The Best 3 Days in Santorini Itinerary for Your First Time in Greece
Use this 3 days in Santorini itinerary and guide to find the best villages, views, and vacation villas on the Greek island.
Nothing says Santorini like iconic white buildings, blue-domed roofs, and colorful sunsets dropping behind a horizon of the Aegean Sea. This three days in Santorini itinerary wraps it all into one magical vacation, where you’ll wander cliffside towns, walk epic coastal trails, and discover ancient ruins.
While it would be easy to pack a Santorini 3 day itinerary to the brim with black-sand beaches, scenic hikes, and hopping from picture-perfect town to town, we recommend narrowing down just a few favorites below that speak to you. That way, you can pencil in plenty of chill time at your hotel, since we also recommend picking one on the caldera cliffs with a pool. After all, the best part of Santorini is the views!
Keep reading for how to spend 3 days in Santorini, and scroll to the bottom for tips on where to stay, how to get around, and when you should avoid Oia and Fira at all costs!
Use this 10 days in Greece itinerary to plan the rest of your island-hopping adventure!
How to Spend 3 Days in Santorini Itinerary
This Santorini map shows where some of the top attractions are located on the island. Open it in Google My Maps to start saving your own Santorini itinerary.
Day 1 — Fira to Oia Hike
Start your 3 days in Santorini sightseeing on the island’s most epic path, a coastal trail stretching between the cliffside towns of Fira and Oia with tons of caldera views, winding stone streets, and donkey encounters along the way.
Hike
The Fira to Oia hike is a scenic footpath running through small towns and along the high cliffs of the Santorini caldera for about 6.5 miles. The trail ranges from stone streets to sidewalks to loose dirt and gravel and includes ascents and descents in both directions.
The journey is mostly about the sweeping views — both coastlines are visible at times as you traverse the high and narrow northern curves of the island — but the pristine hotel properties with sparkling pools, charming villages with their narrow alleys, and scattered white-painted churches also steal focus along the way. You’ll pass through Fira, Firostefani, Imerovigli and Oia, which you can explore further the next day when you aren’t tired and sweaty from hiking.
Begin the trek at either end — buses and taxis connect Oia and Fira, so you can ride to one town to walk back to where you’re staying, or start from your base and transfer back at the end of the day. If you want to shave off a mile or so, you could even depart from Imerovigli, the highest elevation along the way, and walk toward Oia.
The path is marked with some signage here and there, but you generally just hike in the direction of your endpoint. You might wander down the wrong roads in the winding towns at some point, but once outside with clear views, it’s easy to stick to the path.
It’s best to depart early for the Fira-Oia hike during the warm summer months, as midday temps can be sweltering and there is little shade outside the towns. Plan to spend between three to five hours on the trip, depending on how many times you stop for rest or photos.
Sunset Views
For the remainder of the day, consider exploring your destination town or heading back to your hotel pool for some well-deserved rest and relaxation after the long walk.
If you’ve started your hike by midday, you should have plenty of time to stake out the perfect spot to watch the sun sink behind the horizon. Santorini is famous for its sunsets, especially from Oia, and the best spots can get a bit crowded.
In Oia, folks head to the castle ruins. In Imerovigli, you can hike out to Skaros Rock for sunset. In Fira, the stone walkway in front of the Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral has open vistas and a few benches.
Day 2 — Town Sightseeing
It’s time to discover some of those famous white and blue painted towns of Santorini on day 2 of this itinerary. You can either head straight for famous Oia or hop between villages on the northern half of the island using the bus, taxis or a car if you’ve rented one. They’re within a few miles of each other, so it’s easy to see them all in a day.
Oia
Picturesque Oia is famous for its white buildings and blue domes, set on the northern tip of the island. The caldera views from this zone combined with the town’s skyline certainly make for some Insta-worthy shots, which in turn bring flocks of tourists. There are even lines to snap photos at some well-known points.
