Most santorini travel tips reduce to five decisions. Come in the shoulder season, late May to mid June or the second half of September. Sleep near Fira rather than in Oia. Invert the day: the rim before nine and after seven, the interior in between. Book transport before you land, because there are about thirty taxis for the whole island. And never book a ferry on the day you fly home.
Santorini may be famous for its cinematic sunsets, but that’s not all. There are plenty of things to see and do that will impress you and prove that Santorini is not such a famous destination by chance. But what should you know about Santorini Tours before taking a Santorini private tour?
Basic information about Santorini in 2025
Santorini is located between Io and Anafi. It is a complex of the islands of Thira, Thirasia, Aspronisi, and the volcanoes Palia Kameni and Nea Kameni, where the crater of the volcano is located. Today Santorini has 7000 permanent residents scattered in its 10 or so villages. Fira is the capital of the island and Oia, one of its most beautiful villages, is known throughout the world for its impressive and magical sunset.
Santorini’s unique beaches, with cliffs and volcanic rocks, give the island a special physiognomy. One of the most important tourist destinations in the world, Santorini is a dream that anyone can see with their eyes wide open. Loyal friends of Santorini who visit the island by boat feel the same rare emotion every time, from the moment the lines of the famous volcanic island begin to be faintly outlined.
1. Fira
The capital of the island is Fira. Built on the Caldera, 260 m. above the sea, with a magnificent view of the crystal blue waters of the Aegean and the islet of Nea Kameni, they seem to be a breath from the sky. Couples in love flock to the volcanic island every year, looking to enjoy the famous Santorini sunset while embracing on a balcony in the Caldera.
2. Oia
The settlement of Oia in Santorini is the first preserved traditional settlement in Greece, with houses dug into the rock. Thousands of visitors from Greece and all over the world arrive in Oia every summer to enjoy the unique beauty the stunning view of the caldera and the play of colors. It is worth visiting the Maritime Museum and the traditional settlement of Finikia, which is just 1.5 km away. You may take a Santorini private sunset tour by Santorini Tours.
Swim in the two bays of Ammoudi, descending 214 steps, and Armeni. Also, the beaches of Baxedes and Kouloumpos are only about 3 km. and are located on the outer side of the island. Oia is an ideal place for a relaxing holiday. In its picturesque streets, you will find many shops for shopping, luxurious restaurants and cafes, and quiet bars all with a unique view of the sea. You can stay in traditional houses built in caves and newly built apartments that follow the line of the rock which offers idyllic accommodation and wonderful views.
3. Kamari
Kamari is an important tourist resort of Santorini, close to the airport on the eastern side of the island with plenty of greenery, eucalyptus and tamarisk trees and an endless sandy beach with black pebbles. Just above Kamari is the archaeological site of Ancient Thira, in Mesa Vouno.
You can enjoy your swim on the beautiful beach that extends to Monolithos. The sea is ideal for windsurfing. You will find hotels, rooms to rent and camping, as well as along the beach there are restaurants, cafes, bars, discos and clubs with Greek music, shopping centers, bakeries, supermarkets, ATMs and a Health Center.
4. Imerovigli
Imerovigli is one of the most famous resorts of Santorini, it is a few kilometers from Fira and they have almost joined together and are a continuation of the capital of the island. Imerovigli is relatively quieter and more suitable for accommodation for those who love tranquility and you can have the full experience by taking a tour of Santorini.
There are several accommodations and hotels as well as shops, restaurants, bars and cafes. The view is magnificent as in Oia and Fira. the castle of skarosIn Imerovigli, as in the whole of Santorini, there are many churches and chapels. The chapel of Theoskepasti is one of the most interesting, it is built on the edge of a cliff in front of the rock of Skaros.
5. Firostefani
Firostefani is the area between Imerovigli and Fira, from here you can have amazing sunsets. The small square in Firostefani fills up early in the afternoon with the crowd of tourists of all nationalities, you will find there the traditional tavern Aktaion and many cafes and bars on the edge of the western side. Here you can enjoy Greek music in Santorini. There are many restaurants and snack bars but also generally sophisticated and trendy entertainment and recreation areas.
