I didn’t have high expectations for Santorini. I’d seen the photos but had also read about how over-touristed it was.
I’m no stranger to places tourists love. We’ve lived outside of Paris, and enjoy the odd outing to the Disney parks. This didn’t seem like that, though.
The Santorini vibe included cruise ships dumping thousands of extra sweaty humans on an island that was seemingly revamped for that very purpose.
And yet, those photos were so pretty. Those blue domes were dreamy. I still wanted to see it for myself, so on our first trip to Greece, it made the cut as an essential stop.
Let’s just say my low expectations were met. We did not love Santorini.
Quick Tips for Your Santorini Visit
Your Flight: To reach Santorini, you can fly directly from major European cities, including Athens. You can also take a ferry from Athens, but flights are much cheaper and faster.
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Your Accommodations: We stayed at the Agapi Villas on the island. Browse Booking.com or Hotels.com for more options in Santorini. Vrbo is my Airbnb alternative.
Your Ride: I’d suggest hiring drivers or booking tours while on the island. There are public buses, too, but they’re inconsistent. If you must drive, book a rental car ahead of time.
Top Spots: Oia and Fira are the iconic spots, but if you want to lose some of the tourists, hit the pedestrian trail that connects the two.
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Santorini feels so inauthentic.
So much of the island seemed to cater to tourists. At certain points, it was hard to tell what was real and what wasn’t. That gives this place the vibes of a postcard rather than a place where real life happens.
I’m not even talking about a cute vintage postcard at the bookshop on the corner. Imagine a postcard featuring sweaty cruise ship passengers riding sad donkeys up and down hundreds of steps.
Note: Don’t do this, please. If you must disembark at the bottom of the Karavolades Stairs to get up to Fira, you can ride a cable car or walk. Walking means dealing with donkey shit, but at least you won’t be responsible for causing sagging spines. We avoided both the donkeys and the stairs, as we took a ferry to the island from Crete that dropped us at the new harbor.
Many feel Santorini has lost its authenticity, catering mostly to tourists rather than preserving local culture and charm. That means similar menus and souvenirs across town, all up against that backdrop of the whitewashed buildings and blue domes.
If you’re not careful, you could very well find yourself caught in a curated loop of sunsets, selfies, and overpriced cocktails. It’s beautiful but hollow.
It’s not great away from the tourists, either.
This place is a true exercise in Instagram vs. reality. Step outside the famous towns, and you don’t find charm there, either. You find dry, rugged terrain and scattered development.
The inland villages we experienced felt empty, even neglected, as if all that matters here is the properties near the caldera.
Fun fact: Santorini’s caldera is a sea-filled volcanic crater formed by a catastrophic eruption thousands of years ago. It’s surrounded by steep cliffs offering dramatic views from iconic towns like Fira and Oia perched above.
The island’s infrastructure isn’t great, with limited public transport. The promise of “authentic Greece” doesn’t really deliver here, even when others might scream at you to get away from the tourists and experience “real” Santorini.
The real deal for us seemed to be dodging speeding vehicles and garbage in our paths along those quiet roads with shuttered buildings. It didn’t do much for our lingering sense of disappointment.
It’s expensive.
This island is overpriced. From hotels to meals to transportation, prices are inflated because of high demand. The island is also popular with honeymooners and luxury travelers, two groups that aren’t worried as much about dropping some effortless coin.
Even mid-range accommodations can be pricey, especially in peak season. We visited at the end of May before what we thought was the worst of it, and still stayed well outside the main touristy spots to save some cash.
We ended up staying at a more affordable property about half an hour from Fira on foot. (I’ll get into the walking around this place in a minute.)
Breakfast was available but about 30% more than what we’d seen up to that point in Greece, and rooms were quite basic.
Rides to and from the ferry terminal and airport were exorbitant, but that wasn’t our hotel’s fault. That’s just how much everything costs.
