Santorini Private Tour

A Santorini private tour is a sightseeing trip around the island for one party only, with its own driver and tour leader. It is one of the Greece tours that run on Santorini.

What is a Santorini private tour?

A Santorini private tour is a sightseeing trip around the island of Santorini, arranged for one party only. No other travellers join, so the group travels alone. That one party makes up the whole group for the day.

The Cyclades are an archipelago, which means a large group of islands. Set in the Aegean Sea off the southeastern edge of mainland Greece, the group counts about 220 islands. Thira, also called Santorini, is one of the major islands. A Santorini private tour therefore explores one of those major islands.

The word Cyclades points to the circle that the islands form around Delos, a sacred island. In 2011, the Thira regional unit was created out of the former Cyclades Prefecture. A regional unit is an official area of government. So a Santorini private tour visits an island with its own regional unit.

The municipality of Thira formed in 2011 by merging the former Oia and Thera municipalities. A municipality is a local authority that runs a town or district. The name Thera was brought back into use in the nineteenth century as the island’s official name. A Santorini private tour covers the island that carries that name.

Two islands of the Thira group, Palea Kameni and Aspronisi, are uninhabited, meaning nobody lives there. Palea Kameni measures 0.5 square kilometres, and Aspronisi measures 0.1 square kilometres. Aspronisi is dominated by steep cliffs, which make landings difficult. A landing means coming ashore from a boat.

• Christiana group: The group is made up of Christiani, the largest island, Eschati and Askania.
• Size and settlement: Together, the Christiana islands cover about 2.35 square kilometres and have been uninhabited since the 1890s.
• Anydros: Anydros lies north of the island Anafi and southwest of Amorgos.

The Santorini caldera is one of 100 geological heritage sites worldwide named by the International Union of Geological Sciences. Such sites are valued for their earth science. A caldera is a large basin left by a volcano. A Santorini private tour is set on this island.

Which southern villages does a Santorini private tour reach?

A Santorini private tour can reach villages such as Emporeio, Episkopi Gonias, Vourvoulos and Megalochori. Each one has its own setting and story. Routes differ from one tour to the next, so no village is promised on every route.

Emporeio is a possible stop on a Santorini private tour. It is 12 km away from Fira, close to the Profitis Ilias mountains on Santorini. In the 2021 census, the community had 3,704 permanent inhabitants. A census is an official head count of the people who live in a place.

Vourvoulos lies 3.7 km northeast of Fira, on a slope that faces the east shore of the island. A Santorini private tour that stops here reaches the eastern side of Santorini. The 2021 Greek census recorded 591 permanent inhabitants in Vourvoulos, meaning people with their home there.

Episkopi Gonias, known too as Mesa Gonia, is 6 km southeast of Fira. It stands on the foothills of Profitis Ilias, the slopes at the base of those mountains. In 2021 the village had 187 inhabitants. Its name comes from Panagia Episkopi, a nearby 11th century Byzantine church. Byzantine means from the old Greek Christian empire.

The village also has a hard history. An earthquake in 1956 almost entirely destroyed Episkopi Gonias. The people of Mesa Gonia founded the coastal town of Kamari beneath their traditional town. A Santorini private tour in this area can explain how the two places are linked.

• Emporeio: The church of Saint Nicholas Marmaritis and the old Goulas Castle both stand in this village.
• Xiropigado: A dirt track off the east coast road leads to a narrow strip of pebble, or small stones.
• Megalochori: A privately operated interactive museum, meaning visitors take part with hands-on displays, stands here.

Megalochori and Vothonas are two of the 12 extra local subdivisions of Thera municipality. A municipality is a local government area, and a subdivision is a smaller named part of it. A Santorini private tour can use names like these to plan stops.

What does a Santorini private tour show at Ancient Thera?

A Santorini private tour at Ancient Thera shows a Greek city of about 100 by 100 metres. The city sits on a flat, exposed plateau high above the rocky coast. Its ruins include a public square, a long covered walkway, sacred places and houses.