The pretty streets of Oia are lined with breezy balcony cafes, pristine boutiques and kitschy souvenir shops, and a bookstore with a rooftop reading terrace. Pop by the Byzantine Castle Ruins during daylight hours to take in coastline views from end to end of the island, but be prepared to rub shoulders with strangers if you stay to catch the famous Santorini sunset from here, as it’s one of the top things to do in Oia.
If you have the option, visit the village on a day when you only see one or two cruise ships in the port, as the island can get as many as five at a time and many visitors head straight for Santorini’s popular town. (Scroll to the tips section at the bottom for the cruise schedule).
Imerovigli
Imerovigli is the less-crowded lookalike to Oia and neighbor to Fira, also washed in white with blue accents. It’s one of the highest points on this end of the island, so hotels built into the cliffs here have stunning views of the caldera and the towns on either side. The best parts of town are away from the main road and down the narrow alleys where cars can’t go.
It’s a quiet town with not much to do other than walking around admiring the picturesque churches or dining at one of the Greek restaurants with a view. One of the top activities in Imerovigli is to hike out to Skaros Rock, which holds the ruins of a medieval fortress. A series of steps lead down from the village to a strip of land, where you’ll then hike up steps toward the rock. You can walk all the way around to the other side of it or even climb up to the flattened top.
I actually spend quite a bit of my 3 day Santorini itinerary in Imerovigli since my hotel was here. Read to the end of the post to see why I highly recommend Imerovigli as a base.
Fira
Santorini’s capital, Fira (or Thera) also sits cliffside on the caldera, with a cable car leading up from an old harbor, where cruise tender boats dock. Since it’s the first stop for cruisers, the streets and patio cafes can get a bit crowded when multiple ships arrive (which happens frequently), but walk a little ways toward Imerovigli and things may calm down a bit when you hit the nearby town of Firostefani.
Fira is home to a few museums, including the Folklore Museum, with an art gallery and historical archives, and the Archeological Museum and Museum of Prehistoric Thera, both full of preserved artifacts from the island’s ancient ruins. As the commercial center of the island, Fira also packs in plenty of shopping and entertainment.
Day 3 — Road Trip, Ruins and Beaches
After spending your first two days on the northern end of the island, it’s time to get out and explore the southern half before wrapping up your 3 day Santorini itinerary. We recommend renting a vehicle for the day (you can grab one in Fira) to make it quicker to get around on this short stay. You may have to narrow down the list below to the top couple of sights you’re interested in seeing, especially if using the bus to get around.
East Coast
Located among the island’s highest peaks, Ancient Thera dates as far back as the 8th or 9th century BC. Touring the excavated site, you can see ruins of old markets, churches and temples, baths, and a theater from a Hellenistic settlement. Getting here requires a hike up Mesa Vouno Mountain, but the payoff includes coastal views of the east side of Santorini.
Santorini is known for its colorful beaches and has quite a few made up of black rocks, pebbles and sand. The longest stretches of these dark-hued spots are located along the east coast. Perissa and Kamari beaches are separated by Mesa Vouno Mountain and, along with neighboring Perivolos, offer beach resort amenities like chair rentals, water sports and cafes.
South Coast
You don’t want to skip the South Coast if you have at least 3 days in Santorini. The prehistoric town of Akrotiri sits in ruins on the south end of the island. The settlement was both destroyed and preserved by a volcanic eruption, which froze the archeological remains in their Bronze Age formations. For a small fee, you can walk through the covered site to see the old buildings, some of which were two or three stories tall.
For southern beach hopping, consider Vlychada, where a charcoal shore bumps into steep, tan cliffs naturally carved into unique and often jagged formations. Popular Red Beach (or Kokkini Paralia) presents just what the name implies — a rust-tinted stretch of seashore about a mile from Akrotiri. With a backdrop of soaring red cliffs, the copper-colored sand makes a striking contrast against the perfectly blue water, best seen from an elevated lookout before the trail here drops down to the beach.
