Monolithos and Messaria are on the flight path.

View. “Sea view” is not “caldera view”, and the price difference is large.

How Do You Get to Santorini?

By air

Most Santorini holidays begin here. Santorini (JTR) has a single runway and one small terminal. Forty-five minutes from Athens, with direct seasonal flights from most of northern Europe between April and October. In winter it is Athens only.

The terminal struggles at peak: arrivals and departures share a small hall and queues spill outside. Allow ninety minutes for departure in August, and do not expect a taxi rank worth the name.

By ferry

All ferries use Athinios on the south-west coast. Conventional ferries take about eight hours from Piraeus and carry cars; high-speed catamarans take four to five, cost roughly double, and are the first thing cancelled in wind.

Within the Cyclades: Ios under an hour, Naxos and Paros around two, Mykonos two and a half. Crete is about two hours by fast boat. Athinios port.

By cruise ship

Ships anchor in the caldera and tender passengers to the old port below Fira. There is no berth and no road: the only ways up the cliff are the cable car, 588 steps or a donkey. Shore excursion.

Which to choose

For most Santorini holidays: fly in, and ferry out to another island if you are hopping. Never book a ferry and a flight on the same day – the wind cancels sailings at short notice and the flight will go without you.

How Do You Get Around the Island?

Private driver

What we do, and what most Santorini holidays end up using for the sightseeing days. Your own vehicle and driver, priced per vehicle rather than per person, hotel pickup included. Nobody parks, nobody drives after a wine tasting, and a smaller vehicle reaches the roads coaches cannot – Ancient Thira, the lighthouse, the inland lanes. This is what we do. Transfers · Our vehicles.

Hire car

Sensible for a week if you are staying inland or on the coast. Book months ahead for July and August; the island runs out. Parking in Fira and Oia is genuinely difficult and largely paid. An international driving permit is required for many non-EU licences and is checked.

Public bus

KTEL runs from the station in Fira to Oia, Kamari, Perissa, Akrotiri, the airport and the port. Cheap and reliable, but every route changes in Fira, which turns a fifteen-minute journey into an hour. Services thin out in the evening and stop early.

Taxi

Around thirty licensed taxis for the whole island. This single fact shapes more Santorini holidays than any other. In season they are effectively unobtainable at the airport, the port and after dinner. Do not build a plan around one.

Quad, scooter and buggy

Popular and responsible for a great many holiday injuries. The roads are narrow, unlit at night, with no hard shoulder and a lot of gravel on the bends. Helmets are compulsory and licences are checked.

On foot

Genuinely good along the caldera rim from Fira to Oia, and within any single village. Useless for getting between villages.

What most people end up doing

Most Santorini holidays settle on the same shape: bus or transfer for arrival, a private driver for the two or three days with real sightseeing in them, and walking the rest. Hiring a car for a full week and then paying to park it is a common false economy on Santorini holidays.

What Does the Airport Transfer Cost?

Transfers start at 40 EUR and are priced per vehicle, so a family of four pays what a couple pays. The bus is a couple of euro but goes only to Fira, where you change. A taxi, if you find one, sits between the two and cannot be relied on.

We track the flight or the ferry rather than the timetable, meet you by name, and there is no extra charge if you are late. In villages with pedestrian lanes the vehicle stops at the nearest road and we tell you how far the walk is before you arrive. Transfers to Oia and Finikia · Transfers elsewhere.

What Will You Actually Do?

Most Santorini holidays end up containing five or six of the following. Doing all of them in a week is possible; doing all of them in three days is the mistake.

The caldera villages

The spine of almost all Santorini holidays. Fira, Firostefani, Imerovigli and Oia, strung along ten kilometres of cliff. Walkable end to end in three to four hours. Go early or late; between eleven and five in summer they belong to the day-trippers.

Akrotiri

A Bronze Age town buried by the eruption of around 1600 BC and preserved under ash: paved streets, three-storey houses, drainage, frescoes. Roofed and shaded, so it is the best midday stop on the island. Ninety minutes. Take a guide – there is almost no signage and without one a good deal of it reads as low walls.

Ancient Thira

A Greek, Hellenistic and Roman city along a ridge above Kamari, with a theatre looking straight out to sea. The road up is a series of hairpins. It closes in the early afternoon, so it has to be a morning. Ancient Thira.