Firostefani is not as quiet as Imerovigli or as bustling as Fira. It is an ideal location because it is located between Fira and Imerovigli which have essentially merged, each has its character. Accommodation in Firostefani is chosen by those who love the hustle and bustle of Fira, but at the same time want peace. You can walk to the clubs and restaurants of Fira, short distances within about 10 minutes.
It is not recommended to use a car, due to the traffic and parking difficulties at the entrance to the city. Here you will find some interesting restored mansions and several hotels and accommodations. Firostefani is a place for all budgets and preferences. You can visit all these places by taking a Santorini private tour in 2025.
Read more about Santorini Tours:
- Santorini Sightseeing Private Tour
- Exclusive Shore Santorini Private Tour
- Impressive Caldera Santorini Private Tour
- South Part Santorini Private Tour
- North Part Santorini Private Tour
- Santorini Historical Private Tour
- Santorini Sunset Private Tour
Santorini Travel Tips: The Short Answer
Most santorini travel tips reduce to five decisions, and getting those right matters more than everything else on this page put together.
The first of the santorini travel tips: come in the shoulder season. Late May to mid June, or the second half of September into early October. Same weather as August, half the price, a third of the crowd.
Sleep near Fira, not in Oia. Central, walkable, twenty minutes from everything, and a fraction of the price for the same island.
Invert the day. The most valuable of all santorini travel tips. Oia at seven in the morning, the interior between ten and six, the rim again after seven in the evening.
Book transport before you land. The most practical of the santorini travel tips. There are about thirty taxis for the whole island and the bus network routes everything through Fira.
Never book a ferry on the day you fly. The hardest of the santorini travel tips to recover from. Wind cancels fast boats, and this is the most expensive mistake available in the Aegean.
Pay for three things. The money-saving core of these santorini travel tips. The caldera boat, Akrotiri with the combined ticket, and one winery. Those three are the island.
Wear proper shoes. The most-ignored of the santorini travel tips. Polished marble steps, volcanic gravel and an unfenced cliff path.
Stay four nights. Two is a photograph, three is a holiday, four leaves a day with nothing scheduled.
Before You Book
The santorini travel tips that save the most money and trouble all apply before you have paid for anything.
Check the month, not the season. Most santorini travel tips are month-specific. April is 17 degrees with a cold sea and half the island reopening. September is 27 degrees with the warmest sea of the year. Both are called “shoulder season” and they are completely different holidays.
Check sea temperature, not air temperature. The least obvious of the seasonal santorini travel tips. Aegean water lags the air by about two months. The sea is coldest in March at 15 to 16 degrees and warmest in September at 25 to 26, which is why late September beats June for swimming.
Check whether direct flights exist in your month. Seasonal European routes restart around late April and stop at the end of October. Outside that window you connect through Athens, which flies year-round.
Check the cruise schedule. The most under-used of the santorini travel tips. Four large ships in the caldera adds several thousand people to Fira and Oia between ten and six. It is published, and it decides which day you do the rim.
Check what is open. From November to March most of Oia and all of the beach resorts close. Fira operates all year.
Check the Orthodox Easter date. A spring-specific one among the santorini travel tips. It moves by up to five weeks, usually falls in April, and changes prices and availability more than anything else in the spring.
Book the caldera-view dinner early. The well-known tables in Oia, Imerovigli and Firostefani go weeks ahead from June to September.
Book the boat for early in your stay. One of the santorini travel tips that saves an entire day. Wind cancels boats and operators rebook rather than refund, so you need somewhere to move it to.
Do not book four islands in ten days. Every ferry crossing costs half a day once you count checkout and port time.
Santorini Travel Tips: Getting There and Around
The airport. At Monolithos in the middle of the eastern plain: fifteen minutes from Fira, forty from Oia. One runway, a small terminal that backs up in summer, and a short cross-winded strip that occasionally diverts flights in a strong meltemi.
Athens connections. Forty-five minutes, several flights a day, year-round. This is how most people arrive outside the summer.
Ferries from Piraeus. Five hours on a fast catamaran, eight to nine on a conventional ferry. The conventional boats sail in weather that grounds the fast ones.
Athinios port. At the bottom of the caldera cliff, reached by a switchback road, and genuinely chaotic when a large ferry unloads. Allow thirty minutes from stepping off to being on the road.
Transfers. One of the santorini travel tips worth acting on before you fly: book before you arrive. Around thirty taxis serve the whole island and the arrivals queue in August is not where you want to be solving this.
