Santorini is a popular destination because there are so many fantastic things to see and do around the island of Thira.

A cruise around the island and into the caldera is the best way to truly appreciate the stunning volcanic scenery of the Santorini Caldera.

There are a wide variety of Santorini boat tours & cruises to choose from.  Visit the active volcano at the center of the caldera and swim in the hot springs. Relax on a catamaran and snorkel in the warm waters in a peaceful cove off the coast of Thira.

The kind of cruise you choose is entirely up to your personal interests and taste. I’ve selected 7 top-rated Santorini boat trips that I believe are the best.

Best Boat Tours From Santorini

	Santorini: Sailing Catamaran Cruise with BBQ and Drinks	Santorini: Sunset Dinner Cruise	Santorini: Luxury Sunset Cruise with Dinner & Open Bar
Departure:	Hotel pick-up	Hotel pick-up	Hotel pick-up
Start:	5:00 PM	4:30 PM	3:00 PM
Duration:	5 hours	6 hours	5 hours
Includes:	Cruise, Greek barbecue buffet, unlimited local wines or soft drinks, snorkeling equipment	Cruise, buffet dinner, wine, and swim in a hot spring	Catamaran cruise, lunch & dessert, open bar & snorkeling equipment
	Tour Information & Booking	Tour Information & Booking	Tour Information & Booking

Be sure to see our other Greece boat tour reviews: Boat Trips From Athens, Boat Trips From Mykonos, Boat Trips From Corfu.

Quick Answer: The 7 Best Rated Santorini Boat Trips For 2026

1. 5-Hour Small Group Catamaran Cruise From Santorini
2. Santorini Volcano & Thirassia Sunset Dinner Cruise
3. Luxury Sunset Cruise From Santorini
4. Romantic Sunset Cruise With King Thiras In The Caldera
5. Santorini 5-Hour Luxury Catamaran Lunch & Sunset Cruise
6. Santorini Sunset Fishing Trip With Dinner & Drinks
7. Catamaran Cruise With Lunch & Open Bar From Santorini

We have reviewed the top rated boat tours from Santorini providing overviews and highlighting the details of each. We also make recommendations on staying in Santorini in our guide section.

Santorini Boat Tour Reviews

1. Santorini: Sailing Catamaran Cruise with BBQ and Drinks

If you enjoy small group cruises, superb scenery, Greek food, and snorkeling, this the best Santorini catamaran tour for you.

Santorini is blessed with many excellent beaches, and your cruise will begin with two of the most famous: Red Beach and White Beach.

Named for the color of their cliffs and sand, both are great places to enjoy swimming and snorkeling with the equipment provided.

Next, you’ll sail past Akrotiri lighthouse, which is one of the oldest lighthouses in Greece built by the French in 1892. Below the lighthouse, you can admire the sea caves and beautiful rock formations of the southern coastline of Santorini.

Your crew will prepare a delicious buffet lunch together with a Greek Salad and mezes. While admiring the landscape around the caldera, you can enjoy unlimited wine or soft drinks.

And if you’ve chosen the evening cruise, you can enjoy a fantastic sunset over the Aegean Sea.

More Information & Tour Booking

Other Experiences You May Enjoy:

2. Santorini: Sunset Dinner Cruise

Santorini is world-famous for its stunning sunset views, and observing this from a sail boat is a unique experience you should have at least once in your life.

But your cruise doesn’t start with the sunset. Before then, you’ll climb to the top of an active volcano on Nea Kameni Island and see the volcanic fumes rise from sulfur vents.

And, if you’re feeling brave, you can swim in a hot spring on the nearby island of Palea Kameni.

The boat will also sail to Thirasia Island, the other inhabited island of the Santorini Caldera. There the ship will anchor offshore while you enjoy a buffet dinner or chicken rolls, pork rolls, baked potato, and rice.

Sip local wine as you admire the views across the caldera. At the end of the day, enjoy sailing into the sunset as your ship returns to Santorini.

Ensure that you take a good quality camera along, because this cruise will leave you with memories that last a lifetime.

