Before you leave the hotel

A packing list for a day on a catamaran in Santorini

8 min read

Bring a dark swimsuit, high-factor sunscreen, a hat with a strap, sunglasses, a light windproof layer, and one soft bag per couple. Towels and snorkelling gear are already on the Santorini catamaran, so leave yours behind. Cash is worth carrying — there is no card machine at sea.

There is a short reference version of this list on what to wear and bring. This is the long one, with the reasons, written by people who spend the season watching hats blow off the foredeck.

The whole day is five hours. Most of what people carry down to the boat never comes out of the bag.

Start with the bag

One soft bag per couple. Not one each, and nothing rigid.

The deck sounds enormous until fifteen people put their things down. Deck space is shared. A soft bag squashes into a locker or under a seat; a hard case sits in a walkway all day, and somebody trips over it while carrying a plate.

Wheeled luggage, backpacks with frames and anything hard-shelled are genuinely a problem rather than a preference. If you are coming straight from a ferry or a flight with bags, tell us before the day. That changes what we can do for you.

The dark swimsuit rule

This is the one item on the list that people ignore and then regret, and it is the only one that is permanent.

The hot springs at Palea Kameni sit in Agios Nikolaos bay, where warm water carrying iron and sulphur comes up through the seabed. The iron oxide turns the water a rusty ochre. Tourism sources put the temperature at roughly 30 to 35 °C, which is a published figure rather than an instrument reading, so treat it as approximate.

What is not approximate is what it does to fabric. Pale swimwear comes out stained, and the stain does not wash out. White is the worst. Pastels, pale blues and anything expensive are close behind.

Wear something dark, and do not wear the swimsuit you like most. Some of the largest OTA listings in this market carry the same warning in their small print, which tells you how often it happens.

The full explanation of why is on the hot springs swimsuit rule.

The numbers

The list, with reasons

Everything below is for a five-hour day cruise. The sunset cruise is the same list with a warmer layer, because the wind on the water turns cold quickly once the sun has gone.

Item	Why	Already aboard?
A dark swimsuit	The hot springs stain pale fabric permanently. Wear it under your clothes so you are not queueing for a cabin at the first stop.	No — bring it
A second, dry swimsuit	Three swim stops in five hours means you are wet from about 10:20. A dry one for the ride home is a small luxury that costs nothing.	No — bring it
High-factor sunscreen	You are on a reflective surface for five hours with no shade over the swim platform. Reef-safe if you can. Reapply after every swim, not once at the start.	No — bring it
A hat with a chin strap or cord	A hat without one is a gift to the Aegean. We fish several out of the water every season and lose more than we catch.	No — bring it
Sunglasses, ideally with a strap	Glare off the water is worse than glare on land, and sunglasses go overboard for exactly the same reason hats do.	No — bring it
A hair tie	The wind on deck is constant. This is the item most often borrowed from the crew.	No — bring it
A light windproof layer	Nobody believes this in July and everybody wants it on the way home. On the sunset cruise it stops being optional.	No — bring it
Any medication you take	Including seasickness tablets, which need taking before you board rather than when you start to feel it.	No — bring it
Cash	Gratuities are not included and there is no card machine at sea. Whatever you decide to leave, it needs to be in your hand.	No — bring it
A phone in a zip bag	Spray gets everywhere on a swim platform. A sandwich bag does the job as well as anything sold for the purpose.	No — bring it
Photo ID	Rarely needed, occasionally useful, and weightless.	No — bring it
Towels	One per guest, on board, for the whole day.	Yes — provided
Snorkelling gear	Masks and snorkels are in the locker by the steps. Take them out at the first stop rather than the last.	Yes — provided
Lunch	Cooked on board while you swim: BBQ chicken and shrimp, Greek salad, pasta, vine leaf rolls and the dips.	Yes — provided
Wine, beer and water	Santorini wine, beer and water are in the price. Water especially — drink more of it than you think.	Yes — provided
Life jackets	Carried for adults and children. Tell us the ages of any children when you book so the right sizes are aboard.	Yes — provided
Shoes	Everyone is barefoot on deck. Hard soles mark the surface and slip when it is wet. Yours go in a bag at the top of the steps.	Leave them ashore
Glass bottles	Glass and bare feet on a moving deck are a bad pairing. Please leave them behind.	Leave them ashore
Hard luggage and prams	There is nowhere on the boat for either. Tell us in advance if this is unavoidable for you.	Leave them ashore

Return road transfer between your hotel and the boat is included both ways, so you are not carrying any of this across the island yourself. Your exact meeting point is confirmed with your booking.

