The best luxury hotels in Santorini, ranked for 2026
Ten hotels reviewed in full with 2026 rates, plus which village to book, how to dodge the cruise crowd, the beaches, the wineries and what the 2025 earthquakes actually changed.
By Jack Williamson·Updated August 2026·22 min read
Prices and policies last verified 24 August 2026 by Jack Williamson.
In one paragraph. Santorini is a volcanic caldera in the Cyclades where the view sets the price and your room can sit 200 steps below reception. I rate 10 hotels here at roughly $400 to $1,400 a night. Imerovigli buys the same sunset as Oia with half the crowd.
Quick Answer
Top pick: Grace Hotel Santorini, from about $900 a night. Grace Hotel Santorini in Imerovigli is the booking I make first, because it sits at the highest point of the caldera rim with only 21 rooms and an uninterrupted sunset line. Canaves Oia Suites from about $750 puts you inside Oia on foot with a cave suite and a heated plunge pool. Mystique is the one caldera hotel where Marriott Bonvoy points are worth real money. Aenaon Villas in Firostefani is the value pick at about $450, and Caldera Romantica in Akrotiri gives you the same volcano view for around $300. Go in May or late September, and stay off the rim if you are travelling with children.
Every Santorini hotel list looks the same. Eighteen white hotels, one photograph each, no ranking, no rates and no view on which village you should be standing in. None of them tell you that the sunset from Imerovigli is the same sun, that Oia takes 8,000 day visitors off the cruise ships on a July afternoon, that Greece added a USD$20 cruise passenger levy in July 2025, or what the earthquake swarm of early 2025 means for a 2026 booking.
This is the other version. Ten hotels reviewed properly and in order, with what each one costs, what it does that the others cannot and where it falls down. Then the parts a slideshow leaves out: which village suits which trip, the cruise ship calendar, the sunset spots that are not the Oia castle, the wineries, the beaches ranked honestly, the boat trips worth booking, and a month by month calendar that says out loud which months to avoid.
How I ranked them
Three tests. The angle: in Santorini you buy a view, so how much caldera does the property actually own, is the sunset line clear and is anybody looking down into your terrace. The one thing: every hotel here has white plaster and a plunge pool, so what does this one have that nothing else does. Defensible rate: what you pay against the hotel on the next terrace once dinner, transfers and the walk back up the steps are in the total.
Rates are indicative for an entry category room in shoulder season, taken from Booking.com in August 2026. Santorini pricing moves violently with the calendar, roughly doubling between May and August, so treat every number here as a floor and check live rates for your dates.
The Ten Compared
The ten best luxury hotels in Santorini compared by village, 2026 nightly rate, room count and who each one suits
This decision matters more than the hotel, and almost nobody writes about it properly. Santorini is a crescent about 18 kilometres long. The caldera rim villages sit on a cliff 300 metres above the sea with no beach at all. The flat south east side has all the sand, all the wineries and none of the view. Book the wrong side and you spend the week in a taxi.
Santorini villages compared: who each suits, what is there, the hotels in each and indicative nightly rates
Village
Suits
What Is There
Hotels
From
Book
Oia
First visits, honeymoons, the classic photograph
The blue domes, the sunset point and Ammoudi Bay. Also 8,000 day visitors on a peak afternoon and the highest rates on the island
Ranked on the angle, the one thing each hotel does that the others cannot, and whether the rate stands up against the terrace next door. Every rate is a starting point, so check the live number for your dates before you commit.
Grace sits at the highest occupied point on the rim, which is the whole propositionGrace Hotel Santorini: modern bathroom glass showerGrace Hotel Santorini: rooftop terrace sunset sea viewGrace Hotel Santorini: bedroom with sea viewGrace Hotel Santorini: modern living room sea view
#01Imerovigli · the highest point on the caldera rim
If you only remember one thing from this guide, make it this: in Santorini you are buying an angle, not a room. Grace owns the best one. It sits at the highest occupied point of the caldera rim in Imerovigli, which means the view runs the full sweep from Skaros Rock past the volcano to Oia, and the sun sets into the sea in front of you rather than behind a neighbouring terrace.
The hotel is small, 21 rooms, and Auberge run it like a private house. The pool is a single 22 metre channel of water that reads as if it pours straight off the cliff, and because the property is tiered nobody is looking down into your terrace. Champagne is the house signature and the bar is still the most photographed hotel bar in Greece, but the thing I actually rate is dinner at Varoulko Santorini, the outpost of the Athens Michelin starred seafood kitchen.
