Santorini Highlights: Oia, Firostefani and the Caldera

Group tour
Duration: 5 h
By car
Up to 32 guests

Overview

Santorini is the rim of a drowned volcano, and everything on the island follows from that: the cliffs three hundred metres above the water, the black sand, the pumice the houses are cut into, and the vines grown in baskets on the ground. This five-hour tour takes in the caldera villages, the highest point of the island and the south coast beaches.

The tour covers:

Firostefani on the caldera edge and its blue-domed church
Oia, its cave houses and its lanes
The monastery on Profitis Ilias, 567 metres up
Megalochori, a wine village of the 17th century
Perivolos, the black beach, with an optional wine tasting

You are refunded in full if your ship skips the port.

Please note that the tour order and the time spent at each venue may vary.

What you will see

Five hours ashore by air-conditioned coach with a local guide
The caldera left by an eruption around 1600 BC
Oia, cut into the cliff at the north end of the island
The monastery on Profitis Ilias, the highest point of Santorini
Black volcanic sand and the vineyards behind the beach

Itinerary

Meeting at the port

Meeting after tendering ashore in Santorini, where your guide and vehicle are waiting. The start time is adjusted to your ship's arrival.
Firostefani

Firostefani, on the cliff edge just north of Fira and about three hundred metres above the water. The caldera below is what is left of a volcanic eruption around 1600 BC, one of the largest in human history, which blew the middle out of the island and is thought to have crippled Minoan Crete. The blue-domed church here is the one on every poster of Greece.
Oia

Oia, at the northern tip, where whitewashed houses and cave dwellings cut into the pumice run down the cliff in steps. Much of the village was destroyed by the earthquake of 1956 and carefully rebuilt. There is time for the lanes, the shops and the view down to the old port of Ammoudi.
Profitis Ilias

Profitis Ilias, the highest point of the island at 567 metres, crowned by a monastery founded in 1711. From the ridge you see the whole of Santorini at once, the caldera on one side and the vineyards and beaches on the other.
Megalochori

Megalochori, a village of the 17th century built by wine merchants, with vaulted houses, bell towers over the lanes and old canavas, the cellars where the wine was made, dug into the rock beneath the houses.
Perivolos beach

Perivolos on the south coast, a long beach of black volcanic sand. The vineyards behind it explain the island's wine: with almost no rain and constant wind, the vines are woven into low baskets on the ground so the grapes ripen inside them, and the Assyrtiko grape makes the dry white the island is known for. A wine tasting can be added at extra cost.
Return to the ship

Back to the port in good time for tendering, with time for lunch or souvenirs beforehand