Buses. Everything routes through Fira, roughly hourly to Oia, Kamari, Perissa and the airport in season, at 1.80 to 2.50 euros. Fine for one leg, unworkable as the basis of a plan.
Hire cars. Covered by two of the santorini travel tips: book ahead, and park inland. 25 to 60 euros a day depending on season. Book ahead for July and August. Parking in Oia and Fira is the real constraint, not the driving.
ATVs and scooters. The highest accident rate on the island. A licence appropriate to the engine size is legally required and many travel policies exclude them.
The cable car. The queue behind several of these santorini travel tips. Fira to the Old Port, three minutes, six euros each way, and a queue of up to an hour at peak. The alternative is 588 steps.
Distances. The figure behind half the santorini travel tips on this page. Fira to Oia 25 minutes, to Akrotiri 20, to Perissa 20, to the airport 15, to Athinios 20. Nothing on this island is far; everything is slow.
Santorini Travel Tips: Where to Stay
Among all the santorini travel tips this is the one that changes a trip most, because location here is worth more than standard.
Fira. Central, walkable, on the caldera, with both museums, the cable car, the bus hub and the widest choice of restaurants. The right answer for most first visits.
Firostefani. Five minutes along the rim from Fira, quieter, the same view, usually better value. The best compromise on the island.
Imerovigli. The best of the santorini travel tips for a view: the best sunset position on the island. Many hotels are a long staircase from the nearest road, which matters with luggage.
Oia. Beautiful, the most expensive place to sleep in Greece, forty minutes from the airport, and it means you sleep where the crowd is.
Kamari and Perissa. Flat, half the price, a beach on the doorstep, forty minutes from Oia. The right answer with young children.
Pyrgos, Megalochori and Emporio. Inland villages, atmospheric, cheap and quiet. Good for a second visit.
Karterados and Messaria. The budget answer among these santorini travel tips. Ordinary, inland, cheapest of all, and five minutes from Fira.
What to check before booking a room, and one of the santorini travel tips people skip. How many steps from the road, whether there is a lift, whether transfers are included, and whether the property is actually open in your month.
The general rule. On a trip of four nights or fewer, pay for location. On a longer trip, split: three nights on the rim and two on the east coast.
Santorini Travel Tips: Money and Prices
Currency. Euro. Cards are accepted almost everywhere in Fira and the main villages; small tavernas, kiosks and some village businesses still prefer cash.
Cash machines. In Fira, Oia, Kamari, Perissa and Emporio. They run out at weekends in high season.
What things cost, since half the santorini travel tips turn on price. A gyros three to five euros. A coffee three to five. A village taverna dinner 20 to 25 a head with wine. A caldera-view dinner 50 to 80. A sunset cocktail 12 to 20.
Accommodation. 40 to 90 euros a night inland outside summer, 150 to 300 for a caldera-view room in the shoulder season, 400 to 900 in August.
Site tickets. Akrotiri 12 to 20 euros, with a combined ticket covering Ancient Thera and both museums in Fira. The best value admission in Greece.
Boats. 40 to 60 euros a head on a large caique, 100 to 200 on a semi-private catamaran with food.
Tipping. Not obligatory in Greece, whatever other santorini travel tips claim. Rounding up, or five to ten per cent for good service. Nobody expects twenty.
The view surcharge. The single most useful of all santorini travel tips on money: the price of a meal here correlates with the view, not the kitchen. One street back is better food at half the price.
VAT and receipts. Prices are quoted inclusive. A written receipt is standard and legally required.
Santorini Travel Tips: Health and Safety
Water. The first of the safety santorini travel tips: tap water is not for drinking. The island runs largely on desalination. Buy large bottles from a supermarket rather than small ones from a kiosk.
Heat. The reason behind a third of these santorini travel tips. There is no shade on the caldera path, at Ancient Thera, on Nea Kameni or at most viewpoints. Dehydration causes more trouble here than any activity.
The cliff edge. Unstable compacted pumice, largely unfenced along the rim path. There are falls every year.
Steps. The most common injury the santorini travel tips exist to prevent. Cycladic villages are staircases, polished smooth by centuries of use and slippery when wet. This is the most common cause of injury on the island.
Sea urchins. On every rock at every rocky entry. Water shoes solve it.