The trade is that Imerovigli is a village of about 500 people. You get quiet, you get the caldera walk to Fira from your front door, and you accept that Oia is a 15 minute drive rather than a stroll. For most couples that is the right trade. It is the booking I make when someone tells me they get one trip to Santorini and they want it to land.
Key Facts
From about $900 a night for an entry category room in shoulder season
Highest occupied position on the caldera rim, uninterrupted sunset line
21 rooms only, Auberge Resorts Collection service
Varoulko Santorini brings an Athens Michelin starred seafood kitchen on site
Start of the Fira to Oia caldera path, which passes the hotel gate
Best for: The best caldera view in Greece from a hotel of only 21 rooms
Getting there: 25 minutes from Santorini airport, 20 from Athinios port
Watch out: There are a lot of steps and no lift to some categories. Say so at booking if that matters and they will place you accordingly.
Canaves Oia Suites, carved into the cliff at the top of Oia's marble streetCanaves Oia Suites: infinity pool suite plunge poolCanaves Oia Suites: suite plunge pool sea viewCanaves Oia Suites: cliffside exterior oiaCanaves Oia Suites: superior suite plunge pool interior
#02Oia · at the top of the marble pedestrian street
Oia is the village everybody pictures and it is also the village that gets 8,000 day visitors on a July afternoon. Where you sleep in Oia therefore decides whether the place feels magical or unbearable. Canaves Oia Suites sits at the start of the marble pedestrian street, which means the sunset viewpoint, Ammoudi Bay and every restaurant worth eating in are a walk rather than a taxi, and the suites themselves are cut down into the cliff below the crowd line.
All 20 suites are cave built, which is the genuine Santorini vernacular: barrel vaulted ceilings dug into volcanic rock, cool at three in the afternoon in August when the terraces are 36 degrees. Every one has a heated plunge pool on a private terrace. Petra restaurant is the strongest hotel kitchen in Oia proper and the wine list leans hard into Assyrtiko from the estates on the flat side of the island.
Guests can use the facilities across the whole Canaves Collection, so you can walk to the bigger pools and the spa at Canaves Oia Epitome ten minutes away without paying Epitome's rate. That is the arbitrage in this booking.
Key Facts
From about $750 a night, the sharpest Oia location in this guide
All 20 suites are genuine cave builds with heated private plunge pools
Two minutes on foot to the Oia sunset viewpoint and the Ammoudi steps
Petra restaurant plus access to sister property facilities across the Canaves Collection
Small Luxury Hotels of the World member
Best for: Oia itself, on foot, without giving up privacy
Getting there: 35 minutes from the airport, 45 from Athinios port
Watch out: Cave suites are intimate rather than large. If you want floor space rather than atmosphere, look at Canaves Oia Epitome up the road.
Three stacked infinity pools on the rim, the image that built Santorini's brandKatikies Santorini: infinity pool sea viewKatikies Santorini: suite mountain caldera viewKatikies Santorini: open living suite sea viewKatikies Santorini: junior suite balcony caldera
Katikies is the hotel that taught the world what a Santorini hotel looks like. Three infinity pools stacked down the cliff face in central Oia, white arches, blue water, no visible horizon line. It has been photographed so relentlessly that arriving feels like walking into your own screensaver, and the surprising part is that it holds up.
Twenty seven suites, a Leading Hotels of the World membership and a kitchen run under Ettore Botrini, who holds Michelin recognition in Corfu and Athens. The pools are the draw and they are worked hard by guests all day, so the honest advice is to take an early morning swim before the terraces fill and treat the mid afternoon as cave suite time.
It is adults leaning and firmly a couples hotel. If you are booking a honeymoon and the brief is the classic Santorini fantasy rather than something quieter or more contemporary, this is the address, and it sells out for June and September six months out.
Key Facts
From about $850 a night, iconic central Oia caldera position
Three cascading infinity pools plus private plunge pools in most suites
Leading Hotels of the World, with dining under chef Ettore Botrini
Minimum age policy applies, so this is a couples booking not a family one
Books out roughly six months ahead for June and September
Best for: The photograph you have already seen, delivered in person
Getting there: 35 minutes from the airport
Watch out: Central Oia means foot traffic outside the gate from late morning. Book a lower tier suite for quiet, an upper one for the view.
Mystique's five terraced levels, cut into the rock at the quiet end of OiaMystique, a Luxury Collection Hotel: ocean view open air diningMystique, a Luxury Collection Hotel: white textured staircase calderaMystique, a Luxury Collection Hotel: minimalist villa bedroom viewMystique, a Luxury Collection Hotel: exercise room caldera view
Mystique is the grown up choice in Oia. It sits at the southern end of the village away from the sunset scrum, and it is built as five terraced levels of weathered timber, volcanic stone and bleached linen rather than the usual glossy white plaster. The result feels closer to a Cycladic monastery than a resort, and it is markedly calmer than anything in the centre.
