This Santorini sister island is Greece’s best-kept secret

A hunk of black volcanic rock rearing out of the Aegean Sea, Therasia is under no circumstances invisible. The Greek island was cast within the volcanic blast that created Santorini some 3,600 years in the past, shares the identical caldera waters and postcode, and serves as a photographic backdrop for the three.4 million travellers who go to its better-known neighbour annually. Yet, few can identify the isle of 168 inhabitants, and even fewer go to.

Despite it being only a 10-minute, £1 ferry trip from Santorini’s Ammoudi Port — proper subsequent to the well-known whitewashed homes of the village of Oia — reaching Therasia was lengthy seen as one thing of a hit-and-miss affair as a result of lack of printed timetable. However, there have been varied modifications throughout the sleepy outpost within the wake of the pandemic. Last 12 months, the only highway gained an automatic petrol pump (beforehand, petrol was disbursed solely by appointment). The ferry schedule can now be found online. And a rising variety of tourism-related choices have popped up.

Opened in 2024 by couple Paris Savvidis and Dimitris Kriezis on Paris’s ancestral land, and run with true philotimo (hospitality), Santa Irini Retreat by the principle Riva port affords the kind of whitewashed boutique keep attribute of the Cyclades. A standard constructing has been separated into 4 house-like suites, with handwoven vintage cloth headboards, decorations product of driftwood sourced from the close by seaside, and iron, hourglass-shaped room keys. It’s the type of vacation spot that invitations visitors to decelerate and take of their environment, whether or not that’s strolling across the fig timber within the backyard or having fun with the sundown views from a poolside sunbed. 

Also on the grounds is Santa Irini, the household church. Its tiny dimension belies its significance as Santorini’s namesake: when homecoming sailors sighted the 1867 whitewashed constructing on the neck of the caldera, they’d rejoice one other secure return, shouting “Santa Irini!”. There are 23 different church buildings throughout Therasia — one thing of a feat for a vacation spot that’s simply 5.5 miles lengthy and 1.5 miles huge. At its different finish is the Monastery of Okayimisis, whose cobalt blue dome — virtually similar to those present in Oia throughout the inky caldera — teeters on the rim of Trypiti Cape volcano. 

The smaller port at Korfos Bay caters to caldera boat excursions. Beaches aren’t Therasia’s power — there are black-pebble stretches by Korfos Cove, Riva Port and Santa Irini — and day guests hardly ever enterprise past Korfos’s eating places. It’s value climbing the 280 steep stone steps to the principle village of Manolas, constructed on the island’s apex to protect in opposition to the likes of Ottoman corsair (pirate) Barbarossa, who terrorised these components within the 1500s. Walk its snaggle of whitewashed lanes to peek into cave homes and revel in vertiginous views of Korfos Cove and Santorini.

The village can be house to Fyrgano restaurant, an area favorite that includes farm-to-fork Greek salads made with produce from the proprietor’s backyard. Continue previous the downstairs kitchen and seating to an upstairs terrace. Further down the pedestrianised avenue is Panorama Resto, providing higher-end, inventive dishes like child calamari moussaka and contemporary sea bass fillet in beetroot hummus and Tinos sea fennel.  

For one thing to drink, Mikra Thira vineyard close to the hamlet of Potamos is housed in an ultra-modern constructing that might simply be mistaken for one thing from the Napa Valley. Therasia’s volcanic terroir shares similarities with Santorini’s, and its vines are additionally grown within the conventional koulouri — floor stage, wreath-like baskets that shield them from the Meltemi winds (seasonal northerly winds that blow primarily over the Aegean throughout summer time). The 90-minute winery and manufacturing tour consists of tastings of three assyrtiko (Greek grape) varieties on the refined cellar door.

The vineyard can be pin-dropped as a cease on a tour with Explore Thirasia, based by avid biker Yannis Daskalakis and providing mountaineering, mountain bike and e-bike excursions. The island’s lack of automobiles, small dimension and simply gained views make it good fort biking. The firm’s morning or sundown walks provide best alternatives to wind via the comb, the scent of untamed thyme heavy within the air. A spotlight is the deserted cave home settlement of Agrilia, set in a gorge. Only just a few a long time in the past, it housed an agricultural neighborhood of as much as 700 folks, however its fortunes modified because the tomato paste factories it equipped closed after the Second World War, after which a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck in 1956.

On a slim mountaineering path previous windmills and relics from the Minoan, Venetian and Ottoman occupation, you’ll additionally stumble into what locals confer with as ‘The Mexican Church’. Officially known as the Church of the Virgin Mary, its peach and yellow hues are as a lot a shock because the close by disused mines that when offered pumice stone for constructing the Suez Canal. 

This little island rewards guests who’re ready to place in just a little extra effort, go that further mile and include an open thoughts.