- 7 hours Duration 7 hours
- Culture, Activity Type Culture Food Activity Type Food
In between stopping for photo ops, eat your way through Santorini’s highlights and culinary delights by exploring the island’s beautiful villages.
Quick Details
- Explore off-the-beaten-track medieval villages and unspoilt beaches with unique, lunar-like beauty.
- Sip a coffee with a traditional spoon sweet in a cute local cafe.
- Enjoy a private four-glass wine tasting with local tapas.
- Explore the artistic side of Santorini and some of the most exceptional museums on the island.
- Walk through one of the most traditional villages in Santorini.
- Visit Fira, Oia, Emporio, Vlychada, and Megalohori.
- Each Lonely Planet Experience comes with six months free access to Lonely Planet’s Guides App, which includes over 8,000 destinations guides and unbeatable discounts to Lonely Planet Guidebooks.
Off the Beaten Path in Santorini
Santorini is a special place like no other, and this tour captures the best of the island along with tons of hidden gems you might not get to see without a local by your side. Explore off the beaten path as you visit traditional villages, discover whitewashed back alleys, see an amazing beach with a spectacular lunar-like landscape, and end on a delicious note with a tasting of local wines and seasonal tapas.
This tour is priced for a minimum group size of two travellers. A solo traveller may still book this private experience but will be charged the base rate for two travellers.
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Local impact — How you will help the local community by joining this tour:
- By visiting places far from mass tourism, you are helping to reduce over-tourism, which poses a risk to Santorini’s main towns. Instead, this tour supports and collaborates with smaller local communities that follow a more traditional way of life.
- You also visit an unknown underground church of great cultural importance in a small village, which encourages conservation around cultural heritage. Your visit also helps the elderly keyholder who preserves the church.
- Supporting young artists and local shop owners helps to increase their income during Greece’s economic problems, preserve local art, and promote the creativity of new generations.
- By visiting a historic factory turned into a museum, this tour is financially supporting the local foundation responsible for ensuring it can continue its work preserving Santorini’s unique culture.
Language: English
Inclusions: Local English-speaking guide, transportation, one coffee, one local sweet, four glasses of wine (wine tasting), local seasonal tapas
Exclusions: Additional food and drinks, souvenirs and personal shopping, tips/gratuities for your driver and guide
Schedule details
- Duration: 6 hours
- Pick-up location: Hotel pick-up is offered for this tour.
- Pickup time: 9.00 am
- Drop-off location: Drop-off back at Fira, your hotel, or airport.
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We’ll start our tour from Fira, the capital and the busiest town on the island. Bypassing the tourist traps, we’ll discover the artistic side of Santorini with a walk through Fira’s whitewashed back alleys, where local artists exhibit their work such as paintings, sculptures, and other unique creations.
Moving on, we’ll visit the fabulous village of Oia, Santorini’s crown jewel, where we’ll explore off the beaten track to discover the back alleys of a pastel-coloured neighbourhood that you might never find without a local by your side!
Before leaving Oia, we’ll visit a beloved independent bookstore housed in a stunning whitewashed building. Named the world’s best bookstore by National Geographic, it’s easy to fall in love with this place even if you aren’t the biggest book lover in the world.
Continuing our tour in Santorini, we’ll visit the best-preserved castle-village on the island, where the buildings are still inhabited. While exploring this peaceful settlement, we’ll wander through the narrow alleys steeped in medieval charm, then stop for coffee and a traditional spoon sweet in a local cafe.
On our next stop, you’ll discover the historic hiding grounds of the locals during pirate raids and then head to a secluded beach where we’ll enjoy its unique, lunar-like yellow landscape.
We’ll then get familiar with Santorini’s famous cherry tomatoes. In a historic factory, we’ll hear stories of local farmers who once reached the area with mules laden with baskets of ripe tomatoes ready to be turned into the island’s indigenous tomato paste.
Moving onto our last stop now, it’s time for some local food and wine! You’ll enjoy a four-glass wine tasting in an authentic, old school winery where Vinsanto and other delicious wines are made the traditional way, and snack on mouth-watering local mezedes (local tapas) alongside your wine.
Before you go, don’t forget to ask your local guide for more tips on what else to see, do and eat during your stay.
Additional information
Dress standard: Please wear comfortable shoes for walking.
Your trip: This tour is priced for a minimum group size of two travellers. A solo traveller may still book this private experience but will be charged the base rate for two travellers.
Confirmation of booking: If you have your voucher, your booking is confirmed. We’ll see you at your hotel for pick-up. Please check your hotel details are correct on the voucher. If your details are not correct, it is very important to please email us to confirm your correct pick-up hotel using the contact details on the voucher. If you prefer, you may also phone the change through to us during business hours.
Additional Information: Remember to write your designated pick-up and drop-off area when you book. This service is free. Departure location is at your request anywhere in Santorini — hotel, port, airport, cable car in Fira. If you are booking within 24 hours of the tour/activity departure time, we cannot guarantee hotel pick-up. At time of booking, cruise ship passengers must provide the following information: ship name, docking time, disembarkation time and re-boarding time.
Child policy: This is a child-friendly tour. Children between the ages of 6 and 11 inclusively are permitted on this tour at the rate listed above. Please select ‘child’ when booking. Children under the age of 6 are permitted to join this tour free of charge. Please inform us at the time of booking if you’ll be bringing a child under the age of 6. You can do so in the special request box on the checkout page.
Dietary Notes
We can accommodate vegetarians and other dietary restrictions. Please notify us in advance if you have any dietary requests. You can do so in the ‘Additional information’ box at checkout, or by emailing us at [email protected]
Local contact
Office phone number: +30 698 067 9166
Email address: [email protected]