There are many things you can read before your first trip to Santorini: where to watch the sunset, which villages to visit, where to swim and what to book in advance.
All useful, of course.
But after living here and watching people arrive every season, there are a few other things I sometimes wish someone had told them before they came.
Think of this as a very unofficial Santorini survival guide — a few ways not to hurt yourself, annoy the people who live here, or discover that Mediterranean sunshine is considerably less gentle than it looked from your balcony.
Nothing particularly dramatic, mostly common sense. Although, as every summer reminds me, common sense occasionally goes on holiday too.
The Caldera Is Beautiful. It Is Also a Cliff.
This sounds painfully obvious, and yet there are places along the caldera where the drop is very real, and getting as close as physically possible to the edge will not necessarily improve the photograph.
Please be particularly careful on windy days. The wind in Santorini can be surprisingly strong, sometimes with sudden gusts, and standing close to an exposed edge is not the place to discover just how strong.
There will be another photograph, and it can almost certainly be taken from somewhere sensible.
Ruins Are Not Viewing Platforms
Santorini is full of old walls, abandoned structures and places that look wonderfully photogenic. Some are very old, some are unstable, and none becomes safer simply because somebody else climbed onto it before you.
Please do not climb on ruins, walls or old buildings to get a better view or photograph. Apart from the risk to yourself, these places are part of the island and deserve rather better than being treated as props.
Instagram will survive. Hopefully, so will the wall.
Bring Shoes You Can Actually Walk In
You do not need mountaineering equipment to visit Santorini, but you do need shoes in which you can comfortably walk.
There are a great many steps, as well as cobbled paths, uneven surfaces, slopes and polished stones that can be considerably more slippery than they look.
This does not mean abandoning all hope of looking elegant on holiday. It simply means that the beautiful shoes you packed for dinner may not also be the ideal shoes for exploring the island for four hours.
Your ankles will appreciate the distinction.
Do Not Underestimate the Mediterranean Sun
This is something I particularly wish I could tell visitors who come from places where strong sunshine is less familiar.
The sun here can be intense, and the wind can make it deceptive. You may be sitting outside feeling perfectly comfortable because there is a lovely breeze, while your skin is having an entirely different experience.
Especially during your first days on the island, be sensible about how long you spend in direct sun. Be particularly careful around the middle of the day, use proper sun protection and do not assume that several uninterrupted hours of sunbathing on your first afternoon is an excellent way to begin your holiday.
And if getting a tan is part of the plan, there is really no need to hurry. Santorini’s white walls reflect an extraordinary amount of sunlight, so you are getting more of it than you may realise even when you are simply sitting outside rather than deliberately sunbathing.
You will tan. Do not worry.
There is no need to absorb the entire Mediterranean on day one.
Do Not Plan on Drinking the Tap Water
This is a small practical detail, but a useful one to know before you arrive.
In Santorini, you should not plan on drinking water directly from the tap. Use bottled water for drinking instead, and particularly in summer, make sure you always have some with you when you go out.
The combination of strong sun, wind and a great many more steps than you expected can make you thirsty surprisingly quickly.
At Spitia Tzitzi, we provide drinking water for our guests on arrival, but it is still worth getting into the habit of taking a bottle with you when you leave for the day.
The Wind Deserves a Little Respect Too
Wind is part of island life. Sometimes it is a gentle breeze; at other times, it has rather more ambitious plans.
Apart from being careful near exposed places, pay attention to what you leave outside — particularly sun umbrellas.
If you leave your terrace or your house, close the umbrella, even if it seems perfectly calm at that particular moment. A large umbrella can become a remarkably effective flying object when the wind suddenly picks up, and where it eventually lands is not something you get to choose.
Another terrace would be inconvenient. Somebody’s head would be considerably worse.
Closing it takes a few seconds.
A Beautiful Terrace Is Still Somebody’s Terrace
This is another one that seems as though it should not need saying.
It does.
Many of the terraces, courtyards, rooftops, stairways and little paths you see along the caldera belong to private houses or hotels. Please do not open gates, walk through properties, climb over low walls or step onto someone’s terrace because you have spotted a particularly good photograph.
People live and work here, and hotel guests may be sitting just out of sight, enjoying the privacy they paid for. A beautiful view does not turn private property into a public viewpoint.
And after a long summer of discovering strangers in places where strangers were never invited, I cannot promise that every local you encounter will greet your photographic expedition with unlimited Mediterranean warmth.
The Caldera Has Its Own Volume
There is something else you may notice when staying on the caldera: people tend to speak more quietly.
Partly, this is simply practical. Houses and terraces are close to one another, and sound travels remarkably well across the cliffs, particularly at night. A conversation that feels perfectly normal on your terrace may be reaching several others without any difficulty at all.
Of course, restaurants and bars are different. They are social spaces, and a certain amount of noise is part of being there.
But in quieter areas such as Imerovigli or Akrotiri, the silence is part of what people have come for. It is one of the great luxuries of these places — sitting outside late in the evening with the caldera in front of you and very little else demanding your attention.
So there is rarely any need to raise your voice, play music loudly or make your presence known to the entire cliff.
If we take away the quiet from places people choose precisely for their quiet, we have rather missed the point of being there.
You Do Not Have to Do Everything
This may be the least safety-related advice here, but perhaps one of the most useful.
Santorini has a peculiar ability to make people feel that they are falling behind on their own holiday. Between Oia, sunsets, sailing, wine tasting, beaches, Akrotiri, Fira and the restaurant somebody on Instagram said was essential, four days on a Greek island can begin to look suspiciously like a project-management exercise.
Choose the things that genuinely interest you, book in advance what really needs booking, and then leave some space.
A long breakfast is not wasted time. Sitting on a terrace for two hours does not mean you are failing to explore Santorini properly. And if you find somewhere you like and decide to change the rest of your plans, nobody is keeping score.
You came on holiday.
Leave a Little Room for Santorini to Interfere
Some of the nicest things that happen on an island are not the things you planned before arriving.
The sunset may be spectacular on the evening when you expected nothing from it. A lunch may last much longer than intended. You may find a village you had barely noticed on the map, or simply decide that the view in front of you is more appealing than whatever you were supposed to be doing next.
Let it happen.
You do not need to conquer Santorini, collect photographic evidence from every famous location or return home having seen everything.
Walk carefully, respect the island and the people who live here, wear sensible shoes, close the umbrella — and leave some room for Santorini to interfere with your plans.