More Information & Tour Booking

3. Santorini: Luxury Sunset Cruise with Dinner & Open Bar

This is a fantastic, all-inclusive cruise around the Santorini Caldera and Santorini Island’s southern coast. You’ll see the Red, Black, and White Beaches and the two small islands in the center of the caldera, Nea Kameni and Palea Kameni.

When the catamaran sails along the southern coastline, you’ll pass Akrotiri lighthouse, a 128-year-old lighthouse original built by the French.

Get your camera ready for the stunning rocky landscape with breathtaking cliffs and romantic sea caves.

Anchoring near Palea Kameni, you’ll have the opportunity to swim in a cove filled with hot spring water heated to between 86⁰F and 95⁰F by the active volcano below.

You can use the snorkeling equipment provided to explore the underwater volcanic formations.

Finally, the catamaran will anchor off the coast of Thirassia Island. There the crew will prepare a delicious dinner for you complete with dessert and wine.

As the sun sets over the Aegean Sea, you can sip drinks from the open bar and admire the beauty of nature.

More Information & Tour Booking

4. Romantic Sunset Cruise With King Thiras In The Caldera

This is the best sunset cruise in Santorini for anyone fascinated by the great age of sail. You’ll cruise around Santorini Island aboard a genuine wooden sailboat.

After sailing from Athinios, your sailing ship will take you around the Santorini caldera to admire the amazing landscape of this giant active volcano.

Aboard ship, the crew will prepare you a tasty buffet dinner. While you enjoy your food, the captain will select a tranquil position within the caldera from where you can watch a beautiful sunset over the Aegean Sea.

This boat tour from Santorini offers amazing value for money for anybody who simply wants to enjoy a meal and a sunset aboard a romantic sailboat. You’ll enjoy the atmosphere and the stunning scenery.

More Information & Tour Booking

5. Santorini: 5-Hour Luxury Catamaran Lunch & Sunset Cruise

On this great scenic tour, you have the choice between joining an early cruise with lunch or a late cruise with dinner and a fantastic sunset.

The cruise includes a stop at the famous White Beach where the cliffs, pebbles, and sand are… white. This makes a sharp contrast with many of the other black sand beaches or the nearby Red Beach.

Anchored off the White Beach, you can swim or snorkel in the beautiful blue water of the Aegean Sea. You’ll also sail into the caldera to explore the small islands of Nea Kameni and Palea Kameni in the center.

At Palea Kameni, you can swim in the hot spring cove heated by volcanic activity deep underground. The mineral-rich, orange-tinged water is believed to be therapeutic.

This cruise also includes tasty mezes, a gourmet Greek meal, and dessert. If you’ve chosen the later sunset cruise, you can sip local wine while watching the sun go down over the Aegean Sea.

More Information & Tour Booking

6. Santorini Sunset Fishing Trip With Dinner & Drinks

This is by far my favorite Santorini cruise. As part of a small group on a traditional fishing boat, you observe or help the crew lift shrimp nets filled with local marine life, like shrimp, squid and octopus, then the crew teaches you how to prepare and cook it.

With enthusiastic local experts, you’ll learn lots about local marine life and the traditions among the local fishermen. You’ll also get to see the stunning landscape of the caldera and watch the sunset over the Aegean Sea.

Using the snorkeling equipment provided, you can dive under the waves into the crystal-clear water and see the marine life in its natural setting. Alternatively, you can sunbathe in the remaining daylight on the deck.

If you want to fish some more, you can use the fishing rods and live bait provided. You get to eat what you’ve cooked while sipping unlimited local drinks.

Tour Information & Booking

7. Santorini: Catamaran Cruise With Lunch & Open Bar

If you want to tour all the unique beaches and landmarks on the south coast of Santorini, this is a great tour for you. You’ll visit the Red Beach at Akrotiri, sail past Akrotiri lighthouse, view the White Beach and stop at Mesa Pigadia Beach.

During the Red Beach stop, you’ll have the opportunity to swim in the warm Aegean Sea or snorkel beneath the waves with the equipment provided.

The vivid colors of the wild red cliffs, red pebbles, and red sand make this one of the most popular beaches to visit.

