The Makers of Megalochori

Walk through the village of Megalochori, Santorini, meeting the artisans who keep Santorini's legacy alive. You'll learn about their craft, inspiration and creative process through personal encounters as you move between the workshops. The first stop is a jewelry designer whose collections draw on Minoan art, Cycladic forms and the island's archaeological heritage. From there, Maria brings you to a traditional leather studio, then a wood carver, where you learn the techniques behind decorative and functional pieces and make two small ones to take home. The walk concludes at a cultural space inside a former winery, where music, mythology and craftsmanship come together. Here you take part in an interactive presentation of traditional Greek instruments and the stories behind them, followed by a workshop in which you cut, tie and tune a pan pipe from local cane — then refreshments and snacks in the botanical garden.

Megalochori has been here since the 17th century, exporting sweet Vinsanto across Europe. The mansions and the arched belfries are what visitors come to photograph. The workshops however are what the village still runs on. Maria has known these makers for years, which allows you to move past a shop counter and go through to the back, watch someone work, and ask the questions you'd feel awkward asking a stranger. One thing to know: the main tourist areas empty out off-season, and you might think Santorini is a ghost town in those months. It isn't. The island has a year-round population, and many of the people you'll meet are part of it. At the wood carver's you make two small pieces to keep, and at the last stop you cut a pan pipe from local cane — the instrument Pan made from the reeds that Syrinx became, which is why the Greeks still call it a syrinx. The presentation before it is given by a musician and instrument maker whose work has appeared in National Geographic.

Maria Petrenko is a Santorini-based experience designer whose work looks beyond the island's famous views to the quieter layers that shape daily life here. Over the years, she has worked across Santorini's tourism world, building relationships with farmers, artists, drivers, and residents whose knowledge comes from living and working on the island. Her approach favors calm pacing, fewer stops, and more context, with space to ask questions, sit, and notice details that most itineraries pass too quickly. She works with small local producers rather than at the volume the island's tourism usually runs at.

Comfortable walking shoes, as the experience takes place entirely on foot.