Santorini

In the Cyclades of the south.

Santorini is a crescent shaped island with a surface area of 76 square kilometres, a coastal perimeter of 70 kms and a population of about 7,000 inhabitants.
Main town: Thira. Main port: Athinios.

Santorini is unlike any other islands of the Cyclades. It is a volcanic island situated at the hinge of two tectonic plates. Since prehistoric times, its history has been marked by disasters, eruptions, and earthquakes. Like the one in 1500 BC when half of the island disappeared when the volcano's crater sank leaving a bay in its place. This bay, known as the "Caldera", has dark blue waters 400 metres deep and measures 11 kms in length and 7 kms in width. The walls of this crater overhang the sea like sheer cliffs and reach heights of 200 to 400 metres. The island was broken up into five parts during the successive eruptions. Thus the small islands of Thera, Thirassia and Aspronissi, which all belong to the original island, form a disjointed ring around the bay, while at the centre of the basin emerge the little islands of Palea and Nea Kameni that resulted from later eruptions.
Santorini's landscape is not harmonious, it is torn and jagged. The shapes and colours are hard, with masses of black, brown and red earth rising up perpendicular to the sea.
To the west, the cliffs form a rampart and give visitors the exemplary sight of an geological composition where, pumice, scoria, ashes and kaolin are all super-imposed alternatively on top of one another.
The slopes to the east slant gently towards the black lava beaches. The slopes were shaped by the hands of men -- low stone walls divide the land into terraces, hugging every fold of land. Today, the terraces are mostly overgrown with wild grass and the country folk supplement their incomes with tourism.
Fresh water is a rare commodity at Santorini and this explains the rarity of trees. The composition of the land, the lack of construction materials and the difficulty in transporting them explains the particular nature of the island's architecture troglodytic houses dug into the rocks. In the villages of Santorini there is no straight line, no symmetry; but curved lines are everywhere.

Santorini, a grandiose island, is a must to see. Like Mykonos, another island that should not be missed, it is a compulsory stopover for cruise boats and is the most visited island in the Cyclades. It's simple it is so extraordinary you'd think it was invented specially for kodachrome.
You will experience the thrill of Santorini, with its sharp contrasts and bold colours, its white houses dug halfway into the rock, its chapels with their domed roofs all the elements that combine to give it a real feeling of eternity.

by plane: direct flights from France (Nouvelles Frontières, Héliades, etc.) and domestic flights: from Athens: several connections daily, from Mykonos and Crete: daily connections.

by ferry-boat: several connections a day departing from Piraeus, Paros, Naxos and Ios.
daily connection departing from Syros.
two to three connections a week depending on the season, leaving from Crete, Kythnos, Folegandros, Milos, Serifos, Sifnos and Sikinos.

by highspeed ferry (depending on the wind):
daily connection leaving from Piraeus.
five times a week leaving from Sifnos.
twice a week leaving from Milos, from May to late September.

by hydroplane (taking wind directions into consideration):
daily connections from May to the end of September departing from Naxos, Paros and Syros.

- Trekking

Santorini : Overview - Where to stay ? - Excursions - Photo gallery