November
Wk 44–46
The quietest stretch among this region's best weather weeks: crowd level around 8 out of 100, weather comfort near 80.
- Crowd level
- 2–19
- Comfort
- 76–84
Greece · Santorin
Santorini: three islands on the rim of a flooded caldera, two inside it
The Minoan eruption left behind the ring on which Fira and Ia stand today, some 3,600 years ago. At Akrotiri a Bronze Age town lies under the ash, and the island's vines are woven into wreaths on the ground.
Busiest week
JulyCrowd level 100
Wk 30 · 1,933,409 overnight stays
Quietest weeks
JanuaryCrowd level 0
Wk 1–3 · measured against the region's own year, not against other regions
Sweet spot
NovemberCrowd level 2–19
Wk 44–46 · quietest while the weather still holds
Warmest month
30 °CComfort 68
July · around 1 mm of rain in the month
The overnight-stay figures come from a statistical area that this destination shares with Kos and Rhodos. They cover the whole area, not Santorin on its own.
Santorin in brief
Santorini is an archipelago of five islands in the south of the Cyclades; the main island of Thira measures 79.194 square kilometres, the archipelago as a whole around 92.5. Thira, Thirasia and Aspronisi enclose a caldera flooded by the sea, with the young volcanic islands of Palea Kameni and Nea Kameni at its centre. A Bronze Age town stands under the ash at Akrotiri, Fira and Ia stand on the crater rim, and outside the cliff coast around 80 per cent of the island's surface is farmland, for the most part vineyards.
When is Santorin busy, when is it quiet?
Click a week. The panel on the right explains why it is busy or quiet.
Weather profile
Weather comfort is an absolute scale (0 = poor, 100 = ideal) and a second axis next to the season-relative crowd level.
JanuaryØ 0
FebruaryØ 0
MarchØ 2
AprilØ 17
MayØ 51
JuneØ 78
JulyØ 93
AugustØ 96
SeptemberØ 72
OctoberØ 37
NovemberØ 5
DecemberØ 1
Colour = season-relative crowd levelBar = weather comfort (Sun & warmth), absolute 0–100
Why this week?
November · Wk 44
Crowd level19/100 · fairly quiet
quietbusy
Weather comfort56/100 · Sun & warmth
-47 % versus the region's annual average.
- Contributing months
- October (47 %) · November (53 %)
- Overnight stays/week
- 386,256
- School-holiday pressure (source markets)
- 23 % of source markets on school holidays · +6 % crowding from holidays
- Main source markets
- Greece (21 %) · United Kingdom (20 %) · Germany (19 %) · 82% of guests modelled
- Region range
- 17,855–1,933,409 (avg 730,371)
- Base years
- 2022, 2023, 2024 (excluding 2020, 2021)
v1: Crowd-Score aus der Eurostat-Basisschicht (Übernachtungen), moduliert vom Schulferien-Druck der Quellmärkte, region-spezifisch gewichtet mit dem Quellland-Mix. Season-relativ zur Region. Event-Schichten folgen.
Plan your trip
Pre-filled with the next date in week 44.
DestinationSantorin
Travel datesPick a week in the calendar
FlightSearch flights (opens in a new tab)
StayFind stays (opens in a new tab)
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Photos: Johny Goerend · reisetopia · Dino Reichmuth on Unsplash
The travel year in Santorin, month by month
The year as a table to read and to cite: crowd level for every month, plus weather comfort and temperature from the climate normals.
| Month | Crowd level0–100, season-relative | Weather comfort0–100, profile “mild” | Avg temperature |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 0 | 44 | 11 °C |
| February | 0 | 52 | 12 °C |
| March | 2 | 66 | 14 °C |
| April | 17 | 86 | 18 °C |
| May | 51 | 93 | 22 °C |
| June | 78 | 82 | 27 °C |
| July | 93 | 68 | 30 °C |
| August | 96 | 69 | 30 °C |
| September | 72 | 83 | 27 °C |
| October | 37 | 90 | 22 °C |
| November | 5 | 75 | 18 °C |
| December | 1 | 51 | 13 °C |
The crowd level is season-relative: 100 is the annual peak of Santorin itself, not the busiest destination in Europe. The figures say when it is quiet here — not where it is quieter than elsewhere.
Weather comfort 0–100 from the climate normals, profile “mild” – the same profile as the recommendation above, not the selection in the calendar. A “–” means the data for that month is missing.
Index 2.0 · As of 25/08/2026
The windows worth catching
Three windows from the model: first whether the weather suits the region, then how busy it gets.
March–April
Wk 13–15
A second option, also with usable weather: crowd level around 12, weather comfort near 80.
- Crowd level
- 5–17
- Comfort
- 75–85
July–August
Wk 30–32
The region's peak: crowd level around 99 out of 100. Only if the dates are fixed.
- Crowd level
- 98–100
- Comfort
- 66–67
Santorin compared with Europe
How full the accommodation is here, measured against Europe – on the only measure on which two travel regions can be compared.