Medical. A health centre in Fira, and serious cases are transferred to Athens or Crete. Travel insurance covering evacuation is worth having.
Plumbing. Paper goes in the bin, not the toilet. Island plumbing is narrow and old, and this is not negotiable.
Quad bikes. The riskiest thing these santorini travel tips cover. The highest-risk rental here. Check your insurance exclusions before you book, not after.
Sun. Reflected off whitewash and off water, the burn is faster than the temperature suggests. Factor 50, twice a day.
Wind. The variable behind the boat-booking santorini travel tips. The meltemi runs June to September, blowing hard for two to four days at a stretch. It cancels boats and closes the exposed beaches, and it also makes an August afternoon bearable.
Etiquette and Local Customs
The santorini travel tips that cost nothing and change how you are treated.
Say kalimera. The cheapest of all santorini travel tips. Greeting people when you enter a shop or taverna changes the whole interaction.
Terraces are private. The etiquette one of the santorini travel tips that matters most locally. Almost every white cube with a pool is a hotel room or a house. Standing on one for a photograph is trespassing and it is the commonest complaint about visitors here.
The blue domes are churches. In use, not backdrops, and not climbable.
Cover your shoulders in a church. Monasteries in particular; Profitis Ilias keeps wraps at the door.
The bill does not come until you ask. Bringing it unprompted is a hint to leave, and no Greek waiter will do it.
Order fewer dishes. Portions are large and sharing is the norm. Two or three plates feed two people.
Eat late. Nine o’clock is normal. Seven is when tourists eat.
The afternoon is real. Between two and five the villages sleep. Keep the noise down in a residential lane.
Do not block the lane in Oia. The main street is the only route through the village for the people who live there.
Donkeys. Contested on welfare grounds, with weight limits now in force. The cable car takes three minutes.
Take your rubbish off the beach. Several of the best beaches have no collection at all.
Santorini Travel Tips: Timing the Day
If you take one thing from this page, take this. Almost every complaint about Santorini — the crowds, the queues, the heat, the prices at the viewpoint — is a complaint about being in the wrong place at the wrong hour, and the fix costs nothing.
The island runs on a very sharp daily curve. Cruise ships anchor in the caldera and tender passengers ashore from about nine. They take the cable car up to Fira, are bussed to Oia, and are recalled by around six. Independent visitors follow the same route because it is the one every guide leads with. The result is that two villages carry almost the entire visitor load for about seven hours a day, and the rest of the island carries a fraction of it.
06:30 to 09:00. The window all the timing santorini travel tips point at. The best hours of the day and the least used. Oia is empty, the light is on the villages rather than behind them, the caldera path is yours, and Akrotiri opens at eight into silence.
09:00 to 11:00. The rim fills. Move inland or south: the wineries, Pyrgos, Emporio, the museums.
11:00 to 16:00. Peak everywhere on the rim, and the hottest part of the day. This is beach time, boat time, lunch time or sleep time. Do not schedule a viewpoint.
16:00 to 18:00. The ships start recalling. The interior is at its best in this light and the rim begins to empty.
18:00 to 20:00. Oia fills again for sunset, harder than at any point in the day. Anywhere else on the rim is fine.
Sunset plus twenty minutes. Everybody leaves the moment the sun disappears. The colour that follows is better, and the terrace is half empty.
21:00 onwards. Dinner. Kitchens run until eleven or midnight in summer.
Applied properly, this single set of santorini travel tips gives you the famous island without the famous problem, in any month of the year including August.
Santorini Travel Tips: Food and Wine
What Santorini grows is unusual, because it grows almost nothing without rain, and knowing what is local turns a menu from generic Greek into something specific to this island.
Fava. A yellow split pea cultivated here since the Bronze Age, with protected designation status. Served warm as a purée with olive oil, raw onion and capers. Order it first.
Tomatokeftedes. Fritters made from the small dense Santorini tomato, which concentrates because it survives on sea mist rather than rain.
White aubergine. A local variety, sweeter and less bitter than the purple kind.
Chloro. Fresh sharp goat’s cheese, at its best in spring.
Capers and caper leaves. Growing wild off the cliffs, pickled and served as a salad element.
Brantada and fish. At Ammoudi and Armeni below Oia, straight off the boats.