A winding road that starts at Kamari leads up to the site. The two ancient seaports of Thera lay at present-day Kamari and Perissa. A necropolis lay at the base of the mountain, at the edge of today’s Kamari. A necropolis is an ancient burial ground.

The agora was the open public square of an ancient Greek city. It measures about 110 metres in length and 17 to 30 metres in width. That makes it a long strip, far longer than it is wide. A Santorini private tour at the agora can show this shape on the ground.

The Basilike Stoa is a portico of 46 by 10 metres along the agora. A portico, or stoa, is a roofed walkway held up by pillars. A row of ten Doric pillars, a plain Greek style, holds up the stoa roof. A Santorini private tour can study these pillars on site.

The sacred area on the ridge spur has a temple of Apollo Pythios. A spur is a short arm of high ground. Houses on the plateau ring a small central courtyard, with a cistern beneath it. A cistern is a water tank. A Santorini private tour can show both places.

• Egyptian gods: A rock sanctuary, a holy place, was added for the Egyptian gods in the 3rd century BC.
• Early writing: Inscriptions carved at the sanctuary rank with the earliest known uses of the Greek alphabet.
• Research: Friedrich Hiller von Gaertringen studied the city in a planned, step-by-step way from 1895 until 1904.

The agora has a completely free view east toward the ocean. Ancient Thera therefore joins old stone and open water in a single frame. A Santorini private tour that reaches the agora gives visitors that full view of ruins and sea.

What does a Santorini private tour show at Kamari and Perissa?

A Santorini private tour to Kamari and Perissa covers the southeastern side of the island. Kamari is a coastal village, meaning a village by the sea, on that side of Santorini. The village belongs to the Cyclades island group.

Residents of Episkopi Gonias built the village of Kamari. That place, Episkopi Gonias, had been nearly flattened by an earthquake in July 1956. Kamari lies about 8 km from Fira, the island capital. On a Santorini private tour, a host can tell this story inside the village itself.

The village is named for a small arch standing at the southern end of the beach. The Kamari arch is a remnant of an old customs house. A remnant is the part that is left over. A customs house is a building where officials check goods that arrive from abroad.

Kamari beach is covered with black pebbles, which are small stones. It is also the longest beach on Santorini, so no other beach on the island runs further. These two details set the beach apart. They give a host on a Santorini private tour two clear points to talk about.

Perissa lies 13 km to the southeast of Fira, beside the Messa Vouno rock. The two seaports of Ancient Thera, Oia and Elefsina, lay at present-day Kamari and Perissa. A seaport is a harbour where ships load and unload. Both places therefore have a link to ancient Thera, which a Santorini private tour can explain.

• Ceremony: Each year the arch hosts a Christian festival ceremony, the Epiphany blessing of the water, for the area.
• Sand colour: Santorini beach sand takes its colour from whichever geological layer, a band of rock, lies exposed.
• Mountain: Mesa Vouno, the mountain at the end of Kamari beach, rises to about 400 m.

In 2002, an archaic sanctuary dedicated to Achilles came to light in Kamari. Archaic means very old, and a sanctuary is a holy place. A Santorini private tour can link that find to the village, the arch and the beach.

What does a Santorini private tour show at the Red Beach?

A Santorini private tour can visit Red Beach, a volcanic sand beach on the Aegean island of Santorini. Volcanic sand is sand ground down from rock that a volcano made. Visitors reach the beach from the nearby village of Akrotiri.

The sand at Red Beach is made of crushed black and red volcanic rock. Crushed rock is rock broken into small pieces. That rock comes from the nearby Santorini caldera, which is a huge bowl-shaped hollow left by a volcano. At Red Beach, a Santorini private tour can look closely at this sand.

