Things to Do in Santorini Greece

This is a list of things you do, not places you look at. Each one below carries a real length and a real cost, so you can build a day out of them rather than collect them.

Sail the inside of the caldera

The rim is the thing that makes this island different, and you cannot see it properly from the top of it. A catamaran takes you along the base of a 300-metre cliff, past the red and white beaches that have no road, and stops where the water is warm. It is the single best day here and it is why the boat fares are what they are.

How long: Five hours for a half-day catamaran, fourteen for the full volcano day.
What it costs: $106 to $166 with a meal and drinks in the fare.
Who it suits: Anyone comfortable swimming off a boat rather than off a beach.

Stand on an active crater

Nea Kameni is the dark islet in the middle of the caldera, and you walk a gravel path up to the crater rim. It last erupted in 1950. There is no shade, no shop and no soil, and the ground is loose enough that trainers matter.

Everything about the walk, the fee and the boats that land is on the volcano page.

How long: About an hour ashore, inside a longer boat day.
What it costs: EUR 5 to the national park, in cash, at the landing.
Who it suits: Anyone who can manage a steady uphill on loose gravel.

Swim at the hot springs

Off Palea Kameni, iron-rich water seeps out warm and stains the sea rust-orange. Boats moor about fifty metres off because they cannot get closer, so you swim in from the ladder. It is warm rather than hot, and the iron marks light fabric permanently.

How long: Twenty to thirty minutes, on most caldera boat days.
What it costs: Included in the boat fare.
Who it suits: Confident swimmers in a dark or old swimsuit.

Walk the caldera path from Fira to Oia

Ten kilometres along the rim through Firostefani and Imerovigli, past Skaros rock, and down into Oia. It is the best free thing on the island and the second half is exposed, unshaded and rough underfoot.

How long: Three hours at a walking pace, more with stops.
What it costs: Nothing, plus a bus or taxi back.
Who it suits: Anyone in decent shoes who starts before the heat.

Taste what grows in pumice

The vines here are trained low into a basket called a kouloura, coiled on the ground against the wind, and the island has no phylloxera, so many of them are ungrafted with root systems generations old. PDO Santorini has to be at least 75 per cent Assyrtiko. Tasting it where it grows explains it better than any label.

The four ways to do it are set out on the wine tours page.

How long: Two hours at one estate, four across three.
What it costs: $130 to $201.
Who it suits: Adults; three of the four wine days set a minimum age of eighteen.

Walk into the Bronze Age at Akrotiri

A town buried under pumice and dug out since 1967, with streets, drains and two-storey houses still standing under a modern roof. No human remains have ever been found there, which changes how the whole place reads.

What is actually under the roof is on the Akrotiri page.

How long: An hour to ninety minutes.
What it costs: EUR 20, not included in any tour fare here.
Who it suits: Anyone at all; it is level, roofed and works in any weather.

Ride the black sand

A stable at Vlychada takes small groups along the volcanic sand and into the shallows, starting from the dunes and finishing with the horses in the water. It is an hour and a half and it does not require any previous riding.

How long: Ninety minutes.
What it costs: Around $99 to $101.
Who it suits: Riders twelve and over, under 110 kilos.

Watch the sun go down from somewhere other than Oia

The sunset moves by three and a half hours across the year, from just after five in December to about twenty to nine at the June solstice. Oia is the famous place to watch it and on an August evening it is also the most crowded. Imerovigli, Firostefani, the cliff-top winery at Pyrgos and the deck of a boat all face the same horizon.

How long: An hour, plus getting there early.
What it costs: Free from the rim; $142 to $201 from a boat or a winery.
Who it suits: Everybody, once.

Eight things, side by side

See Santorini Greece tours

Where each of these actually is, and how they string together into a day, is on the highlights page and the map. The trips themselves are on the Santorini Greece Tours home page.