Overtourism in Greece: What Sailors (& Other Travellers) Need to Know

From tourist taxes to cruise ship bans—our thoughts on responsible travel in Greece and Europe, from a liveaboard cruiser perspective.

Sailing in Greece has been a season of discovering one wonder after another: picture perfect anchorages, sweet little towns ashore, warm Greek hospitality, and more whitewashed buildings and bougainvillea than you can shake a stick at. And there’s nowhere more iconically ‘Greek’ than Santorini. So when we were planning our cruise for the season and we saw that a visit to Santorini could be on the cards, it was a no brainer. We had to visit.

However, while planning, we immediately came up against an issue: there’s very few places to anchor around Santorini, mostly because of the depths- Santorini is a literal volcano, and you can see how steeply the island rises from the sea, which gives you an idea of how quickly the depths drop off underwater. Instead, there’s a mooring field which is generally considered the best option despite being on a separate island and costing €50 per night. There are ferries during the day to the main towns of Oia and Fira, but the schedule is pretty random and they only leave once or twice a day. The alternative is a private taxi boat, which costs €60 one way, despite only taking 10 minutes. In short, it was starting to feel logistically inconvenient, and expensive. Nonetheless, we knew that there was a good chance we’d never go to Santorini again, so we decided to take the opportunity to visit and see what the fuss was about.

All aboard the ferry to Oia! (We were literally the only passengers)

From the moment we approached Santorini and could see the dozens of day boats- usually catamarans heaving with people- and the several massive cruise ships in the harbour, we knew our expectations needed to be managed. However, nothing prepared us for the hoards of people in Oia, one of the main mountaintop towns. The throngs were like nothing we’d ever experienced before, and anywhere that had a view also had a line of dozens of people waiting to get their photo taken. The narrow cobblestone pathways only allowed a single line of pedestrians in either direction, which meant regular traffic jams. Nick wore his Bunnings hat (IYKYK) and someone- who did know- yelled out “BUNNINGS” (we Aussies are very eloquent); in ordinary circumstances, a couple of Aussies bonding over a Bunnings hat would have stopped us all in our tracks for a quick chat (we Aussies are also very chatty), but, alas, we were all swept along by the masses. It was, in short, the most crowded, unpleasant, un-Greek experience we’d ever had in this fine country, and we couldn’t wait to leave.

This is what overtourism looks like up close. And it left us wondering…

As liveaboard cruisers, are we part of a better way to travel—or just a quieter version of the same problem?

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