A Santorini private tour can head to Akrotiri, which has its own sights. They include a Venetian castle and the volcanic scenery of the nearby Red Beach. A Venetian castle is a castle tied to the city of Venice. Much of Akrotiri is built around the ruins of the 13th-century Castle of Akrotiri.

Akrotiri climbs the slopes of a hill, and the hill looks out over the caldera cliffs. On the hill above the village stand the remains of a Venetian castle called Goulas. A visitor on a Santorini private tour in the village can look across to those cliffs.

Basalt is a hard, black rock formed when lava solidifies. Lava is melted rock from a volcano, and to solidify is to turn solid. Black lavas cooled very quickly and contain a high percentage of volcanic glass. Volcanic glass is natural glass made as lava cools.

• Capital: Fira is the capital of Santorini, and Akrotiri lies south of it.
• Population: In the Greek census of 2021, a count of residents, Akrotiri had 515 permanent inhabitants.
• Outer beaches: Santorini also has outer beaches, and these beaches are smooth and shallow.

Red Beach is a popular tourist attraction on Santorini. Travellers on a Santorini private tour can ask the host about the sand, castle and cliffs. Clear answers make each stop easier to understand and easier to remember.

What do the vineyards show on a Santorini private tour?

A Santorini private tour that stops at a vineyard shows vines grown in very poor soil. The soil is made of volcanic ash, the fine powder from a volcano, and rocks. Poor soil means the ground holds little that feeds plants.

The growing season at the vineyards a Santorini private tour can visit brings warmth, little rain and high humidity. Under the soil lie subsoils that are porous, meaning full of tiny holes. They are also calcareous, meaning rich in lime. They hold humidity from the air and give it back as moisture during the night.

Assyrtiko is the flagship grape of Santorini, which means its leading grape. A cluster is a bunch of grapes hanging together on the vine. A vineyard stop on a Santorini private tour shows large Assyrtiko clusters. Their skin is transparent and yellow-gold, and their flesh is juicy.

As Santorini vines grow, they are woven into baskets with the grapes facing inward. This basket shape is called kouloura. A study compared kouloura with VSP training, another way of shaping how vines grow. It found that kouloura kept vine water stress lower. Water stress means a vine lacks enough water.

A Santorini private tour can stop at old Assyrtiko vineyards that are ungrafted. Ungrafted means the vines grow on their own roots. In grafting, a vine is joined to a rootstock, which is the root system of another plant. In search of moisture, vine roots can reach deep into volcanic soil rich in ash.

• Layers: On Santorini, a vine aged 75 is woven into multiple layers.
• Renewal: Roots of an aged vine are cut back, and a new vine is attached to the rootstock.
• Harvest: Harvest, when the grapes are picked from the vines, takes place on Santorini in mid-August.

About 1,200 hectares of Santorini land are under vine, which means planted with grapevines. A hectare is a measure of land area. A Santorini private tour that stops at a vineyard shows one part of that land.

Which local foods does a Santorini private tour taste?

A Santorini private tour suits anyone curious about the local food of the island. Fava beans, tomatoes and capers each tell a story about the land and the farmers who work it. These three foods make a clear starting point.

Fava Santorinis carries a protected designation of origin, which is an EU label for products made in one place. It uses the seeds of a plant called Spanish vetchling. For this fava, that plant grows only on Santorini and neighbouring islands. Local food is a good topic for a Santorini private tour.

Volcanic ash, cellular soil (soil with tiny cells), sea humidity and drought make the bean a rare resource. Santorini gets under 370 mm of yearly rain, so crops rely on dew and 71% humidity. Dew is water that forms on plants from the air. This farming suits a Santorini private tour.

Seeds of the vetchling plant were found in jars in the ruins of Akrotiri. They date to about 1600 BCE, which means before the common era. Seeds of Spanish vetchling hold 25% protein and 26% dietary fibre. Dietary fibre is the part of plant food that helps the body digest.

Santorini tomatoes have a deep red colour and firm flesh with a high seed content. They are round and slightly flattened, and they weigh 15 to 27 grams. Tomatoes are a simple place to start for anyone planning a Santorini private tour that centres on food.

