Santorini Holidays & Santorini Beaches Guide.

A holiday on Santorini offers lovely beaches, amazing cliff top scenery, beautiful villages and equally beautiful churches to tour around - quite apart from wandering about in the scenic Santorini hills.

The Greek Holiday Island of Santorini (also known as Thera or Thira) lies within the South Aegean Sea, is part of the Cyclades Island Group and covers an area of around 28 square miles. Originally a much larger island, today's Santorini was created as a result of a massive volcanic explosion in the 13th century leaving it now with a huge and extremely deep central lagoon - which is surrounded by 980 foot high cliffs. These multi-coloured cliffs create a quite unique and spectacular sight which is particularly excellent when seen as you travel to the island via cruise ship or ferry. Santorini's modern capital of Fira has it's generally white houses and buildings layered across the top of the cliffs overlooking the lagoon way below - creating yet another of Santorini's unique views to enjoy. The island's main ferry port is situated down a really steep 4km road which zig-zags it's way below to the lagoon.Santorini is very much on the cruise ship itinerary and even in early May it's not unusual to find two or three of these huge boats laying up close to the cliffs. The area around Santorini is still actively volcanic - there have been several eruptions during the 20th century - the last being in 1950 - and there was also a severe earthquake in 1956.

Please note where prices and information on ferries to Santorini, timetables, buses etc. are mentioned below these obviously can only reflect the time of our holiday period and should be used as guidance - things do change especially prices these days.

Various ways of travelling to Santorini - Flights. Many people especially from northern Europe going on holiday to Santorini will arrive by air - for instance the flight time from Gatwick in England is about 3.5 hours and it's only a 3 hours flight from Moscow. Santorini's airport is fairly small but seemed very efficient in "processing" us holidaymakers - at least it did when we arrived with a quick passport check and also our cases were quickly onto the belts. And leaving Santorini: When you leave the island by air the first thing that happens is that you have to put your suitcases through scanners - as the airport is small this does mean you have to queue up outside and if several coaches arrive at the same time these queues do grow somewhat (there are only 2 scanners). However the authorities have provided overhead shading to keep the sun off whilst you wait your turn. Again on the subject of departure - once you have put your cases through etc. you can leave the airport and use one of two quite large cafe/tavernas which are situated by the airport if you wish. Alternatively there is a small seating area at the departure gates and also a larger area higher up where you can buy snacks, drinks and even have a cigarette if you wish whilst watching the planes come and go. When we were leaving there were just 2 toilets for male and female available and one each of these was out of commission (and pretty smelly with the hand-washing facility i.e. taps not working either.)

Santorini Ferries: Another popular way to get to the island is by using the extensive and frequent Greek Ferry systems - many ferries have Santorini on their schedules with car ferries arriving all the time from Naxos, Paros and the mainland as well as from islands further afield. The ferry port has little in the way of facilities with one rather overpriced cafe/taverna and also a more "fast-food" type facility. A bus meets most inbound ferries and goes to Thira however it fills up quickly as people rush to get on and if you have suitcases you may have little chance.

Taxis are also in extremely short supply down at the port - you do really need to try and pre-book a taxi if possible. As a cost guide we had to pay 18 Euros to go from Perissa to the Ferry Port and on our return from Sikinos several days later we were charged 20 Euros from the Port back to Perissa - same distance but 2 Euros more... (obviously these rates have gone up as things do all the time these days).
One other tip about using the ferries - we used Nell Lines to get to Sikinos - it was an old ferry and really dirty due to the muck coming out of the twin funnels - there was diesel exhaust sludge everywhere including on the top deck seats so you could not use these seats at all. This sludge was all over the deck as well and where people were walking around also made the lower deck and cafe area carpets streaked with oily stains. Therefore if you plan to sit up top it is worth taking a large carrier bag or similar to sit on and perhaps an old umbrella!.

As mentioned Santorini island is a very popular stopover for the boats doing the Mediterranean Cruises - these ships look really spectacular as they are moored right up against the high cliffs with Thira high above. On arrival these ships disgorge their passengers onto the shore and then these tourists are all shipped out on dozens of coaches for round the island trips etc. and also taken up to Thira for the views - Oia is another popular destination for cruise-ship passengers. The cruise ships do often seem to arrive overnight and the day escursions go off quite early in the day so if you are staying for a while on Santorini then the best times to visit Oia and Thira etc is probably after 11a.m..

