Our party of 6 is looking for a driver/guide in lieu of an excursion off our cruise ship. Any recommendations would be appreciated.
Way back when during those Pre-COVID times, we used Santorini Tours. Going to their website, it seems it's now named Santorini Private-Tours.
https://www.santorini-private-tours.com
I emailed them and told them what I wanted: To see Oia, and then go to Akrotiri and then what ever was left of the day, take us to see the sights and a lunch place before getting us back to the cable cars by 3:30 pm.
They met us at the top of the cable car in Fira, walked us to the car, met Vicki, our driver who drove us first to Oia, because she said we should see it in the AM before the tour bus crowd arrived. She is just a driver, so she could not conduct a tour, but she told us where to go to get those pictures of the blue domed churches. Then she drove us to Akrotiri, on the other side of the island. Again, she is not a tour guide, so we entered and did that site by ourselves. Then she drove us to eat lunch at a place on the beach on the East side near the airport. We stopped at Red Beach to the overlook. She said we could stop at the winery, but we declined as we are from Northern California and winery tours are a dime a dozen for us. She dropped us in Fira and we walked the pedestrian walkway along the shops to the Cable car station.
Give them an email and see what they say. Back then I emailed several and the prices varied and I told one place their price was too high and they gave me a lower price but I ended up going with Santorini Tours.
Last year we visited Santorini and we booked a private tour with a company called "The Joy Van", you could check out their website here: https://thejoyvan.com/
Our driver was Konstantinos, who is also the owner of the company. He was was very polite and fun, took us to every important destination such as Fira, Oia, Akrotiri, Red Beach and gave us some interesting information and insights about each place! Prices are a little higher since these are private tours but it's definitely worth it!
We had a great experience with Touring with Kostas. He was extremely knowledgeable and personable. His "A la Carte" tour allowed us to tailor the experience to our interests. https://santorini-private-guide.com/