The cave pool and the Secret Wine Cave carved into the rock are the two set pieces people remember, and Charisma restaurant on the top terrace does the best breakfast I have eaten on the island. Rooms are large by Santorini standards, which matters more than it sounds when the alternative is a 28 square metre cave.
The structural advantage is that it is a Marriott Luxury Collection property. Almost no caldera front hotel accepts points, so if you hold Bonvoy currency this is where a free night is worth four figures in July. That alone moves it up my list.
Key Facts
From about $1,000 a night, or bookable with Marriott Bonvoy points
Five terraced cliff levels at the quiet southern end of Oia
Cave pool, Secret Wine Cave and the Charisma terrace restaurant
Suites are larger than the Oia average, several with private pools
Refurbished in recent seasons while keeping the original 2007 architecture
Best for: Design led calm, and the best Marriott Bonvoy redemption on the caldera
Getting there: 35 minutes from the airport
Watch out: It is a ten minute uphill walk back from the Oia sunset point. Fine going down at seven, less fun returning at ten.
Terraces at Andronis are stacked so no one is looking down into your poolAndronis Luxury Suites: sunset villa socrates infinity poolAndronis Luxury Suites: two bedroom suite hot tubAndronis Luxury Suites: reception golden chairs sea viewAndronis Luxury Suites: boat tour aegean experience
Andronis Luxury Suites is the original property of a group that now runs half the good addresses in Oia, and it remains the one I would book. The suites are cut into the cliff directly below the main street with the terraces stepped so that no terrace overlooks another, which is rarer in Oia than the marketing photographs suggest.
Almost every suite has its own plunge pool, and the honeymoon categories have a jacuzzi set on the edge of the terrace with nothing but caldera in front of it. Lycabettus, the group's restaurant carved into the rock face a short walk away, is the most ambitious tasting menu on the island and comes with the single best dining view in Greece.
Service is the reason people return. This is a hotel where the reservations team will pre book your Ammoudi table, your catamaran and your Santo Wines slot before you arrive, and where the sunset champagne appears without being ordered.
Key Facts
From about $950 a night in the heart of Oia
Nearly every suite has a private plunge pool or terrace jacuzzi
Terraces are stepped for privacy rather than stacked in an amphitheatre
Lycabettus restaurant, the most ambitious tasting menu on Santorini
Walking distance to Ammoudi Bay, the sunset point and the blue domes
Best for: A private terrace and plunge pool in the middle of Oia
Getting there: 35 minutes from the airport
Watch out: Access is down a long flight of steps from the street. Porters handle the bags, but the climb is yours several times a day.
Cavo Tagoo brought Mykonos design language to the Santorini rimCavo Tagoo Santorini: honeymoon pool suite caldera sunsetCavo Tagoo Santorini: maisonette hot tub sea viewCavo Tagoo Santorini: restaurant sunset sea viewCavo Tagoo Santorini: diamond suite champagne service
#06Imerovigli · caldera cliff, 10 minutes from Fira
Cavo Tagoo took the formula that made it the most photographed hotel in Mykonos and rebuilt it on the Imerovigli cliff: grey and white geometry, rose gold detailing, cantilevered pools and suites that are genuinely large rather than romantically small. All 22 come with a heated private pool or jacuzzi.
It is the hotel to book if the cave aesthetic leaves you cold. The rooms feel like a contemporary city hotel that happens to hang off a volcano, and the main pool has the most social atmosphere on the rim, which cuts both ways depending on what you came for.
Practical detail that nobody mentions: it has free valet parking, which is close to unheard of on the caldera and worth real money if you hire a car to reach the wineries and the south coast beaches.
Key Facts
From about $900 a night with all 22 suites carrying a heated pool or jacuzzi
Suites are significantly larger than the Santorini cave average
Contemporary Cycladic design rather than traditional cave architecture
Free valet parking, a genuine rarity among caldera properties
Twenty minutes from the airport, the shortest transfer of the rim hotels
Best for: Contemporary design and the biggest suites on the caldera
Getting there: 20 minutes from the airport
Watch out: The pool bar draws a crowd and non guests at peak times. Ask for a suite on the lower terraces if you want silence.
