Is Santorini good for solo travelers?

We put Fira first for anyone arriving alone. The KTEL bus station sits on Fira's main square, and buses to Oia, Perissa, Kamari, and the Athinios ferry port all leave from that one stop at fares of about €2 (roughly $2.25). The caldera path from Fira to Oia runs about 10 km through Firostefani and Imerovigli and takes three to four hours; start before 8am in summer. Underfoot it is dusty pumice and loose stone past Skaros Rock, and the wind off the caldera smells of salt and wild thyme. You keep passing the same solo walkers at each whitewashed chapel along the way, and that is how most conversations start. At the end, take the bus back from the Oia terminus. The island has only a few dozen taxis, and the queue for one can last an hour. On a 30°C afternoon, the Museum of Prehistoric Thera near the Fira bus station holds the Akrotiri frescoes and makes a cool, quiet hour alone.

On Santorini, meeting people takes a booking, not luck. Small-group catamaran trips around the caldera leave from Vlychada and Ammoudi Bay, last about five hours, and stop to swim at the warm, sulphur-smelling springs off Palea Kameni; on a twelve-person boat you will share the grilled lunch with strangers. The other easy icebreaker is a wine tour covering Santo Wines in Pyrgos and Venetsanos in Megalochori. Assyrtiko tastes of flint and lemon after a hot day. For dinner alone, Lucky's Souvlakis in Fira sells pita gyros over the counter for a few euros, and the beachfront tavernas in Perissa seat single diners without any fuss. Oia's sunset restaurants are where it gets hard. Many keep their caldera tables for pairs from June to September, so our advice is to book an Ammoudi Bay fish taverna for 6pm, before the couples arrive.

Cave suites on the caldera in Imerovigli and Oia charge per room, which means a solo guest pays the full double rate, commonly €300 or more a night in August. In Oia, that is the single supplement at its harshest. Caveland, a hostel in an old winery estate in Karterados, has dorms and private cave rooms about a 20-minute walk from Fira. On the east coast, Perissa and Kamari have family-run studios whose single rates drop in May, June and October, and the black sand on those beaches is hot enough to burn bare feet by noon. Filter Trip.com for single-occupancy rooms, because some pensions in Fira list one-bed rooms at a lower price. We should be honest about long stays: after four or five nights, couples clearly outnumber solo travellers, and beyond Caveland and Perissa there is little hostel scene to fall back on.

After dark, the main risk on Santorini is the roads, not other people: every summer, tourists are hurt in scooter and quad-bike crashes on the unlit roads to Oia and Pyrgos, and if you don't hold a motorcycle licence, our firm view is to stay on the bus. Erythrou Stavrou, Fira's club street, stays loud past 3am in July and August. Walk home along the shop-lined Ypapantis Street rather than taking the dark cliff stairs to the Old Port. Women travelling alone tend to report little harassment, though promoters on the Fira bar strip can be persistent. October nights are mild, currently around 17°C under clear skies. By day, cruise passengers fill Fira from about 10am to 5pm, and that is when pickpockets work the cable car queue.