I did not plan to go to Santorini. I was in Athens, I needed to fly home, and it turned out it was cheaper to catch a ferry to Santorini and fly back from there than to fly direct from Athens. I thought: why not spend two nights.
I expected blue domes, cruise ship crowds, and very little I could actually eat. What I found was more complicated and considerably better than that. Santorini as a vegan requires planning. Genuine, do-it-the-night-before planning, not a vague intention to figure it out when you arrive. But when you find the right places, it is very, very good.
Two nights, a hired car, one of the best beachside lunches of the entire trip, and falafel so good I still think about it.
The One Rule That Changes Everything
Do not arrive in Santorini and wander around hoping to find somewhere vegan for dinner. This is the mistake. You might find something. It might be eye-wateringly expensive, or one sad salad on a seafood-heavy menu, and you will spend the meal watching everyone else eat impressively.
Open Happy Cow the evening before, map the places near wherever you are going, and have a plan. The island is small but spread out, and if you are based in one village and the good vegan food is in another, that is a real journey without a car. Plan first. The reward is worth it.
The Best Vegan Restaurants in Santorini
Here are the vegan restaurants in Santorini I actually ate at and would send you to, plus a couple of all-vegan spots worth the detour.
Tranquilo, Perissa
My number one recommendation and it is not close. Tranquilo sits right on Perissa’s black sand beach, which is itself worth the trip. The food is genuinely excellent: huge menu, lots of variety, proper vegan options at every meal. You can eat in the restaurant or head straight to the beach. The atmosphere is relaxed in a way that is hard to manufacture. I could have spent all day there.
I got there by hiring a car. If I had not done that, I would have missed it entirely.
We arrived before lunch and ended up in their beach chairs for a couple of hours first, coffee and a smoothie, excellent music, doing nothing at all. The name is not an accident. Then we moved inside and had the taco platter and a salad, and some of the sauces were out of this world good.
What got me was simply finding food that was not another accidentally vegan Greek dish. Those are lovely. You do get over them after a week.
The staff were warm, the location is the location, and Perissa is the quieter side of the island. If I had known how good it was I would have eaten there every single day.
FalafeLand, Fira
A bit out of the main section of Fira but very much walkable. The falafel is exceptional. Genuinely one of the best I have had anywhere, at a genuinely reasonable price. Exactly the kind of place you hope to stumble across and can actually afford. I had the falafel. Obviously I had the falafel. It comes with salad and sauces and I would order exactly the same thing again.
Do not stumble across it: plan to go there.
Veganissimo, Fira
I did not make it to Veganissimo on this trip (two nights goes fast), but it kept appearing in my research and the reviews are consistently impressive. Big vegan menu, though it shares a space with a non-vegan restaurant so ask for the vegan one when you sit down. A minute from the bus terminal in Fira, family-run with a local feel. Vegan moussaka, mushroom souvlaki, fava bean dip. Very much on the list for next time and worth adding to yours now.
What happens when you do not plan
One evening we ended up at a restaurant near Imerovigli because nothing else was in reach and it was getting late. This is exactly the situation I warned about above. Vegan options were limited but they did exist. I found a couple of dishes and they were decent enough, though at a price that made me wince. The view from the terrace over the caldera was stunning, to be fair. But if I had planned ahead I would have eaten better for half the cost.
Eating Vegan in Oia (Or Rather, Not)
I went to Oia. I did not eat in Oia.
To be fair to Oia, we only went for a quick look. I had searched beforehand and could not find anything obvious, and once we were standing there I stopped looking. It is boutiques and viewpoints and people three deep at every wall.
The viewpoint for the classic shot, the windmill with the whole town falling away behind it, was heaving. This was the end of October. Not high season, not even close, and you still queue for a gap in the crowd to hold your phone up.
The queue for the viewpoint. End of October.
So we looked, we took the photo, and we left. That is genuinely why we did not eat there.
What it does have is market stalls, and those are genuinely useful: nuts, seeds, olives, that kind of thing. Easy enough to put together something to keep you going. For an actual meal, I would eat before you go or plan to eat after.
Go for the sunset. Just do not go hungry.