Chromata's terraces run straight down the Imerovigli cliff toward Skaros RockKatikies Chromata: superior outdoor jetted tub suiteKatikies Chromata: grand villa exterior calderaKatikies Chromata: signature suite private pool sea viewKatikies Chromata: restaurant mediterranean cuisine
Chromata is the value play inside the Katikies group. Same design language, same service training, same infinity pool trick, roughly $150 a night less than the Oia flagship because it is in Imerovigli rather than the village everybody has heard of.
The position is arguably better. You are directly above the Skaros Rock trail, so you can walk out of the gate at eight in the morning and be standing alone on a headland in the middle of the caldera by half past. The sunset from the pool terrace is the same sun, over the same sea, without 3,000 people holding phones.
Rooms range from compact doubles to honeymoon suites with private pools, and the range in size between categories here is wider than at most caldera hotels, so read the floor plan before you book rather than the photograph.
Key Facts
From about $700 a night, the most affordable Katikies property
Direct access to the Skaros Rock trail and the Fira to Oia caldera path
Infinity pool terrace with the same sunset line as the Oia hotels
Twenty three keys, so it stays quiet even in August
Entry categories are compact, honeymoon suites have private pools
Best for: Katikies polish at an Imerovigli price
Getting there: 20 minutes from the airport
Watch out: Category sizes vary a lot. The cheapest rooms are small and have a partial view, so pay up one level.
Seven villas above Firostefani, and the whole caldera in one frameAenaon Villas: outdoor seating sea mountain viewAenaon Villas: arched window sofa fireplaceAenaon Villas: spacious white interior diningAenaon Villas: bright white living area sofa tv
Aenaon is not a hotel. It is seven whitewashed villas on the Firostefani ridge run by one family, with a single shared pool and a breakfast that arrives at your terrace on a tray at whatever hour you ask for it. It is consistently the highest rated stay on the island in guest reviews and it costs half of what the rim hotels charge.
Because it sits slightly back from the cliff edge rather than on it, the view is a wide panorama across the whole caldera instead of a vertical drop, which some people prefer and which photographs better in daylight. The villas have kitchens, so a week here works in a way that a cave suite does not.
Firostefani is the sweet spot village: ten minutes' walk to Fira for restaurants and the cable car, on the caldera path to Imerovigli and Oia, and quiet by nine at night. If you want Santorini rather than a Santorini resort, book this.
Key Facts
From about $450 a night, the best value in this guide
Seven villas only, family run, breakfast served on your own terrace
Full kitchens, so it suits stays of five nights or more
Panoramic caldera outlook from the Firostefani ridge
Ten minutes on foot into Fira, on the Fira to Oia caldera path
Best for: A villa with a kitchen, a panorama and no resort around it
Getting there: 15 minutes from the airport
Watch out: One shared pool and no spa, restaurant or room service. This is a villa stay, not a hotel stay.
Vedema trades the caldera drop for space, shade and an old winery estateVedema, a Luxury Collection Resort: canava wine cave restaurantVedema, a Luxury Collection Resort: villa one bedroom viewVedema, a Luxury Collection Resort: nafsika estate bedroomVedema, a Luxury Collection Resort: beachside lounge aegean
#09Megalochori · a 15th century winery estate inland
Vedema is the one hotel here that is not on the cliff, and for a certain kind of trip it is the best booking on the island. It occupies a 15th century winery estate in Megalochori, a genuine working village on the flat south side, and it is built as a maze of stone lanes, vine shaded courtyards and a wine cellar cut into the original vaults.
You are trading the caldera view for three things people underestimate: space, shade and a normal walk to dinner. It is also the only resort here I would send a family with young children to, because nothing is perched over a 300 metre drop and the pools are properly sized.
As Marriott Luxury Collection it takes Bonvoy points, and rates in shoulder season sit well below the rim. Hire a car and you are ten minutes from Santo Wines, twelve from Perivolos beach and twenty five from Oia for sunset.
Key Facts
From about $600 a night, or bookable with Marriott Bonvoy points
A 15th century winery estate with the original vaulted cellar as the wine bar
The most family friendly luxury address on Santorini
Ten minutes from Santo Wines and the southern black sand beaches
Closest good hotel to both the airport and Athinios ferry port
Best for: Families, longer stays and Bonvoy points
Getting there: 15 minutes from the airport, 10 from Athinios port
Watch out: No caldera view at all. You will drive to Oia for sunset, and in August that means leaving early for parking.
Akrotiri gives you the same volcano, the same sunset and a third of the rateCaldera Romantica: woman white dress balconyCaldera Romantica: bedroom with sea viewCaldera Romantica: restaurant large windows calderaCaldera Romantica: room glass door balcony sea
I put this in every Santorini conversation because the premise of the island is that a caldera view costs a thousand dollars, and it does not. Caldera Romantica sits on the south west cliff at Akrotiri looking directly across the water at the volcano and the rim villages, and it charges about $300.