The volcano

Boats from the old port to Nea Kameni, the black cinder island in the middle of the caldera, with a thirty-minute climb over loose scoria to the crater rim. Usually combined with a swim in the warm rust-coloured water at Palia Kameni. Half a day. Nea Kameni.

A catamaran cruise

Five hours, lunch cooked on board, swimming stops at the hot springs and the coloured beaches, and the island seen from the water – which is the only angle that makes sense of the caldera. Semi-private or private charter. The most popular single thing on most Santorini holidays.

Wine

The vines here are ungrafted, unirrigated and woven into low baskets called kouloura. Assyrtiko is the white, Vinsanto the sweet wine, Mavrotragano the revived red. Three estates in an afternoon is the right number, with somebody else driving. Wine tour.

The beaches

Beaches are the part of Santorini holidays that most surprises people. All volcanic: black, red or grey, with water that deepens quickly. Perissa and Perivolos for the beach fronts, Kamari for families, Vlychada for quiet, Red Beach for the photograph, Monolithos for small children. Black sand is painfully hot by ten in the morning.

The Fira to Oia walk

Ten kilometres along the rim, three to four hours, past Skaros rock. No shade and very little water on the route, so go early or late. Free, and the best thing on the island.

Sunset

Oia is famous and, on a July evening, several thousand people watch it from the castle ruins. The sunset is no better there than from Imerovigli, Firostefani, Pyrgos or the Akrotiri lighthouse, all of which are quieter. Sunset tour.

Thirasia

The island across the caldera: one village at the top of a stair, a few tavernas, almost nobody. Boats from Ammoudi and Athinios. Half a day, and the quietest thing you can do here. Thirasia.

The inland villages

Pyrgos, Megalochori, Emporio, Vothonas, Exo Gonia. Medieval lanes, castle ruins, cave churches and the best-value food on the island, fifteen minutes from Fira and almost empty at midday. Emporio · All 32 villages.

Museums

The Museum of Prehistoric Thera in Fira holds the frescoes from Akrotiri and doubles the value of the site. The wine museum at Vothonas is underground in a cave. Both are indoor, which matters on a windy day.

Doing nothing

One day with nothing booked, on a terrace, looking at the caldera. Almost nobody plans it and everybody who has one mentions it afterwards.

What Should You Eat?

Food is a better reason to take Santorini holidays than most people expect. The volcanic soil and the lack of rain produce things that grow nowhere else in Greece, and the food is a better reason to come than most people expect.

Fava. Yellow split pea puree with capers, olive oil and raw onion. Protected by origin, and on every menu on the island.

Tomatokeftedes. Fritters made from the tiny Santorini cherry tomato, which grows with no irrigation at all and concentrates as a result.

White aubergine. Sweeter and less bitter than the purple kind, grown almost nowhere else.

Chloro. Fresh soft goat cheese made on the island and rarely exported off it.

Capers and caper leaves. Wild, salted, and in half the salads here.

Fresh fish at Ammoudi. At the bottom of 300 steps below Oia, on the water. Go for a late lunch rather than at sunset, when every table is booked.

Assyrtiko and Vinsanto. Bone-dry saline white and sweet amber dessert wine, both from the same grape.

Where to eat

Inland, almost always. A taverna in Pyrgos, Megalochori, Exo Gonia or Emporio costs roughly a third of a caldera-rim restaurant and usually cooks better. On the rim you are paying for the view, and the view is free from the street outside.

Ammoudi for fish, Vlychada for the marina, Kamari and Perissa for the beach fronts, Fira for late openings and variety.

Book anywhere with a caldera view in July and August, several days ahead.

Bakeries. Every village has one, they open early, and breakfast from a bakery costs a fifth of a hotel buffet. Food experience.

What Do Santorini Holidays Cost?

Santorini holidays cost what you decide they cost, and the spread is enormous. Per person per day, excluding flights, in rough bands. High season is roughly double low season across the board.

Accommodation

Budget. A room in Karterados, Messaria or Perissa. The cheapest real option on the island.

Mid-range. A hotel with a pool in Kamari, Perissa or Firostefani.

Caldera cave hotel. Two to three times the mid-range figure, and in Oia more again.