Assyrtiko. The one item on the santorini travel tips list that exists nowhere else. Bone dry, high acid, mineral, from ungrafted vines trained into low circular baskets on the ground because there is no rain in the growing season and the wind would destroy anything upright. Phylloxera never took hold in volcanic ash, so some root systems are centuries old.
Vinsanto. The sweet counterpart, from grapes sun-dried for a fortnight after picking and then aged for years in barrel.
Nikteri. A dry white from a night harvest, traditionally pressed before dawn.
Where to eat, and the most reliable of the money santorini travel tips. Megalochori, Pyrgos, Emporio, Exo Gonia and Karterados for village prices and better cooking; Fira one street back from the cliff; Ammoudi for fish.
When to eat. Nine o’clock. Lunch is the value meal, and many kitchens run the same menu cheaper before six.
What to skip. The caldera-view dinner every night. One is a pleasure; four is a bill.
Santorini Travel Tips With Children
The santorini travel tips change substantially with a family, and most of the standard advice is wrong for anybody with a buggy.
Base on the flat. The first of the family santorini travel tips. Kamari, Perissa or Karterados. The cliff villages are staircases, buggies do not work in any of them, and a carrier does.
Avoid cliff-edge accommodation. Unfenced terraces and hundreds of steps are the two things that make a caldera hotel wrong with small children.
The beaches that work. Monolithos for shallow calm water and shade, Kamari and Perissa for facilities and lifeguards.
The sights that work. Akrotiri is a buried town with streets and staircases and children respond to it far better than adults expect. The cable car is three minutes and reliably the highlight of the week. The hot springs on a boat trip are a genuine novelty.
The sights that do not. The full caldera path, which is unfenced above a three-hundred-metre drop, and Nea Kameni’s crater walk with anybody under about seven.
Heat. The family version of the timing santorini travel tips: in July and August, everything before eleven and after five, without exception.
Food. Portions are large and sharing is normal, which suits families. Every taverna will do plain grilled meat and chips without complaint.
Timing the trip. Late June or the first half of September: warm sea, tolerable heat, and school holidays that still work.
Transport. A hire car with proper child seats, booked in advance, because the buses and the walking distances are the friction points.
Santorini Travel Tips Month by Month
Every one of the santorini travel tips above depends on when you come, and this is the whole year in one place.
January and February. 10 to 16 degrees, the wettest months, a sea at 15 to 16, and the island at its quietest. Fira functions all winter; almost nothing else does. Carnival falls in February or March. Cheapest of the year.
March. 13 to 17 degrees, six to eight wet days, the island green for about six weeks, and businesses reopening from mid-month. The best walking conditions of the year.
April. 16 to 20 degrees, four to six wet days, a sea at 17 to 18, wild flowers, Greek Easter in most years, and almost everything open by the end of the month.
May. 20 to 24 degrees, effectively dry, a sea climbing from 19 to 21, everything open, and the crowd light in the first half. The season starts properly here.
June. The month most of these santorini travel tips assume. 24 to 28 degrees, the longest days of the year, a sea at 22 to 24, and the meltemi beginning. Arguably the best month on the island.
July. 28 to 31 degrees, no rain, strong wind, and prices climbing to peak. The first half is noticeably calmer than the second.
August. 28 to 34 degrees, the busiest and most expensive month, a sea at 25 to 26, and the island genuinely full. Workable only if you invert the day.
September. The other month these santorini travel tips point to. 25 to 29 degrees, the warmest sea of the year, the harvest in the vineyards, and the crowd thinning from the second week. The other best month.
October. 21 to 25 degrees, a sea still at 23 to 24, golden light, the first rain since spring, and everything open until roughly the third week.
November. 17 to 20 degrees, six to nine wet days, Oia and the beach resorts closing, and prices at a quarter of August.
December. 13 to 17 degrees, wet, quiet, Christmas lights in Fira, and a genuinely local island.
The two rules behind the seasonal santorini travel tips. Sea temperature lags air by about two months, and the shoulder months give the same weather at half the price.
The Santorini Travel Tips Nobody Prints
The santorini travel tips that do not appear in guidebooks, mostly because they are unglamorous.
The island is dry. The fact behind a third of these santorini travel tips. There is almost no rain from May to September, no rivers, and very little shade anywhere. That is why it looks the way it does and why you need more water than you think.