It is a four star and it behaves like one. The rooms are simple, the restaurant is fine rather than remarkable and there is no spa. What you get is the pool terrace, the sunset, a genuinely warm family operation and change left over for the boat trips, the tasting menus and the wineries that are the actual reason to come.
Akrotiri also puts you next to the excavated Bronze Age town, which is the most interesting thing on Santorini and which most rim guests never see, plus Red Beach and the lighthouse at the island's southern tip.
Key Facts
From about $300 a night with a full caldera and volcano outlook
Pool terrace facing the sunset from the south west cliff
Next to the Akrotiri Bronze Age excavation and Red Beach
Fifteen minutes from the airport and the south coast beaches
Four star standard, family run, no spa or fine dining
Best for: A caldera view and a pool without a four figure rate
Getting there: 15 minutes from the airport
Watch out: You need a car here. Akrotiri has almost no evening restaurants and buses stop early.
These did not make the ranked ten, either because they are excellent at something narrow rather than excellent overall, or because they are too new for me to rank honestly. Two of them opened or reopened during 2026 and appear in almost no other Santorini list.
Further Santorini hotels worth considering with village, description and indicative nightly rates
The 2025 earthquake swarm is over. Between late January and February 2025 Santorini recorded thousands of small tremors, the Greek government declared a state of emergency, schools closed and a large share of residents left the island temporarily. Seismologists confirmed the swarm had subsided by early March 2025, schools reopened, and the first cruise ship returned in late March 2025. The island has run two normal seasons since. Caldera hotels have been built to seismic code since the 1956 earthquake and were inspected during the swarm. Arrivals fell sharply through 2025, which is exactly why shoulder season rates are softer than they were in 2024.
Cruise passengers now pay to land. Greece introduced a sustainable tourism fee for disembarking cruise passengers on 1 July 2025, enforced from later that month, with Santorini and Mykonos set at the top tier of USD$20 a head in peak season. Separately the Municipal Port Fund of Thira operates a berthing policy that assesses and spaces cruise arrivals against port capacity, and further tender pier limits were introduced during 2026. The practical effect for you is fewer four ship days in the calendar, and a slightly less brutal Oia at six in the evening.
There is a hotel tax that your booking total does not show. The Greek climate resilience levy is charged per room per night, is higher in five star hotels and higher again from April to October. Hotels collect it at checkout, so budget for it separately.
New openings. Sandblu Santorini, LXR Hotels and Resorts, reopened in April 2026 on the black sand at Kamari as Hilton's first LXR property in Greece, with 66 rooms, suites and villas. Istoria Cliff opened above Firostefani in May 2026 as the caldera side sibling to the Perivolos original. Domes announced Helestia, an adults only caldera view pocket hotel, in July 2026. If you want the newest room on the island rather than the most famous one, those are the three to watch.
Beating the Cruise Crowd, Hour by Hour
Santorini's crowding problem is not a season, it is a daily cycle, and once you understand the clock you can have the island almost to yourself while everyone else queues.
Before 9am. The cruise tenders have not landed. Oia is empty, the light is soft and cool, and the blue domes on Nikolaou Nomikou are photographable without a single person in frame. This is the single best hour of a Santorini day and hardly any hotel guests use it.
9am to 11am. Tenders unload at the old port below Fira and passengers move up by cable car. Fira fills first, then the coach tours reach Oia.
11am to 4pm. Peak crush in both rim villages, and the hottest part of the day. This is pool time at your hotel, or a drive to the flat side for a winery lunch and Vlychada.
4pm to sunset. The worst window in Oia. The castle viewpoint is shoulder to shoulder from about two hours before sunset in July and August. Do not go. Watch from your own terrace, from Imerovigli, from Ammoudi Bay at sea level, or from a catamaran.
After 9pm. The ships leave. Oia empties out in about forty minutes and becomes the village on the postcard again, and restaurant tables open up. Book dinner for nine thirty and walk the marble street afterwards.
Sunsets That Are Not the Oia Castle
The sun sets over the caldera, which means every west facing point on the rim gets the same sunset. The Oia castle ruin gets the crowd because a guidebook said so in 1998.
Imerovigli and Skaros Rock. Walk out onto the Skaros headland an hour before sunset and you are standing in the middle of the caldera with the rim on both sides. Take a torch for the walk back.
