Santorini is an insanely popular Greek island. You may have seen social media posts showing the crowds that can build. Countless dreamy Instagram images abound online of influencers in elegant dresses posing in front of the beautiful blue domed churches perched atop the dramatic cliffs, the deep blue sea shimmering invitingly in the background. Thanks to its Instagram fame, the island gets very busy in peak season.
The vast majority of those aforementioned Instagram photos are taken in one of the two main villages of Oia or Fira. These two are undoubtedly the most picturesque (Oia being widely considered the most beautiful), and as such they both suffer a massive footfall of tourists in the spring and summer. Fira is the drop off point for all the cruise ship passengers, many of whom are taken by coaches up to Oia once they have disembarked. Fira is also the main hub for the island’s bus transit routes, and as such the road network there can struggle to take the strain of all this activity.
In the last few years, more and more news articles are popping up about the effects of over-tourism on this gorgeous little island. I understand that the authorities are working to limit the numbers of tourists dropped off each day by visiting cruise ships.
Can you really beat the crowds in Santorini? Well you can certainly take some steps to minimise the impact of its legendary popularity on your trip. I will go through some below.
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My tips
- Check the cruise ship schedules and plan your Oia or Fira visits accordingly. Using cruisemapper.com you can search by destination to see which days have the heaviest cruise ship schedules, as well as the arrival and departure times of each ship. This site can help you to strategically plan your main day in Oia or Fira. If you have a boat trip booked which departs from Fira port, you may also want to try and arrange it for the quietest cruise ship day.
- Plan an early start to see Oia and Fira. If you’re planning to see either or both of these two (the most popular villages), I recommend taking a walk around early in the morning in order to take in the beauty of both the caldera and the villages themselves. Early morning you should find yourselves with far more room to breath. Although there will likely still be a few people around doing the very pricey flying dress photoshoots, and influencers in posh dresses getting their photos before the crowds start to really heave.
- Remember that there is so much more to Santorini than Oia and Fira. Take a boat trip, visit the beaches, explore the smaller villages (Megalochori, Pyrgos, Akrotiri, Emporio), or do a wine tasting.
- Allocate some time to the south of the island. For the second half of our holiday we stayed in the quieter southern part of the island, near Megalochori village at the fabulous Ambeli Sunset Villas. We enjoyed a private villa with a hot tub overlooking the caldera from the southern end. The view of the sunset and the caldera from here was utterly breathtaking, and the stay provided a nice contrast to staying near the busier Oia.
- Avoid July and August. These are the two busiest months in Santorini, and also the hottest. If you come in late May, June, or September you will still find beautiful weather, but will avoid the worst of the crowds. We went to Santorini in late May 2024, the weather was lovely without being oppressively hot, and we really felt like we had picked a great time to go.
- Don’t feel that you have to see the sunset from Oia Castle. This is where the crowds gather in droves to get videos and photos, but really there are many wonderful vantage points from which to watch the sunset. Our balcony at Ambeli Villas was by far the best sunset view we had! Some go to the Akrotiri lighthouse to see a similarly epic view right from the island’s Southern end.
- Make reservations for dinner. In the evening it is highly unlikely that you will be able to just walk up to a decent restaurant and get a table.
Conclusion
Santorini is insanely popular, there is no denying this, and the infrastructure of the island can struggle to cope. We stayed from 19th May onwards, and each day felt slightly busier than the last as the inexorable flow of arrivals gained momentum towards the July and August peaks!
Did we manage to beat the crowds in Santorini during our visit? To some extent yes, however as we spent the first half of our trip in Oia, it was pretty much inevitable that we weren’t going to have the village or the island to ourselves! In Oia, while we were able to walk around in the afternoon, the streets were pretty busy with cruise ship groups and other tourists. Queues were appearing for photos at some popular spots, and many tourists around Oia castle, even in the day.
There are many ways that you can avoid the worst of the crowds, with the timing of your trip probably being the most important of all. We absolutely loved our late May getaway there, and although we could feel how busy and popular the island is, we totally enjoyed our holiday. I hope that the tips above are useful in helping you to strategically plan your own Santorini adventure and that you can make the very best of your time on this magical island.
