Boat from the Santorini tender pier to Athinios: the way round the cable car

Who is it for?

Cruise guests who would rather not queue for the cable car, cannot climb the 587 steps and do not want a mule, or are afraid of heights. The cable car lifts 1,200 people an hour and the island admits up to 8,000 cruise passengers a day in 2025 and 2026, so on a day with several ships the line at the bottom can take an hour or two, and the operator’s price list of April 2026 has one ticket type and no priority lane: nobody can buy a way past it. What we offer instead is a boat for your party from the tender pier to Athinios, the ferry port to the south, where your driver and vehicle wait on the quay and the land tour starts.

How does it work on the day?

Your ship’s tender lands you at the old port of Fira. On the pier a representative holds a sign with your name and walks you to the boat; the boat takes your group to Athinios, and on the quay there the driver is waiting with the vehicle. From Athinios the road to the stops is short: 14 min and 10 km to Akrotiri, 25 min and 22 km to Oia, 14 min and 10 km between Athinios and the top of the cable car in Fira, all without traffic and routed on OpenStreetMap. The hours of your tour run from the quay, and every one of our Santorini tours lists Athinios as a start. For shade and toilets on the pier and on the quay, ask the representative or the driver, since no official page states them; lunch, if your day has one, belongs to the land tour that follows.

Do we need it at all? The 2026 landing rule

Maybe not. Since 2026 a ship certified for more than 1,000 passengers lands seven in ten of its guests at the old port of Fira and three in ten at Athinios, and smaller ships choose either; the ship decides who lands where, not the passenger. If your tender goes to Athinios, the vehicle waits on the quay and there is nothing to add. Ask your cruise line which tender you are on, or give us the ship’s name and we plan for both; the cruise port page carries the port facts with their sources and dates, and the cruise-fee guide explains the daily limit behind the queue.

The three ways up, compared

The cable-car guide has the timetable by month, the reduced fares and what to do about the queue.

What does it cost, and how do we book it?

The boat is an add-on, quoted together with the land tour for your party’s size; no price is printed yet, and nothing is paid on the site. Book any Santorini tour, the 4-hour tour, the 5-hour tour or the full day, write “boat to Athinios” in the message of the request with your ship’s name and times, and the office answers with the day and its price in one email. The tour then starts at Athinios instead of the cable car’s top station.

Getting back to the ship

Planned with you when we confirm: back to Fira for the cable car down and the tender, or the boat from Athinios if you book it both ways. Either way the day ends 90 minutes before all-aboard, the cable-car queue at the top forms again in the afternoon, and if the boat cannot sail the meeting point moves to the exit of the top station and the wait comes out of that margin. We cannot hold a ship and do not promise the return to it; what we promise is the plan and a phone that is answered.