• Harvest: In good weather, farmers on the island can harvest about 800 kilograms of beans from each hectare, a unit of land.
• Tomato fields: By the 1900s, 20,000 acres of tomatoes were regularly harvested on Santorini.
• Factory: The island’s only remaining tomato processing factory was built near Monolithos village in 1952.

Oia trades honey, wine, capers and fava beans as agricultural products. Capers are the edible flower buds of the caper bush. They are used as seasoning or garnish, a small topping. Each one is a talking point on a Santorini private tour.

What does the Museum of Prehistoric Thera hold on a Santorini private tour?

A Santorini private tour can include the Museum of Prehistoric Thera. Finds dug up at Akrotiri are installed there, away from the site itself. So the objects are shown apart from the place where they were found, inside a museum building.

The history of these finds is part of what a Santorini private tour can explain. In 1867, locals found old objects at a quarry, a place where stone is cut from the ground. French geologist F. Fouque, an earth scientist, then led Santorini’s earliest excavations. Excavations are organised digs that uncover the past.

Between 1895 and 1900, the German archaeologist Hiller von Gaertringen uncovered the remains of ancient Thera on the hill of Mesa Vouno. An archaeologist studies the past through what people left behind. He focused on the settlements of the 9th century BC, meaning the towns and villages of that age.

Other people and groups ran digs of their own. R. Zahn dug at Potamos under the German Archaeological Institute at Athens. The Archaeological Society of Athens directed the main excavations at Akrotiri. A Santorini private tour built around history can use these names to tell one dig from another.

Akrotiri’s history reaches back to 3300 BC. The site flourished in its mature stage in the 17th century BC. Prehistoric means from the time before written records. Early Cycladic and Late Cycladic are stage names that archaeologists take from the island group holding Santorini. A Santorini private tour can sort objects by these stages.

• Neolithic: Pottery from the Neolithic, also called the New Stone Age, was found on the island.
• Early Cycladic: Marble figurines, small statues, and pottery from Early Cycladic times are on show.
• Kastri group: Objects from the Christiana islets, tiny islands, and Akrotiri mark the shift from Late Cycladic II to III.

The museum also shows Early Cycladic metal artefacts, meaning objects made by people, from different sites. It explains the island’s complex network of contacts with the outside world. That wide view gives a Santorini private tour a clear theme to follow.

What does Skaros Rock show on a Santorini private tour?

A Santorini private tour at Skaros Rock shows the site of a casteli, a fortified settlement. Skaros was one of five casteli on the island. Fortified means strengthened against attack, and the rock formation marks the old settlement’s location.

The rock itself opens the story of a Santorini private tour at Skaros. Skaros Rock is also called Cape Skaros when sailors describe the formation. A cape is a headland that reaches into the sea. Erosion, the slow wearing away of stone, and earthquakes have shaped it further.

A small harbor was built at the foot of the Skaros formation. Homes, businesses and extra fortifications also rose around the promontory as the settlement grew. A promontory is a high point of land that sticks out into the sea. Fortifications are strong defenses. A Santorini private tour here can show that growth.

In the mid 16th century, wars between the Ottoman Empire and Venice brought Ottoman raids to Santorini. The island’s ruling families cut ties with Venice. They signed a non-aggression treaty, a promise not to attack, with the Ottomans. A Santorini private tour at Skaros links this story to the landscape.

Ottoman admiral Piali Pasha arrived with a large fleet and demanded that Santorini join the Ottoman Empire. Each settlement on the island, Skaros included, accepted the Ottoman terms, and Santorini became an Ottoman possession. The Ottomans left a garrison force in Skaros. A garrison is a body of soldiers stationed in one place.