Getting Around Santorini. There is an apparently frequent bus service running on the island - by our second week there were quite a few buses scheduled out of Perissa and Kamari into Thira (these are two very popular locations for tour company destinations on the island) - the problem is quite often the buses were late running or sometimes did not run. It was also not that cheap a way to travel - for instance if two of you wanted to go from Perissa to Kamari you would pay 4.5 Euros to get to Thira and then another 4 Euros to continue to Kamari - should you want to return by bus it would be another 8.5 Euros.
An alternative especially in early season is of course hiring a car instead. There are loads of car-hire companies around and with things being fairly quiet they are quite keen to "do a deal". We hired a small car for two days for 38 Euros which included full insurance - we stuck 15 Euros worth of petrol in it and got around everywhere for that. In May the roads were pretty quiet - the main thing to worry about avoiding were the increasingly popular quad bikes which especially the younger people hired out and often were driving too fast.
The other "getting around" was by taking advantage of some of the nice moni-paths and donkey and mule paths which are available to walk on the island. There were quite a few of these to use - we have several pages on walks we did whilst on holiday on Santorini using these paths which may be of interest.

General costs whilst on the Island.
Santorini Tavernas - food and drink. Apart from Thira itself the price for a nice meal in one of the island's tavernas was pretty reasonable - you could get perhaps a starter and a main course plus some wine etc. for around 18 Euros each - the menus were quite varied and extensive although sadly nearly everything came with the dreaded chips. Up in Thira the tavernas charged quite a bit more of course mainly because they had the cruise ship visitors always turning up for one off meals. We found the house red wine to be very drinkable on Santorini - perhaps since frequently we were given a big top up of wine -on the house-.)

Sunbeds and chairs - varied between 5 and 6 Euros per set at the time of our holiday. In some cases these were being offered free if you used the relevant taverna for a meal or drinks that for some reason the sand where it did exist was very course and often interspersed with much heavier pebbles. We thought Perisa had the best of the beaches to be on with Kamari a bit behind that. The famous Santorini Red Beach did look very spectacular but somehow we did not think we wanted to be crashed out half asleep on a sunbed there. The cliffs are suffering from heavy erosion and in fact they are slowly becoming white cliffs instead as the next layer appears - and the whole cliff area looked like it was ready for another heavy collapse.
There are beaches marked on Santorini maps from Cape Mavropetra going clockwise round the island to Karterradhos - actually these are quite narrow and are mostly of heavy shingle with sometimes huge pebbles - the beachesare often lined with washed up seaweed - not particularly attractive to spend the day on to say the least. You do need to take some "jellies" with you to protect your feet whilst using the beaches on Santorini - the pebbles and rock shelves become extremely hot very quickly.

Santorini - Thira or Fira: Thira is Santorini's capital - the way the city has been built and therefore sprawls across the very high cliffs is an incredible site especially either end of the day when the angle of the sun hits. As you can probably imagine, Fira is always packed with tourists - and this is of course why prices here for anything at all are really expensive. The various alleys and streets are full of jewellery shops plus other bric-a-back outlets plus there are quite a few expensive tavernas and cafes. The views across to Volcano and all around the cliffs etc. are really something else - nearly everybody enjoying the views seemed to be taking photo after photo of the scenery and for good reason.

Pirghos. The town is one of the oldest settlements on the island, is located up on a hilltop and surrounded by vineyards in fields way below. Pirghos has some Byzantine walls, quite a few really nice churches and also just about the ruins of a Venetian castle where you can enjoy views from the battlements. Quite a few Island Tour coaches stop off at the town - understandably as the alleys and buildings are really nice to wander around.

Santorini Perisa: (Perissa) Perisa is located on the south west of the island and is quite well used by holiday companies. The town has one particularly scenic feature in that it is dominated by the nearbye Mesa Vouno - these 580 metre hills make a spectacular back drop in their own right quite apart from the view high up on the peak of the Profitis Ilias Monastery. We stayed at Perisa and these high hills were something of a nuisance since for some reason we had to climb up and over them four times..