The beaches are hot underfoot. Black volcanic sand at midday in August is genuinely painful. Take something for your feet.
Taxis are almost theoretical. Which is why the transport santorini travel tips insist on booking ahead. Around thirty for the whole island. Never build a plan around finding one.
The airport is small. One runway, a terminal that backs up, and a short cross-winded strip. Allow two hours for an international departure.
Cruise days are published. The most actionable of the unpublished santorini travel tips. You can look up how many ships are in the caldera on any given day, and it should decide your itinerary.
Sunset is not the best light. The twenty minutes afterwards, and the first hour after sunrise, are both better and both far emptier.
Most viewpoints are free. Every one of the famous ones. What costs money is getting to them.
The wine is genuinely unusual. Ungrafted vines trained into baskets on the ground, in ash, without irrigation. There is nothing else like it in Europe.
Half the island is closed in winter. And the half that stays open is the interesting half.
The villages are inland for a reason. Four centuries of piracy. The old settlements were built out of sight of the sea, and they are still the quiet parts.
The caldera is deeper than it looks. Four hundred metres in places, which is why ships anchor rather than dock, and why the view from a boat is completely different from the view from the rim.
It is not a beach island. The most important of the expectation-setting santorini travel tips. If sand is the point of the holiday, go to Naxos. Santorini is landscape, archaeology and wine with beaches attached.
Combining Santorini With Other Islands
A large share of visitors reach Santorini as one stop in a longer trip, and the sequencing decisions are worth getting right.
With Athens. Forty-five minutes by air, several flights a day year-round, or five hours by fast ferry. Two days in Athens plus four in Santorini is the standard one-week Greek trip.
With Naxos or Paros. The pairing these santorini travel tips recommend most often. Two hours by ferry, and the perfect counterweight: sand, mountain villages, food and half the price. Four nights here, four there.
With Ios. Forty minutes. Younger, cheaper and much livelier at night.
With Mykonos. Two to three hours. Delos, the archaeological island beside it, is the reason to go.
With Crete. Two hours by fast ferry to Heraklion. A country rather than an island, and a good second half to a two-week trip.
With Milos or Folegandros. Less connected, more rewarding, and only sensible with a flexible schedule.
The sequencing rule. Put Santorini first if you want the spectacle while you are fresh, and last if you want to fly home directly rather than backtracking through Athens.
The ferry rule. Two islands in a week, three at most, and never a crossing on the day of an international flight. Of all the santorini travel tips, this is the one that most often gets ignored and most often costs money.
Santorini Travel Tips for Cruise Passengers
A cruise call is a different problem from a stay, and almost none of the standard santorini travel tips apply unchanged.
Ships anchor in the caldera because the water is up to four hundred metres deep, and passengers are tendered to the Old Port beneath Fira. From there the ways up are a cable car that takes three minutes and holds a queue of up to an hour at peak, 588 steps, or a mule. That queue is the single biggest risk to your day, in both directions.
Book a private vehicle in advance. With four to seven hours ashore, the difference between a car waiting for you and a bus through Fira is roughly two hours of your day.
Go the opposite way to everybody else. The core of the cruise santorini travel tips. The coach route runs Fira to Oia between ten and one. Go south instead — Akrotiri, the lighthouse, a winery, Pyrgos — and see Oia at four when the ships start recalling.
Take the tender early. The first tenders are empty and the cable car queue does not exist before nine.
Budget the return. Tendering back adds thirty to sixty minutes, and the cable car queue downwards at four in the afternoon is the worst of the day.
What actually fits. Three things. Akrotiri, a village and one viewpoint; or Oia, Fira and the cable car. Not both, whatever the excursion desk says.
The volcano option. A short boat to Nea Kameni and the hot springs leaves from the Old Port, which is where you already are.
Cash. For the Nea Kameni fee and small tavernas.
The one thing to avoid. Attempting Oia at midday in August with a five-hour window. It is the most reliable way to spend a day ashore in a queue.
Connectivity, Power and Small Practicalities
The unglamorous santorini travel tips, all of which come up and none of which appear on a list of things to do.
Power. European two-pin, 230V. Adaptors are sold everywhere and hotels usually have spares.
Mobile data. Good across the island, including the caldera path and the inland villages. EU roaming applies for European numbers.
