Santorini capped the cruise ships, and gay Greece trips just got better

Greece has spent two years arguing about overtourism and has finally done something structural about it. From this season Santorini operates a daily cap of 8,000 cruise passengers, and the way berths are counted was tightened so a 3,000 berth ship now uses 3,000 of those slots rather than a discounted number. The effect is blunt. Scheduled cruise calls at Santorini fell to around 595 ships this year, down from roughly 728 in 2025.

There is also a levy now

Cruise passengers pay a tiered fee to step ashore. In the peak window from 21 July to 30 September it is €20 per person at Santorini and Mykonos and €5 at other Greek ports. In April, May and October it drops to €12 and €3. Through the winter it is €4 and €1. Mykonos adopted the same levy and the berth system but stopped short of a daily passenger ceiling.

Why we think this is good for you

If you arrive by cruise ship, this costs you a little more and limits which days your ship can call. If you are staying on the island, which is what we book, it is straightforwardly good news. The worst thing about Santorini was never the crowd in general. It was five thousand people arriving in Fira between eleven and four and leaving again, compressing the whole island's traffic into the middle of the day.

The practical read for a couple planning next summer is unchanged but more strongly true than before. Stay overnight. Do Oia at sunrise rather than sunset. Take the caldera boat in the late afternoon when the day trippers have gone. Santorini rewards people who sleep there and punishes people who visit for six hours, and the new rules push the island further in that direction.

What it means for a gay couple specifically

Santorini and Mykonos are the two islands on almost every gay Greece itinerary, and they are the two the levy targets. If you are island hopping between them by ferry rather than arriving by cruise ship, none of the levy applies to you. You simply get quieter islands at the hours you are actually out, which is the morning and the evening.

Prices and rules on this move. We check them for every booking rather than trusting last year's article.