Santorini
The rim of a drowned volcano, with villages stacked along a cliff that falls three hundred metres to the water.
Santorini
Not an island so much as what is left of one. A volcano here blew its centre out in the Bronze Age and the sea came in, leaving a crescent of cliff around a flooded crater — and the villages everybody photographs are strung along the top of that cliff, looking down into the hole.
Explore Santorini on the map
City locations, drawn from our published destination data. Attractions, hotels and restaurants are not mapped yet.
Beyond the temples
A cliff-top walk, a buried town, a volcano you can stand on, and wine grown in ash.
The caldera rim
- The Fira to Oia path along the top of the cliff is the single best thing to do here — several hours of exposed, undulating walking past chapels and abandoned windmills with the crater below you the entire way. Start early, carry water, and wear proper shoes rather than sandals.
- Oia is the village in the photographs, and its sunset draws a crowd that has to be seen to be believed. The view is genuinely extraordinary; the experience of watching it shoulder to shoulder is not. Arrive well before, or watch from Imerovigli instead.
- Imerovigli sits at the highest point of the rim and looks down on Skaros Rock, the crag that held the island’s medieval castle. The short scramble out onto Skaros is quiet even in season.
- Fira is the working town — buses, banks, the museums — and it is where the island actually functions. It is worth an evening even if you are staying somewhere quieter.
The Bronze Age island
- Akrotiri is a Minoan-era town buried by the eruption and excavated under a modern roof, with streets, staircases and multi-storey houses standing to their upper floors. Unlike Pompeii, no human remains have been found — the population appears to have left before the eruption, which changes the feeling of the place entirely.
- The Museum of Prehistoric Thera in Fira holds what came out of Akrotiri, including wall paintings and a gold ibex. The most famous frescoes are in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, which is a good argument for doing Athens first.
- Ancient Thera, on the ridge of Mesa Vouno above the south-east coast, is the later Greek and Roman city — a completely different era and a superb position, reached by a steep road and almost empty compared with the rim.
Volcano, beaches and wine
- Boats from the old port run to Nea Kameni, where you walk up over black lava to the crater rim, and on to the warm sulphur springs off Palea Kameni. It is hot, shadeless and genuinely worth doing to understand what you have been looking at.
- The beaches are on the far side of the island and are volcanic: Perissa and Perivolos are long black sand, Kamari black pebble under the Ancient Thera ridge, and Vlychada sits beneath extraordinary wind-carved white cliffs. The dark sand gets very hot underfoot.
- Red Beach near Akrotiri is the famous one, under rust-coloured cliffs. It has been subject to rockfall and access has been restricted at times, so it is checked locally on the day rather than promised in advance.
- The wineries are the island’s quiet pleasure — Assyrtiko is bone-dry, mineral and ages well, and Vinsanto is the sweet wine made from sun-dried grapes. Several estates on the southern plateau receive visitors, and the vine-training alone is worth the visit.
Four days on Santorini
The rim
Arrive, settle, and walk a stretch of the caldera path in the late afternoon — Imerovigli out to Skaros Rock is the short version. Sunset from your own village rather than fighting for a spot in Oia on the first evening.
Fira to Oia on foot
The full rim path early, before the heat and before the cruise crowds. Lunch in Oia, the afternoon in its lanes and the maritime museum, and the walk back down to the old port or the bus home.
The Bronze Age and the south
Akrotiri in the morning while it is cool, then the Museum of Prehistoric Thera in Fira to see what came out of it — or Ancient Thera up on the ridge. Afternoon on a black sand beach at Perissa or Vlychada.
Volcano and wine
The boat out to Nea Kameni and the hot springs in the morning, and the southern wineries in the afternoon for Assyrtiko and Vinsanto. Last evening inland at Pyrgos, looking back at the island rather than out at the sea.
Arriving & getting around
Two ports, one airport, and an island that is much harder to move around than its size suggests.
Arriving
- Athinios is the main ferry port, a working quay at the bottom of the cliff reached by a road of tight switchbacks. Arrivals there are chaotic and it is not somewhere to improvise a transfer — it is arranged in advance.
- The old port below Fira is where cruise passengers and volcano boats land, and it connects to the town by cable car, by steps, or by mule. The mule and donkey rides have drawn sustained criticism on welfare grounds and there are ongoing efforts to regulate them; the cable car and the steps are both there.
