Best of Santorini, Private 4 hour Island tour, Oia, winery, Pyrgos, Caldera

We thoroughly enjoyed this tour which is customizable. Our guide was Christos and was very knowledgeable and informative. He took the time to listen to our wants and gave some history behind the white and blue buildings, shapes, etc. He made jokes and was very attentive, friendly and genuine. Our driver, also named Christos, was a gentleman, friendly and great driver. I would recommend this tour to everyone, especially if you are only staying for a short time like us.

I rarely write a review but feel compelled to write on now to save some of you some of your time and money and not make the mistake we made. We were SO looking forward to this tour. And it flopped. Pretty much a total waste of time and money! I guess Michael (our driver) didn't wreck the over heated and poorly air-conditioned van that literally rattled out teeth out whenever sitting there idling (which we did for over 2 hours in traffic of the 4 hour tour), so that's what led to my very generous rating of two stars. He barely said 10 words the whole "tour" which was probably ok since his English speaking was very very limited and difficult to understand. Here's an example of how it started: we arrive in Santorini (having never been anywhere in Greece before) and he says, "So where do you want to go?" Well isn't that what THE GUIDE is for? He was really nothing more than a very expensive driver in a beat up van that was uncomfortable. In general a very disappointing day with Michael and our VIATOR cruise. Don't waste your money on this one. (Oh... as a side note, I even requested a particular guide when we set up the tour and VIATOR said they "couldn't guarantee anything.") If I could give "Two thumbs down" for VIATOR I certainly would do that. And that would STILL be a generous rating.

This tour was fantastic and we owe it all to our tour guide Panos. He was knowledgeable and friendly and understood the island well enough to ensure we missed "most" of the crowds when he took us to Oia. Oia is stunning with its white buildings and small path ways, however, it has become an "instagram" nightmare. There are so many people all trying to get that one perfect picture that it almost takes away from the beauty of the place. Panos took us there first and we were able to walk around relatively easily, however, as we were heading out it seemed like a zoo with all the tour buses and streams of people trying to get in. My advise would be get there as early as you can to really enjoy the beauty. Panos took us to various other spots on the Island which we loved and he was an absolute pleasure to talk to as we were driving place to place. Our last stop was the winery, which is a must. We only had a few minutes left on our 4 hour tour but we really loved the winery and asked Panos if we could stay and have lunch. He readily agreed and let us extend the tour so that we could enjoy the scenery and fantastic food and wine. Thank you Panos for a wonderful day in Santorini!

We covered a lot of area however our tour guide, pleasant as he was, was not very informative or perhaps very shy. We had to ask him what some of the sights were and probed him by asking questions. Had we not asked questions, it would have been a very silent scenic drive.

Fantastic - another Viator gem. MakisPronounced Marcus without the R in English was super He took us to all the sites, gave us so much information about the wonderful island of Santorini, took us to the top of the island at the monastery and we had lunch on oure own at Santo Winery. We had him join us for lunch he was such a nice guy. Even showed us his house from the mountain top. The other people on the cruise took an excursion from the ship on a huge bus and actually had very little time because of the traffic congestion. ships were in the caldera that Day, can be up to 7. Makis knew every short cut on the island giving us so much more time than those who booked thru the ship and we were only 6 people in a 12 passenger van - so basically a private tour. We even screwed up by leaving the top of the cable cars area looking for him but with one phone call he tracked us down. Just besure to give yourself plenty of time to get down on the cable cars depending how many ships are in port and what time they are leaving. Took up almost 2 hours and we thought we had given our selves enough time. Don't take the Donkeys or the trail, smelly, slippery 30 minute walk. people that did it said it was nasty and someone actually feel and broke a leg. Plus I read the Donkeys are not treated well at all. Once again Viator was great Makis Was fantastic tour guide - I highly recommend Viator!

The tour was amazing and that may have been the result of the weather being magnificent. The tour guide was so knowledgeable, friendly and insightful that my wife and I found this to be one of the best excursions that we have ever experienced. We had lunch at a restaurant on the black sand beach and the food was outstanding. The advantage of the private tour over the bus tour, particularly for those with walking challenges, is that the private car tour can get closer to the sites with the best views than the tour buses. There are streets in Santorini that simply cannot be navigated in a tour bus.

We loved the tour and our guide Panos was fantastic! He took us everywhere we wanted to go and we kept moving from the pickup at the old port to the monastery, to the Red and Black beaches, then Santo Winery and on to Ojai. He really took great pride in Greece and his beautiful island home of Santorini. We asked him to leave us in Ojai to explore and we ended up catching the bus back to the old port, but he made sure we got to our Caldera Spa destination first......what service! I give Panos and the tour an enthusiastic 5 Stars and would not hesitate to book again!

Santorini private escorted half day island tour provides quick view of whole Santorini in just 4 hours. Our driver came on time and explained well in English various area of Santorini isalnd. He is local Santorini resident and knowledgeable about the island. He explained us volcanic history of the isalnd and shown various volcanic forms - white, red,and black. Places he showed us - Oia, Black Sand beach, Red beach, Akrotiri we have to buy ticket, Perissa, Wine yard and Monastery Profitis IIias top most point in Santorini from where you can get complete view of the Santorini. He also took to photo spots which we see in magazines, movies. I highly recommend this tour.

Our guide was the best! We were on a cruise ship and as we weren't taking one of the ships tours we werent given priority with tender tickets to get off the ship even after lining up for tender tickets early. So we were still waiting to get on a tender when our tour was to start. I called and they said not to worry they would wait as this happened often and were so lovely. However we got to the cable car and they wouldn't take a keycard / ATM card to pay for the cable car up to Fira town. So highly recommend having at least 20 pp in cash when you get off a cruise ship and need to use the cable car up to Fira Town as we then had to walk all the way up the steep hill that the donkeys use to take people up. Not pleasant and even thought it was winter it was hot and took us 25 minutes. So get get to then too and it's 11:30am and our lovely guide is still there waiting for us. We couldn't believe it! She'd got the message that we were late so waited. What an awesome lady. We then took a beautiful trip to the highest point of Thira Santorini and got a beautiful view from near the Monastry. Our guide had so much information and we just didn't have any questions as she answered everything before we could ask. We then went down to the other end of the island where all the picture postcard views are and had a lovely time wandering the shops and taking in the views. Again our guide was just sensational and even took some photos of us for us. We then had free time to get some lunch with recommendations on where to eat and what to have. Just a wonderful experience once we got there and highly recommend this tour.

Perfect in every way. Great guide, well-organized and informative tour. We saw Santorini through the eyes of someone who loves Santorini.