Photo: Giles Laurent (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Santorini is the rim of a drowned volcano. The Late Bronze Age eruption buried the town at Akrotiri under metres of pumice — and no human remains have been found there, because the inhabitants got out first, which is the opposite of Pompeii. The frescoes are not at the site but in Fira and Athens, and we tell you so before you go looking.
34 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Download on wi-fi before you set off — keep the screen open while it saves — then add it to your home screen so you can find it again. It works in airplane mode, with no roaming charges. Show me how to save it →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 159 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 28 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
The Bronze Age town under its modern roof, excavated by Spyridon Marinatos until he died among the ruins in 1974 — and where its frescoes actually are now.
A Dorian foundation of the ninth century BC on the Mesa Vouno ridge, plus the inland villages, Pyrgos and the Byzantine churches.
The villages on the cliff edge, the two museums that hold what Akrotiri gave up, Skaros Rock, and the volcanic islets still rising in the bay.
A town buried in pumice with no human remains found in it — the inhabitants left before the eruption, which is the opposite of Pompeii.
A Dorian city strung along the Mesa Vouno ridge, six hundred metres above the sea, with Hellenistic and Roman remains on top of the Archaic ones.
Where the Akrotiri finds are. The frescoes left the site long ago; the most famous of them are in Athens, and we say so before you go looking.
The headland that carried the island's medieval capital until earthquakes and erosion emptied it. Almost nothing of the castle is left standing.
A Byzantine church of the reign of Alexios I Komnenos, inland and away from the caldera — the oldest church on the island.
The black islet in the middle of the bay, still growing. The caldera you look across is what the volcano left when its roof fell in.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 34 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration — archaeology, geology, and what is actually on display where. 34 narration points across the island.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every significant point around the caldera and the two archaeological sites. Akrotiri and Ancient Thera get deep dives; the villages, churches and museums get focused stories.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~69 minutes total, but you walk at your own pace. 34 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.