Greece’s Island Fees, and Three Quieter Cyclades
Santorini and Mykonos now charge cruise visitors up to €20 a head, and hotel fees climb with star rating. Naxos, Sifnos and Folegandros offer the alternative.
Greece has started pricing its crowds. Since 2025, cruise passengers stepping ashore on Santorini or Mykonos in summer pay €20 each, and every hotel night in the country carries a climate resilience fee that rises with star rating and season. None of it is large enough to cancel a trip, but it changes the maths of where and when to go. The answer for many travellers sits a ferry ride away, on Cycladic islands that the national tourism board, Visit Greece, sells for their villages, food and walking rather than their sunsets.
What the fees cost
Cruise levy. Announced in September 2024, the levy is charged per disembarking passenger and varies by port and month, iefimerida reported:
| Period | Santorini, Mykonos | Other ports |
|---|---|---|
| June to September | €20 | €5 |
| April, May, October | €12 | €4 |
| November to March | €4 | €1 |
The government estimated the levy would raise about €50 million a year, shared among island municipalities, port infrastructure and the tourism ministry.
Climate resilience fee. From 1 January 2025 the per-night fee rose sharply, according to Greek City Times. In April to October it is €2 at 1- and 2-star hotels, €5 at 3-star, €10 at 4-star and €15 at 5-star, falling to €0.50, €1.50, €3 and €4 from November to March. Short-term rentals pay €8 a night in peak months (€15 for detached houses over 80 m²) and villas €15. Heritage buildings, youth hostels and campsites are exempt. It is usually charged locally by the property, so tell travellers to expect it at checkout.
For a couple in a 5-star suite for a week in July, that is €105 in fees. The same stay in November is €28.
Three quieter Cyclades
Naxos: the big, green one. Visit Greece calls Naxos the largest and most fertile island in the Cyclades. Its plains grow potatoes and citrons, and it makes its own cheeses and wines. Inland villages are the draw: Apeiranthos with its marble-paved lanes, Halki with its warm-coloured houses, Filoti and Kinidaros. Naxos town has a Venetian castle quarter, and Mount Zas is the highest peak in the Cyclades. For beaches, Agios Prokopios, Agia Anna and Plaka are long and sandy. It is the easiest of the three to reach: flights from Athens to Naxos take about 45 minutes, and from Thessaloniki about 1 hour 15 minutes, the board says.
Read next · IndustryWestJet’s Calgary–Loreto Nonstop Returns, Twice Weekly in Winter2 min →Sifnos: the food island. Sifnos is known for its cooking and pastry, and it is the home island of Nikolaos Tselementes, the chef who modernised Greek cooking in the 20th century, according to Visit Greece. Pottery workshops are a long tradition. Apollonia, the main village, spreads across three hills and comes alive in the evening, and old cobbled paths link hamlets, monasteries and the photogenic Chrysopigi chapel on its rock. Ferries from Piraeus run via Serifos; the board lists journey times of about 2.5 hours on fast boats and more than five hours on conventional ferries.
Folegandros: the cliff-top one. Folegandros’s Chora sits about 200 metres above the sea, built within and around a medieval castle on the cliff edge, with plane-shaded squares and cafés. A zigzag path climbs to the Panagia church for sunset. Dozens of walking trails link chapels, villages and beaches such as Katergos, Agia Marina and Livadas. Visit Greece suggests flying from Athens to Milos (about 40 minutes) and continuing by ferry, which makes Milos an easy two-island pairing.
When to go
Shoulder months cut both crowds and fees. In May or October, the Santorini cruise levy drops to €12 and hotels still charge the peak resilience rate, but in November to March both fall sharply. For swimming weather with smaller crowds, aim for late May, June or September on the quieter islands, and leave July and August to those who want the buzz.
Plan it
- Route: Athens, then Naxos by air or ferry, Sifnos and Folegandros by ferry. Allow at least three nights per island; ferry links in the western Cyclades thin out outside summer.
- Budget the fees: add the climate resilience fee per night per room, more for higher star ratings and villas.
- Cruise travellers: factor the per-port levy into Santorini and Mykonos calls, especially in summer.
- Walk: all three islands reward walkers. Bring proper shoes.
Sources
- iefimerida, cruise levy rates, 17 Sep 2024
- To Vima, cruise levy
- Greek City Times, climate resilience fee table, 8 Jan 2025
- Visit Greece, Naxos
- Visit Greece, Sifnos
- Visit Greece, Folegandros
Where to stay near Sifnos
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Alicia Loveday is Managing Editor at Not An Atlas, writing from Calgary, Alberta, amid a little creative chaos: a laptop, an iced coffee and about a hundred ideas she hasn't had time to bring to life yet. She became a mom young and spent her twenties raising two kids, so she was 30 before she saw the ocean for the first time, in Aruba. Gliding through that clear Caribbean water on a Seabob felt like freedom, and she's been making up for lost time ever since. She always takes the window seat (she waited 30 years for the view), never travels without the feather pillow she's had since childhood (they're a package deal), and sizes up a new place with a local cocktail and some serious people-watching. She covers fashion, culture, creativity and the people who shape the places we visit. Friends say creative, fearless and unapologetic. Her mum says stubborn, and she'd be right. Next stop: Japan.
