Kamari & the wine villages

Kamari is where Santorini behaves like a normal Greek beach resort: a paved promenade, tavernas and bars in a line, sunbeds on dark pebbles, and water that goes deep fast. The pebbles hold the heat — bring something for your feet. Above it, the flat-topped rock of Mesa Vouno carries Ancient Thera, reached by a road of switchbacks or on foot from the beach.

Inland is the part most visitors skip and shouldn't. Pyrgos is the old inland capital, a cone of lanes under a Venetian castle; Megalochori and Mesaria are where the wineries are, and Santorini's assyrtiko is the most interesting white wine made on any Greek island.

As a base it is a trade: no caldera view, no sunset, a bus or a twenty-minute drive to Fira — and rooms that cost what rooms should cost. It is also the side of the island closest to the airport, which is a mixed blessing at breakfast.