Places to Visit

The singular allure of the landscape, the unusual natural environment, together with the island's impressive architecture and fine monuments attract large numbers of visitors, particularly during the summer months, and the excellent tourist facilities are only just sufficient to meet the needs of the many visitors.

Besides the interesting architecture of the houses in Fira, it is worth visiting the two cathedrals (the Orthodox and the Catholic), the Monastery of the Dominican nuns, the Catholic monastery of Panayia of Rodari built in the area of Skaros where the medieval capital of the island used to lie surrounded by a strong fortress on the edge of a steep hill and the Venetian building Gizi.

Here one can see an exhibition of paintings, scripts, maps and other findings about Cyclades and especially Santorini.

From the gulf of Fira boats can take you to Nea Kammeni. There you can see the volcano's crater where a hot air and sulphuric steams still rise.

The land is warm and you should wear athletic shoes and have plenty of water. Hot springs exist at the nearby Palia Kammeni where the sea is sulphur-blue.

The wine distillery of the Buttari firm, open from 8:00 a.m. until late the evening, is also worth visiting.

A tour of the premises, a visit to the theatre where one can watch the show "Spondi to Santorini (Offer to Santorini)", a slide projection of the island's history, local music and of course wine tasting are some of the features provided.

The Minoan city at Akrotiri was first inhabited at 3.000 B.C. and the ruins of the volcanic explosion were discovered in the excavations that begun in 1967 by Prof. Marinatos.

Two and three storeys buildings with lots of tools and cutlery are kept along with information on the people's habits in the archaeological museum of Athens.

From Perissa you can climb on the Mesa Voyno where the ruins of the ancient city of Thira lie.It is 40 minutes walk to the establishment and it will take another 30 minutes to climb down to Kamari.

In the ancient city one can see the remains of the old market, the temple of Apollo of Karnos, the theatre and the gymnasium, the royal tunnel and other Hellenistic and Roman buildings.