How to discover this Island? Where to start from? It’s simple, it can be discovered as north south east west 🙂

Best way is to see the MAP and decide which part of Santorini you would like to visit each day.Can you cover all listed in Attractions of Santorini? Answer is yes 🙂 Just plan well & ahead.

We planned our tour for 7 days as we didn’t want to rush by simply covering places and taking few photographs considering it gets very hot during the summer. We wanted to relax, admire the beauty and experience Santorini .

The itinerary largely depends on when you arrive and the place where you have booked your accommodation.

I am sharing 2 kinds of itinerary below. One is leisure trip and another is a short trip. Please read Attractions of Santorini before looking into itinerary

Leisure trip:

Day 1 (Arrival day):

Most of the direct flights reach 1st half of the day. You reach the hotel, rest a bit and have lunch. Then you can go to the closest beach near your accommodation to swim and relax. I would suggest to go to Kamari beach  as there are a lot of options to shop, eat, drink and to spend time in the evening. You can also book your bus tours and excursions in Kamari/Fira or hire a quad-bike for rest of your trip.

Day 2:

Take half day tour of ‘Sea excursion‘. Just board the cruise and you can cover – Volcano, Mud bath, Hot springs, Thirasia. Visit Commute within Santorini for more details.

Half day for Oia/Evening in Oia – Start from Fira, take the bus and reach Firostefani. Walk from Firostefani to Imerovigli as the view and the village is spectacular (1km/19 mins walk). Take the bus from Imerovigli and spend the evening till the sunset at Oia. Enjoy the sunset & dinner. This activity can be done by hiring squad bike/car also. Choose as per interest.

Day 3:

Take a full day bus excursion to cover south Santorini. The tour is usually for 6-7 hours. Just board the bus and cover – Prophet Elias Monastery, Megalohori village, Akrotiri Excavations, Perivolos Beach (free time for Lunch and swimming), Santo Wines for Wine tasting. There are bus tours that cover more than these places, choose according to your stay and interest. (You can cover the same places by quad bikes. We preferred bus as we wanted to sit back & enjoy – were not keen on figuring out the routes)

Day 4:

1st Half day in Fira – Cable car, Museums, Donkey rides, Old port. And 2nd Half day – White beach, red beach, black beach. There are also boat tours which covers all these 3 beaches  in just 1-2 hours from Akrotiri.

Day 5:

I strongly suggest you reserve one full day and enjoy in a luxurious resort (if you are not already staying in one of them). O Yes! You read it right!! Santorini is known for cave hotels. Have a dip in your private open air pool/Jacuzzi relax and enjoy the view. It has its own charm :). Pyrgos/Oia/Imerovigli /Firostefani are the best for choosing luxurious stay as they give larger than life view of Santorini which is eye soothing. At night you can go to  clubs in Fira or Kamari beach for dinner, shopping whichever you missed on day 1

Day 6 (Departure day):

If it’s evening flight/ferry than either roam around near your stay or you can check-out from the hotel, go to Fira and shop/eat/do things you have missed here. Have suggested Fira due to availability of taxis/public commute for reaching airport/Athinos port

Day 7 (Additional day):

You can mix & match other available options according to your interest and add one additional day on your itinerary:

Cliff jumping, water sports, wide range of Museums (look for opening timings), Scuba diving, more wineries, various churches (They are open only in early morning), helicopter ride.

FastTrack trip:

Day 1:

Take the combined tour of sea cruise covering Volcano, Mud bath, Thirasia, and visiting Oia in the evening for the sunset

Day 2:

Take a full day bus excursion to cover south Santorini. The tour is usually for 6-7 hours. Just board the bus and cover – Prophet Elias Monastery, Megalohori village, Akrotiri Excavations, Perivolos Beach (free time for Lunch and swimming), Santo Wines for Wine tasting.You will be dropped at Fira in the evening where you can check out Cable car, Donkey rides  and Old port , shopping, nightlife etc

Day 3:

This day you can mix & match according to your preference

Example – 1st half of the day covering museums in Fira & evening in Kamari beach.

Tips:

• For fast track trip prefer staying in Fira as connectivity is more here.
• At least 5 – 6 nights is suggested for a good stay in Santorini.

Want help in packing your bags? Visit Essentials to know about Santorini

Want to know how to reach here?Visit How to reach Santorini