Wi-fi. Standard in hotels and most cafés. Speeds are fine; the constraint is the number of people on the same connection in August.
Pharmacies. In Fira, Oia, Kamari, Perissa and Emporio, with the usual rotating Sunday duty system.
Supermarkets. Full-size ones in Fira, Karterados and Messaria; smaller shops everywhere else. The village mini-markets close for the afternoon.
Opening hours. Shops typically open in the morning, close between two and five, and reopen until nine or ten. This trips up more visitors than any other item in these santorini travel tips.
Public holidays. 15 August, Orthodox Easter weekend, Clean Monday and 1 January close almost everything.
Laundry. Services in Fira and Perissa, and most hotels will do it.
Luggage storage. Available in Fira and at the port, and useful on a departure day when checkout is at eleven and the flight is at eight.
Smoking. Banned indoors and universal on terraces.
Emergency number. 112, which works from any phone across the EU.
Time. Eastern European Time, two hours ahead of London in winter and the same offset in summer.
Santorini Travel Tips for Couples and Honeymoons
A large share of visitors here are on a honeymoon or an anniversary, and the santorini travel tips for that trip differ from the general ones in four specific ways.
Stay in Imerovigli rather than Oia. The first of the honeymoon santorini travel tips. Better views, the best sunset position on the island, a fraction of the crowd, and twenty per cent cheaper for the same standard.
Do Oia at sunrise together. An empty village at seven in the morning is the version of Santorini in the photographs, and almost nobody books it.
Book one caldera-view dinner, not four. The good tables in Oia, Imerovigli and Firostefani go weeks ahead from June to September, and one is a memory while four is a bill.
Take a small catamaran rather than a large boat. Twelve people instead of eighty, food cooked on board, and the sunset from the water with the engines off between Oia and Thirasia.
Use a driver rather than a hire car. Nobody wants to spend an anniversary looking for a parking space in Oia.
Choose the month carefully. Late May, June or the second half of September. Warm evenings, everything open, and the sunset viewpoints not yet full.
Four to five nights. The length these santorini travel tips are written around. Enough for the caldera, the archaeology, a boat and one day with nothing scheduled.
What to skip. Oia castle at sunset in August, which is the least romantic hour available anywhere on the island.
Santorini Travel Tips for a Second Visit
If you have already done the caldera, Oia and Akrotiri, the island opens up considerably, and these santorini travel tips are for the return trip.
Stay inland. The first of the second-visit santorini travel tips. Pyrgos, Megalochori or Emporio. Village houses, courtyards, real neighbours, and half the price of the rim.
Do Ancient Thera properly. A full Hellenistic city on a ridge at 360 metres, occupied for a thousand years, and skipped by almost everybody who does Akrotiri.
Take a day on Thirasia. The far rim of the crater by public ferry rather than tour boat, which gives you the whole day instead of ninety minutes.
Walk the whole rim path. Fira to Oia, ten kilometres, and the middle section is empty even in August.
Visit two small wineries by appointment. The larger estates take coaches; the small producers pour more interesting wine and talk longer.
Go in March or November. The green island in early spring and the empty island in late autumn are both completely different from the summer version.
Eat where the island eats. Exo Gonia, Vothonas, Karterados and Emporio, at twenty euros a head.
Find the churches. Panagia Episkopi at Mesa Gonia is eleventh century and the oldest on the island; the cave chapels at Vothonas are cut into the ash.
Book the boat as a private charter. From six people the per-head cost is comparable to a shared seat and the route becomes yours.
Skip the sunset entirely one evening. Eat inland at nine and let the rim have it. Of all the santorini travel tips for a repeat visit, this is the one people find hardest and enjoy most.
Santorini Travel Tips: What to Pack
Shoes with grip. The most important item on any list of santorini travel tips. Polished marble steps in every village, loose volcanic gravel on the rim path and on Nea Kameni.
Walking shoes as well as sandals. The caldera path is ten kilometres of mixed surface.
A hat that will not blow off. The rim is exposed and the meltemi is not gentle.
Factor 50. Reflected light off whitewash and water burns people who never burn at home.
A light layer for the evening. Ten degrees cooler on a terrace at nine than it was at six, in every month.
A windproof shell. For the rim in spring and autumn and for any boat after sunset.
An old swimsuit. The hot springs at Palia Kameni stain fabric orange, permanently.