Ammoudi Bay. Down the 300 steps below Oia, at sea level, with grilled fish and a bottle of Assyrtiko in front of you. The light on the cliff face behind you is better than the sun itself. Book a table and take a taxi back up.
Akrotiri lighthouse. The southern tip, a 25 minute drive from Fira, almost no one there, and the sun drops into open sea rather than behind the rim.
Santo Wines terrace, Pyrgos. A tasting flight on a broad terrace facing the volcano. Book ahead in summer, and get the six wine flight with the tomato fritters.
From the water. A catamaran sunset cruise is the one tourist activity on Santorini I recommend without reservation. You get the hot springs, the red and white cliffs from below and the sunset from the middle of the caldera with dinner on deck.
Wine, Assyrtiko and Where to Eat
Santorini is one of the oldest continuously cultivated wine regions on earth and the only reason the island is interesting once you look away from the view. The vines are trained into baskets called kouloura, coiled on the ground to shelter the fruit from the wind, and they grow in volcanic ash that phylloxera never reached, so some root stock is centuries old.
Santo Wines, Pyrgos, is the big cooperative with the best terrace and the easiest booking. Venetsanos, above Athinios port, is the most dramatic building. Domaine Sigalas near Oia is the serious one for Assyrtiko. Vassaltis in Vourvoulos is the modern favourite of the sommeliers I trust. Do two, not four, and eat at one of them.
Eating. The rim restaurants sell the view first and the food second, with the exceptions of Varoulko Santorini at Grace, Lycabettus at Andronis and Petra at Canaves. For actual Greek cooking go inland: Metaxi Mas in Exo Gonia, To Psaraki above Vlychada marina for fish, Selene in Pyrgos for the island's most thoughtful tasting menu, and the taverna row at Ammoudi for grilled octopus at sea level. Book everything, including tavernas, from June to September.
The Beaches, Ranked Honestly
Nobody comes to Santorini for the beaches, and the glossy lists never admit that the sand is black volcanic grit that reaches 50 degrees by noon and that there is no beach anywhere near the caldera hotels. There is still good swimming here if you know where to go, and it is all on the far side of the island.
Santorini beaches compared by coast, character, swimming quality and access
Beach
Coast
Why Go
Swimming
Access
Perivolos
South east
The best beach club strip on the island, black sand, deep water
Excellent, gently shelving, calm most days
Public, 20 minutes by car from Fira, paid loungers everywhere
Perissa
South east
Perivolos's longer, cheaper, more family shaped neighbour under Mesa Vouno
Very good, shallower entry, some pebble
Public, buses from Fira every 30 minutes in season
Kamari
East
Black pebble under the cliff of Ancient Thera, the most developed resort beach
Good but the pebble shelves fast, water shoes help
Public, 15 minutes from the airport, cable car up to Ancient Thera
Vlychada
South
Wind sculpted white cliffs that look like a lunar set, the most striking beach here
Good, quieter, fewer facilities
Public, next to the marina, 20 minutes from Fira
Red Beach
South west, Akrotiri
Iron red cliffs over dark sand, the most photographed beach on the island
Swimmable but small, and there is a real rockfall risk on the approach
Signed from Akrotiri, boat from Akrotiri is the safer arrival
White Beach
South west
Pale cliffs and clear water, reachable only by boat, so it stays empty
Excellent and deep, no facilities
Water taxi from Red Beach, roughly 10 minutes
Koloumbos
North east
Black volcanic sand below the vineyards, no development at all
Choppy in a north wind, otherwise fine, clothing optional in places
Rough track from the Oia road, a car is essential
If a beach holiday is the actual brief, book Perivolos or Kamari and drive up to the rim for two sunsets. You will spend half as much and swim ten times more. My Greece beyond Santorini guide covers the islands where the beaches are the point.
Boats, Volcano and Day Trips
The catamaran cruise. Five to six hours, roughly USD$160 to USD$240 a head with food and drink, departing Vlychada or Ammoudi. It takes in the red and white cliffs, a swim stop at the hot springs and the sunset from the water. The best money you will spend here.
Nea Kameni volcano. The black cinder cone in the middle of the caldera, reached by boat from the old port below Fira. A thirty minute climb to the crater rim on loose scree, hot and shadeless. Go early, wear proper shoes, and pair it with the sulphur hot springs at Palea Kameni.
Thirassia. The forgotten half of the caldera, sliced off in the eruption and now home to about 300 people. Two tavernas, no crowds, and a view back at Oia that almost nobody photographs. Ferries run from Ammoudi and most catamaran trips stop there.