Luxury. Effectively open-ended in Oia and Imerovigli.

Food

Bakery breakfast – a few euro. Gyros or souvlaki lunch – single figures. Taverna dinner inland – moderate. Caldera-view dinner – two to three times that for the same food.

Getting around

Bus – a couple of euro a journey. Hire car – moderate per day plus fuel and parking. Airport transfer – from 40 EUR per vehicle. Private tour – from 220 EUR per vehicle for a personalised day, 280 EUR for the five-hour south part tour, 460 EUR for the eight-hour full day.

Activities

Akrotiri and Ancient Thira – modest site fees, with a combined ticket. Museum – a few euro. Wine tasting – small fee per estate, often waived against a purchase. Volcano boat – half-day excursion price. Catamaran – the largest single line on most budgets.

Sample budgets, per person per day

Backpacker. Room inland, bakery breakfast, gyros lunch, taverna dinner, buses, one site. Genuinely cheap.

Mid-range couple. Hotel with a pool, one restaurant meal a day, a hire car or a private day, one paid activity every other day.

Honeymoon. Cave hotel, caldera dinners, a private catamaran, transfers. Several times the mid-range figure.

Family of four. Cheaper per head than couples on everything priced per vehicle, and more expensive on everything priced per person. Beach-side hotels and private vehicles are the two levers that matter.

Where the money goes

Accommodation first, by a distance, then food, then boats. The way to make Santorini holidays affordable is not to eat less – it is to sleep away from the caldera rim and eat inland.

What Kind of Holiday Are You Having?

Honeymoons

Stay in Imerovigli rather than Oia: the same view, half the crowd, and the walk to Skaros at sunset is the best thing on the rim. Book a private catamaran rather than a semi-private one, eat inland at least half the time, and give yourselves one day with nothing in it. Santorini holidays for honeymooners go wrong mainly through over-booking.

Families

Family Santorini holidays work best from the flat side of the island. Stay on the coast – Kamari or Monolithos with young children, Perissa or Perivolos with teenagers. Use a private vehicle rather than buses. Akrotiri, the volcano boat, a cooking class and the open-air cinema at Kamari all work well. Avoid the caldera lanes with a pushchair and avoid the donkey steps entirely.

Couples on a budget

Firostefani or an inland village, a hire car for three days rather than seven, dinners inland, one boat trip, and everything else free: villages, walks, beaches, sunsets.

Solo travellers

Solo Santorini holidays are easy here. Fira for the transport and the company, or Perissa if you want a beach. Buses work fine if you accept the change in Fira. The caldera walk and the wineries are both good alone.

Groups and celebrations

An inland villa with a pool, a minibus for the days out, and one long lunch at a winery. Priced per vehicle, group transport is where Santorini holidays save real money.

Older travellers

Avoid caldera hotels with step access. Akrotiri is roofed and largely level, the Vlychada marina is flat, and a private vehicle removes most of the difficulty. Ancient Thira, Skaros and the Ammoudi steps are not realistic.

Second and third visits

Repeat Santorini holidays should skip Fira and Oia almost entirely. Ancient Thira, Thirasia, the wineries, the inland villages and the beaches on the far south coast are a different island.

What Are the Best Itineraries?

Three days

Day 1. Arrive, settle, sunset from Imerovigli or Firostefani.

Day 2. Akrotiri in the morning, Red Beach or the lighthouse, lunch in Megalochori, Pyrgos in the late afternoon.

Day 3. Catamaran, or the volcano and hot springs, and dinner at Ammoudi.

Five days

The three above, plus:

Day 4. Ancient Thira in the morning while it is cool, Kamari beach in the afternoon.

Day 5. Three wineries with a driver, then Oia after seven when the excursions have gone.

Seven days

The five above, plus:

Day 6. The Fira to Oia caldera walk at first light, then a long lunch and nothing else.

Day 7. Thirasia, or a second beach, or genuinely nothing.

Ten days

Add a day trip to Ios or Naxos, a cooking class, and two unscheduled days. Ten-day Santorini holidays should be slower, not fuller.

The rule

Three stops a day. Never plan Oia in the morning and Akrotiri in the afternoon – that is two hours in a vehicle on roads not built for it. Group each day by the corner of the island it sits in.

What Should You Pack?