Drive to the far southwestern tip of the island where the cliffs tumble into the sea and you’ll bump into the Akrotiri Lighthouse, built in the late 1800s. There’s not much to do here but walk around and enjoy the views, but it is a prime spot to catch the sun setting over the water as it faces west.
Tips for Visiting Santorini
These tips for spending 3 days in Santorini will help you maximize your time and avoid crowds on the popular Greek island.
How to Avoid Cruise Crowds on Santorini
Cruising the Greek Islands is how a lot of people visit Santorini, but when the passengers disembark for day trips, small towns like Oia can feel pretty crowded.
To avoid some of the busiest times, you can track heavy cruise days. If you’re staying on the caldera side, it’s easy to take a quick glance down and see how many cruise ships are docked on any given day. If it’s only one or two, you’re in luck, because the port gets as many as five. In summer, some 80,000 people may visit the island daily.
Since cruisers land in Fira and many plan to visit Oia, those two cities will be most crowded when there are several vessels. Look at the port schedule ahead of time and plan to do your Oia and Fira sightseeing on the slower days. Busier ones can be used for hiking, relaxing poolside or exploring other parts of the island.
How to Get Around on Santorini
I used multiple forms of transportation on transportation during my 3 days in Santorini itinerary. I typically love the flexibility of renting a car, but parking can be tricky if you’re staying cliffside (which I recommend). Luckily, the popular northern end towns like Fira and Oia are only a few miles apart and buses and taxis are both available to shuttle you around. I recommend doing just a daily car rental when you want to road trip to other parts of the island. You will want to book any car rentals ahead of time though in the high season.
How Many Days in Santorini
How many days should you spend in Santorini? It really depends on the type of vacation you are after. If you’re planning a honeymoon to Santorini and just want to relax at a luxury hotel with a pool and a view, you could spend a week chilling here and doing some light sightseeing each day. Other Greek destinations have much prettier beaches, though, if that’s what you’ve come for.
If you’re island hopping, we recommend a minimum of 2 days in Santorini to hit the highlights and soak up the views. A Santorini 3 day itinerary is even better. It’s a small island, so you can get around and see much of it in a few days or just hang out in Oia and Fira snapping photos of the pretty white buildings and staring out at the sea.
If you have at least a week in Greece, we recommend splitting your time between Santorini and a less-busy island, like Milos, which is a fantastic destination for beaches with clear water and boat rides to sea cliffs and caves.
How to Get to Santorini
There are several ways to get to Santorini — by cruise, plane, ferry or boat. Cruises and sailing trips certainly make island hopping easy, but if you want the flexibility of being on your own agenda and visiting less popular islands, go the independent route.
Flights to Santorini can be pricey from international destinations, so look for ones to Athens instead and then fly or ferry to the island from there. Flights take less than an hour. Ferries connect Santorini to Piraeus port in Athens and to many nearby Cyclades islands, including direct routes to Mykonos, Naxos, Milos and Ios. Crete is also just a two-hour ferry away.
What to Pack for Santorini
The clickable photos below will take you to some Greece-inspired fashion for your trip to Santorini.
This Greece packing list will help you figure out what to bring on a Santorini vacation. It includes tips about what activities and weather to pack for and outfit inspiration for beach hopping, sailing trips and photo shoots in cute island villages.
Where to Stay in Santorini
I highly recommend booing a cliffside hotel in Santorini if you can afford one. The most stunning and unique feature of Santorini is its elevated caldera views. And towns facing the sunken zone take advantage by carving their hotels into the cliffside. The ritziest hotels in Santorini with private pools may bust the budget, but you’ll find a range of prices if you look on the outskirts of towns and away from Oia. Our favorite zone is Imerovigli, a quiet town a couple of miles from Fira that is one of the highest points on the north side of the island.
Staying in Oia Santorini
Staying in Fira Santorini
Staying in Imerovigli Santorini
Check this hotel guide for ideas of more places to stay in Santorini, including beach resorts, quiet villages and luxury villas.
