Greece - Santorini

Santorini, officially Thira, is an island located in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200km southeast from Greece’s mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago which bears the same name and is the remnant of a volcanic caldera.

Things to do in Santorini are not limited to just enjoying its sunsets. This Greek island boasts stunning natural beauty, and even though many Santorini attractions revolve around beautiful landscapes, activities in Santorini can include water sports, sampling the local cuisine—especially the famed sutsukaki—and visiting places of historical interest.

One of the top Santorini attractions is the town of Oia, which is particularly known for its gorgeous sunsets. Every day tourists flock to various vantage points across the town as the sun begins to set, and invariably they’re treated to a visual delight. There are also opportunities to enjoy the sunset from boats, which is especially convenient for the photographers, who can get that perfect picture of the sun shining on the ocean as it drops below the horizon. Another extensively photographed aspect of Oia is its picturesque architecture, which boasts a combination of rich Venetian villas and smaller village homesteads known as yposkafas.

When preliminary excavations of Akrotiri started in 1967, they unearthed a true archaeological wonder—an ancient Minoan city that had been covered under layers of volcanic ash for centuries. Today the site is one of the top Santorini attractions, alongside the Museum of Prehistoric Thera in the city of Fira, where many of the unearthed artifacts can be viewed. Most notable among these are spectacular frescoes and ceramic artworks. Santorini attractions here also include the Akrotiri lighthouse.

To reach the Red Beach, visitors have to take a bus from Fira and then walk up a rocky path. You can also travel by sea on a water taxi. The sand of the beach is reddish in color due to the presence of iron. Red Beach’s association with the color red does not stop there, however; red-colored cliffs also border the beach. Aside from gazing at the natural phenomenon here, activities in Santorini include snorkeling in the waters off the beach.