The caldera is the trip. Book the water first.
Which catamaran anchors long enough to swim at the Red Beach. What the volcano and hot springs boat costs out of Fira old port. Whether the seven o’clock crush in Oia is worth standing in. Reviews of every tour you can book on Santorini.
Four days a Santorini week gets built around.
A deck, the volcano, a kitchen and a black beach. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The day on deckSantorini Classic Catamaran Cruise with BBQ, Drinks and TransfersA full day along the caldera wall, anchored off the red and white beaches, lunch grilled on the stern.
02The crossingSantorini Caldera Cruise Tour (Volcano, Hot Springs, Thirassia)Out to the crater on Nea Kameni, then over the side into the warm sulphur water at Palea Kameni.
03The cave kitchenGreek Cuisine Cooking Class in Santorini with Recipes and WineFour courses you cook yourself in a rock house above the rim, with the wine that belongs beside them.
04The black-sand rideSantorini Horse Riding to Black Sandy BeachAlong the surf on the volcanic sand in the south, which is the one part of the island nobody photographs.
The Santorini day that works starts at a jetty, not a bus stop.
From the rim you see a view. From the water you see the strata in the cliff, the two burnt islets in the middle of the bay, and the beaches no road reaches. Boats run out of Fira old port, Ammoudi and the marina at Vlychada.
Six corners of Santorini, and the day out that belongs to each.
The rim villages hang off a cliff; the flat south grows the wine and holds the beaches. Between them sit a Bronze Age town under the ash and three domes everyone photographs. Start wherever your hotel is.
Oia at seven is shoulder to shoulder. Everything else about it is quiet.
Everything in Oia →
The lanes above Ammoudi are empty at eight in the morning and the light is kinder. The castle wall at sunset is a queue two hours deep, and the boats moored under it have the same view with a drink in hand. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the village.
Oia before the coaches
Two hundred steps down to Ammoudi and back up, the windmill at the tip, and the three domes with nobody standing in front of them. Done before the first cruise tender lands.
A shoot in the lanes
Photographers here work the same handful of terraces and know which one has light at which hour. Sunrise costs the same as midday and gives you the village to yourself.
The sunset, from below
Watching from the water instead of the castle path is the single best trade on this island: no crowd, no scramble for a wall, and the cliff turns copper above you.
Catamaran, volcano boat, sunset sail or your own hull. Four ways onto the caldera.
Almost every Santorini itinerary has one day on the water in it, and the four kinds are genuinely different days out. What it costs to board each one:
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Santorini Classic Catamaran Cruise with BBQ, Drinks and Transfers
Catamaran daysShade, a swim ladder, lunch grilled on the stern.
The volcano crossingThe crater on foot, then the hot springs bay.
Sunset sailsThe rim from below while the light goes, dinner on deck.
Your own boatLicence-free hulls out of Vlychada for the south coast.
All 92 boat days on the caldera →
The Santorini days more travellers book than any other.
The whole Santorini list →What the boats, the kitchens and the photographers are actually selling out, and what earns each one its place.
1
Santorini Classic Catamaran Cruise with BBQ, Drinks and Transfers
Spend about five hours on a Santorini catamaran, including transfers, with Red Beach, White Beach, Mesa Pigadia, the hot springs, volcano views, swimming, snorkeling, and a Greek BBQ. Daytime and sunset departures are available, with a crew that may include Thania, Elena, Tonya, or George.
From · $114
Read our review →
2
Half-Day Exclusive Catamaran Cruise in Santorini with Meal and Open Bar
from $133
3
Santorini Gold Catamaran Cruise with Snorkel, BBQ & Open Bar
from $117
4
Private Santorini Tailor Made – Choice of the Guest!
from $96
5
Santorini Wine Adventure with 12 Wine Tastings, Tapas and Sunset
from $181
6
Santorini Catamaran Cruise with Greek Meal, Open-Bar and Sunset
from $181
7
Santorini Island Guided Day Trip
from $200
8
Santorini Caldera Cruise Tour (Volcano, Hot Springs, Thirassia)
from $42
Nowhere else sells a photograph as an afternoon out.
Booked the way a boat trip is booked: a time slot, a meeting point, a set number of edited images back a few days later. Sunrise sessions cost the same as midday ones and come with an empty village.
The south of Santorini is flat, black and nearly empty.
Behind the rim the island tips down into pumice fields and ends in sand that is black, grey or red and holds the heat until midnight. Perissa and Perivolos run four kilometres of sunbeds and tavernas, the horses go along the surf at either end of the day, and the sea caves start where the road gives up.
