Santorini

About Santorini

By the ULTIMATE Athens City Guide Editorial Team

A ring of cliffs around a flooded volcano, with white villages balanced on the rim, Bronze Age streets buried in ash, black-sand beaches and some of the most famous sunsets in the world.

The back story

Santorini is what remains of a volcano. Around 3,600 years ago, in one of the largest eruptions of the last ten thousand years, the centre of a round island collapsed into the sea, leaving the great flooded crater, or caldera, that you sail into today. The cliffs rise up to about 300 metres from the water, striped in red, black and white layers of lava and ash.

Before the eruption, the island was home to a prosperous Bronze Age town with close links to Minoan Crete. Buried under metres of ash, it was rediscovered at Akrotiri, where excavations led by the archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos began in 1967. Its streets, multi-storey houses and wall paintings are so well preserved that it is often called the Pompeii of the Aegean, and its frescoes are among the treasures of Greek archaeology.

Before the eruption, the island was home to a prosperous Bronze Age town with close links to Minoan Crete.

Later the island was Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Venetian, who called it Santa Irini, the origin of its modern name. A strong earthquake in 1956 damaged many villages, and the island slowly rebuilt itself, until tourism made it one of the most famous places in Greece.

The caldera villages

Fira, the capital, spills down the cliff in a cascade of white houses, churches and terraces, and a cable car and a path of 500-odd steps link it with the old port below. A walk along the rim to Firostefani and Imerovigli is one of the great walks in the Aegean, and the village of Oia, at the northern tip, is famous for its blue domes, cave houses and sunsets. Come early or late to avoid the crowds, and find your own spot along the rim.

Inland, Pyrgos is a quieter hill village with a Venetian castle and wide views, while Emporio and Megalochori keep the feel of old Santorini.

Beaches, wine and the volcano

The beaches on the gentle eastern side are made of black and red volcanic sand and pebbles, at Kamari, Perissa and Perivolos, and the Red Beach near Akrotiri is framed by rust-red cliffs. Boats leave the old port for the still-active volcanic islets of Nea Kameni and Palea Kameni, where you can walk to the crater and swim in warm springs.

Santorini’s vines grow in baskets low to the ground, out of the wind, in volcanic soil that the vine pest phylloxera never reached. The white Assyrtiko grape makes crisp, mineral wines, and the sweet Vinsanto is made from sun-dried grapes; several wineries offer tastings with caldera views.

Getting there

Santorini has an airport with flights from Athens of about 45 minutes, and international flights in summer. By sea, high-speed ferries from Piraeus take about five hours and conventional ferries about seven to eight, arriving at the port of Athinios below the cliffs, from where buses and taxis climb to Fira. Santorini is also well connected with Ios, Naxos, Paros, Mykonos and Folegandros.

To enjoy it at its best, come in May, June, September or October, stay a night or two on the caldera if you can, and explore the villages early in the morning before the day-trippers arrive.

Santorini at a glance

Ferry times are typical and change with the season, the boat and the number of stops; check current timetables with the ferry companies or Ferryhopper before you travel.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Santorini before you go.