How to Visit Santorini Greece: Ferries, Flights, the Cable Car and What It Costs
The short answer
Fly or ferry in, and the only fare that catches people out is the cable car from the Old Port, which went from EUR 6 to EUR 10 in 2025. Nothing else on the island costs more than EUR 20, and the tours here run from $34 to $207.
Santorini is an island rather than a monument, so there is no gate and no single ticket. What there is instead is a handful of fares, three arrival points that are nowhere near each other, and one 220-metre cliff that decides how your first morning goes. Everything below is what the Santorini day tours assume you already know.
Getting to the island
Flights land at Monolithos on the flat eastern side, about fifteen minutes from Fira. Ferries dock at Athinios on the caldera shore, at the bottom of a switchback climb, with buses meeting the boats. Cruise ships do neither: they anchor in the caldera itself and tender passengers to the Old Port below Fira.
Which of the three you use changes everything about your first hour, and our map page sets out where each one is and which tours assume it.
The cable car, and the fare most of the web has wrong
There is no road from the Old Port up to Fira. The ways up are a cable car, a footpath of about 590 steps shared with the mules, and a mule. The cable car covers it in three minutes and is rated by the operator at 1,200 people an hour in both directions.
A one-way adult ticket costs EUR 10, a child ticket EUR 5, and each piece of luggage another EUR 5. That is the 2025 price list. Between 2017 and 2024 the adult fare was EUR 6, and a great deal of the internet is still quoting that.
Every fare on the island
| What | Price | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Cable car, one way | EUR 10 | EUR 5 child, EUR 5 a bag |
| Nea Kameni park | EUR 5 | Cash, at the landing, no card machine |
| Akrotiri excavation | EUR 20 | Under-25s from the EU free |
| Ancient Thera | EUR 10 | Closed Wednesdays |
| Museum of Prehistoric Thera | EUR 10 | Closed Tuesdays |
| Icons collection, Pyrgos | EUR 5 | Closed Tuesdays |
| Guided tours | $34 to $207 | Per person, one exception |
Getting around once you are up
Buses radiate from Fira and barely run between villages, so almost any journey means changing in the middle. Taxis are few and disappear before sunset. A hire car solves the movement and creates a parking problem in Oia and Fira that is genuinely hard in August.
That is why the private drivers sell here the way they do: three hours with a driver-guide costs less than a day's hire plus the afternoon you spend looking for a space.
What to actually do with the days
- One day. Take a boat. The caldera is the thing, and you cannot see it from the rim you are standing on.
- Two days. Boat, then the villages by road, finishing in Oia before the crowd.
- Three days. Add the wine, or the excavation, or the caldera path on foot from Fira to Oia.
- A port call. One thing, well, with the cable car solved.
The full list, with how long each takes, is on the things-to-do page.
When to come
Late April to early June, or the second half of September into October. The wind is lightest in spring, the sea warmest in September, and the crowd thinnest at both ends. July and August are hot, dry, busy and windy: three days in four blow from the north and boat trips get rerouted.
The month-by-month figures are on the weather page, and the crowd calendar on the best-time page.
Booking, and how far ahead
A week out in high summer, three to five days in the shoulder months. Every tour listed here refunds in full 24 hours before it starts, so an early booking costs you nothing but a decision. If the wind worries you, and in July it should, put the boat day early in your stay.
Where to stay, and what it does to your days
The choice is really between the rim and the flat. Staying on the caldera edge at Oia, Imerovigli, Firostefani or Fira puts the view outside the window and the sunset on your doorstep, and it costs accordingly. Staying on the eastern side at Kamari, Perissa or Perivolos puts you next to a swimmable beach with tavernas on it, for a fraction of the money, and about twenty minutes from the rim by road.
The practical difference is stairs. Rim villages are built down a cliff face, so almost every property involves steps and almost none has a car at the door. If anyone in your party finds stairs difficult, the eastern side is not a compromise, it is the right answer.
Three things people get wrong before they arrive
- That the volcano is on the island. It is not. Nea Kameni is a separate islet in the middle of the caldera and there is no way to it except by boat, so a volcano visit is a boat trip whether you wanted one or not.
- That the Red Beach is a beach day. It is small, sheltered, busy and reached down a path. It is a photograph. The swimming is on the black sand at Perissa and Perivolos.
- That the cable car is the only queue. The bigger crush is Oia at sunset, and it builds for three hours beforehand in August.
What to pack that you would not think of
Closed shoes, if the crater is in your plan: the path up Nea Kameni is loose volcanic gravel and listings say comfortable shoes, which is not the same instruction. A dark swimsuit for the hot springs, because the iron in the water stains light fabric for good. A windbreaker even in August, because the crossings are open water. And cash in small notes for the EUR 5 park fee, which has no card machine behind it.
A sensible first day
Land, get to where you are staying, and do nothing ambitious. Walk out to the rim in the late afternoon, find the caldera path, and go as far along it as the light allows. It costs nothing, it orients you completely, and it means that when you look at a tour list the next morning you already know what you are choosing between.
The trips themselves, with what each fare covers, are on the Santorini Greece Tours home page, and the questions people ask before booking are answered on the FAQ page.
Start with the boat and build the rest of the week around the wind. Everything bookable is on the home page, with the fare and the inclusions side by side.
