Is a day trip from Crete to Santorini worth it?

Posted by dbemigh44 on 06/02/17 02:24 PM

My family and I will be staying near Rethymno for 6 days. We would like to take a ferry to Santorini for a day trip. After reading other travel blogs, some people felt that the trip was not worth it, but would not give a reason why other than it was time consuming (I'm guessing from being on a boat for 6 hours and only on the island for 8 hours). Has anyone ever done the day trip to Santorini? Did you think it was worth the experience and can you recommend any tours or should we take the do it yourself approach?

Thank you,
Derrick

Posted by Morten

Copenhagen, Denmark

06/02/17 02:39 PM

971 posts

I havent done a day trip, but in my experience Santorini is worth at least 2 or 3 days. If you do a day trip, you risk ending in lock step with all the other day trippers and Cruise tourists.

Posted by Paul

Eastern Iowa, USA

06/02/17 02:58 PM

8048 posts

While I stayed overnight, I have done about the equivalent of 8 hours on Santorini (as a stop between Naxos/Koufonessia and Crete) For me, that was fine, saw the caldera, went to Akrotiri, spent time in Fira, even some beach time. Yes, one could spend more time, but seeing the caldera and experiencing some of the island is worth it in my opinion.

All that said, we were passing through, so no wasted travel time. Having been to Crete, I could probably say that there is plenty to do there without taking up time in a long day of travel.

Posted by Rosalyn

Portland

06/02/17 03:10 PM

3643 posts

With just 6 days on Crete, I would not do the trip to Santorini. There is so much to see and do on Crete, whatever your interests are. Check out "Things to Do" for Crete on Trip Advisor.

We have just returned from Greece and visited both islands. Some people dismiss Santorini as too touristy, but we liked it. However, we had 12 nights on Crete and 3, on Santorini. If we hadn't so much time on Crete, I would have axed Santorini. Count on it being mobbed. Also, one of the top attractions is to watch the sunset over the caldera. This happens between 8:30 and 9:00. I doubt you can enjoy it and make the last ferry back.
One more point when calculating "worth." The one-way ferry tickets were close to 70 euros/pp. For a family going round trip that adds up to quite a lot.

Posted by stanbr

Nanaimo, BC, Canada

06/02/17 05:59 PM

1441 posts

If I am remembering the thread about the day trip to Santorini the comments were basically based on the short time you had in Crete and using a day to go to Santorini was wasting a day on Crete.
If you were spending a couple of weeks in Crete then I suspect you would have had a different response. The very fact that Hellenic and Seajets both offer a tour of Santorini from Crete indicates that lots of people do it. One day out of 14 seems reasonable 1 day out of 6 is a significant amount of time.