Short answer
Santorini keeps Greek time: Eastern European Time, UTC+2, in winter and Eastern European Summer Time, UTC+3, from the last Sunday of March to the last Sunday of October. It is the same time as Athens and the rest of Greece; the clock below shows the time on the island right now.
- Time zone
- EET, UTC+2
- Summer time
- EEST, UTC+3
- Clocks change
- Last Sunday of March and of October
- Same time as
- Athens and all of Greece
The time in Santorini now
Greece · Eastern European Time
UTC+2 in winter, UTC+3 in summer
Santorini’s time zone
Santorini is on Greek time, which is Eastern European Time: two hours ahead of UTC in winter and three hours ahead in summer. The whole country keeps one clock, so Santorini, the other Cycladic islands, Crete and Athens always show the same time, and nothing changes when you fly or sail between them.
When the clocks change
Greece follows the European Union’s summer time. The clocks go forward one hour at 03:00 on the last Sunday of March and back one hour at 04:00 on the last Sunday of October:
| Year | Clocks forward (03:00 → 04:00) | Clocks back (04:00 → 03:00) |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Sunday 29 March | Sunday 25 October |
| 2027 | Sunday 28 March | Sunday 31 October |
The change is easy to feel on the island. On Saturday 24 October 2026 the sun sets at about 18:30; on Sunday, after the clocks go back, it sets at about 17:29.
Santorini and home
The time now where most of our guests come from, and how far ahead or behind Santorini is today:
Santorini is 2 hours ahead of London and 1 hour ahead of Paris, Rome and Berlin all year. The gap with North America is 7 hours to New York and 10 to Los Angeles for most of the year, and an hour less for about three weeks in March and one week around the end of October, because the United States changes its clocks on other dates.
Plan the day by Santorini’s clock
The sun rises at about 06:00 in June and at about 07:30 in late October and in winter. It sets at about 20:40 in late June and at about 17:00 in early December; today’s sunset, the golden hour and the month-by-month times are on our Santorini sunset time page.
Our catamaran cruises run on island time too: the day cruise sets off from Vlychada Marina at 10:00 and the sunset cruise at 15:00, with hotel pickup before. A private cruise keeps your group’s own timing, and all our boat tours in Santorini leave from the same marina on the south coast. If you are planning a day at sea, the Vista Yachting team can help you fit it around your flights and ferries.