On board

Everything the price already covers

In the price

Return road transfer between your hotel and the boat
Greek and English speaking crew
A meal cooked on board: BBQ chicken and shrimp off the coals, Greek salad, pasta in tomato sauce, vine leaf rolls, and Greek dips with bread
Santorini white wine, cold beer, soft drinks and water
Snorkelling gear
Towels
Captain, crew, fuel, insurance and port fees

Not included

Walking on the volcano (the boats anchor offshore)
Nea Kameni national park entrance fee
Gratuities

Sunscreen arithmetic

Five hours, no cloud, and a surface that throws the sun back up at you. That is a harder exposure than a beach, where at least half of you is usually facing the sand.

Apply before you leave the hotel, not on deck. Reapply after every swim — every stop means another application, and the tops of feet, the backs of knees and ears are what burn on a boat.

Reef-safe formulations are worth choosing. You will be swimming directly off the boat into water that other people are swimming in twenty minutes later.

The layer nobody believes they need

It is 30 °C on land. You are standing on a hotel terrace in a t-shirt. The idea of packing a windproof layer feels absurd.

Then the boat turns for home at around 14:10, running along the caldera wall with a northerly behind it. You have been in and out of the water four times. Wet skin plus 15 knots of apparent wind is cold, and it is cold for the last forty minutes of the day rather than for a moment.

On the sunset cruise this is more emphatic. The meltemi usually eases as the sun goes, but the air temperature drops with it. Bring something with sleeves.

The three things guests most often forget

A hair tie. Every single day.

Cash. Gratuities are not included and there is no card machine on a boat.

A dark swimsuit. The one that cannot be fixed afterwards.

Ready when you are

Anything on this list you are unsure about?

Message us before the day rather than on it. Dietary requirements, children's ages and anything you need to bring aboard are all easier to solve in advance.

Check availability & book

Call the harbour office+30 698 977 1888

Common questions

What should I bring on a Santorini catamaran cruise?

A dark swimsuit worn under your clothes, high-factor sunscreen, a hat with a strap, sunglasses, a hair tie, a light windproof layer and some cash. Keep it to one soft bag per couple. Towels, snorkelling gear, lunch and drinks are already on board, so do not double up.

Do I need to bring a towel?

No. Towels are on board and are included in the price, one per guest. Bring your own only if you strongly prefer your own. It is one more wet thing to carry back to the hotel afterwards, and there is nowhere good to put it on deck.

Do I need to be barefoot during the cruise?

Yes, on deck. Everyone takes their shoes off at the top of the steps and they go into a bag for the day. Hard soles mark the surface and slip badly when it is wet. Bare feet are also simply more comfortable across five hours than any sandal.

Are there showers and changing facilities onboard?

There is private space below deck to change. Whether a working freshwater shower is available to guests is not something we have published, and we will not guess at it here. Message us on WhatsApp if it matters for your plans afterwards.

Can I bring my own drinks or food on board?

We have not published a policy on this, and it may differ between a shared seat and a private charter. Santorini wine, beer and water are already included, along with lunch cooked on board. If you want to bring a bottle for a celebration, ask us first rather than at the dock.

What should I wear for the hot springs?

Something dark that you do not mind marking. The water at Palea Kameni carries iron and sulphur out of the seabed and runs a rusty ochre. It stains pale fabric permanently and does not wash out. White swimwear is the worst case, and pale blues are barely better.

Is there anything I should not bring?

Glass bottles, hard-soled shoes, hard luggage and prams. None of them work on a boat this size with a full deck and bare feet on deck. If you are travelling with something bulky and have nowhere to leave it, tell us before the day rather than on the quay.

Santorini Boat Tour - Water Taxi is a catamaran cruise and water taxi operator based in Fira, Santorini.

Updated August 2026