- Santorini airport (JTR) has domestic flights from Athens and seasonal European services. Flying in and sailing out is often the sensible shape when the itinerary is tight.
On the island
- Buses run through a hub in Fira, which means most journeys between two other places involve going into Fira and out again. They are cheap and frequent in season and crowded at the ends of the day.
- Quad bikes and scooters are everywhere and the roads are narrow, busy and unforgiving; accidents are common enough that many travel insurance policies exclude them. A car or a driver for one or two days is the calmer answer.
- The rim villages are stepped, steep and largely car-free. Luggage often has to be carried the last stretch, sometimes a long way down, which is worth knowing before booking a room with a famous view.
Onward
- Ferries connect to the other Cyclades — Naxos, Paros, Ios, Mykonos — as well as back to Piraeus. High-speed craft are quicker and are the first to be cancelled when the wind gets up; conventional ferries are slower and far more reliable.
- The meltemi, the strong northerly of high summer, can suspend sailings for a day or more. Never plan to leave Santorini by boat on the same day as an international flight from Athens.
Santorini in practice
The things that decide whether the island is a pleasure or a scramble.
A caldera-facing room in Oia or Imerovigli is the most expensive bed on the island and, for many people, worth it once. Fira is cheaper and better connected; Firostefani is a good compromise; the beach villages in the south-east are cheapest of all and a different holiday entirely. What matters more than the village is how many steps sit between the road and the door.
Santorini has almost no fresh groundwater and depends heavily on desalination and shipped supply. Tap water is generally not recommended for drinking here, unlike in Athens, and bottled water is the norm. It is also a reason to be conscious about long showers and pools in high season.
When several cruise ships are in, Fira and Oia are transformed for a few hours in the middle of the day. Locals plan around it and so can you: take the rim path or Akrotiri in the morning, and keep the villages for the evening once the ships have sailed.
Cards work almost everywhere. Small tavernas, village bakeries and beach kiosks may still prefer cash, and ATMs in the smaller villages run dry at the busiest times. Greece is in the eurozone.
The island is treeless volcanic rock, the rim path is fully exposed and the black sand beaches absorb heat fiercely. A hat, real sun protection and more water than feels necessary are not optional here in the way they might be elsewhere.
How to be a good guest
A small island carrying a very large number of visitors, and doing it with more grace than it is given credit for.
Manners
- The blue-domed churches in the photographs are working chapels, many of them privately owned and attached to houses. Photograph them from the lane; do not climb walls or terraces to do it, which is a genuine and recurring local complaint.
- Cover shoulders and knees for churches and monasteries, and remember that the villages are lived in — the lanes of Oia are somebody’s front doorstep, and are quiet early in the morning for a reason.
Eating and drinking
- The island’s own produce is worth ordering by name: fava made from Santorini split peas, tomatokeftedes — fritters of the small intense local tomatoes — and white aubergine and capers that grow in the ash without irrigation.
- Vegetarian travellers are well served, and Santorini is unusually good for it because so much of the island’s signature food is vegetable-based to begin with. The Orthodox fasting repertoire means genuinely vegan dishes are normal rather than a special request; ask for nistisimo.
- Eat away from the caldera edge at least once. A view costs a great deal here, and the best cooking on the island tends to be inland at Pyrgos, Megalochori or in Fira’s back streets rather than on a terrace.
Insider tips
What people who have been before do differently.
The sunset problem
- Everybody goes to Oia for sunset and the crush is real. Imerovigli faces the same direction from higher up, Firostefani has the same light with a fraction of the people, and a boat on the water looks back at the whole cliff lit gold.
- If Oia is the plan, be there a long time before, and stay a while afterwards. The village empties within minutes of the sun going and is at its best in the half hour after everyone has left.
Getting more out of it
- Walk the rim path in the early morning, north to south rather than the usual direction, and you will meet almost nobody until the last stretch. It is also far cooler.
- Give an afternoon to the inland villages — Pyrgos with its Venetian castle ruin and view over the whole island, Megalochori, Emporio’s medieval quarter. This is where Santorini looks like an island people live on rather than a viewing platform.
- Book a winery visit properly rather than dropping in. Seeing the basket-trained vines explained on the ground is what turns Assyrtiko from a nice white wine into the most interesting thing on the island after the caldera itself.
Onward from the island
What pairs well, and how far it really is.
Related to Santorini
Journeys that include Santorini — each one visits the city as part of its itinerary.
Common questions
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