Greek island chaos as tourists describe unbearably manic scenes (2025)

Santorini is world famous for it's beautiful scenery. (Image: Getty)

Crazy footage has captured insane hoards of tourists ramming the tiny Greek island of Santorini.

The clip posted by a local tour guide has stoked fears about the seemingly unending deluge of holidaymakers making the area uninhabitable for locals, some being forced to live in caves due to the growing numbers of visitors and the rising cost of living.

At the peak of the holiday season the picture-perfect isle in the Aegean with 17,000 tourists expected to arrive each day.

The almost unreal footage - which depicts what seems like the polar opposite of a relaxing time on holiday - has now been viewed more than 1.5 million times with thousands of people recognising the awful scenes.

Victor Karayannis posted the clip on TikTok with the caption “Oh I heard on the news that: Santorini does not have so many tourists nowadays …”.

READ MORE: The beautiful Greek island offering views like Santorini with few tourists

The short video shows queues five people wide and hundreds of metres long trailing on and off a large boat in baking temperatures.

One said: “Santorini was a stop on our cruise last year. Should never have got off (and won’t next time).

“One Instagram spot, litter everywhere and absolutely rammed streets.”

Another said: “Honestly what do you expect in the middle of July?”

“Santorini is so overloaded,” said another.

But not everyone agreed with the grim prognosis - with others saying you have to venture elsewhere on the island to capture its culture.

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One said: “I’ve been to Santorini four times, go for a proper holiday and not the immediate touristy holiday and it works amazingly.

“The best time to go is June or September. Never once seen a crown like this.”

Another said: “Back in Santorini for our honeymoon this month, the island is our happy place and absolutely stunning and the people are so friendly.”

The volcanic island has a population of just 5,500 and yet saw around 3.5 million arrivals last year. Even more tourists are expected to come through 2024.

Express journalist James Walker recently visited the island with his girlfriend and said that he’d never return.

He wrote: “Santorini was never going to be the highlight of our holiday.

“We’d heard about the crowds and the costs and the chaos. We knew about the odd scam or two.

“But, we wondered, how bad could Europe’s most popular destination really be? Bloody awful, it turns out.”