Santorini

Santorini is a volcanic island whose life still runs along the rim of its caldera, from the ferry quays on the western coast to the cliff towns above them. Against that, the island's ordinary pleasures feel almost domestic, among them the tavernas set beside the water at Amoudi Bay, below Oia, where fresh seafood is served at tables on the sea's edge.

Day 1, Friday 16 May

The route begins at Athinios, crosses to Koloumpos on the north-eastern shore, and ends at Amoudi Bay beneath Oia. It is a line drawn from the island's busiest arrival point to two of its quietest stretches of water.

Athinios

Athinios sits beneath steep volcanic cliffs banded with colour, and the road out of the bay climbs to the clifftop in a series of hairpins. Before it existed, every vessel reaching Santorini came in to Skala, the old harbour below Fira, and passengers were hauled up the cliff by donkey or, later, by cable car. The new port was built for the tourist boom of the late twentieth century, its quays completed and extended between 2006 and 2008. It is now the only port on the island with scheduled ferry services, handling more than two million passengers a year.

Athinios is a working quay rather than a pretty one: coaches wait at either side to carry arrivals up the cliff road, and the ferries berth at the far end.

Koloumpos

Koloumpos, also written Colombo or Columbo, lies on Santorini's north-eastern edge, east of Cape Koloumpos, a wild and secluded shore of black sand and volcanic rock. Kolumbo, an active submarine volcano and the largest of roughly twenty cones strung out from Santorini, lies about eight kilometres north-east of the island, and its eruption in 1650 drove pyroclastic flows across the water onto Santorini's shores, killing around seventy people and a great many animals.

Amoudi Bay

Amoudi Bay sits at the island's north-western tip, below the town of Oia and set into the high volcanic cliffs of western Santorini. A steep stairway drops from the village to the water. Through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries this was Oia's main port, a transhipment harbour whose buildings were warehouses for trade. The earthquake of July 1956 badly damaged Amoudi, as it damaged the rest of Oia, and in the 1970s the Greek Tourist Organization restored the buildings and laid a promenade along the bay. That walkway runs for roughly 800 metres to the islet of Agios Nikolaos Peramataris, where swimmers gather and the rocks are popular for cliff jumping.

Day 2, Saturday 17 May

This was a day that ran from one end of Santorini to the other, beginning on the island's north-eastern edge at Koloumpos and ending at Perissa.

Koloumpos

The beach is a quiet one, its black sand running down gently into the water between volcanic rocks.

The bluff at Koloumpos stands above a hazy sea under a pale, overcast sky.

Fira

Astir Thira Hotel

Cars stand on a stone-paved area in front of the Petit Palace Suites, with the road running past below and the sea beyond, hazed over.

Petit Palace Suites

The Petit Palace Suites are built into the cliff, their white terraces stepped one below another with small tables set out and a plunge pool cut into the stone. Narrow stairways thread down between the whitewashed levels towards the caldera water.

Day 3, Sunday 18 May

The third day was spent on the water and on the rim above it, beginning at Amoudi Bay and ending within sight of Imerovigli.

Amoudi Bay

The small harbour sits at the foot of red-brown cliffs, with the white houses of Oia on the rim far above.

A three-masted sailing ship shows as a silhouette against the sun as it drops towards the sea.

Sailing yachts ride at anchor on calm water as the light goes.

Zestes Piges

Boats of the Santorini Yachting Club work these waters. Their cabin ledges carry little more than bottled water and cartons of juice.

Imerovigli

Imerovigli stands on the lip of a brown volcanic cliff, its white buildings crowded along the very edge.

Day 4, Monday 19 May

The fourth day stayed in one place, on the cliff edge at Petit Palace Suites, and let the caldera do the work.

Petit Palace Suites

By day the water is a flat blue, with a cruise ship lying at anchor off a low island and the sky entirely clear. The island in the bay is a dark volcanic one, and the ships that come in tend to settle close to it. At the end of the afternoon the umbrellas on the terraces are folded away and the whole view turns towards the west. The sun goes down behind the far rim of the caldera and leaves a band of orange along the horizon, laid over the white walls and the roofs below.

Day 5, Tuesday 20 May

The fifth day on Santorini was a short one, with only two stops on it: Petit Palace Suites and a restaurant at Perissa. Both were taken in at the end of the day, when the light had grown long and low.

Petit Palace Suites

The name of Petit Palace is written into the ground itself, picked out in pebbles across the forecourt in front of the white entrance doorway. Beyond the two clipped trees in their pots, the sea runs away under a sunset sky gone soft with haze.

Day 6, Wednesday 21 May

The last day on Santorini runs downhill, from the clifftop above the caldera to the water's edge at Athinios.

Petit Palace Suites

The ground falls away sharply here to a dark rocky shore, and the water below is deep enough to take the largest vessels.

A white cruise ship rides at anchor in deep blue water below the dark rock of the shore. Two small wooden boats pass beneath her, giving the measure of the hull.

Athinios

A whitewashed cafe stands at the foot of the cliff with its awning out and its tables empty between sailings.

The quay fills with a dense crowd and wheeled luggage under a clear blue sky, all of it penned between the water and the rock. There is no shade on the apron, and the cliff rises steeply behind.

Travellers with backpacks and sun hats gather in the gaps between parked coaches on the paved quay. Beyond them the cliffs run down to the sea.

The cliff above the bay is bare and almost vertical, with white buildings strung along the ridge at the top. Lamp posts climb the slope from the road below.

Sources

• Athinios Port - Santorini, retrieved 2026-10-21
• Athinios (Santorini) - Wikipedia), retrieved 2026-10-21
• Santorini cruise port, Greece - The ultimate guide - Cozypickups, retrieved 2026-10-21
• Athinios | Δημοτικό Λιμενικό Ταμείο Θήρας, retrieved 2026-10-21
• Koloumbos Beach - Santorini - santorini-more.com, retrieved 2026-10-21
• Kolumbo - Wikipedia, retrieved 2026-10-21
• Amoudi Bay - Wikipedia, retrieved 2026-10-21
• Ammoudi Bay Santorini - My Favorite Restaurants, retrieved 2026-10-21
• Santorini Amoudi Bay - Information Updated October 2026 | ®ExcursionMania, retrieved 2026-10-21
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• Ammoudi Bay Port - Ports & Airport - Santorini, retrieved 2026-10-21