Santorini island tours: bus, small group or private driver
Updated October 9, 2026 · 4 min read
Santorini’s island tours differ less in the sights than in time, vehicle and group size. The Full Island Sunset Tour with Hotel Pickup is a useful reference point: five hours, €48.92 per person, rated 4.8 from 1,114 reviews. According to its description it visits Red Beach, the Three Bells of Fira and the Profitis Ilias Monastery, leaves some free time in Oia and ends with the blue domes and the sunset.
Fixed-route tours by bus or minibus
The Island Highlights Guided Day Trip with Oia Sunset goes by bus, takes ten hours and costs €51 (4.5, 827 reviews). Its stops include Prophet Elias, Pyrgos, the Akrotiri excavations, Red Beach and Fira, and it ends in Oia for the sunset. Akrotiri appears in the ten-hour description but not in the five-hour one, so check whether admission is included.
The island tour to Oia, Firostefani and Imerovigli uses an air-conditioned minibus with a local guide, lasts four hours and costs €59, but has only 13 reviews. Two more tours cost €50 and advertise flexible times: Oia, Pyrgos & Imerovigli (three to six hours, 54 reviews) and the island tour for cruise travellers (three to six hours, flexible morning or afternoon departures, 535 reviews).
Private
The Private Jeep Tour to Island Highlights lasts three hours and costs €180 per person. Its description lists the Akrotiri lighthouse, Indian Rock, Red Beach, the Akrotiri site, the Profitis Ilias Monastery and Oia; it has 9 reviews.
How to choose
Take the featured tour if you want the classic stops with a sunset finish in half a day. Take the ten-hour bus tour if the Akrotiri excavations matter to you. Cruise passengers should look first at the tour made for them and check the return time against the ship’s departure. Sunset comes much later in summer than in winter, so the stops you reach before dark change with the season.
