Santorini: Too Crowded, Challenged, Future Limits??!!

From the Travel Section of the London/UK Sunday Express in the past week, they have this headline: “Santorini at BREAKING point as island struggles under influx of tourists” with these highlights: “This Greek destination is struggling to cope with the influx of travellers it has welcomed over the years. This year alone, nearly two million tourists are set to visit it. Yet this is also putting pressure on the island itself. The other side of the idyllic holiday destination is the local community, who are still suffering from the fallout of the economic crisis. Having hit Greece hard, 23 per cent of its citizens are unemployed and struggle to make ends meet on a daily basis. It isn't just the crowded nature of the island that is worrying.”

This article continues to note: "The huge influx of tourists means the island's infrastructure and resources are reaching breaking point. Traffic jams are filling up the tiny island's roads with tourists taking to the streets to explore the beautiful island, and water consumption is reportedly up by 46 per cent. Santorini’s mayor Nikos Zorzos has previously capped visitors to the island in an attempt to save it, which saw cruise passenger numbers decrease from 18,000 to just 8,000. 'We have reached saturation point. The pressure is too much.' "

While we have visited and loved Athens and other parts of Greece, Santorini is at the top of our "must-see" for the future list. Hope they can things worked out and managed before Santorini becomes too threaten as now impacting Venice and Dubrovnik.

Full story at:

http://www.express.co.uk/travel/articles/847945/Santorini-tourism-greek-island

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

For Athens and nearby, look at this earlier posting for many options and visual samples from this city that is so great for seeing its great history, style and architecture. This posting is now at 17,385 views.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1101008

I believe it's a double edged sword. Same with Dubrovnik and Venice. But like it or not, tourism is a major part of their economy.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Just a little crowded

Thank you very much for sharing this article with us, I personally LOVE Santorini but not on Aug, is super crowded :(

I believe it's a double edged sword. Same with Dubrovnik and Venice. But like it or not, tourism is a major part of their economy.

Appreciate these additional comments and follow-ups. Very good warning on August crowding. Love the picture about how these narrow streets can get so jammed. Yes, we will get to Santorini, but we will need to get our timing right. Many economic challenges for these popular towns and areas.

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

Enjoyed a 14-day, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure, getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for more info and many pictures of these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 186,130 views for this posting.

We spent several days there in the 80's. It was wonderful. We went on a cruise a few years ago. It was hell.

We island hopped for several weeks two years ago. The ferry stopped at Santorini but we did not bother visiting. There were too many cruise ships in port. If we ever visit again it will probably be in the very early spring-ahead of the crowds.

How bad is it in mid-late September?

How bad is it in mid-late September?

Two suggestions-

#1- Check out a ships in port website, e.g. for September 2017:

http://ports.cruisett.com/schedule/Greece/805-Santorini_Island/September_2017/

#2- Get to Oia as early as possible! We opted to take a ship's tour to get there and ditched it (as did many others on our bus). Oia was just about ours alone for at least an hour. We returned to our ship via a chartered boat tour out of Amoudi, where we had a wonderful lunch, which is reached via numerous steps from Oia (or possibly taxi). Our Santorini day in June 2012 was wonderful, but careful planning made it so.

Far less tourists in late September.

We last visited it in May of 2014 and we were the only ship in port.

Keith

We have stopped doing Med cruises. We have done four. Just too many people in one place at one time. We have switched to land tours and then visiting the islands via the ferry system. It takes more work to plan a general itinerary but we find that it is worth it.

I was in Santorini this year, in April. We were a ship of 330 passengers, and were the only ship there in the morning. One additional ship arrived at some point around mid-day, but it was not super-huge.

We had a wonderful day and saw a lot of the island without the usual crowds. I can only reiterate my frequent advice to GO OFF SEASON (early Spring or late Fall) in the Med to get the best of it.

P.S. I've taken two Med cruises in April and the weather was perfect both times. Of course, I'm not interested in beaches and prefer more moderate temperatures.

Early May was glorious and not crowded. We rented cars and drove around the island. Crowded and hot is not good!

Our best trip to Santorini was in the early nineties. Four days in October, not one cruise ship in town. And no issue renting a small motorcyle. No crowns and reasonable price to rent a place with a balcony overlooking the caldera.