Akrotiri. A Bronze Age town buried in ash around 1600 BC and excavated under a modern roof, with three storey buildings, drainage and frescoes still in place. It is the most genuinely remarkable thing on Santorini and half the island's visitors never go. Ninety minutes, air conditioned, and it pairs with Red Beach and the lighthouse.
Ancient Thera. The Hellenistic city on the ridge above Kamari, reached by a switchback road or a steep path. Empty, spectacular and free of tour groups after four in the afternoon.
Santorini Month by Month
Condé Nast will tell you June is the best month. It is a good month, but it is also the point where rates and crowds both step up hard. Here is the honest version, including the months when most of the hotels in this guide are physically closed.
Santorini month by month with sea temperature, crowd level, rate level and a verdict for each month
Month
Sea
Crowds
Rates
Verdict
January
16°C
Empty
Lowest
Most caldera hotels are shut. Some wineries and the museums are open, and it can rain for a week
February
15°C
Empty
Lowest
Still closed season. Cheap flights, no hotels worth the trip on the rim
March
16°C
Very quiet
Low
Rim hotels start reopening late in the month. Green fields, wildflowers, cool evenings
April
17°C
Quiet until Easter
Shoulder
My favourite month for hiking the caldera path. Sea too cold to swim, everything else works
May
19°C
Building
Shoulder rising
The best all round month. Warm days, open everything, cruise arrivals still manageable
June
22°C
Busy
High
Long days, warm sea, the classic booking. Book six months out for the rim hotels
July
24°C
Peak
Peak
Hot, windy with the meltemi, and Oia is a crush from four in the afternoon
August
25°C
Peak
Peak
The hardest month. Highest rates, most cruise passengers, hottest cave terraces
September
24°C
Busy easing
High falling
The connoisseur's month. Warm sea, harvest at the wineries, crowds thinning weekly
October
22°C
Quiet
Shoulder
Excellent value to mid month, then hotels start closing. Sea still swimmable
November
20°C
Empty
Low
Most rim hotels close in the first fortnight. Atmospheric, unreliable weather
December
18°C
Empty
Low
Closed season with a short Christmas exception in Fira. Not a Santorini trip
Getting There and Getting Around
Flying from Athens. Forty five minutes, roughly USD$55 to USD$190 depending on how far ahead you book, with Aegean, Sky Express and Volotea. There are also direct summer flights from London, Paris, Rome, Milan, Zurich and a dozen other European cities from late April to October.
Ferry from Athens. The high speed catamarans from Piraeus, mainly SeaJets, take about four and a half to five hours from roughly USD$60 and they get cancelled in a strong meltemi. The conventional Blue Star ferry takes seven to eight hours from about USD$40 and sails in weather that stops the fast boats. Take the plane if you value the day, the ferry if you are island hopping with luggage.
Arriving by sea. Ferries dock at Athinios on the cliff, not in Fira. Arrange your hotel transfer in advance, because the taxi rank at Athinios after a Blue Star arrival is chaos and Santorini has about 40 taxis for the entire island.
The cable car and the donkeys. The cable car runs from Fira down to the old port in three minutes for a few euros, and cruise tenders make the queue enormous in the middle of the day. There are 588 steps beside it. Do not ride the donkeys. Welfare on that path has been documented for years and the animals carry loads on hot stone all day. Walk down, take the cable car up, and go early or late.
Car hire. Worth it if you sleep off the rim, pointless if you sleep on it. Book ahead for July and August, take the full insurance, and note that an ATV or scooter licence is enforced properly now.
If you are connecting through Athens with a long layover, my Priority Pass review covers whether the lounge access pays for itself, and the Airalo eSIM guide saves you roaming charges across Greece.
Santorini or Mykonos
They are two hours apart by ferry and they sell completely different holidays. Santorini is scenery: the caldera, the volcano, the wine, the archaeology and the best sunset in the Mediterranean. What it does not have is swimming. There is no beach below the rim, the black sand beaches are 20 minutes away on the far coast, and the water off them is deep and cool.
Mykonos is the opposite. A dozen genuinely beautiful sand beaches, the best beach club scene in Greece, the strongest restaurant list in the Cyclades and a nightlife economy that runs until sunrise. What it does not have is a view worth crossing the Aegean for, and it costs at least as much.
Book Santorini for a honeymoon, a first Greek islands trip, a wine trip or three nights of the best hotel terraces in Europe. Book Mykonos for a group, a beach week or a party. Do both in one trip if you have ten nights, with Santorini first while you still want to walk. My Santorini versus Mykonos comparison puts the rates side by side.