Entering the central caldera, you’ll sail to the tiny island of Palea Kameni. Here you’ll see the famous hot springs heated by continuing volcanic activity.

The orange-tinted spring water enters a shallow cove off the island’s coast and is believed to provide therapeutic benefits. The spring’s temperature is always between 86⁰F and 95⁰F.

During the Mesa Pigadia Beach stop, you can swim or snorkel some more and then enjoy a delicious barbecue meal. Here you have a chance to relax and sip beverages from the open bar while admiring the stunning volcanic scenery.

Tour Information & Booking

A Real Guide to Santorini Boat Tours

The caldera looks different from the water. From up on the rim in Fira you are looking down at a postcard.

From a boat, you’re inside the crater. The cliffs go straight up on both sides, and the water underneath you runs 400 meters deep in places.

That depth is why the ferries can pull right up to the old port without needing a dock.

I have done this trip five times now, on everything from a €45 shared catamaran packed with 40 people to a private sailboat with six of us and a skipper who used to fish these waters.

Both are worth doing. Neither is the one true way to see the volcano.

Why Bother With a Boat at All

Santorini’s whole reputation runs on the caldera view, and most people take it in standing still, glass of wine in hand, in Oia or Imerovigli.

That view is real and worth your evening. But the volcano that made the island sits a boat ride away, not a viewpoint.

Skip the boat and you skip the reason the island looks the way it does.

A boat tour is also the easiest way to swim somewhere that isn’t a crowded public beach. Red and White Beaches are reachable only by boat or scrambling down a cliff path that closes when there’s a rockslide risk.

That risk is more common than the tourism board likes to admit.

This isn’t for people who get seasick easily and refuse Dramamine. The caldera is calm most days, but the open water heading to Thirassia and the volcano can get choppy, especially in July and August.

If you’re prone to it, take the pill an hour before boarding, not after you already feel green.

When to Go

Late April through early June, and mid-September through late October, are the best windows. The sea is warm enough to swim and the boats run full schedules.

You also aren’t sharing the volcano trail with 300 other people in matching life vests.

September is probably the best single month. The Meltemi, the strong north wind that hammers the Aegean from mid-June through August, mostly dies down by then.

Sea water hits 25 to 27 degrees Celsius and the air runs hot but not brutal. Restaurants and boat operators are still running full service.

July and August are peak season for a reason, and boat tours still run, but the Meltemi can turn a calm morning into a rough afternoon with no warning.

Book your boat trip early in your stay, not on your last full day.

If the wind kicks up, a good operator will reschedule you rather than take you out in a swell. You want a spare day in your pocket for exactly that.

Winter is mostly out. Many boat operators shut down entirely from November through March, and the ones still running depend on the weather that day.

What You Actually Do on the Boat

Most standard Santorini boat tours are built around three or four stops inside and just outside the caldera, and they run about four to five hours door to door.

Here is the shape of a typical one.

The Volcano, Nea Kameni

Roughly twenty minutes after leaving port, you reach the jetty on Nea Kameni, the small black volcanic island sitting in the middle of the caldera.

From there it’s a walk up a dusty switchback path to the crater rim, usually with a guide talking through the geology and the eruption history along the way.

Plan on an hour to ninety minutes here, walking included.

There is a small entrance fee, around 5 euros per person, paid in cash at the gate, and it isn’t always folded into your tour price. Ask about it when you book.

Wear real shoes. Sandals on volcanic gravel are miserable, and everyone who shows up in flip-flops regrets it by the halfway point.

The Hot Springs, Palea Kameni

The next stop is Palea Kameni, where sulfur-rich hot springs bleed into the sea near Agios Nikolaos beach.

The boat anchors about 30 meters offshore and you swim in.

The water is genuinely warm in patches and genuinely murky, stained orange-brown from the iron and sulfur. It smells like eggs.

People swear by it for skin and joint pain, and I can’t confirm or deny that.

It’s one of the stranger swims you’ll do in Greece, and worth the ten minutes of smelling like a spa gone wrong.

Red Beach and White Beach

After the volcano and the springs, most tours swing past Red Beach, named for its rust-colored cliffs, and White Beach, tucked under chalky white rock walls.

