10 Best Things to Do in Santorini Greece, and How Long Each One Takes
The short answer
Sail the caldera, walk the crater, swim the hot springs, take the Fira to Oia path, taste Assyrtiko where it grows, walk into the Bronze Age at Akrotiri, ride the black sand, and watch the sun go down from somewhere other than Oia. Two of those are free.
Every list of things to do on this island gives you the places. Almost none gives you the hours or the cost, which are the two things you need to build a day. Here are ten with both attached, and three of them are Santorini boat tours rather than anything you can walk to.
1. Sail inside the caldera
The rim is what makes this island different and you cannot see it properly from the top of it. A catamaran runs along the base of a 300-metre cliff, past beaches with no road, and stops where the water is warm. It is the best day here.
How long: 5 hours
What it costs: $106 to $166
2. Walk on an active crater
Nea Kameni is a national geological park and you climb a gravel path to the crater rim, past vents that still smell of sulphur. It last erupted in 1950. There is no shade and no shop, and the ground is loose enough that trainers matter.
How long: 1 hour ashore
What it costs: EUR 5, cash
3. Swim at the hot springs
Iron-rich water seeps out warm off Palea Kameni and stains the sea rust-orange. Boats moor fifty metres off because they cannot get closer, so you swim in. It is warm rather than hot, and the iron marks a light swimsuit for good.
How long: 20 to 30 minutes
What it costs: In the boat fare
4. Walk Fira to Oia along the rim
Ten kilometres along the caldera edge through Firostefani and Imerovigli, past Skaros rock and down into Oia. The best free thing on the island. The second half is unshaded and rough, so start early.
How long: 3 hours
What it costs: Free
5. Taste Assyrtiko where it grows
The vines are trained low into a basket called a kouloura, coiled against the wind, and the island has no phylloxera, so many are ungrafted with root systems generations old. PDO Santorini must be at least 75 per cent Assyrtiko.
How long: 2 to 4 hours
What it costs: $130 to $201
6. Walk into the Bronze Age at Akrotiri
A town buried under pumice and excavated since 1967, with streets, drains and two-storey houses standing under a modern roof. No human remains have ever been found there. It is level, shaded and works in any weather.
How long: 1 to 1.5 hours
What it costs: EUR 20
7. Ride the black sand at Vlychada
A stable takes small groups along the volcanic sand and into the shallows, finishing with the horses in the water. No previous riding needed; twelve and over, under 110 kilos.
How long: 1.5 hours
What it costs: $99 to $101
8. Watch the sunset from somewhere other than Oia
Imerovigli, Firostefani, the cliff-top winery at Pyrgos and the deck of a boat all face the same horizon with a fraction of the people. Sunset moves three and a half hours across the year.
How long: 1 hour
What it costs: Free to $201
9. Spend an hour in a village with no coaches
Pyrgos winds up to a Venetian kasteli with both coasts visible from the walls. Emporio has the larger fortified quarter and almost nobody in it. Megalochori is a working village of cave houses and vineyard walls.
How long: 1 hour
What it costs: Free
10. Do nothing on a long black beach
Perissa and Perivolos run for kilometres under Mesa Vouno with sunbeds, tavernas and water sports the caldera side does not have. The sand gets genuinely hot in August.
How long: Half a day
What it costs: The price of a sunbed
All ten, side by side
| What | Hours | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Sail inside the caldera | 5 hours | $106 to $166 |
| Walk on an active crater | 1 hour ashore | EUR 5, cash |
| Swim at the hot springs | 20 to 30 minutes | In the boat fare |
| Walk Fira to Oia along the rim | 3 hours | Free |
| Taste Assyrtiko where it grows | 2 to 4 hours | $130 to $201 |
| Walk into the Bronze Age at Akrotiri | 1 to 1.5 hours | EUR 20 |
| Ride the black sand at Vlychada | 1.5 hours | $99 to $101 |
| Watch the sunset from somewhere other than Oia | 1 hour | Free to $201 |
| Spend an hour in a village with no coaches | 1 hour | Free |
| Do nothing on a long black beach | Half a day | The price of a sunbed |
How to fit them into two days
Day one is the boat, because it is the thing you came for and because the weather may not give you a second chance at it. Take a morning or early-afternoon departure so the wind is lighter and the swim stops are quieter. That is items one, two or three, and a large part of the day gone in the best possible way.
Day two is the land: the rim path in the early morning while it is cool and empty, lunch in a village with no coaches in it, the excavation in the middle of the afternoon when it is the only shaded thing on the island, and the sunset from somewhere that is not Oia. That is four more of the ten, and none of them fights the others for time.
What to leave out
If you have two days, do not try to add a wine afternoon to the land day. Three estates and twelve tastings is four hours with a van in the middle of it, and it does not slot around anything. Give it its own half-day or leave it for a longer trip.
Equally, do not stack the Red Beach and the black beaches into one afternoon. They are at opposite ends of the southern coast, they do completely different jobs, and one of them is a fifteen-minute photograph.
The two that cost nothing
The caldera path and the sunset are free, and between them they are most of what people remember. If your budget is going into one thing, put it into a boat and take the other two for nothing.
Where each of these actually is, is on the highlights page, and what they cost to reach is on the visitor information page. For when to do them, the best-time page has the crowd calendar and the weather page the wind. The Santorini Greece Tours home page has the trips.
Two of these ten cost nothing and one of them is the best thing here. Walk the rim, then put the money into a boat.