Something Sweet
Full disclosure: we did not get to this one. Zotos in Fira has been scooping gelato since the late 1800s, five generations of the same family, and by all accounts has a proper run of vegan flavours rather than one grudging sorbet. There is a coconut and chocolate one called Lava Santorini, which is either brilliant or a marketing department having a day.
It is on my list for next time. Two nights is not enough for an island, it turns out.
Vegan Hotels in Santorini (But Check They Are Open)
Santorini has a growing number of fully vegan accommodation options. MOD Santorini in Fira was the first fully vegan boutique hotel on the island. There is also Ethos Vegan Suites in Fira and Ethos Vegan Retreat in Imerovigli, all plant-based from the food to the furnishings.
I would love to go back and stay at one of these. Unfortunately, visiting at the end of October, the one I had in mind had closed for the season. This matters: many of Santorini’s smaller vegan hotels and restaurants close late October through March. If you are travelling in shoulder season, check availability before you book. The scene is genuinely impressive; you just need to time it right.
Here is the thing nobody mentions, though. The vegan hotels sit inland and higher up, not on the caldera rim. So if what you want is the postcard, the cliff edge, the sunset dropping into the water directly below your balcony, you may have to choose. Vegan hotel, or caldera view.
I chose the view and managed the food myself. No regrets, but go in knowing that is the trade.
One workaround: look for somewhere with a kitchenette. We did not have one and it was fine, but it would have made the whole thing easier.
Snacks, Supermarkets and the 27 Euro Airport Nuggets
There was a small supermarket near where I was staying that covered the essentials: bread, vegetables, fruit, the basics. A couple of small local stops around the island had dolmades (stuffed vine leaves) which are naturally vegan and make a genuinely good snack while driving around. Breakfast was included at our villa every morning, and when I mentioned my preferences they sorted fruit and basics without any fuss.
Manageable. Just not Athens.
The supermarket was a Carrefour, five or ten minutes walk from where we stayed. Small, so nothing vegan-specific in the way you get in bigger Greek supermarkets, but hummus, crackers, bread if you read the ingredients, and plenty of fruit and veg. We had a fridge in the room, which made this a lot more useful than it sounds.
Now the bit I want you to actually take away from this post.
At Santorini airport on the way home, my partner (also vegan) was starving. The only vegan thing he could find in the entire place was nuggets and fries from a fast food counter. They cost twenty seven euros.
Twenty seven euros. For nuggets and chips.
So: do not plan to eat at the airport. There is very little you can eat and the prices are genuinely absurd. Stop at the Carrefour, or whatever is nearest to you, and take food with you.
Hire a Car
Honestly essential. The bus network exists but the good vegan spots are spread across the island and without wheels you will miss most of them. A car is how I got to Tranquilo at Perissa, how I caught the sunset at the lighthouse on the southern tip, and how I reached Akrotiri and Red Beach, both absolutely worth the detour.
Akrotiri is a four thousand year old Bronze Age settlement, remarkably preserved and genuinely fascinating. One of the highlights of the whole trip. From there it is a short walk down to Red Beach, where the volcanic red cliffs drop straight into the Aegean. Neither are crowded in the way that Fira and Oia are, and neither are really accessible without a car.
I have covered driving in Santorini properly in a separate post because it deserves more than a paragraph. The short version: hire a car and you will not regret it.
Ours cost around fifty euros for the whole hire, and we had it well over forty hours. For what it unlocked on an island this spread out, that is nothing.
The other thing a car buys you is escape. Even at the end of October the cruise ships still come in, and when they do, Fira is absolutely rammed. This is the Santorini people are talking about when they say they would rather not bother.
Being able to drive out to Perissa, or Akrotiri, or anywhere that is not on the tour route, changes the whole day. Then you come back later, watch them queuing to get back on the boat, and Fira turns into a much nicer place to be.
Where to Stay
I stayed at Krokus Villas in Imerovigli, which sits on the caldera rim between Fira and Oia. The views are genuinely stunning. Imerovigli is quieter than Fira, close enough that you can walk down if you want to, and the caldera path toward Oia starts right there. We did part of the walk and it is beautiful.