- Bed occupancy in Santorin
- 34.3
- European median
- 23.1
per cent of bed places, annual mean
per cent of bed places, annual mean
Furthest from the median: February, at <0.1× the value. Closest to the median: April, at 0.8× the value.
Mean across 12 months, weighted by their weeks. This occupancy compares travel regions with one another. The crowding in the table above compares Santorin with itself. The two measures are never combined.
Climate through the year
Average temperature with day/night range and precipitation across the twelve months.
- Avg temperature
- Day/night range
- Precipitation
| Month | Avg temperature (°C) | Day avg (°C) | Night avg (°C) | Precipitation (mm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 10 | 11 | 9 | 150 |
| Feb | 11 | 12 | 10 | 68 |
| Mar | 13 | 14 | 12 | 67 |
| Apr | 16 | 18 | 15 | 25 |
| May | 21 | 22 | 19 | 14 |
| Jun | 25 | 27 | 24 | 4 |
| Jul | 29 | 30 | 27 | 1 |
| Aug | 28 | 30 | 27 | 1 |
| Sep | 25 | 27 | 24 | 5 |
| Oct | 21 | 22 | 20 | 36 |
| Nov | 17 | 18 | 16 | 100 |
| Dec | 12 | 13 | 11 | 168 |
The band shows mean daytime to nighttime temperature. Precipitation shown as monthly total (mm). Typical monthly value (climate normal), not a forecast.
How sunny?
How much sun a typical day delivers, month by month, expressed as hours of full midday sun.
Very sunny
≈ 5.3 h of full midday sun per day, annual average
Jun
Sunniest month
| Month | ≈ h of full midday sun per day |
|---|---|
| Jan | 2.7 |
| Feb | 3.7 |
| Mar | 5.1 |
| Apr | 6.5 |
| May | 7.3 |
| Jun | 8.0 |
| Jul | 7.9 |
| Aug | 7.1 |
| Sep | 5.9 |
| Oct | 4.4 |
| Nov | 3.0 |
| Dec | 2.4 |
Basis: mean daily solar irradiance in kWh/m²/day; 1 kWh/m² is roughly one hour of full midday sun (1,000 W/m²). Not the same as measured sunshine duration. Typical monthly value (climate normal), not a forecast.
Directly reachable from
Destination airports of Santorin and every European departure airport with a direct connection to them.
Destination airports
Select a destination airport to see the direct departure airports.
“Directly reachable” means a direct connection exists according to our sources. We do not show a live timetable. Availability and flight days can vary by season and airline.
Santorin in detail
Location and shape
Santorini is an archipelago of five islands in the south of the Cyclades; in Greek its main island is called Thira. Together they come to around 92.5 square kilometres across a diameter of some 16 kilometres; Thira alone accounts for 79.194 square kilometres, 17.4 kilometres from north to south and between 1.2 and 6 kilometres wide. The highest point is the non-volcanic Profitis Ilias massif in the south-east of Thira, at 567 metres. The western side drops steeply at the crater rim, while the eastern side slopes slowly to the sea and carries long beaches of dark lava sand.
The caldera and its young islands
Thira, Thirasia and Aspronisi form a ring around a caldera flooded by the sea; its wall stands 150 to 350 metres high, and the basin covers about 84.5 square kilometres, roughly 11 kilometres from north to south and almost 8 from west to east. Its present shape came about some 3,600 years ago with the Minoan eruption; before it came the Skaros caldera less than 100,000 years ago and the Cape Riva caldera 21,000 years ago. At the centre the Kameni volcano has been building upward for 2,200 years from the caldera floor at 500 metres below the sea; with three eruptions in the twentieth century it is, alongside Nisyros, the most active volcano in the eastern Mediterranean. Palea Kameni surfaced in 197 BC and has warm submarine springs; Nea Kameni rose from the sea in 1570, took its present form in 1950 and carries a crater lying 127 metres up, from which sulphurous smoke rises.
From Akrotiri to the Venetians
At Akrotiri in the south-west, Spyridon Marinatos uncovered a Bronze Age town of buildings, streets and squares from 1967 onwards, under ash layers metres thick; its frescoes are around 3,500 years old. Dorian settlers from Sparta built the town of Ancient Thera on a ridge of Mount Messavouno in the ninth century BC. From 1207 the Venetians put up fortified settlements at Ia, Pyrgos, Emborio and Akrotiri; the fortified Skaros rock north of present-day Fira was the chief town and the seat of the Catholic bishopric, and the feudal lords lived in tower-like goulades. The name comes from them too, taken from an early Christian basilica dedicated to Saint Irene near present-day Perissa; with the Ottoman takeover in 1580 the feudal system fell, the communities were granted wide self-government, and the chief town moved from the Skaros rock to Thira.