Packing for Santorini holidays is mostly about feet, sun and wind.

Shoes with grip. The single most useful thing. Marble lanes polished by two million people a year, uneven archaeological sites, and stepped paths everywhere.

Something for hot sand. Black sand is painful barefoot by mid-morning.

A hat and real sun protection. There is essentially no natural shade on this island.

A light layer for the evening. The wind on the rim is cool after dark even in August.

A windproof. The meltemi is stronger than most visitors expect.

Cash. Cards are widely taken, but the cable car, bakeries, small tavernas and boat fares want notes.

A refillable bottle. Tap water is desalinated; buy large bottles and refill.

Motion sickness tablets if you are taking a fast ferry or a boat trip in wind.

Nothing you cannot carry up steps. This applies to every caldera hotel.

What Should You Know About the Island Itself?

A little geology makes Santorini holidays considerably better, because almost everything you look at here is a consequence of one event.

The eruption

Around 1600 BC the volcano erupted with a force that emptied its magma chamber and collapsed the centre of the island into the sea. What is left is the rim: Santorini itself as a crescent, Thirasia across the water, and the tiny islet of Aspronisi. The caldera in between is four hundred metres deep. The ash fall buried the town at Akrotiri and preserved it, and the tsunami it generated reached Crete.

Why the cliffs are striped

The bands you see from the water are successive eruptions: red and black lava, grey pumice, white ash. The white layer near the top is from the big one. You are looking at the volcano’s own record of itself, and it is the single best thing to have explained to you on Santorini holidays.

Why the beaches are different colours

Black sand at Perissa, Perivolos, Kamari and Vlychada is weathered basalt. The Red Beach is iron-rich scoria. White Beach is pumice. Same island, three different eruptions.

Why the wine tastes like that

The vines grow in volcanic ash with almost no rainfall, ungrafted because phylloxera cannot survive the soil, and woven into low baskets against the wind. The saline minerality in Assyrtiko comes straight out of that.

Why it is still active

Nea Kameni, the black island in the middle of the caldera, is the youngest land in the eastern Mediterranean and last erupted in 1950. The ground at the crater is warm and smells of sulphur. It is monitored constantly and it is entirely safe to walk on.

Akrotiri, and what it means

The buried town had three-storey houses, paved streets, indoor drainage and wall paintings, in 1600 BC. No bodies and no valuables were found, which suggests the population left before the eruption. It is the reason Santorini holidays are not only about a view.

Should You Combine Santorini With Another Island?

Many Santorini holidays are half of a two-island trip, and the pairing matters.

Ios

Under an hour by fast ferry. Young, loud at night, with genuinely good beaches. The easiest add-on and the biggest contrast.

Naxos

Around two hours. Large, green, agricultural, with mountain villages, long sandy beaches and a fraction of the prices. The best counterweight to Santorini if you want a real holiday rather than a scenic one.

Paros

Around two hours. Pretty harbour towns, good food, watersports, and a well-run ferry hub for going anywhere else.

Milos

Volcanic like Santorini but almost undeveloped, with extraordinary rock formations and quiet beaches. The connoisseur’s pairing.

Mykonos

Two and a half hours. The obvious pairing and the most expensive. Very different in character and equally crowded in August.

Crete

Two hours by fast boat to Heraklion, and a completely different scale of island. Knossos pairs naturally with Akrotiri.

How to plan it

Fly into one island and out of the other if you can, and never move on the same day you fly home. Ferries are cancelled in wind, and the meltemi does not care about your itinerary. Two islands in a week is comfortable; three is a lot of packing.

What About Nightlife, Shopping and Photography?

Nightlife

Fira has almost all of it: bars on the rim, a handful of clubs, and things running until three or four in high season. Perissa and Perivolos have beach bars that go late. Oia closes early and deliberately. Everywhere else on the island is quiet by midnight. If nightlife matters on your Santorini holidays, stay in Fira or Perissa.

Shopping

Wine directly from the estates, not from Fira gift shops. Capers, fava and tomato products from the village grocers. Jewellery in Fira and Oia at Oia prices. Ceramics from small workshops inland, where the same pieces cost a third of the rim shops. Anything breakable, the wineries will crate and ship.

Photography

Oia before seven in the morning. The blue domes with nobody in them. This is the only time it happens.