What the Glossy Lists Do Not Tell You
There are steps everywhere and no lifts. Caldera hotels are built down a cliff. A suite two levels below reception means 60 steps with your luggage behind you every time you go out. If anyone in your party has mobility issues, book Vedema, Domes Novos or a Firostefani villa, and say so at the time of booking.
Cave suites are dark. That is the point, they are cool in August, but a barrel vaulted room dug into rock has one window. If you want light and space, Cavo Tagoo and Mystique are the better bookings.
Half the photographs are of the same 400 metres. The blue domes everyone shoots are three churches on one lane in Oia, and the queue for the spot is real. Go before eight.
Dinner is expensive and needs booking. Eighty to 120 euros a head with wine at a caldera restaurant is normal, and the good tables in Oia and Ammoudi are gone a week out in high season.
Most rim hotels close in winter. From early November to late March the caldera villages shut, including most of the hotels in this guide. A February trip means Fira, a rental car and low expectations.
Three nights is enough on the rim. The view is extraordinary and it is also static. Pair Santorini with Naxos, Milos or Paros and the trip gets better, which is exactly what my Greece beyond Santorini guide is for.
Frequently Asked Questions
Grace Hotel Santorini in Imerovigli is my pick, from about $900 a night. It occupies the highest point of the caldera rim, so the sunset line is uninterrupted, and it runs only 21 rooms with an Auberge Resorts service level and Varoulko Santorini on site. If you want to be in Oia on foot, book Canaves Oia Suites from about $750. If you hold Marriott Bonvoy points, Mystique is the only caldera front hotel where they are worth serious money. For value with a real caldera view, Caldera Romantica in Akrotiri starts around $300.
Budget $700 to $1,000 a night for an entry category caldera view suite in June or September, and $1,200 upward for July and August or for a villa with a private infinity pool. Off the rim the numbers change completely: Vedema in Megalochori runs about $600, Aenaon Villas in Firostefani about $450 and Caldera Romantica in Akrotiri about $300. Add roughly USD$85 to USD$130 a head for dinner with wine at a good caldera restaurant, and USD$130 to USD$190 for an airport transfer by private car.
Oia for a first visit and the classic photograph, accepting the crowds and the highest rates. Imerovigli for the same sunset with a fraction of the foot traffic, which is where I stay. Firostefani for value on the rim and access to the caldera walking path. Fira if you have no car and want restaurants, bars and the cable car on your doorstep. Megalochori or Pyrgos for families, wineries and two week stays. Perivolos or Perissa if the trip is really about a beach.
Yes. An unusual swarm of thousands of small tremors between late January and February 2025 led to a temporary state of emergency and school closures, and many residents left the island for several weeks. Seismologists confirmed the swarm had subsided by early March 2025, schools reopened, and cruise ships returned from late March 2025. The island has operated normally through the 2025 and 2026 seasons, though visitor numbers dipped sharply in 2025. Hotels on the caldera were built to withstand seismic activity after the 1956 earthquake and were inspected during the swarm.
Yes, two separate charges. Cruise passengers disembarking at Santorini pay a sustainable tourism fee of USD$20 a head in peak season, introduced by Greece on 1 July 2025 and set at the top tier for Santorini and Mykonos. Separately, everyone staying in accommodation pays the Greek climate resilience levy, which is charged per room per night and is higher in a five star hotel and higher again from April to October. Hotels usually collect it at checkout in cash or on the room account, so it will not appear in your Booking.com total.
May and late September are the two best weeks of the year to be here. The sea is swimmable, every hotel and restaurant is open, and cruise arrivals are well below the July and August peak. June is excellent but busy and priced accordingly. Avoid the first three weeks of August if you have any choice, because Oia becomes genuinely unpleasant from four in the afternoon. Most caldera hotels close from early November to late March, so a winter trip means staying in Fira or off the rim.
It depends where you sleep. If you are on the caldera rim in Oia, Imerovigli or Fira, no, and parking is a nightmare in all three. Use taxis, the bus and your hotel's transfer service. If you are staying inland at Vedema, at Akrotiri or on the south coast beaches, then yes, hire one, because the wineries, the Akrotiri excavation, Vlychada and the good tavernas are all spread across the flat side of the island and the buses stop early.
Santorini is the view, the volcano, the wine and the sunset. Mykonos is the beaches, the beach clubs and the nightlife. Santorini has no good swimming from the caldera and its beaches are black sand on the far side of the island. Mykonos has a dozen genuinely beautiful beaches and no view worth crossing the Aegean for. Couples on a first Greek islands trip should do Santorini for three nights and add a second island. My Santorini versus Mykonos comparison runs the numbers on both.
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