Towns on the crater rim
Fira sits as the chief town directly on the crater rim and runs north into the higher villages of Firostefani and Imerovigli; from the old harbour a stairway of 588 steps and a cable car lead some 300 metres up. Ia, at the northern end of the crater rim, carries the remains of a Byzantine castle in its western part; below it two hundred steps lead down to the small harbour of Amoundi. Inland, Pyrgos Kallistis stands on a hill with narrow, labyrinthine streets, fortified walls and the ruins of the Venetian castle Kasteli, once the island's administrative centre; on the Profitis Ilias a monastery was built around 1712 that originally served as a fortress protecting the villages. The Amorgos sea quake of 1956, magnitude 7.4, hit Ia and Fira hardest; Mesa Gonia was abandoned, and its inhabitants founded Kamari by the sea.
Wreathed vines, pumice and barrel vaults
The vines are not trained upward but woven into round wreaths in hollows on the ground; what is grown is mostly white grapes, usually Assyrtiko. For the liqueur wine Vinsanto the grapes dry in the sun for several days after the harvest, while Nykteri is pressed during the night; wine was also the chief export, and at the start of the nineteenth century Santorini held the third largest merchant fleet in Greece. Outside the cliff coast, around 80 per cent of the island's surface is farmland, for the most part vineyards with broad terraces and dry stone walls; watercourses that run all year are absent. The houses on the crater rim are largely dug into the soft tuff and closed at the front with a vaulted roof and a wall; since the island carried no trees, barrel vaults of pumice take the place of the roof structures usual elsewhere, and that same pumice went into trade from the nineteenth century onwards, among other things into the building of the harbour of Port Said, until the last quarry closed in 1990.
How it differs from Kos and Rhodes
The first difference is size: Santorini comes to around 92.5 square kilometres with all five islands, Kos to 287.6 and Rhodes to 1,401.5. The shape differs too: here a ring of three islands around a flooded caldera, with the Profitis Ilias rising above it at 567 metres; on Kos a fertile plain in front of an eastern ridge with the Dikeos at 846 metres; on Rhodes a wooded north and a bare south beneath the Attavyros at 1,215 metres. All three islands carry ancient sites and castles. On Santorini the Bronze Age town at Akrotiri lies under the ash, Ancient Thera stands on the Messavouno, and Venetian fortifications stand from the Skaros rock to the Kasteli above Pyrgos; on Kos they are the Asklepieion and the Hospitaller fortress of Neratzia, on Rhodes three ancient cities, the Hospitaller castle of Kritinia and the castle of Monolithos on its free-standing rock. Vines grow on all three. On Santorini the vines lie woven into wreaths on the ground, and warm springs rise under the sea off Palea Kameni; on Kos grapes stand among vegetables, grain, almonds, figs, olives and citrus fruit, and the thermal spring emerges in the sea east of the town; on Rhodes the wine district lies around the Attavyros, and on the east coast stands the thermal complex of Kallithea, ancient in origin.
Frequently asked questions about the best time to visit Santorin
Short answers on timing, weather and getting there, all from the data on this page.
When is the best time to visit Santorin?
- The best time to visit Santorin is November (Wk 44–46): it is the quietest stretch among the region's best weather weeks – crowd level around 8 out of 100, weather comfort about 80 out of 100.
When is Santorin quietest?
- January (Wk 1–3) is the quietest time in Santorin. Crowd levels there sit at 0 out of 100, the lowest across the year.
When is Santorin busiest?
- Santorin is busiest in July (Wk 30) with around 1,933,409 overnight stays in the peak week.
What is the weather like in Santorin and when is it warmest?
- It is warmest in Santorin in July with an average of 30 °C.
How do you get to Santorin?
- Santorin is reachable via 12 destination airports with direct flights, including Rhodes Airport (RHO), Kos Airport (KGS) and Santorini International Airport (JTR).
Quiet travel windows across Europe, once a month
The Crowd Report names the emptiest weeks of the coming months — for every region, not just this one. Free, unsubscribe any time.
Sources and data vintages
Every provenance note on this page, collected in one place.
- Cover photo
- Photo by Pretty Pink on Unsplash
- Cover video
- Video by Mihaela Claudia Puscas on Pexels
- Crowding figures
- Index 2.0 · As of 25/08/2026. v1 approximation, calculated from Eurostat overnight stays. Day tourism and cruises (Venice, Dubrovnik …) are still missing, so we show these destinations as quieter than they are. The crowd score is a model-based forecast, not a measurement.
- Climate data
- Generated using Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2025.
- Reachability
Data sources: direct connections from Wikipedia (“Airlines and destinations”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, aggregated and modified by us), cross-checked with Eurostat, Destatis and the UK Civil Aviation Authority; airport data from OurAirports (Public Domain). The derived connection data is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Data as of: September 2026
- Region text
- Text by HolidayHub, written from Wikivoyage „Santorini“ (1746689) · Wikipedia „Santorin“ (270129165) · Wikidata Q129296. Wikivoyage and Wikipedia are licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikidata CC0.
- Data basis
- All figures are approximations derived from open data (crowd level from Eurostat overnight stays, climate from Copernicus/ERA5-Land), not measurements.