Imerovigli at sunset, with Skaros in the foreground.

Firostefani in the late afternoon, for the classic three-bell campanile.

Pyrgos from the castle for the whole island in one frame.

Vlychada in flat afternoon light for the wind-carved cliffs.

Ammoudi from the water at the end of the day.

From a catamaran, which is the only angle that makes the caldera legible.

Festivals and events

Easter is the biggest event in the Greek calendar and the island fills with Greek visitors rather than foreign ones. The wine harvest runs from August into early September. Individual villages hold saint’s day panigiria through the summer, and they are the most local thing you can stumble into on Santorini holidays.

How Do You Book Santorini Holidays in the Right Order?

Order matters more than choice. Santorini holidays go wrong when the flexible things get booked before the fixed ones.

1. Dates

Pick the month first, and pick it for the weather rather than the price. May, June, September and early October are the four months that make Santorini holidays easy.

2. Flights or ferries

Then the way in and out. If you are ferrying, leave a full day between the last sailing and any flight home.

3. Accommodation

The single biggest decision. Rim or coast, and how many steps. Book six to nine months ahead for July and August, three or four for the shoulder months.

4. Boats

Catamarans and volcano trips run on set departures and sell out. Fix these before anything flexible.

5. Transfers

Arrival and departure, by name, with the flight tracked. Cheap, and it removes the two worst moments of most Santorini holidays.

6. Sightseeing days

A private driver for the two or three days that actually contain sightseeing. Group each day by the corner of the island it sits in.

7. Restaurants

Only the caldera-view ones need booking ahead, and only in high season.

8. Nothing else

Leave the last afternoon and at least one whole day unbooked. Something will be cancelled by wind, or something will be good enough that you want longer at it.

Are Santorini Holidays Safe and Easy?

Yes, on both counts. Santorini holidays are as safe as anywhere in Europe, with a few island-specific things worth knowing.

Crime is very low. The usual sense about valuables in crowds is enough.

Roads are the real risk. Narrow, unlit at night, gravel on the bends, and a lot of inexperienced quad riders. This is the single biggest cause of holiday injuries here.

Heat and sun catch people out. There is essentially no shade, and the breeze on the rim hides how strong the sun is.

The sea shelves steeply on most beaches and there are few lifeguards. Watch children closely.

Steps are everywhere, often uneven and polished smooth.

Medical care is a health centre in Fira; anything serious goes to Athens by air. Travel insurance is not optional here.

Volcanic activity is monitored continuously. Nea Kameni is safe to walk on and the island is not at risk.

The wind is the one thing that will actually disrupt Santorini holidays, and it disrupts boats rather than people.

What Do Santorini Holidays Look Like Month by Month?

A quick reference for planning Santorini holidays.

January and February. Ten to fifteen degrees, wet and windy, most things closed, flights to Athens only. Cheapest of the year.

March. Warming, still quiet, sites open on winter hours. The island starts waking in the second half.

April. Fifteen to twenty degrees, wildflowers, Easter often falls here. Everything cultural is open; the sea is cold.

May. Twenty to twenty-five degrees, everything open, few crowds, moderate prices. The best month for Santorini holidays overall.

June. Twenty-five to thirty, sea comfortable, all boats running, busy but not oppressive.

July. Thirty plus, meltemi building, cruise ships daily, peak prices.

August. The hottest, windiest, fullest and most expensive month. Book everything far ahead.

September. Warmest sea of the year, thinning crowds, softening light, falling prices. The other best month.

October. Twenty to twenty-five, good walking, real value. Things start closing late in the month.

November and December. Quiet, cool, frequent weather disruption, and the island entirely to itself.

How Do You Avoid the Crowds?

This is the one skill that separates good Santorini holidays from disappointing ones, and it is not complicated.

Be out before nine. Oia at seven in the morning is empty. The same street at noon has a queue.

Go inland between eleven and five. Pyrgos, Megalochori, Emporio, the wineries and Akrotiri are all quiet exactly when the rim is not.

See Fira and Oia in the evening. After seven the excursions have gone and the cruise ships have sailed.

Check the cruise schedule. A one-ship day and a five-ship day are different islands. Plan the rim for the quiet days.

Eat late. Greek dinner time is nine, and restaurants that are full at seven have tables at half past nine.

