Handpicked experience · Santorini
Santorini, Greece
Five hours sailing inside the crater of one of the largest eruptions in human history, with a warning about what the hot springs do to pale swimwear.
A five-hour cruise around Santorini's volcanic caldera
A full Greek meal served on board, with house wine, beer and soft drinks
The cliff villages of Oia and Fira seen from sea level
Several stops for swimming and snorkelling, weather allowing
A professional crew, with lifejackets and safety equipment on board
Santorini is a volcano and the bay you are sailing in is not a bay at all. Around 1600 BC the island blew the top off itself in an eruption large enough to be argued about by archaeologists ever since, the centre collapsed, and the sea poured into the hole. The cliffs above you are the inside wall of a volcano, and the water beneath the boat runs to nearly four hundred metres in places.
A cruise working its way around the flooded crater, with the villages strung along the rim above, stops in the water, and a Greek meal with drinks served on board as you go.
The best thing you can do with the first hour. Those bands of colour in the rock face are the eruption written down: pale layers of pumice and ash from the great blast, darker lava beds from earlier ones, red and black seams where iron-rich material cooled differently. You are looking at the sequence in order, bottom to top, from the water. The red and black beaches on the far side of the island are the same story at ground level.
The practical warning nobody gives in advance. The warm water in the little bay by the volcanic islets is loaded with iron, and it leaves a rust-coloured mark on light fabric that does not come out. White, cream and pale swimwear comes back orange. Wear something dark you do not care about, or stay in the boat and watch.
Said plainly, because people expect a spa. Boats cannot get close to the spring, so the swim is thirty to fifty metres of ordinary cool sea water before you reach anything warm, and the warmth is patchy when you arrive — closer to a tepid current than a bath. It is genuinely enjoyable if you know that going in and a disappointment if you do not.
A reversal worth knowing as you look up. Those white dwellings carved back into the rock were not built as luxuries. Pumice is soft enough to dig by hand and insulates well, so hollowing a home out of the cliff was what people did when they could not afford to build one. They were the poorest housing on the island for centuries. They are now the most sought-after on the island, and the ones facing the caldera most of all.
Worth knowing before you book a summer sailing. From July into September a strong northerly blows across the Aegean for days at a time. It flattens nothing and stirs everything: the caldera turns choppy, the swimming stops are the first thing dropped from the itinerary, and sailings are occasionally cancelled outright. Morning departures are usually calmer than afternoon ones.
Sunset sailings are a specific departure rather than a feature of every one, so the time you choose at booking is the time you get. Landing on the volcanic islet and walking up to the crater is a different excursion with its own boat and its own timing. This sailing stays on the water, working the caldera wall and the hot springs from the deck.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
Yes. Around 1600 BC the island erupted on an enormous scale, the centre collapsed and the sea flooded in. The cliffs are the inside wall of the crater and the water reaches nearly four hundred metres deep in places.
Almost certainly. The water is iron-rich and leaves a rust stain on light fabric that does not wash out. Wear something dark you are not attached to.
Not close. Expect to swim thirty to fifty metres through ordinary cool sea before reaching the warm patch, and the warmth is uneven when you get there — more a tepid current than a bath.
They were originally the cheapest housing on the island, dug by hand into soft pumice because building was beyond people's means. The insulation and the view have since reversed their value entirely.
Yes. A strong northerly blows across the Aegean for days at a time from July into September. The swimming stops go first, and sailings are occasionally cancelled. Mornings are usually calmer than afternoons.
Only on the sunset departure, which is a specific sailing chosen when you book rather than a feature of every one.
Not as part of this. Landing on the volcanic islet and climbing to the crater is arranged separately.