• Decline: Skaros lost importance to Fira, the new island capital, and to the town of Oia.
• Collapse: Strong earthquakes from the volcano’s eruption collapsed part of the town of Skaros into the sea.
• Churches: At the entrance to every casteli stood a church dedicated to Agia Theodosia, protector-saint of castles.

Akrotiri, Emborio, Pyrgos and Agios Nikolaos at Oia were the island’s other casteli. Skaros belongs to that group of fortified settlements. A Santorini private tour that reaches it connects one rock to the wider story of the island.

How did the 1956 earthquake change the villages on a Santorini private tour?

A Santorini private tour moves through villages that the 1956 earthquake reshaped. The island saw 35% of its houses collapse, while 45% suffered major or minor damage. Afterwards, Oia redeveloped into a tourist town of the Cyclades island group.

The Amorgos earthquake struck at 03:11 UTC, the world time standard, on 9 July 1956. Its epicentre, the spot on the ground above where the quake began, lay south of Amorgos. No Cyclades island lies further east than Amorgos. That date opens the story of the villages on a Santorini private tour.

The quake measured 7.7 on the moment magnitude scale, which rates the energy an earthquake releases. Its maximum perceived intensity was IX. Intensity rates the shaking felt and damage done. No other earthquake in Greece in the 20th century was larger. These figures set the background for any Santorini private tour of the villages.

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake near Santorini followed the main shock 13 minutes later. Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis, the head of the Greek government, declared Santorini a “large-scale local disaster”. He visited the island on 14 July. That response is part of the history behind a Santorini private tour.

The underground dwellings on the ridge had to be evacuated, because the soil was unstable. Evacuated means emptied of people for safety. The coast also faced a tsunami, a set of sea waves caused by a sudden seabed movement. Run-up is the highest point on land that the water reaches.

• Perissa: The tsunami reached an estimated 3 metres at this beach.
• Vlichada: The tsunami reached an estimated 2 metres at this beach.
• Run-up: A major tsunami followed the earthquake, and its run-up peaked at 30 m.

Oia’s community president has restricted construction to reduce risk from future earthquakes. The rule looks ahead rather than back to 1956. For a Santorini private tour, Oia is a town that now plans for another earthquake.

What do cave houses and canavas show on a Santorini private tour?

A Santorini private tour is a good way to read the island’s building story in its stone. Builders have used tuff, a relatively soft rock, since ancient times. Cave houses, cisterns and towers each show how islanders dealt with a different need.

Traditional houses on Santorini are low-lying, cube-shaped buildings made of local stone. Their walls were whitewashed or limewashed, meaning coated with a paint made from lime. Different volcanic ashes were used as colours. Seen this way, a Santorini private tour becomes a lesson in stone, lime and ash.

Half of Santorini’s buildings were completely destroyed when strong earthquakes struck in 1956. Soil instability along the caldera ridge, the cliff rim above the sea, caused great damage. Its underground dwellings, known as cave houses, needed to be evacuated. Evacuated means that people had to leave them.

Oia’s houses carry a coat of white lime water, so rain runs off them and can be collected. In Oia, houses and restaurants are built into niches, hollows carved into the caldera on the seaward side. Visitors planning a Santorini private tour can use these clues to read how Oia was built.

Oia’s hinterland, the land behind the town, produced excellent wine in quantity and exported it to France. Islanders also channelled rain off roofs and courtyards into elaborate underground cisterns, which are tanks for storing water. Both stories show how people lived, and a Santorini private tour can follow either one.

• Closed walls: The outer walls of the settlements had no openings, so they made a protective perimeter, or ring, around the village.
• Strong towers: Goulas towers had thick walls, iron gates and parapets, low walls along a roof edge.
• Annex: A small room with a barrel vault, a curved roof, was built onto Panagia Episkopi’s southeast part.

Imerovigli’s churches are made in the Cycladic architectural style, the building style of the Cyclades islands. Each of these buildings adds one more clue to the island’s past. A Santorini private tour is one way to read them all.

Which churches does a Santorini private tour pass?

