The Cost of Santorini, Greece: Budgeting for Santorini

I loved Santorini, the island is outstanding, one of the best places I have visited.  The food, the view, the luxury, I can’t say enough good things about my stay on the island. In fact, I did just this in my post on Santorini. My two biggest problems were the cost of Santorini and the difficulty in getting to the island. Both are enough to get people looking at other locations. Well maybe not, enough given how crowded it gets. It would be a shame, when budgeting for a Santorini vacation, to stop before you start, because of the cost.  Santorini is paradise, you may pay a little more to go, but it is well worth the pennies (eh, euros). There are also plenty of ways to lower your costs so the trip isn’t out of your budget.

For starters, Athens, Greece was a pain in the ass to get to, to facilitate paradise. Others I know have supported this statement, so it isn’t just me whining about my first world problems. Santorini took that pain and adds a second big foot to said ass, given the extra flight. You may feel good in your budgeting for Santorini, finding decent rates. Only to realize the flight will take you over Antarctica and has two 10-hour layovers. Finding a good flight to Athens (less than 24 hours) was a chore, but again…worth the journey.

I remembered this vividly, because the price slightly scared me.  This is especially true when compared to other European cities. We stayed at the Athina Luxury Suites, (click the link to read my review).  The cost in October was a pricey $275/night. I looked at the same hotel in the summer and it jumps to nearly $500 a night. That is expensive, but worth every penny. It is also worth mentioning I paid extra for the honeymoon suite, which made the price higher. You will be able to score a much cheaper room, although always pay extra for breakfast and a hot tub. 

Using Hotels.com, I discover an interesting situation. I pulled up the same hotel, same room, with two different devices and got two separate prices. The website was deep competition with itself, and losing. I made the tough decision to go with the lower price. When budgeting for Santorini, search sites multiple times to get the best price (but clear your cookies). In this case I saved $30/night, by using my phone rather than my PC. The say they don’t adjust the price if you check it often, I say someone is fibbing.

Check Out This Great Travel Bag for Your Trip

Now even at $275/night that might seem like a big expense, but I say it is well worth it. Considering, some Asheville, North Carolina hotels charge more, and you can’t even use their pool, you’re getting a great deal.  This hotel was the nicest I have been too (but you know that you read my review). It was worth every penny, especially considering they gave us a huge breakfast with Prosecco every morning. Hell, a full breakfast was 10% of our daily food budget! If you don’t believe my reviews, click on the TripAdvisor comments below to see what others are saying.

Click Here to Read Reviews and Compare Prices of the Athina Luxury Suites Hotel in Santorini 

To begin our budget, we are at $275/night X 6 Nights so $1650.

Cost of Santorini: Travel Expense

Things spiraled out of control quickly here, because the flight to Athens alone was expensive. Then, get ready to bend over a little further, because you still have to go from Athens to Santorini. Luckily for me the cost was mostly blunted by the Chase Sapphire Reserve generous credit card offer of 100K points. They have since lowered that to 50K, but I signed up as soon as it started. This is your biggest expense, If you are going to use points here is the spot to use them.

There were two choices when we were shopping flights to Athens, take a 33-hour flight or pay through the nose. We able to find a decent combination of the two, with two very long layovers in London. The layover on the way back allowed us to spend a night in a the city of London. So how much did it cost me? My 160k points and an additional $300.

Given that your points are worth 150% when booked through Chase the actual “true cost” was around $2500 for two tickets, or $1250 per person. One annoying thing, I always do, was check the travel site multiple times and found a great deal. I found a flight that was $850 per person,  while casually checking my phone at the dentist. Unfortunately, I procrastinated and within an hour it was gone. My gator arms hurt just thinking about this travesty. Your cost of Santorini will go up or down depending on dumb luck.

Athens to Santorini.

As an infomercial would say…but wait there’s more. Now you have to pay for your flight to the island.  I explained all these costs in the above post, (link is the heading). To sum it up, the total cost for our tickets was $375 for two, with one bag each. Now once you get to the airport you can’t walk to the hotel so the car service to and from the Santorini airport (combined) will set you back $55. Other travel expenses are minimal. You can take the bus to most areas for 3-Euro. You will pay a little more to get a cab to places, but for the most part you bus is the best option (or your feet.)

So putting it all together, for two $300 + $375+$55+$75 (total estimate or cabs/buses for 6 days) = $810 for me. Without points it is $2500+ $810, $3310. As a reminder this can be lower if you check early and often..and significantly higher ($3k) if you don’t have travel points.

Food & Entertainment

Food and alcohol is more expensive on Santorini than in Athens, by what seems to be 20%. I still found it reasonable compared to what I spend in the United States. The food was excellent and about 1/3rd of the price of Disneyland (without kids screaming).

The below prices can be a quick reference guide, but things change like the wind so don’t write it in stone.

Beer – $3

Liter of Greek Wine $9

Fancy Drink with Umbrella- $11

Lunch (with wine of course) – $30

Gyro – $3

Dinner for Two – The highest usually $100 (but it can be much lower.)