Fun fact: Ubers are a thing on the island, but they’re essentially a cab service. Fares start at 40 euros no matter where you’re going, so they really only make sense if you want to travel from one end of the island to the other.
Still, I’m thankful we didn’t shell out the cheddar to stay in the more touristy parts of the island, where spontaneous splurges like sunset cocktails can set you back €15 or more.
While the views are stunning here, you’re paying for the brand name of Santorini as much as the experience itself. Budget travelers, even mid-range travelers, may find that frustrating.
It’s not pedestrian-friendly.
Brian compared Santorini to much of the rural United States, with better views. Sidewalks are rare or nonexistent outside of the main villages, and roads are often narrow and busy with cars, buses, and ATVs.
We thought we were doing ourselves a solid by staying a 30-minute walk from Fira, but we didn’t realize the walk would involve putting our lives in the island’s hands. I’m talking blind curves with speeding scooters and trucks and roads with no shoulders.
The cliffside towns aren’t that much easier to navigate. They’re full of steep steps, uneven cobblestone paths, and narrow walkways crowded with tourists that make exploring on foot challenging. Navigating them can be exhausting, especially in the heat.
Note: You can forget about this place if you have any mobility issues. It’s just not made for it.
What looks charming in photos can feel chaotic and unsafe on foot, and it’s not the kind of place where you can wander easily or comfortably.
A highlight of our time there was walking from Oia to Fira, just to get away from the throngs of tourists along the way. Add in the distance getting back to our accommodations at the end of that trek, and we ended up walking 10 miles that day.
I won’t pretend the views along the way weren’t fantastic, but it’s not an experience that will stand out for me as far as the best hikes we’ve done.
It was more of our attempt at an escape from reality while on Santorini, with the bonus of boosting our step counts.
READ MORE: One of our favorite hikes in Greece was in Crete. Learn about planning your trek to Katholiko Bay!
The buses are nice…when you can catch one.
I read so much about how great the bus system is in Santorini and how it’s such a great way to save money.
It’s true that the buses are modern, air-conditioned, and affordable, but we didn’t get the full story on these other travel sites. Schedules can be irregular, and buses don’t always show up on time, or at all.
On the morning of our big walk, we ended up calling an Uber to take us to our starting point in Oia because of how annoying it was to deal with the public bus the day before. Here’s what happened.
From our hotel, we wanted to take the public bus for two euros each way to a winery where we had a reservation. The bus stop was just up the hill from our accommodations, and the kind lady at the front desk confirmed that it was, indeed, a stop one can use.
We watched a few pass us by, then flagged a few more down that weren’t the right ones. We then flagged another down that wasn’t going where it stated on the bus itself, but the guy on the bus let us know it was, in fact, the right bus.
The turn to the winery came and went, and Brian freaked out and said he was getting off. I went to confirm with the driver, and while that was happening, the doors opened and shut with Brian left on the road.
It turns out we were just driving down a side road and then turning back to return to the road we needed. None of this is clear on timetables, and the Moovit app recommended by other bloggers online is not the way to figure out when buses are coming and going.
Timetables are wrong at the bus stops, too. They seem to come at least hourly, but at what time during the hour is up to the island gods.
Most routes are centralized around Fira, meaning even short trips between villages often require time-consuming transfers. This does not make for reliable transportation.
In peak season, I imagine buses are often overcrowded and even more irregular. I read that trying to catch one after sunset in Oia requires a particular set of skills I don’t think I have.
READ MORE: Love a good sunset? Steal my itinerary from our Hawaii trip to Oahu.
Consulting the cruise ship schedule is essential.
When you’re in Santorini on a day when multiple ships dock, thousands of passengers flood the narrow streets of Fira and Oia. This turns each place into a shoulder-to-shoulder shuffle.
Restaurants fill up, photo spots become even more chaotic, and what was left of the charm of the island quickly fades into something much less charming.
Timing your trip to Santorini around the cruise ship schedule is one strategy. It’s helpful to know about the loads coming in when you’re planning your days on the island, too.
