Santorini

Kamari & Ancient Thera

The volcano's other face. Cross to the east coast and the cliffs stop: Kamari is a long strip of black sand and dark pebble under the huge limestone bulk of Mesa Vouno, with a paved promenade of tavernas, bars and sunbed operators running behind it. It is the island's tidiest, most family-shaped resort — Blue Flag water, an open-air cinema, a diving school, buses to Fira — and it is completely unlike the caldera in register: no infinity pools, no sunset queue, no whitewashed lanes, just a beach town that works. Above it, on the ridge, sits the ruined Dorian city that was Santorini's capital for a thousand years.

Who it's for: Families, comfortably — calm shallow water, an easy flat promenade, a cinema, and food that children will actually eat. Travellers who want a beach base with real infrastructure and a bus into Fira. Divers and watersports people; the operators are here. Anyone doing Ancient Thera, which is directly above. Budget travellers, since accommodation and food here run a fraction of caldera prices.

Things to know

  • The sand is black volcanic pebble and it gets genuinely painful underfoot from late morning. Bring water shoes or flip-flops you can walk to the water in — this is not optional advice in July and August.
  • There is no sunset here. Kamari faces east, so the sun rises out of the sea in front of you and disappears behind Mesa Vouno in the late afternoon. Sunrise on this beach is the underrated event.
  • Sunbeds run roughly €10 per set at the simpler operators and €15–30 a day at the beachfront restaurants, often waived against a minimum food and drink spend. Prime positions in August can reach €30–40.
  • Ancient Thera can be reached three ways: the winding road with more than twenty hairpins by car or taxi, a footpath up from the edge of Kamari that takes 45–60 minutes and is genuinely steep, or the same road on foot. There is no shade, no water and no café at the site.
  • The site closes at 15:30 and is closed on Wednesdays; entry is €10 since the April 2025 state repricing. Go at opening — by 11:00 the ridge is baking.
  • See the Archaeological Museum of Thera in Fira alongside Ancient Thera. Everything portable that came off that ridge is down there, and the ruins are much thinner without it.
  • Kamari is about 8km from Fira, 10–15 minutes by taxi and roughly 20 by bus, with frequent services in season. The airport is 6km away — which is convenient and also means the approach path passes overhead.
  • Cine Kamari, the open-air cinema at the village entrance, screens recent films in English with Greek subtitles from around 21:00–21:30, with a bar and a garden. There is no online booking, so arrive early.
  • Meltemi wind hits the east coast harder than the sheltered south. If it is blowing hard, Perissa and Perivolos round the mountain, or Vlychada, will be calmer.