A Santorini private tour can pass Panagia Episkopi, a church about 600 metres southeast of Mesa Gonia. The route can also take in the Three Bells of Fira church, depending on the traveller’s choice. The two churches tell different parts of the island’s story.

Until 1207, Panagia Episkopi was the Orthodox diocese seat of Santorini, and it held that role again from 1537 to 1827. A diocese is the area a bishop leads. The seat is the main church where he is based. A Santorini private tour can reach the building behind those dates.

Panagia Episkopi follows a Greek-cross plan, so its whole floor is shaped like a cross. The floor is 14 metres long and 11.1 metres wide. These measurements give a clear picture of the building’s size. Travellers know what to expect before they step through the door.

The chancel is the part of a church around the altar, where the priest stands. At Panagia Episkopi, red, green, yellow and blue glass bricks provide the only outside light into this area. Visitors on a Santorini private tour can look for these four colours when the chancel comes into view.

An annex built in 1767 settled a dispute between Roman and Orthodox Christians, two groups of believers. An annex is a smaller building or room added to a main building. A Santorini private tour can point out this addition to the church and the disagreement it settled.

• Icon: Panagia Glykofilousa, an icon (holy picture) of a sweetly kissing Madonna (Mary), dates to the 12th century.
• Fresco: A fresco (wall painting) shows Herodias presenting the king with John the Baptist’s head on a platter.
• Feast food: After the feast service, worshippers are offered a puree (smooth mash) of sweet peas and beans.

The Three Bells of Fira church was built in 1757. The Catholic Diocese of Santorini, also called the Diocese of Thera, was established in 1204. Each date marks a separate chapter. A Santorini private tour can be planned around either chapter.

Which peak and monastery rise above a Santorini private tour?

A Santorini private tour can point out the Mikro Profitis Ilias ridge, a long strip of high ground. The northern peak rises to 319.6 metres. The Profitis Ilias monastery, a house where monks live, is the second name to know.

The Mikro Profitis Ilias ridge sits in northern Santorini, between Cape Kolumbo and Cape Skaros. A cape is a headland that reaches out into the sea. A Santorini private tour can add that the ridge’s southern peak, at 318 metres, is one metre lower.

The rock of the Mikro Profitis Ilias ridge is older than the Minoan eruption of Thera. That eruption was an ancient volcanic blast. The name Profitis Ilias literally means Prophet Elijah. A Santorini private tour can share both facts, one about the rock and one about the name.

Late in the Ottoman period, the Profitis Ilias monastery was an important monastic centre of the Cyclades. Ottoman rule was government by the Ottoman Empire, the ruling power then. A monastic centre is a leading place where monks live and follow their faith. The Cyclades are a Greek island group.

Sixteen monks of the Profitis Ilias monastery, led by abbot Gerasimos Mavrommatis, declared written support for the revolt. An abbot is the head of a monastery. A revolt is an uprising against those in power. A Santorini private tour can also turn to the village of Pyrgos.

• Name: The Greek name Pyrgos Kallistis, for the village of Pyrgos, translates as ‘Beauty Tower’.
• Population: Pyrgos had 1,078 people in the 2021 census, which is an official count of residents.
• Distance: Pyrgos lies about 7 km from Fira, the capital of the island.

Pyrgos belongs to the Municipality of Thira. A municipality is an area run by one local government. Pyrgos is one of the Santorini villages least spoiled by tourism. A Santorini private tour that stops in Pyrgos visits one of those villages.

What history from the Venetians to the Ottomans does a Santorini private tour cover?

A Santorini private tour covers two eras of foreign rule on the island, Venetian and then Ottoman. The story shows how the island’s rule passed from Venetian families to Ottoman rulers. Raids, treaties, and a revolt mark the way between them.

The Duchy of Naxos, ruled by a duke, held Santorini after the Fourth Crusade, a Christian military campaign. That rule lasted until around 1280. Iacopo II Barozzi retook Santorini from the Byzantines, the eastern Christian empire, around 1301. Barozzi came from a Cretan branch of a Venetian family.