Water shoes. For rocky entries and sea urchins.
A refillable bottle. Tap water is not drinkable but every hotel and taverna will fill a bottle from a cooler.
Something for a church. Covered shoulders for monasteries.
No wheeled luggage expectations. Several cliff hotels are a hundred or more steps from the nearest road.
What to leave. Heels, a drone without EU registration, and any expectation of shade.
Mistakes These Santorini Travel Tips Exist to Prevent
Staying in Oia and visiting it at sunset. The exact inverse of what works. Sleep near Fira and see Oia at dawn.
Treating three nights as three days. Arrival and departure days are half-days. Three nights is two usable days unless the flights are kind.
Booking the boat for the last afternoon. Wind cancels it and there is nowhere to move it to.
Relying on buses for the south. There are no useful connections between the southern sites.
Doing the caldera path at midday in August. Ten kilometres, no shade, 32 degrees. This is a genuine risk rather than an inconvenience.
Skipping Akrotiri. The most commonly missed and least replaceable thing on the island.
Eating on the cliff every night. Better food, half the price, one street back.
Expecting white sand. The beaches are black, red and grey volcanic material, steep and hot underfoot.
Assuming the Red Beach is open. The descent has been closed repeatedly for rockfall. Take the viewpoint.
Not checking the ferry on departure day. The most expensive of all the mistakes these santorini travel tips exist to prevent.
Booking a caldera hotel without asking about steps. A hundred stairs with a suitcase at 32 degrees is a memorable arrival for the wrong reason.
The Four-Night Trip That Works
Day one. Arrive, drop bags near Fira, walk the rim to Firostefani and Imerovigli, and take the sunset from Skaros Rock. Dinner in Fira one street back from the cliff.
Day two. Oia at seven while it is empty, Ammoudi below it, then the caldera path back along the rim. Museum of Prehistoric Thera in the afternoon.
Day three. Akrotiri at opening, the Red Beach viewpoint, the Akrotiri lighthouse, lunch at Vlychada, a winery at four, and dinner in Megalochori.
Day four. A caldera boat: Nea Kameni’s crater, the hot springs, Thirasia for lunch, and the cliff from below.
Day five. Pyrgos and Emporio, or nothing at all, then the airport.
If a day is lost to weather. Both museums, the wine museum in a cave, a winery and a long lunch.
The one rule behind all these santorini travel tips. Three locations a day is a holiday; five is a coach tour you organised yourself.
Santorini Travel Tips: Frequently Asked Questions
What are the most useful santorini travel tips? Come in the shoulder season, sleep near Fira rather than in Oia, invert the day, book transport before you land, and never schedule a ferry on the day you fly.
What is the best time to visit, according to these santorini travel tips? Late May to mid June, or the second half of September into early October.
How many days do you need? Four nights. Three works, two is a photograph, and five gives you a day with nothing scheduled.
Where should I stay? Fira or Firostefani for a first trip. Kamari or Perissa with children. Inland villages on a second visit.
Do I need a car? A car or a private driver for the south and the interior. The rim is walkable and the buses cover the beaches.
Is the tap water drinkable? No. The island runs largely on desalination. Buy large bottles.
How much should I budget? 700 to 1,100 euros for two people over five shoulder-season nights excluding flights, and roughly double in August.
What should I not miss? A caldera boat, Akrotiri, one winery, and Oia before eight in the morning.
Is it safe? Very. The genuine risks are the unfenced cliff edge, polished steps, heat and quad bikes.
Do I need to book restaurants? The caldera-view ones, yes, weeks ahead from June to September. Village tavernas, no.
What is the biggest mistake these santorini travel tips warn about? Booking a ferry on the day of an international flight.
Are these santorini travel tips different in winter? Yes. From November to March most of Oia and all of the beach resorts close, Fira operates normally, and prices fall to a quarter of August.
We Handle the Logistics
We are a local operator running private tours and transfers in our own vehicles, and most of what is on this page is what we tell people on the way in from the airport.
Tell us your dates and we will build the days around the hours that work, handle the transfers at both ends, and tell you honestly what is worth booking and what is not.
Prices are per vehicle rather than per person, hotel pickup anywhere on the island is included, we guide in twelve languages, and an 80 EUR deposit confirms a date.
See the personalised tour, the 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
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
