A Santorini wine tour does the driving on an island where the best cellars sit on cliff roads and in quiet inland villages, and where many visitors would rather not rent a car at all. Most tours visit three wineries in four or five hours, pick you up at your hotel and are timed to finish at sunset. These six compare what each pours, how many people share the van and what it costs.
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How we chose these Santorini wine tours
Santorini is a small island with a big wine story: Assyrtiko grown in low, basket-shaped vines on volcanic soil, the barrel-aged white called Nykteri and the sun-dried sweet wine Vinsanto. Our guide to Santorini wineries explains the cellars themselves. This page is about getting there with someone else at the wheel.
We read the Santorini catalogs of GetYourGuide, Viator and Winedering and kept tours that visit at least two wineries, include hotel pickup and have a public rating. Island sightseeing days where wine is one stop among many are out, and so are tours that add a brewery. When the same operator sells the same tour on two platforms, we list it once, on the platform with more reviews. Winedering has a long list of Santorini tours, but at the time of writing almost all of them were new listings without reviews, so none made the cut. More on how we pick in Our Editorial Methodology.
Santorini wine tours that end at sunset
The caldera faces west, and the evening light over it is the reason many visitors book a wine tour for the late afternoon rather than the morning. Four of the six tours here are built around that hour, either on a winery terrace above the cliffs or with a last glass in Oia. In summer these departures are the ones to book first. If you would rather watch the sunset from the water, our guide to Santorini sunset cruises with wine covers the boat alternative.
1. Santorini Day Tours: Three Wineries and a Santo Sunset
Why it’s on the list. More reviews than any other Santorini wine tour we found, on either platform, and a near-perfect score across all of them. It is the classic format done carefully: three wineries, a guide who explains how the island’s vines are trained and why, and a small van rather than a coach.
Choose the sunset departure and the last stop is Santo Wines, the cooperative winery whose terrace near Pyrgos looks straight across the caldera. The daytime option runs the same route with more light and fewer people. It suits a first visit to the island; if you already know Santo, the smaller cellars further down this list will feel newer.
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2. Santorini Wine Stories: Ten Wines and Dinner at the Last Stop
Why it’s on the list. The only tour here that turns the evening into a full meal. After three wineries and a walk through the vineyards, the last stop is a sit-down dinner with wines matched to each course, which comes up again and again in reviews.
The group is the smallest of the shared tours, so the guide has time for questions about volcanic soil and the island’s old vines. It is a long evening and a filling one: if you have a dinner reservation in Oia or Fira that night, pick another tour. If you would rather not plan dinner at all, this one does it for you.
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3. Santorini Pickups: Argyros, Karamolegos and a Traditional Canava
Why it’s on the list. The clearest itinerary of any tour we read: the listing names its three cellars instead of promising “local wineries”. You taste at a traditional canava (the island’s old cave-like wine houses), at Artemis Karamolegos and at Estate Argyros, one of Santorini’s oldest family estates, then stop to watch the sun go down.
Naming the wineries matters on Santorini, where some tours spend most of their time at the large, well-known cellars. This route mixes a family producer, a modern estate and a historic one. The listing does not say how many people share the van, so ask if a small group matters to you.
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4. NST Santorini Tours: Hatzidakis and a Sunset in Oia
Why it’s on the list. The least expensive tour on the list that still puts winemaking first. It starts at the Hatzidakis winery in the village of Pyrgos, visits a second winery and ends in Oia with a glass of wine as the sun sets.
Two wineries instead of three means fewer pours and more time in Oia, which is the trade-off: this is half wine tour, half sunset outing. Its score is the lowest of the six, though still solid across a large number of reviews. For a first trip that wants both in one evening, it is good value.
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Want to compare every Santorini wine tour on one page?
Small-group, private and sunset departures across the island.
Daytime and private Santorini wine tours
A daytime tour is the better choice if you want to see the vineyards themselves: the vines grow close to the ground in wind-shaped baskets, and they are easier to look at in daylight than at dusk. Daytime departures are also quieter, and they leave the evening free.
5. Top Santorini Tours: Estate Argyros by Day
Why it’s on the list. A long track record of reviews and a route anchored on Estate Argyros, the family winery in Episkopi Gonia with some of the oldest vines on the island. The other two stops change between a small art-space winery and a wine cellar, so the day mixes a big name with smaller producers.
It runs in daylight, so you see the vineyards rather than a silhouette, and you are back in time for dinner. It is also the lowest starting price among the three-winery tours here. The trade-off is that there is no sunset terrace at the end.
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6. Wineland Tours: A Private Day With a WSET Sommelier
Why it’s on the list. A private day for travelers who want a wine professional rather than a tour guide. The guide is WSET-certified, the car carries only your group, and the day starts with a walk through a volcanic vineyard and a cellar before the first glass.
Three estates and twelve wines, including Assyrtiko and Vinsanto, with Cycladic cheeses and olives at each stop. The catch is the rating: only three reviews so far, all perfect, too few to lean on. It is the most expensive option here, and the one to choose if you would rather ask questions than share a van.
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Booking a Santorini wine tour: timing, food and extras
Every tour here lasts four to five hours and includes pickup, so the real choice is the hour. Sunset tours are the most popular and the most crowded at the last stop; daytime tours show you the vineyards and leave the evening free. All six allow free cancellation up to 24 hours before, which helps if the wind picks up or your ferry changes.
Food varies more than the wine. Most tours pour with snacks or cheese plates, which is enough for an afternoon but not a meal; only Santorini Wine Stories includes dinner. Look out for Vinsanto at the last stop of most tours: grapes dried in the sun before pressing, then aged in barrel for years, sweet and dark. If a bottle comes home with you, read our notes on shipping wine home to the US first.
Prices are indicative and set by our booking partners.
Where this fits in a Santorini trip
A wine tour is the easiest way into the island’s wine, but it is not the only one. Our Santorini wineries guide covers the cellars you can visit on your own, and where to stay in Santorini for wine lovers picks hotels that put you close to them. If volcanic wine is what draws you, the Etna wine tours in Sicily make an interesting comparison.
Most visitors book one tour and spend the other days at the beach or on the caldera path. If you want to go back to a winery you liked, a small rental car or a driver for the afternoon works well; our guide to renting a car for a wine trip covers the basics. To visit a single cellar on your own, our guides to visiting Santo Wines and to Venetsanos Winery cover two caldera wineries you can see without a tour.
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Staying on Santorini for more than a day? A small car makes the villages easy.
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