Boat tour from Akrotiri, Megalochori and Pyrgos
You are staying above the coast every cruise swims first. White Beach has no road at all, Mesa Pigadia finishes on a dirt track, and the land path into Red Beach has had rockfall closures for years.
€100 per person · 10:00 - 15:00 · Shared seats
A boat tour from Akrotiri, Megalochori or Pyrgos starts with a car at your door: the road transfer is inside the €100 shared cruise price. You are on the south side of the island, the side where Red Beach, White Beach and Mesa Pigadia sit, so the first swim stop comes early.
This is the working end of Santorini. Fewer cliff hotels, more vineyards, narrower lanes, and a coastline underneath you that almost nobody reaches by road.
Getting to the boat from each village
| Where you are staying | What the pickup is like | What we need from you |
|---|---|---|
| Akrotiri | The southern arm of the caldera, on the road that runs out towards the lighthouse. A straightforward door pickup. | The hotel name and a phone number that works in Greece. |
| Megalochori | Wine country in the middle of the island, off the main road. The lanes inside the old village are one car wide in places. | Tell us if a car cannot reach your door, so the driver knows where to stop. |
| Pyrgos | Inland and high, with the village stacked above the road. Some rooms are reached on foot. | Tell us how many steps sit between the road and your door. |
| All three | The car is included both ways on every catamaran cruise, shared or private. | Expect the driver a little earlier than a guest staying on the main road. |
Your exact meeting point is confirmed with your booking. You do not have to find the port, and you do not have to drive or park on the day.
You are staying above the coast the boats swim first
Akrotiri sits on the southern arm of the caldera. Below it, in one stretch of shoreline, are the three places a morning cruise stops at before lunch: Red Beach, White Beach and Mesa Pigadia.
It is a strange sort of closeness. Mesa Pigadia is about 4 km from Akrotiri village, roughly a ten-minute drive, and the last part is a loose unpaved descent that a standard hire car regrets. White Beach has no road and no path at all. The walk into Red Beach has had rockfall closures on and off for years, and the signs say closed even when people are walking past them.
So you can stand on the headland and look straight down at all of it, and still not get to it. From this side of the island a boat is not a scenic extra. It is the access.
The coast below you, by land and by sea
| Stop | By land from Akrotiri | By boat |
|---|---|---|
| Red Beach | A short walk from the road, closed by signage after repeated rockfall. Enforcement is reported as inconsistent. | We anchor off the red cliffs and you swim in from the stern. |
| White Beach | No road, no path, no land route of any kind. | Ten minutes west of Red Beach. Anchored off, in off the platform. |
| Mesa Pigadia | About 4 km, ten minutes' drive, finishing on a rough unpaved track. Take an ATV or a taxi, not a hire car. | A quiet cove on the way round to the lighthouse. Snorkelling gear is in the locker. |
| The Akrotiri lighthouse | You can drive to the headland. The 1892 light belongs to the Hellenic Navy and is not open to the public. | The corner every boat rounds between the south coast and the caldera. |
None of the swimming stops has a jetty. The boat anchors offshore and you go in from the platform at the stern.
Which cruise, from this side of the island
The semi-private day cruise, 10:00 to 15:00, €100 each. It works the south coast first, which is the coast under your feet. Morning water is flatter, and the red cliffs hold their colour better before noon.
The semi-private sunset cruise, 15:00 to sunset, €100 each. The same water in reversed light, with dinner cooked on deck. The wind usually builds after midday, so take the morning if anyone in your party is prone to seasickness.
A private boat, €1,200 for up to eight. Worth it if you want longer at Mesa Pigadia than a shared schedule allows, or if you are a party of eight leaving from one inland village at a time that suits you.
Lanes in the old villages were not built for hire cars, and the tracks down to the south-coast beaches are worse than they look from above. The transfer is included in both directions, so on cruise day you do not have to park anything.
An inland pickup is planned the day before rather than on the morning. Send us the hotel name when you book, not when the car is due, and say whether the last hundred metres are on foot. That one line saves ten minutes of phone calls at 09:15.
Send us your hotel and your date
Give us the village and the hotel name. We will tell you what is free and roughly what time the car will be outside.
Call the harbour office+30 698 977 1888
Common questions
Is hotel pickup included?
Yes, anywhere on the island and at no extra cost. Road transfer from your hotel to the boat and back is inside the price of every catamaran cruise, including the €100 shared seat. Send us the hotel name when you book. If a car cannot reach the door, we will name the nearest point it can and confirm it in writing.
What if my hotel is not easily accessible?
It happens often in Pyrgos and in old Megalochori, where doors sit above the road or down a lane. Pickup is arranged from the nearest point a vehicle can reach, and we tell you where that is before the day. Tell us about steps and luggage in advance.
Do you leave from a port near Akrotiri?
Your exact meeting point is confirmed with your booking, because it depends on the boat, the day and the wind. Since the transfer is included both ways, the practical answer is that you do not need to know the port. The driver does.
Can I drive to White Beach or Mesa Pigadia instead of taking a boat?
White Beach has no land access at all, so no. Mesa Pigadia has a track from Akrotiri village, about 4 km and ten minutes, but the last stretch is loose and steep. Locals suggest an ATV, a taxi or a car with clearance rather than a standard rental.
Is the morning or the sunset cruise better if we are staying inland?
Take the morning. Both cruises collect you and return you, but a 10:00 start means flatter water and an earlier finish, which matters more when you are driving back up to Pyrgos afterwards. Sunset wins on light and on dinner cooked on deck.
Santorini Boat Tour - Water Taxi is a catamaran cruise and water taxi operator based in Fira, Santorini.
Updated August 2026