We arranged for follow on accomoddation at Moma's...a local cafe. The owner put us in touch with her sister in Kato Chania who had a flat for rent.

Just a little crowded

 

The next street along in Santorini on 30th November 2016 ... More danger of being run over by a donkey carrying building materials ... Though an idiotic Greek motorist still drove at my camera bag as we were crossing the road!

Thank you for sharing the cruise in port info. Im new to this whole cruising thing. We are doing a Mediterranean cruise next May but thought id start getting a few ducks in a row.

Damn we are 1 of 4 ships in Santorini the day we get there with a total of 7202 people. 2 ships get in in before us as well. Its going to be a blood bath.

On hiring a car is quiet easy to drive around or are the roads chaotic?

How bad is it in mid-late September?

We were there on 14/09/17 and it took us over an hour in the line for the cable car back to the ship.

We have been in Greece a number of times. Always April/May or October.

We prefer the spring. We spent a week on Crete in late April/early May. It was the first weekend following Greek Easter. It was a great time to go. People were not tired of tourists, it was not busy, prices were down, etc. Schedules permitting, we would not visit Greece from mid June to late Sept. It is too busy and too hot during that time but I realize many people can only travel during NA summer months.

We were there on 14/09/17 and it took us over an hour in the line for the cable car back to the ship.

We were there in July and spent over an hour in line for the cable car (in the hot sun).

We were there in July and spent over an hour in line for the cable car (in the hot sun).

We walked both the uphill and downhill sections from the ship to Santorini ... Quite a few stops to admire the views and take photos (nothing to do with the need to let the lungs recover ...) though the climb felt like purgatory! It did keep us clear of any crowds, but the overall number of tourists was limited to less than 1,000 in total. Waiting times for the return Tender to the ship was probably 10-15 minutes in pleasant November temperatures (though we did get a few spots of rain - nothing to write home about, though). Seems our 'grab a last minute bargain' cruise gave us another present by Santorini being almost empty ... :)

We were there on 14/09/17 and it took us over an hour in the line for the cable car back to the ship.

We were there the following day and it was just as crowded. We waited 1.25 hours in the cable car queue.

Santorini is very beautiful but as a cruise ship destination it is not worth going to IMHO, especially if there is more than one ship in port. The article Terry quoted claimed they have limited numbers to around 8000 passengers per day. That was my estimate of the number of people in port the day we were there (using the cruise companies capacity figures for the ships in port that day) and Santorini can't cope with even that number.

Fighting our way through the narrow lanes of Oia and Fira wasn't pleasant, especially when other people were impatient and insist on pushing past in either direction.

The cable car is a true cable car (one side goes up while the other goes down) not a continually rotating gondola where cars go up, round, back down and round. Each side consists of six cars operating together. Each car holds a maximum of six people, so 36 people at one time. It takes a couple of minutes for the ride up or down, plus another couple for unloading and loading. It is not an efficient method of transporting up to 8000 passengers between the Fira wharf and the town, and standing in long queues on a hot day is the last straw. There are other options - ride a donkey down but there is a weight limit, or walk down the several hundred steps of the donkey trail. Neither were suitable for me.

It's a shame the companies running the Fira to Oia ferries don't offer a return ferry option, there only seemed to be the option to take the ferry to Oia with bus transfers up the hill from the Oia wharf to the town, and then through to Fira. I would have been much happier just spending the day at Oia and avoiding the cable car mess.

On hiring a car is quiet easy to drive around or are the roads chaotic?

How confident are you at driving on the opposite side of the road from Australia, on narrow roads cut into sheer hillsides, with lots of sharp turns, and large buses coming in the opposite direction that need the whole road to get around some of the turns? Then there is the parking issue - there didn't appear to be many places to park near Oia and Fira. Also most of the "streets" in Oia and Fira are actually narrow lanes that are pedestrian-only.

My advice is to get off the ship as early as possible, take the ferry to Oia which includes bus transfers up the hill from the wharf to the town and also back to Fira. Don't leave it until the last bus back to Fira (2pm the day we were there) as you will end up in a long queue for the cable car. Note: I'm not sure what time that queue starts building up though.