Use the far ends. Perivolos rather than Perissa, Vlychada rather than Kamari, Finikia rather than Oia.

Look at where the coaches go and go elsewhere. Big excursion coaches cannot use several of the best roads on the island, so Santorini holidays that use a small vehicle end up somewhere quieter by default.

Take the road less driven. Ancient Thira, the Akrotiri lighthouse and Thirasia are three of the best things here and none of them are ever crowded.

How Do Santorini Holidays Compare to Other Greek Islands?

Worth being honest about, because the wrong island ruins a week faster than anything else.

Against Mykonos. Santorini holidays are about scenery, archaeology and wine; Mykonos is about beaches and nightlife. Santorini wins on views and history, Mykonos on beach clubs and sand. Both are expensive and both are full in August.

Against Naxos. Naxos has better beaches, better value, mountain villages and real agriculture. Santorini has the caldera, which Naxos cannot match at any price. Many people do both.

Against Crete. Crete is a country rather than an island: mountains, gorges, four cities and weeks of driving. Santorini is a three to seven day island. They are not competitors.

Against Milos. Milos is what Santorini would be with a tenth of the visitors and no cave hotels. Quieter, cheaper, stranger rock formations, far less infrastructure.

Against Rhodes or Corfu. Those are big package-holiday islands with long sandy beaches and large resorts. Santorini holidays are shorter, more scenic and considerably more expensive per night.

The honest summary. Take Santorini holidays for the caldera, the archaeology, the wine and the light. Do not come for a fortnight on a beach – that is a different island, and Naxos or Crete does it better.

Can You Do Santorini Holidays Without a Car?

Yes, and a good number of Santorini holidays are better without one. Buses reach Oia, Kamari, Perissa, Akrotiri, the airport and the port from the station in Fira. They are cheap and reliable in season.

The catch that shapes car-free Santorini holidays is that every route changes in Fira, so a fifteen-minute journey becomes an hour, and services thin out after nine in the evening. Add that there are around thirty taxis for the whole island and you have the standard car-free problem here.

What works. Stay in Fira or Firostefani, walk the rim, use buses for the beaches and Oia, and book a private driver for the two or three days with real sightseeing in them – the wineries, Ancient Thira, the lighthouse, the inland villages. Those are exactly the places the buses do not go.

What does not work. Trying to reach Ancient Thira, Thirasia, the estates or the far south by public transport. It cannot be done in a day.

Car-free Santorini holidays are cheaper and less stressful than most people assume, provided you accept that two or three days of it will be driven by somebody else. Daily tours.

What About Santorini Holidays With Very Young Children?

Workable, and Santorini holidays with toddlers succeed or fail on three decisions.

Stay on the coast. Monolithos is where the island’s own families go: shallow, sheltered water, playgrounds, tavernas and shade. Kamari is the next best. A cave hotel down 60 steps with a plunge pool is the wrong choice.

Book vehicles. Buses with a pushchair and a hot afternoon are miserable, and there is no taxi to fall back on. Child seats are available on request.

Pick shaded activities. Akrotiri is roofed, the wine museum is underground, the volcano boat has a breeze, and the open-air cinema at Kamari runs from late May.

Avoid the caldera lanes with a pushchair, the donkey steps entirely, and the midday sun on black sand. Family Santorini holidays work here; they just work on the flat half of the island.

What Is the Single Best Piece of Advice?

Split your stay. Two or three nights on the caldera rim for the view and the sunsets, then move to the coast or inland for the rest. You get the photographs and the swimming, you halve the accommodation bill, and you see both halves of an island that is genuinely two places.

Almost nobody does this on their first Santorini holidays and almost everybody does it on a second. If you take one thing from this guide about planning Santorini holidays, take that one.

What Mistakes Do People Make?

Fourteen ways to spoil a week here, all of them avoidable.

Booking four nights on the caldera rim in August. The most expensive version of the worst version of the island.

Connecting a ferry to a same-day flight. The wind cancels sailings at short notice. This ruins more holidays here than anything else.

Not asking how many steps. Some rim hotels are 80 steps down from the nearest road, with your luggage.

Planning six things in a day. The roads will not allow it.

Going to Fira and Oia at midday. That is exactly when every cruise passenger is there.

