Four important things to consider when travelling to Santorini, Greece.

Four things to consider when travelling to Santorini, Greece in off season.

Do you love to travel? Are you planning to come to Santorini for your Christmas holiday? Do you want to visit Santorini in winter time? Here are some tips to consider when planning your winter trip to Greece, Santorini.

Weather

The weather can get rather cold, wet and cloudy during December but still there are plenty of sunny days. The average temperature for Santorini in December is 13C, 56F.

Transportation

Ferry schedules often depend on the weather. And it can certainly get choppy in some periods as it’s the middle of the winter — storms can cause delay or cancellation.

I usually check the ferry schedule here.

During winter there are no direct flights to Santorini except during the Christmas and New Year holidays. What you can do is to fly to Athens and from there decide whether to take another half an hour flight or a ferry trip to get to Santorini. Olympic Airways, Aegean Airways and SkyExpress all have flights to Santorini.

The public buses around Santorini are pretty rare. Here is the buss tame table for the winter season.

And of course local taxi services are available. You can get a taxi any time of the day. Don’t forget to ask the taxi driver to turn the counter on (unfortunately, there are some rather dishonest taxi drivers around here)!

Low season

You’re unlikely to find any tourist facilities open unless they also serve the winter population.

Every village has some kind of supermarket or bakery open all year around. For example Oia has three supermarkets open, Perissa has two bakeries and one supermarket which isn’t so close to the coastal part of the village.

The most popular villages like Fira, Oia, Perissa and Kamari usually have at least one restaurant open on weekends.  Sometimes a local will decide to keep his cafe open all year round; however, he might change his mind depending on his mood in the particular day you decide to visit! :D Everyone’s relaxed in the off season, just take it easy and try some other time.

Christmas Day – 25th December 2014. At the Christmas day most shops, banks and supermarkets are closed. Many bars, restaurants and hotels will have some celebration with food, drinks and possibly some entertainment.

 Where to stay

As, the town of Fira is the capital of Santorini, you can find a bit of action there — more shops and restaurants will be open during off-season. Of course your visit won’t  even be anywhere near the summer experience, but you’ll still enjoy it. It comes down to you and what you’re looking for. The great thing about being here during winter/Christmas is that it’s not crowded.

Talking about hotels, make sure yours has central heating!

It depends on what you are looking for…If some bad  weather won’t be that much of a problem and you’re just looking for a different experience regardless, then why no go for it? The island is beautiful in any time of the year.

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The photos I added are from November surprise proposal photo session! It was such a nice way to spend warm autumn afternoon. The best known Oia blue churches just got painted and American couple Steven with Apneet look gorgeous on this backdrop! Congratulations guys with engagement!

Thank you! :)