Our room had a balcony, which I had booked specifically because I thought it was private. It was not entirely. I did complain, and was told that was all that was available, which was annoying. In practice we had it more or less to ourselves the whole time, and the view from it was the kind you keep looking up at mid-conversation.
There is a breakfast menu, and this is the part worth knowing about. You go in the evening before and put your order in. It is basic, and it is not a vegan menu. But we explained we did not want meat or eggs and got fruit, fruit juice, coffee, bread and jam, brought out to the balcony each morning.
Not a feast. I do not eat much breakfast anyway. The point is they listened, they got it right, and nothing arrived on the plate that I could not eat. If you have ever sat through a hotel breakfast being handed a bowl of fruit while everyone else gets the works, you will know why that counts.
That is our actual balcony, and that is the view we had over breakfast every morning. Whatever the room cost, it was worth it for that alone.
There is also a bar on site doing cocktails over the caldera at sunset, which we made good use of.
On price: this is not one of the high-end caldera hotels and it does not pretend to be. Rates swing hard with the season, roughly 250 euros a night at the quieter end of the year and well past double that in peak summer. We went at the end of October, which is exactly where the value sits.
For the view we got, it was a genuinely affordable option and perfectly good. You are paying a fraction of what the cliff-edge names charge and looking at the same caldera.
Oia is extremely busy, especially at sunset. If you go with a car and find a quieter viewpoint away from the main crowd, it is extraordinary. And Fira when the cruise ships are in is genuinely best avoided. You can see them sitting in the caldera from the clifftops above, which is its own kind of spectacle. Fighting your way through the crowds they bring is not.
Akrotiri and Red Beach: Go
This has nothing to do with veganism and I am putting it in anyway, because it was the best thing we did and I nearly missed it.
I had not researched Akrotiri at all. I only found out it existed once we were on the island, and we went because we had the car and nothing else booked. It is a Bronze Age settlement, four thousand years old, and remarkably preserved. We saw a four thousand year old toilet. I have thought about it more than is reasonable.
From there you can walk across to Red Beach. Now, there are signs telling you not to go down because the cliffs fall, and a roped-off section at the back of the beach for the same reason. People were sunbathing behind the rope anyway, and this was not even peak season. I live on the Jurassic Coast, where cliffs also fall on people, so no thank you.
The walk down itself is fine. I had read enough beforehand to arrive nervous and it was very manageable, with children and older people doing it without drama. Not one for anyone with mobility issues. The water is beautiful.
There are places along the water near the beach that will almost certainly do you dolmades and gigantes if you ask. We ran out of time, because two nights.
The Verdict: Vegan in Santorini
Harder than Athens. Requires planning. Genuinely excellent when you find the right places.
I booked it as an afterthought and it ended up being one of the better decisions of the trip. The key is not assuming the island will sort itself out for you. It will not. But Tranquilo, FalafeLand, a car key in your hand, and a caldera view from the balcony at sunrise? That is a very good two days.
If you are building a Greece vegan itinerary: start with the Athens guide, come here next, then read the Vegan in Meteora guide before you go anywhere near the mainland monasteries.
Vegan restaurants in Santorini: FAQ
Are there vegan restaurants in Santorini?
Yes. Tranquilo in Perissa and FalafeLand in Fira are the reliable ones, plus all-vegan spots like Veganissimo (check opening times off-season).
Where can vegans eat in Santorini?
Perissa and Fira are your best bets. Away from those, plan ahead, because a lot of Santorini menus default to feta and grilled meat.
Is Santorini good for vegans?
Genuinely good if you plan and hire a car. Harder than Athens, but excellent once you find the right places.
Are there vegan hotels in Santorini?
Yes. MOD Santorini and Ethos Vegan Suites are both in Fira, and Ethos Vegan Retreat is in Imerovigli. Two things to know: several close from late October through March, and they sit inland rather than on the caldera rim, so a vegan hotel and a caldera view are hard to get in the same booking.
Do you need a car in Santorini?
If you want to eat well, yes. The best vegan places are spread across the island and the buses will not get you to most of them. Ours was about fifty euros for the whole stay.
Can you get vegan food at Santorini airport?
Barely, and you will pay for it. The only vegan option we found was nuggets and fries at twenty seven euros. Bring food from a supermarket instead.