Expecting a taxi. Around thirty for the whole island.

Hiring a quad. Narrow unlit roads, gravel on the bends, and a great many holiday injuries.

Eating every dinner on the rim. Triple the price for the same food.

Buying wine in a Fira gift shop. The estates are fifteen minutes away and cheaper at the door.

Assuming the beaches are sandy and shallow. They are volcanic and deep.

Skipping Akrotiri because it sounds dull. It is the best thing on the island after the caldera itself.

Riding a donkey up the cliff. The animals work all day in extreme heat under loads well above what is reasonable. Take the cable car.

Not booking boats early. Catamarans sell out days ahead in July and August.

Arriving without cash. The cable car and the small places want notes.

Practical Notes

The small print of Santorini holidays.

Money. Euro. Cards are accepted almost everywhere; carry some cash.

Water. The island runs largely on desalination. Drink bottled.

Electricity. 230V, European two-pin.

Language. English is spoken everywhere in tourism. We guide in twelve languages. Languages.

Emergencies. 112. There is a health centre in Fira; anything serious is flown to Athens.

Pharmacies. In Fira, Oia, Kamari, Perissa and Emporio, with a rota for nights and Sundays.

Sun. Stronger than most visitors expect, especially on the water and at the rim.

Wind. Check the forecast before anything that depends on a boat.

Wi-fi and signal. Good across the island, patchy in the deeper ravines.

Tipping. Not obligatory. Rounding up is normal, ten percent is generous.

Opening hours. Archaeological sites close in the early afternoon in low season and one day a week; check before you drive.

Accessibility. Honestly, this is a difficult island: steps, stepped lanes, tenders and cable cars. It is manageable with a private vehicle and a plan built around level sites. Tell us in advance.

Santorini Holidays: Frequently Asked Questions

How many days do you need in Santorini? Five is the sweet spot. Three is the workable minimum, seven is comfortable, and beyond that the holiday should get slower rather than fuller.

What is the best month? May, June, September and early October. July and August are hot, windy, crowded and expensive.

Where is the best place to stay? Firostefani or Imerovigli for the view, Kamari or Perissa for a beach holiday, Pyrgos or Megalochori for value and central access.

Is Santorini expensive? The caldera rim is. The rest of the island is priced like the rest of Greece, and eating inland roughly halves the food bill.

Is Santorini good for families? Yes, from a coastal base with a private vehicle. Not from a cave hotel in Oia.

Do you need a car? Not for a short stay. For a week away from Fira, either a car for part of it or a private driver for the sightseeing days.

Are the beaches good? They are black, volcanic and deep. Perissa and Perivolos have the best fronts; the best swimming is from a boat.

Is the Oia sunset worth it? The sunset is. The crowd is not. Imerovigli, Firostefani, Pyrgos and the Akrotiri lighthouse all give you the same sun with a fraction of the people.

Can you do Santorini in one day? On a cruise call, yes, if you pick two things. As a holiday, no.

Is Santorini worth visiting in winter? For the sites, the wine and the quiet, yes. For beaches and boats, no.

How do you avoid the crowds? Be out before nine, go inland between eleven and five, and see Fira and Oia in the evening.

What is the one thing not to miss? Akrotiri, with a guide. The caldera is the reason people come; Akrotiri is the reason they remember it.

What is the biggest mistake on Santorini holidays? Booking too much. Three stops a day is the limit the roads allow, and the day people remember is usually the one with nothing in it.

Are your tours private? Always. Your party alone in the vehicle, priced per vehicle rather than per person.

Plan Your Santorini Holidays With Us

We are a local operator based on the island, running private tours and transfers in our own vehicles. We do not sell hotels or flights – we handle the part of Santorini holidays that goes wrong most often, which is moving people around an island with thirty taxis and roads that take longer than they look.

Tell us your dates, where you are staying and what you have already booked, and we will build the days around it. Prices are per vehicle rather than per person, so a family of four pays what a couple pays. Hotel pickup anywhere on the island is included, flights and ferries are tracked rather than assumed, child seats are available on request, and an 80 EUR deposit confirms a date.

Whatever shape your Santorini holidays take, the island rewards going early, going inland and doing less. Start with the full list of tours, the personalised tour if you already know what you want, or the FAQ for the questions guests ask before booking.

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