Tradition says Iacopo Barozzi conquered Santorini after 1204, yet no historical document confirms the story. A Santorini private tour therefore keeps the tale apart from proven history. Venetian rule left a sizable Catholic community. It also left a Catholic bishopric, the area led by a bishop, that still exists.

Turkish principalities, small states led by princes, raided Santorini in the 1300s. The island did not suffer much damage. From the 15th century, treaties with the Ottoman Empire recognised Venice’s suzerainty, or overlordship, over Santorini. Ottoman raids still continued. Raids and treaties fill this chapter of a Santorini private tour.

In 1576, the Ottoman admiral Piyale Pasha captured Santorini. The Ottomans were annexing, meaning taking over, the remaining Latin possessions in the Aegean. Latin here means western Christian. Santorini joined the domain of Joseph Nasi, the sultan’s Jewish favourite, which was semi-autonomous, or partly self-ruled. This story is part of a Santorini private tour.

• Venetian raids: In the 17th century, Venetian raids hit the island even though no Muslims lived there.
• Russian capture: Russians under Alexey Orlov briefly captured Santorini during the Russo-Turkish War, before it returned to Ottoman control.
• Island revolt: Kefalonians living on Santorini raised the flag of revolution, or uprising, in 1821 and expelled Ottoman officials.

In 1832, Santorini became part of the independent Kingdom of Greece for good. This happened under the Treaty of Constantinople, a written agreement between states. That date closes the story of foreign rule on a Santorini private tour.

How does the Santorini climate shape a Santorini private tour?

A Santorini private tour follows the seasons, so the month decides how warm the island feels. Air runs cooler in spring, hotter in summer and warm again in autumn. A weather station, a site that measures air temperature and rain, records that change.

The Santorini climate table comes from the Santorini station, which stands 183 metres above sea level. Because every figure comes from one station, months compare fairly. A Santorini private tour planned around these numbers rests on measurements rather than guesses. Travellers can pick a month with facts.

A Santorini private tour in April starts with two figures. A daily mean is the average temperature across a full day and night. April’s daily mean at the Santorini station is 16.9 °C. April nights at the Santorini station average a low of 13.6 °C, the night’s coolest point.

July is the warm side of the year. July’s daily mean at the Santorini station is 26.7 °C. July nights at the Santorini station average a low of 23.3 °C. Both numbers sit above the April ones. A traveller can use that contrast to pick a month with care.

June adds two more figures for a Santorini private tour. An average high is the warmest reading of a day. June’s average high at the Santorini station is 27.9 °C. Rainfall is water from the sky, measured in millimetres, or mm. June rainfall at the Santorini station averages 3.6 mm.

• April: The Santorini station’s record high, its hottest April reading on record, is 29.6 °C.
• July: The Santorini station’s record high for July stands at 39.4 °C.
• October: The Santorini station’s record high for October stands at 33.1 °C.

October’s daily mean at the Santorini station is 20.2 °C. The Santorini station’s record low for October is 11.3 °C, the coldest October reading on record. Seasonal numbers like these let a Santorini private tour match the month that suits each traveller.

Which ports and roads does a Santorini private tour use?

A Santorini private tour travels on the island’s roads. The roads on the eastern side of Fira form the main access to the town. Fira serves as the island’s capital, and distances to the villages are counted from it.

Fira gets its name from another way of saying Thira, the island’s ancient name. An alternative pronunciation is a different way to say the same word. Anyone on a Santorini private tour who hears Fira hears a form of the island’s ancient name.

Between the Old Port and Fira runs the Santorini cable car, a pulsed gondola lift. A gondola lift moves small passenger cabins along a cable. Pulsed means the cabins run in groups, with gaps between groups. On a Santorini private tour, a rider who takes the lift travels by cable, not by road.

