Join our Volcano Half Day Cruise and sail across Santorini’s beautiful ‘caldera’ (flooded crater) and visit the islands of Nea Kameni and Thirasia on this 6-hour cruise.
Board a sightseeing boat from the old port, and admire Santorini’s cliffs and as you cruise to Nea Kameni. Enjoy free time to walk around its volcanic crater, swim in the warm springs, and visit Thirasia island. Explore and have lunch here at leisure before cruising back to Santorini.
The excursion starts from the picturesque old port of Santorini or from Athinios port if you book the tour with transfers.
Our first destination will be the famous volcano of Santorini!
After 20 minutes sailing, we will reach Nea Kameni’s jetty. Should you are interested to be guided at the volcano, you should pay 2.5euro/ per person as an entrance fee.
Then, you will walk to the volcano’s ridge with your guide and he is going to explain you everything about the history and the geology of the volcano. You will stay at the volcanic island for 1.5hr and in the end you will embark again to our boat for the next stop.
The next stop will be the island of Palea Kameni where the famous hot springs are located on the west side. A place that is really popular for its thermal waters. We will stop there for 30min at a distance of 30 meters from the shallow waters of Agios Nicholaos’ beach.
The waters are mixed with mud that they are full of sulfur, iron and other metals coming from the volcano and they are very good for the skin, rheumatism, arthritis and other physical pains.
Important Note : In order to reach Agios Nicholaos’ beach is essential to swim extremely well.
Final stop is the island of Thirassia.
Thirassia is a miniature of what Santorini used to be several years ago. Today is a virgin island, still untouched by tourism and modern life style. It is only 9 sq. km in size and has approximately 300 permanent inhabitants.
We will stay there for 2 hours, so as to explore this picturesque and traditional village as well as to taste the authentic Santorinian cuisine. You can also walk at the main village of Manolas, which is the capital of Thirassia. The view over Santorini is spectacular from there.
As our Volcano Half Day Cruise comes to and end and the tour will be finished at the old port of Fira (or for those that have selected transfers, back to their hotel. )
Old Port of Fira – Ormos Firon (Google Maps) – if you have selected the option without tranfers
This port is only accessible by cable car (which is the most common way as it takes only 3 minutes to go down), 587 steps on foot or for those who love the adventure, the local donkeys is the ideal choice to reach it.
Important note : You should pay 6€ more per way either for the cable car ticket or to ride one of the donkeys.
Athinios Port (Google Maps) – if you have selected the option with transfers
Departure at 10:30 am from the old port – Ormos Firon
Departure at 09:45 am from Athinios port (for those that have booked the tour including transfers)
Pick up location varies depending on your hotel
Traveler pickup is offered. You will be informed on the exact time and location after your booking.
If you’re traveling on a budget and you cannot afford a semi private or private tour, then hey this is the wooden boat to choose…they will tell you after you walked two very challenging miles up to down to view an “active” but “dormant” volcano (without flowing lava) that your next stop if beautiful therassia. However comma, therassia is not all that beautiful. There is 15 restaurants, no place to sit, snd no sand for miles in sight. Just make sure to ask the travel agent if there is another place to enjoy possibly one with sand. Or just save tour money and opt for the semi private excursion. The travel agent also sold us this excursion by saying the boat was 50-60 percent capacity!! LIE. In fact, I feel like I need to be covid tested again, yes it was that many people and hardly no place to sit! Now the positives they speak in four different languages so you will know what’s going on etc. at all times. But who cares about all that when they are terrified of contracting covid due to an overcrowded boat tour. The hot spring portion was nice.
Nous avons eu beaucoup de difficultés pour trouver l’ agence qui est tout simplement en bas du câble ( panne d’ internet et la localisation mal expliquée sur le bon de échange). Notre bateau étant parti nous étions gentiment acceptés pour la même excursion le lendemain.
La promenade en mer avec les vues magnifiques vaut la peine. Il y a le snack sur le bateau pour les boissons et les en-cas. Il faut bien prévoir les chapeaux et la crème solaire. La baignade dans les sources chaudes est amusante, le volcan n’ a rien d’extraordinaire si vous avez déjà vu un. Nous ne sommes pas montés au village de Thirassia car c’était un peu court et il fallait manger dans un restaurant du petit port ou tous les bateaux avec les touristes arrivent pratiquement en même temps. La baignade rafraîchissante était la bienvenue mais il faut faire attention si vous n’ avez pas de chaussons car les oursins sont là ! A la fin de cette excursion le bateau est passé en bas de Oia et c’ était très sympa. Cette excursion est à faire, bon rapport qualité-prix mais évidemment ça reste très touristique . On le savait. Merci.
Belle journée de découvertes, sur un bateau bien équipé qui mérite le 5 étoiles mais le service de
transport c’est une organisation ou je sais pas si il faut en rire ou en pleurer, donc je conseil voiture
perso taxi…
Fantastic time all around, though it’s a bit oddly timed. The initial hike was nice, and seemed an appropriate amount of time. However, The time at the hot springs seemed to be less than 15 minutes, and the three hours at the end seemed weird. I wish we’d spent much more time at the hot springe, and way less time at the final island getting lunch.
We booked this tour with family. The tour was fun and informative and we had an amazing guide. The tour was punctual, staff were professional, and ferry were fine.
The hiking was a good workout, maybe too much for a few members in our party, but there were sufficient rest areas and we were well informed in advance.
We felt that the time allotted for the hot spring was a little less, and we could have probably spent less time for lunch before heading back, otherwise a very immersive educational experience.
