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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My vote is to do it yourself. Yes cruises are easy, but they also mean you only ever see the spots you’re visiting alongside hoards of others. By doing it yourself and staying on Santorini for 3 or 4 days you can avoid the worst of the crowds and really enjoy the island and its beauty. Some friends of ours recently did a Greek islands cruise and never even got off the ship there because the lines/wait to get up the cliffs were so unbelievably long. I found that sad.[/quote]

PP.  It is a bit sad.  [b]But honestly, I would not recommend Santorini except on a cruise.  It has a dramatic ocean view from a peak and the architecture looks very picturesque.  But it doesn't have any food or cultural amenities you can't find elsewhere in other Greek tourist draws[/b].  Being fixated on Santorini is like only having one place in the Hawaiian Islands that you'd be willing to go to.

It can be crowded even if you get up on the cliffs.  There just is a capacity constraint on the cable car to move people up.  I have heard they quit offering the donkey rides up that used to be popular.  My mom and sister did that and felt kind of meh about it.

I would research what you want to do in the ports to help make the decision.  A Rick Steves guidebook would be sufficient.

I went to Malta as a port call as a child.  It was okay.  I most remember being tendered in during a big wave period.  And going to a pretty generic cathedral.

Ports/sights that were more interesting than I expected:

Venice (our cruise left from Venice)
Dubrovnik
Mykonos
Olympia/Delphi 
Corinth Canal
Sailing out of Piraeus
Naples to Pompeii (there are Italy/Greece cruises)

The Acropolis was as awesome as I expected.[/quote]

Greek-American here who has been all over Greece and to Santorini multiple times, over four decades. I just want to point out that there are, in fact, special cultural sites that you can't find elsewhere. Most visitors to Santorini are so obsessed with the Instragram-worthy views that they cram into the most populated cliffside part of the island and miss out on a lot that IS special about the island. Specifically, it has an archaeological site--[b]Akrotiri[/b]--which contains an incredible Bronze Age settlement that was destroyed by a volcanic eruption and buried in volcanic ash, which preserved the remains of the settlement, frescoes, and many objects which are now housed in the Museum of Prehistoric Thera in town. The settlement contains truly amazing things: three-story homes laid out via principles of urban planning with indoor plumbing (including both hot and cold water piped in) connected to a municipal water supply, flush toilets and bathtubs, a sewage system, and other startling and modern systems and artifacts. There is nothing quite like it in Greece except for maybe Knossos but that is not as well preserved. I'm always dismayed when I meet tourists who have never ventured beyond the tourist-clogged streets to see this amazing site and visit the museum. The tourists have turned the island into a caricature and it is truly disheartening.

Also, PP, the island has vineyards which cultivate the unique Assyrtiko wine, a white grape variety native to the island, known as the "White Burgundy of Greece." That's another thing unique to the island. [/quote]

Thank you... I did study abroad in Greece and love this site.  My DH and I did an excursion here from our cruise ship two summers ago.  Akrotiri is relatively empty, and really enjoyable.  But, I also lamented what Santorini has become since I was first there in the 1980s.[/quote]

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