There are quite a few tavernas which provided good and reasonably priced menus plus there are some drinks bars in Perisa but the area was pretty quiet in the evenings there which was good - probably not so quiet in July and August though. There are apparently two ATMs but we only found one - this was on the main road near the quite large Co-op supermarket - there is also the town's bakery located nearbye. There is a bus service into Fira but not that many buses running when we were there late May - however they were starting to increase the frequency. The beach is well catered for with lots of sunshades and sun beds available for hire - we used them several times and were charged 6 Euros for a set. The beach does slope considerably into the sea in places and is a mix of black sand plus some shingle - also at the water's edge you do find layers of rock - definitely a case for having some Jellies for your feet.

One of the features? of Perisa is the large amount of unfinished buildings around - even by Greek island standards there were a lot of this. A shame really because the various owners of accommodation which were open have generally taken a lot of trouble to make their establishments look really nice - lots of flowers everywhere, all clean and tidy and so on.
There is a fairly large campsite in the town which is located near the northern end of the beach not too far from Perisa's nice church. There is also a youth hostel type establishment situated on the main road not far from the Co-op supermarket. One wonders just how noisy things might become in the evening etc. during the peak holiday months of July and August in the town. 

Santorini Kamari: This is also a favourite destination for Santorini's various holiday companies - is far bigger than it's neighbour on the other side of Mesa Vouna - and certainly did not have Perisa's glut of unfinished buildings. Kamari even in late May was quite busy - again the beach is small shingle to sandy and has all the usual amenities. There is a wide paved walkway running along the beach for some distance - this is packed with tavernas and drinks bars etc. As you wander along passing these tavernas and bars nearly every time you will invited in - they are not persistent at all but it does become a bit of pain to do a "no thank you" all the time. Prices for food were just slightly higher than those we found in Perisa but the quality and quantity was equally as good. Kamari enjoys a quite frequent bus service into Fira - with the service running every 30 to 45 minutes.

Santorini - Oia: This town is at one end of the high cliffs which run north out of Fira - the town is very popular on the round the island coach tours and also gets quite packed with people bus'ed in from the cruise ships. It is understandable why this is - the town is excellent for wandering around and very picturesque with it's churches, alleys and white painted small houses. Because it is on the tourist coach circuit the prices in the Tavernas and so on are quite high though not as bad as those found in Fira. There is a fairly frequent bus service from Fira to Oia - however these buses get very busy and if possible when wanting to leave the town by bus it's worth getting to where the bus starts rather than wait at one of the bus stops on the way out of the town - the bus may not stop..
There is an excellent walk - which was certainly being enjoyed by lots of people when we were on holiday on Santorini - which goes from Fira out along the top of the cliffs using narrow streets and alleys and also walkways - through Merovighli and on via a nice path to arrive at Oia. There is more about this on our Santorini Walks page.

Santorini - Ancient Thira and Akrotiri. Well firstly the site at Akrotiri is closed due to a serious accident and has been for some time now. Going to take a look around Ancient Thira is quite an event - firstly unless you are prepared to walk up (which is most enjoyable - see our Santorini Walks items) then getting there involves a drive up on a severely hair pinned road to reach a saddle. Having parked here there then is a significant climb further on up the hillside to reach the actual settlement ruins. Apart from a couple of benches situated under some trees a little way up there is absolutely no shade up on this really exposed ancient site and it does get exceedingly hot around there. It should also be noted that the area is closed on Mondays and that for all other times they close the gates promptly at 14:30 hours.

Santorini Wildlife: Although we walked along quite a few paths, tracks and moni-pati whilst on holiday on Santorini we did not see one snake or even a sign of one. There were lots of lizards around and of course since we were there in Spring there were plenty of sparrows, swallows and so on to be seen.

Our Santorini Topics:- Santorini Holiday Walks  Emborio-Pirghos and Santorini's Beaches+Windmills

External Resources:
Greek Island Postcards - Mike's views and guide on Santorini are a must read.
Santorini by Greeka - Alexis's website is also one to visit for information on the Island.
VR Santorini A virtual tour of Santorini, Greece.