To put it all together I will assume you eat like a normal person, 3 meals and two giants snacks a day. Five meals a day sounds like no food compared to what I am used to, but some can squeak by.

Everything is subject to the tastes of the people involved. We ate a lot of salads, calamari and octopus. Our lunches were a bit more expensive than average. Breaking down the meals, breakfast as mentioned, is paid for so that is free. A snack, plus alcohol, beer or cheap wine $20. If you do two gyros and some beer probably more like $10.

As mentioned, lunch varies in price, octopus isn’t that expensive, but isn’t cheap either. Get two and it bumps up lunch to $50 after you get a couple of drinks in you. Dinner at a nice spot will be around $100- $150 per meal, but a great meal can be had for cheaper. Add some more random cocktails and the prices start to skyrocket.

Let’s add it all up, taking some averages…two snacks for $20 (each), lunch for $30 and Dinner for $100…maybe a bottle of wine at a winery for another $20. Total daily food spend = $190/day for two or $1,330 for 7 days. More gyros, less wine and you can get away with less, especially if you go conservative on dinner.

Budgeting for Santorini: Entertainment

We finally get to a reasonable cost in Santorini. There are plenty of things to do that cost next to nothing. Taking a hike from Fira to Oia is free. Going to a beach is free, hell even the winery tours are relatively cheap. The best part about Santorini is just wandering the towns and taking in the scenery.

The Wine Museum is 9 Euros a person ($11), Akrotiri is 12 Euros a person or $15 give or take. You may also want to do a tour which will cost you $100/ person. Overall your daily spend should be cheap. I say for two, you can get away with on average $50…some days nothing, some days a bit more for a tour.

Total Cost of Santorini (For Me)

I am not like most travel bloggers, I am not sending you to a hostel and telling you to eat tree bark. I know, it is all about the experience, I want both the experience and the luxury. This represents the total cost for us as a couple, not including our time in Athens. Looking at it now, my stomach hurts a bit digesting this…but I did use points on the most expensive part, the flight. So really I spent closer to $4,000, although the points do have a monetary value. It helped for me to pay it at different times. I planned the trip for four months, so I could buy everything in pieces.

Remember I went to Santorini in October, it is much cheaper at this time. We flew from the east coast of the United States, you can be flying to anywhere and it can be more or less. We also combined it with a long layover in London (tongue twister) that actually cost a bit more. Not doing this should shave about $300 off your tickets.  Everything is a rough estimate depending on your  travel point situation and your ability/need to gorge yourself…

Item	Cost of Santorini
Athina Luxury Suites Hotel, 6 nights (honeymoon suite)	$ 1,650.00
Airfare (to Athens 160k points)	$ 300.00 0r $2,500 (with no points)
Airfare to Santorini	$ 375.00
Food and Drink	$ 1,330
Taxis	$  130.00
Entertainment	$  300.00
Total	$ 4,085.00 ($6,585 no points)

I realize there is a big discrepancy between points and no points, I wanted to show the options. That is for two people and there are easy ways to shave money  off when budgeting for Santorini.

Tips to lower the Cost of Santorini

This was one of the most expensive trips I took, and I didn’t hold back. Having said this, I learned some lessons.

1. 1. Go during the Off-season – There are multiple reasons you should go to Santorini during the off-season, the biggest being the money saved. As mentioned, hotels are almost 50% cheaper in October. The weather was amazing, and the crowds are much smaller.
   2. Don’t be like me – I missed an opportunity to get my airfare for about $700 less due to not acting on a deal. In my post about Istanbul, I mentioned how I got my flight basically half off due a swing in the prices. I had the chance to do this here as well, but I didn’t act on it. Plan your trip early and check the prices almost daily.

                

1. Don’t eat like me – My food and drink budget were almost as much as my hotel…and the hotel gave me a huge breakfast. You probably can get away with much less, especially if you like Greek wine. Only you know how much you will spend on food and drink, I do recommend, even when being cheap, add 25% when budgeting in Santorini.
2. Use Coupon Codes – As I mentioned I used credit card miles to book my flight. I didn’t stop there. I went through Ebates and got 5% back on my hotel, I also used a coupon code when booking my hotel which saved me a couple of bucks. There are a ton of cash back deals out there, combined them for profit.
3. Par down your Hotel costs – Yes, I like luxury, but maybe you don’t need the honeymoon suite. I loved waking up in Fira with the view I had, but other towns might be cheaper. Oia and Fira are the two priciest places, but you can get the same view in Firostefani or Imerovigli.

Final Words on Budgeting for Santorini

The cost of Santorini is higher than most places in Europe. This is driven by an expensive ticket to Athens, along with hotel rooms that are far pricier than most of Europe. The biggest expenses are the flights, so if you can get them under control it will go a long way. I gave you some tips to do it cheaper and you may be able to find some good deals. Having said this, I did a lot of wheeling and dealing and still paid a lot, but it was worth the cost. Santorini Greece was the nicest place I have ever been…but it is a long life.

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