In 1979, shipowner Evangelos Nomikos initiated the donation that paid for the Santorini cable car. A shipowner is a person who owns ships. A donation is a gift of money. To initiate means to start something, so the gift began with him. The lift therefore owes its start to that gift.

Ruins of a Venetian castle sit on the Pyrgos hill. Venetian means linked to Venice, a city in Italy. The ruins mark the island’s former administrative centre. An administrative centre is where an area is run. Anyone who plans a Santorini private tour finds in these ruins the old base of island government.

• Old transport: Island transport once consisted only of a jeep, a small bus, and donkeys and mules.
• Akrotiri: This village sits 15 km south of Fira, the capital.
• Emporeio: This village is 12 km away from Fira, close to the Profitis Ilias range.

The Municipality of Thera owns the Santorini cable car. A municipality is the local government of a town or district. Planners of a Santorini private tour can therefore name the lift’s owner: the local government of Thera.

What do the ferries and the cruise ships add to a Santorini private tour?

A Santorini private tour meets large cruise ships that anchor in the harbour lying between Nea Kameni and Fira. To anchor is to drop a heavy metal hook onto the sea floor. The hook then holds the ship in one place.

The port is the landing place for a Santorini private tour that arrives by sea. A port is the place where ships load and unload people. The lower terminal of the cable car stands beside the port and links it with Fira. A terminal is the station where a ride begins or ends.

Walkers climb from the port to Fira by a zigzag footpath. A zigzag footpath is a path that bends sharply left and right as it climbs. A Santorini private tour from the port can also reach Fira on foot. Each bend turns the route back on itself.

A Santorini private tour that walks up the footpath shares it with donkeys. A donkey is a working animal that carries loads and riders. Groups for animal rights have criticised donkeys being used to carry tourists. These groups speak up for the fair treatment of animals.

East of Nea Kameni, inside the caldera, a cruise ship ran aground on a volcanic reef. To run aground means to hit the sea floor and get stuck. A reef is a ridge of rock near the water surface. The caldera is the bowl-shaped crater left when a volcano collapses.

• Wreck: The wreck of that cruise ship is, for now, an artificial reef, meaning one nature did not form.
• Communities: Ticket income from the cable car is shared among Santorini’s 14 communities.
• Mule drivers: Part of the cable car income supports the traditional mule drivers, who lead donkeys and mules.

In the early 1950s, tourism meant small numbers of wealthy visitors on yacht cruises. A yacht is a private boat built for pleasure trips. A Santorini private tour from the port belongs to that story of visitors arriving by sea.

What questions come up about a Santorini private tour?

A Santorini private tour is served by one airport and sits beside an active volcano. It faces the island of Therasia and is surrounded by the Aegean Sea. The airport has two short codes, the volcano has a named vent, and Therasia has villages.

Which airport serves a Santorini private tour?

The main asphalt runway at Santorini International Airport is 2,197 metres long. The airport first operated in 1972. It carries two short airport codes, one called the IATA code and one called the ICAO code. The IATA code is JTR. The ICAO code is LGSR.

Which volcano sits beside a Santorini private tour?

Roman historian Cassius Dio recorded an islet, a very small island, near Thera in 47 CE. In 19 CE, on 8 July, Pliny the Elder reported a new island. Locals named Nea Kameni’s active vent after King George I of Greece. A vent is an opening where a volcano erupts.

Which island faces a Santorini private tour across the caldera?

On the island of Therasia, the village of Agia Eirini has 28 inhabitants. Potamos is another village on Therasia, and it is listed with 74 inhabitants. Therasia lies within the municipal unit of Oia. A municipal unit is a local government area.

Which sea surrounds a Santorini private tour?

The Aegean Sea is a long inlet of the Mediterranean, set between Europe and Asia. Its maximum depth is 2,639 metres, and this point lies west of Karpathos. The South Aegean Region consists of two island groups, the Cyclades and the Dodecanese.