The Caldera Issue

In July, Santorini is the most crowded beautiful place in Europe, and there is no use pretending otherwise. The island is the rim of a drowned volcano, and the villages strung along the top of that cliff — Fira, Firostefani, Imerovigli, Oia — look down into a flooded caldera that really is as extraordinary as the pictures. They are also, at sunset, as packed as the pictures never show.

So the question is where on the rim you sleep, and what you will pay for it in money and in crowds. A cave house carved into the caldera wall, with a plunge pool hung over the drop, is the fantasy and the premium. Oia is the loveliest village and the most besieged at dusk; Imerovigli, a little along the rim, keeps much of the view and more of the calm; and staying off the cliff altogether costs a fraction and trades the view for a night's sleep.

The part most visitors miss is the other Santorini — the flatter eastern and southern side, away from the famous cliffs. The black-sand beaches are there, and so is a surprisingly serious wine country: the vines are coiled low in baskets against the wind, the volcanic Assyrtiko is sharp and mineral, and the cellar doors empty out by mid-afternoon while everyone drifts back to the rim for the sunset.

Getting on and off is its own event. Flying in is simplest; the summer ferries and the old port below the cliff are a scrum, so if you sail, know what you are arriving into and arrange the ride up the hill before you land.

Vivienne Hartwell, Editor-in-Chief