Getting around Santorini is the part of the trip people plan last and regret first. The island is small, the roads are narrow, and there are roughly 30 taxis for the entire place in peak season. Everything below follows from those three facts.
The bus is better than you expect
KTEL runs every route from a single station in Fira, which means almost every journey is a spoke from that hub: Fira to Oia, Fira to Kamari, Fira to Perissa, Fira to Akrotiri, Fira to the port. Getting from Oia to Perissa means changing in Fira.
Buses are frequent in season, cheap, and often standing room only. They stop early, generally by 11pm, and that is the constraint that shapes evenings.
ATVs, and the honest warning
Quad bikes are everywhere and they are the island’s standing safety complaint. The roads are narrow with sheer drops, the surface is loose in places, and a large share of riders have never used one before. The local hospital treats a steady stream of injuries every summer, many of them people with bare legs on gravel.
If you rent one, wear the helmet, do not ride it after drinking, and check that the insurance is real rather than a line on a receipt. A small car costs about the same and is a great deal safer.
The cable car and the old steps
The cable car connects Fira to the Old Port, 220 metres below, in about three minutes. When a cruise ship tenders passengers ashore the queue at the bottom can run to an hour or more, and there are only two other ways up.
The first is the 588 zigzag steps, which are steep, uneven, and shared with the donkeys, with everything that implies underfoot. The second is the donkeys themselves, and this is worth being direct about: the welfare of those animals has been the subject of sustained criticism and legal weight limits, and plenty of visitors now decline on principle. Walk down rather than up if you want the view without the crowd.
The ports
Athinios is the ferry port and it is a genuinely difficult piece of infrastructure: a small quay at the bottom of a switchback road cut into the cliff, with every arriving ferry unloading into it at once. Allow 25 minutes from Fira and add more when several sailings coincide.
The Old Port below Fira takes cruise tenders only. The airport is at Monolithos on the east coast, 6km from Fira and small enough that a full flight fills the departure hall.
Practical
- Book a car weeks ahead in August. The island runs out.
- An international driving permit is required for non-EU licences and is checked.
- Parking in Oia and Fira is the real problem, not the driving.
- Pre-book the port transfer for an early ferry. You will not find a taxi at 6am.
Scope
A transport guide. We arrange nothing on Santorini; this agency works in Athens and Mykonos only and has no contact on the island. See Athens.