Every day out in the south →
What a day on Santorini actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what you pay. The cheapest hour here still ends with the caldera in front of you.
The three-hour volcano boat out of Fira, entry to the Akrotiri excavations, a village walk, the airport run.
The standards: a full-day catamaran with lunch, a wine flight timed for the sunset, an hour with a photographer in Oia.
A driver for the whole day, small-group sailing with an open bar, the cave-house kitchen, the helicopter hop.
Three things that happen on Santorini and nowhere else in the Aegean.
Every Greek island has a beach and a sunset. A volcano you can walk on, vines woven into baskets on bare ash, and a whole industry built on wind and chiffon are this island’s alone.
Nea Kameni and the springs
The two black islets in the middle of the bay are the volcano itself, still active and still building. The path up Nea Kameni is loose red scree with steam leaking out of the vents at the top, and there is no shade anywhere on it. Boats then anchor off Palea Kameni, where a hot spring stains the water rust orange and you swim the last fifty metres in.
- 1Santorini Caldera Cruise Tour (Volcano, Hot Springs, Thirassia)★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,302 reviews
- 2Santorini Volcano and Hot Springs Cruise Tour from Fira Old Port★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 1,214 reviews
- 3Cruise to Volcano, Hot Springs & Thirassia★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 992 reviews
Assyrtiko grown on ash
It barely rains here, so growers coil each vine into a low basket on the ground, which catches the night mist and hides the fruit from the wind. The roots go down through pumice into ash, phylloxera never reached them, and some of the plants are older than anyone can prove. The wine comes out bone dry with salt in it, and most cellars sit on the flat land twenty minutes from the rim.
- 1Santorini Wine Adventure with 12 Wine Tastings, Tapas and Sunset★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,715 reviews
- 2Santorini Wine Stories: Sunset Tour with Tasting & Dinner★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,285 reviews
- 3Greek Cuisine Cooking Class in Santorini with Recipes and Wine★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 969 reviews
The flying dress
A terrace, a two-hundred-metre drop behind it, and an assistant out of frame throwing ten metres of chiffon into the wind: that is the picture that sells this island now. Studios keep a rail of colours, shoots start at first light while the lanes are still empty, and on a calm morning somebody has to run the train back and forth to keep it moving.
- 1Santorini 2h Private Flying Dress Photoshoot with Transportation★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 357 reviews
- 2Exclusive Santorini Flying Dress Photoshoot with Pickup★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 336 reviews
- 3Flying Dress Photoshoot in Santorini by Flying Dress Photo ©★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 137 reviews
Four Santorini bookings that will not wait until you land.
Most of this island can be arranged over breakfast the day before. These four run on berth counts, one sitting a day and an hour of usable light, and they are gone in July long before your flight is.
- 01Santorini Classic Catamaran Cruise with BBQ, Drinks and TransfersEach boat sails once in the morning and once for the sunset, with a fixed number of berths. The sunset departure goes first, every time.
- 02Greek Cuisine Cooking Class in Santorini with Recipes and WineA cave-house kitchen seats about a dozen. In high summer that is one sitting a day, spoken for a fortnight ahead.
- 03Santorini 2h Private Flying Dress Photoshoot with TransportationOne dress on the terrace at a time, and the light that makes the shot lasts about an hour after sunrise.
- 04Shared Helicopter Tour Santorini 20 minutes – 2 passengersTwo to four seats per flight, and the schedule bends around whichever days the cruise ships are in.
The wind cancels Santorini boats, and four ships in port fill the rim.
July and August do two things to this island. The meltemi comes down out of the north and a caldera sailing can be called off with a few hours’ notice, and on a four-ship day the lanes in Fira and Oia are solid from ten until four. Both have the same answer: go inland, and go underground. A cellar cut into the rock, a kitchen, the excavation shed at Akrotiri, a table in a village square.
By place — the rim, the villages, the flat south
By kind of day — deck, cellar, camera or quad
Fira, the volcano, the vines, Oia: three days that miss nothing.
The newest Santorini reviews.
Carry on through the new arrivals →
2 Guided Scuba Dives off Santorini for Certified Divers
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Private Sunrise Tour with Breakfast and Oia Visit
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Agios Nikolaos-Elounda-Ierapetra: Santorini Day Tour Cruise
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Flying Dress Photo © Photoshoot “Express Package”
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Private Shore Excursion: Best of Santorini Customized Tour
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Discover Santorini: Prehistoric Akrotiri & Winery Tour
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Best Of Santorini Private Tour with a Local Guide
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