Santorini Beyond Oia: Where Locals Actually Go

Oia's sunset is genuinely spectacular and also genuinely crowded. Once you have done it once, the rest of the island opens up — and it is quieter, cheaper and often more interesting.

Pyrgos instead of Oia

Pyrgos sits on the island's highest point, a maze of Cycladic lanes with no cruise-ship crowds and a handful of excellent restaurants. Come for dinner and you will have most of it to yourself.

The beaches worth the drive

• Vlychada — dramatic white cliffs, black sand, and a beach bar worth lingering in
• Kambia — small, sheltered and mostly local
• Red Beach — reach it early, before the tour boats

Skip the beach at Perissa if you want quiet; it is the busiest stretch on the island.

Drink where the grapes grow

Santorini's volcanic soil produces Assyrtiko, one of the great white grapes of the Mediterranean, and Vinsanto, a sweet wine made from sun-dried grapes. The wineries around Megalochori and Pyrgos do proper tastings, usually with a view over the whole caldera.

Eat off the caldera

Seafood is better, and a third of the price, away from the caldera rim. Metaxi Mas in Exo Gonia is the local institution — book ahead, and order whatever the waiter recommends.