12 Best things to see & do in Santorini

If you do one thing in Santorini, make it this. These fully customisable excursions aboard luxury catamarans – both full sail or motorised – allow you to take in Santorini’s spectacular volcanic scenery in stylish comfort.

You can sail all day, or select to stop at sights like Akrotiri, the Red and White Beaches, Thirassia and the hot springs, or sail off to a remote island for a day’s swimming and snorkelling. A gourmet lunch is served on board, while moored up in an idyllic bay. A day in paradise.

A 6-mile hike along the rim of Santorini’s caldera, this relatively easy three-hour trek is one of the most memorable in the whole of the Aegean. The route links Fira, the island’s capital, with Oia, its most picturesque village.

Walking the caldera – the rim of a sunken volcanic crater – is the best way to appreciate the island’s unique geography and to soak up those spectacular landscapes. As you walk, you’ll see whitewashed houses perched on vertiginous slopes, and colourful, striated caldera cliffs that plummet into the azure sea.

Cruising the island’s half-submerged, cliff-rimmed volcanic crater is like floating in an open-air geological museum.

A full-day boat trip takes in three equally extraordinary attractions: climbing the charred, hissing crater of Palia Kameni, wallowing in the sulphurous hot springs of Nea Kameni, then shinning up the steep islet of Thirassia, a charming time warp miraculously overlooked by mass tourism.

Santorini’s arid, volcanic terrain produces some of Greece’s finest wines – a tradition that dates back more than 3,500 years. The practice of cultivating vines in niabelos (specially pruned baskets) to protect the grapes from the harsh winters also dates back centuries.

There are ten professional wineries and several smaller concessions on Santorini. The bone-dry, citrus-and-smoke Assyrtiko, Aidani and Athiri whites, and smooth, sweet Vin Santo are the island’s most famous exports.

The character-filled town of Oia stands at the north-western tip of Santorini’s own little archipelago, with postcard-perfect views west and south. At sunset, the soft pinks and pumice-grey strata of the caldera walls turn to deep crimson and pewter, with the sea beneath deepening from shimmering azure to a dark indigo abyss.

Regrettably, Oia’s main street becomes shoulder-to-shoulder crowded, so come early and walk to the westernmost point and the rocky promontory further beyond. Later arrivals will act as a natural barrier, and your gaze will remain relatively unencumbered.

Another option is to book at a restaurant or café (with views) beforehand. The best place is the King Neptune restaurant, whose terrace stands above the throngs below. It’s a good-value family taverna with traditional staples such as moussaka, and its sunset location can’t be matched.

A long, sandy and uncrowded beach on the island’s east coast. Go for authentic fish tavernas and a back-drop of spectacular volcanic rock formations.

A perfectly preserved ancient Minoan settlement, buried beneath volcanic ash 3,500 years ago. It offers a unique insight into an ancient civilisation, which some speculate could be the lost city of Atlantis.

The black beaches of Santorini’s east coast, made up of volcanic gravel, are one of the island’s big attractions and Kamari is a resort for those who want the full sun, sea, and sand summer experience.

The Chapel of Theoskepasti, suspended between sea and sky in a nook on Skaros rock, is a spectacular spot to watch the sunset. Enjoy with a bottle of chilled Assyrtiko.

A small archaeological museum stuffed with frescoes and figurines from Bronze Age Akrotiri. Furniture and figurines, tools and weapons, seals and ceramic vessels all reveal aspects of how the inhabitants lived thousands of years ago.

This small but interesting museum outside Kamari offers great insights regarding Santorini’s unique viniculture: and 400 years if wine-making history. You can sample the winery’s offerings, too. Here the vines are twisted into crown-shaped baskets so the grapes are protected from harsh winter winds.

Antiquarian bookshop in Oia with many rare first editions some on sale for over £1,000, attracting clients from all over the world. Just walking through the doors feels like visiting a museum of books.