We only had a couple of days to work with, but we knew our first day involved four different ships arriving throughout the day. The second day showed two ships, although we counted three in the caldera when the day actually arrived.
That meant we wanted to avoid the main hot spots like the plague on our first day. We did some DIY wine tasting instead and had a nice, albeit expensive, time.
I’m not saying you’ll love Santorini if you avoid the rush-hour cruise ship effect, where these towns swell with people at certain times of the day, but it won’t hurt.
People are all there for the same photos.
You will take some beautiful photos. So will everyone else. This place is super photogenic. It’s a big reason why you’re thinking of going there, and a big reason why we wanted to visit to see it for ourselves. The pictures match the place in this case.
The blue domes of Oia, the caldera sunset, and the whitewashed stairs with bougainvillea are iconic, but they’re not going to surprise you. They’ve become almost checkboxes on a social media itinerary.
Crowds gather at the exact same angles, phones raised, waiting for their turn to capture the “perfect” shot. It’s this performative kind of atmosphere where the goal is less about enjoying the moment and more about proving you were there.
I get it. I’m not too proud to say it feels good to hear someone comment about a pretty picture I took, all jealous-like. (Come on, you know you like it, too.)
What I’m not going to do is wait in line for photos when the entire island is there for you as a backdrop. Santorini’s lack of authenticity and carnival-like atmosphere means you shouldn’t have to wait in line for pretty pictures. There are a lot of options.
You also don’t need to stand in line for photos because everyone else is. I only do that when there are delicious things to eat at the end.
It’s hot.
Santorini’s Mediterranean climate means long, dry summers with relentless sun and consistently high temperatures. On many Greek islands, that would mean escaping into the sea, but Santorini’s highlights don’t offer a respite like that.
The island’s rocky, barren landscape offers little natural shade or relief from the heat. I know because I walked 10 miles in one day there, if you recall. Brian might have more to say about my state of mind that day.
Even if you stick to the villages, those steep staircases under that blazing sun with crowds all around you can get pretty uncomfortable.
If you’re not prepared for intense sun exposure, the heat can turn your Santorini dream into a sweaty, swirling-around-the-drain experience. I’m sure that’s why so many retreat to their infinity pools by midday.
Infinity pools aren’t a personality.
I’m pretty simple. Give me some cheese and a baguette, and I can be happy in a lot of situations. Give me an infinity pool, and I’ll feel like a celebrity.
The thing is, we didn’t have the escape of an infinity pool on Santorini. Hotels featuring them were too expensive. That doesn’t make them less of a thing here.
They’re all over the caldera. Somehow, most of them weren’t occupied by peaches in bikinis posing up against the edge.
Maybe they were craving something different, too. After you’re done with your little square of water — truly, some of them seemed to max out at single occupancy — what’s left? An empty hole in your wallet where money used to be, probably.
Santorini is overhyped.
After years of being called the most romantic, most beautiful, and most photogenic place on Earth, expectations can be sky-high for this place. The reality, while pretty friggin’ photogenic, just doesn’t measure up.
Santorini is overhyped. Its reputation as the ultimate Greek island getaway has left the place with crowds, prices, and copycat hotels and souvenir shops almost layered over one another.
Some arrive thinking they’re in paradise, I suppose. Maybe they’re popping in for a few hours off their cruise, or they haven’t seen places that retained a sense of authenticity. I left feeling like I just navigated a staged tourist funnel.
Santorini isn’t the worst place we’ve been. (Honestly, it’s not even at the top of those, as we’ve been to some real traps in the United States.) It just seems like it’s reached a point of embracing the oversaturation for the almighty tourist dollar.
Whether you should go is really up to you. I rarely have regrets about spending time in a place, and a few days in Santorini didn’t feel like some sacrifice.
I’m all about everyone seeing these places for themselves. Just keep those expectations in the basement rather than the heavens!
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