Both are swim and snorkel stops, usually 30 to 45 minutes each.

Red Beach is more famous and gets more boat traffic. White Beach is smaller and quieter, and the water there is some of the clearest around the island.

If your itinerary only has time for one, ask for White.

Sunset, If You Book for It

Sunset cruises are a separate category from the volcano and springs tours, and most people book one or the other rather than both in a single trip.

These run in the evening, skip the volcano hike, and time the route so you’re on open water off Oia as the sun drops behind the caldera rim.

Expect a barbecue dinner on board, local wine, and a swim stop before the light show starts.

It’s a genuinely good way to see the famous Oia sunset without standing shoulder to shoulder with a crowd at the castle ruins.

Picking a Boat and a Departure Port

You have three real choices of vessel. Large catamarans hold 40 to 80 people, cost the least, and run a fixed schedule.

Traditional wooden caiques hold 15 to 30 and feel more local.

Private sailboats or motor yachts run for your group alone and cost far more, but you set the stops and the pace.

Departure ports vary by operator, so check yours before you plan your day around it.

• Old Port, below Fira. The classic departure point, reached by cable car, a 587-step walk down, or a donkey for about 8 euros. Most volcano and hot springs tours leave from here, usually at 11:00 and 14:30.
• Vlychada, in the south. A marina port, easier to reach by car or taxi, and the departure point for a lot of the private and semi-private sailing trips.
• Ammoudi Bay, below Oia. A small fishing harbor at the bottom of 278 steps, popular for sunset sails since you’re already positioned near Oia for the evening light.

Spiridakos Sailing Cruises and Sail Away are two names that come up constantly, both family-run operations with actual sailors at the helm rather than a rotating cast of hired crew.

For the shared catamaran tours, Santorini View and the operators listed through Viator cover most of the fixed-schedule options and let you compare real reviews before you pay.

What It Costs

A shared catamaran or caique tour covering the volcano, hot springs, and beaches runs roughly 65 to 95 euros per person, BBQ lunch and wine included.

Budget sunset-only cruises on a shared boat start around 45 to 65 euros.

A private sailboat for a small group, four to eight people, typically runs 700 to 1,400 euros for the boat, not per person, for a half day.

Full-day and luxury catamaran charters with a private chef push past 2,000 euros.

The shared boats are worth it for the volcano and springs itinerary specifically, since you’re following a fixed route anyway and there’s no benefit to privacy.

Pay for private when what you actually want is a sunset cruise timed to your dinner reservation, or a day built around swimming rather than sightseeing.

Whatever you book, pay the extra few euros for one with actual bathrooms on board and shade somewhere on deck.

Four hours with no shade in a Santorini July sun is a bad way to spend a vacation day.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to book a Santorini boat tour in advance?

Yes, especially June through September. The good operators sell out days ahead in peak season, and if you wait until you land, you’re choosing from whatever is left rather than what you actually want.

Is the volcano hike hard?

It’s a dusty, sunny walk on loose gravel, not technical, but it’s uphill and there’s no shade. Bring water and wear closed shoes, and it’s manageable for most fitness levels, kids included.

Will I get seasick?

Inside the caldera, the water is usually calm. Toward Thirassia and on open stretches, especially with Meltemi winds in July and August, it can get rougher, so take motion sickness medication beforehand if you’re prone to it.

Should I do the volcano tour or the sunset cruise if I only have time for one?

If you’ve never seen the caldera from the water, do the volcano and hot springs tour, since it teaches you what you’re actually looking at from every viewpoint on land for the rest of your trip.

Book the sunset cruise on a later visit or a longer stay.

Is a private boat worth the extra money?

For a family, a couple celebrating something, or a small group that wants to set the pace, yes. For solo travelers or anyone on a tighter budget, a shared catamaran covers the same stops for a fraction of the price.

What should I bring on a Santorini boat tour?

A swimsuit under your clothes, a towel if your operator doesn’t provide one, reef-safe sunscreen, closed shoes for the volcano, and cash in small bills for the entrance fee and any tips.

Leave the good camera at the hotel unless it’s waterproof, since spray is constant once the boat is moving.