Greece’s Cruise Tax Hits Its Summer Peak. Here Is What Santorini and Mykonos Cost in 2026.

If your 2026 cruise calls at a Greek island this summer, expect a new line on your onboard account. Greece now charges a fee every time a passenger steps ashore at one of its ports, and the charge is at its highest right now. From June 1 to September 30, going ashore at Santorini or Mykonos costs 20 euros (about $23) per person, while every other Greek port costs 5 euros.

The reassuring part: your cruise line collects the fee for you, it is small next to the price of the sailing, and you can avoid it on any port day simply by staying on board. Here is exactly what the fee is, what you will pay this season, and how to fold it into your budget.

What the Greek cruise fee actually is

Officially called the sustainability tourism fee, though many cruisers know it simply as the Greek cruise tax, the charge was approved by the Greek government and took effect on July 21, 2025. Greece designed it to fund port and island infrastructure and to ease the pressure that record cruise traffic puts on its most crowded destinations.

The fee is charged per disembarking passenger, regardless of age, for every Greek port where you go ashore. It applies whether the stop is a quick transit call or your cruise begins and ends there, with narrow exceptions only for medical emergencies and crew. In practice that means the cost scales with how many Greek islands your itinerary touches, not with the length of your cruise.

What you pay this summer

The fee is seasonal and tiered, so the same island costs different amounts depending on when you sail. Santorini and Mykonos, the two most visited islands, sit in their own top bracket. Right now you are in the peak window, when the rate is at its yearly high.

Because the islands are billed separately, a single summer cruise that calls at both Santorini and Mykonos adds 40 euros per person before you count any other stop. A family of four visiting both islands would pay at least 160 euros (about $185) in fees, and each additional Greek port adds 5 euros a head on top of that.

How your cruise line collects it

You will not hand over cash at the pier. The fee posts to your shipboard account, usually the night before each Greek port call, and it is reversed if you decide not to go ashore. MSC Cruises, for example, tells guests it pays the fee to Greek authorities on their behalf and adds it to the onboard account, then removes it within 24 hours if you stay aboard.

If you booked your sailing early, the fee may already be in your fare. As U.S. News reports, Celebrity Cruises told passengers who booked on or after September 20, 2024 that the tax is already folded into the taxes and fees on their booking invoice, while everyone else is charged on board. It is worth checking your invoice so a Santorini day does not surprise you. Behind the scenes, cruise lines remit the money to Greece on a quarterly basis through a central digital platform, and a line that fails to pay can be blocked from returning to a port.

How to plan your itinerary and budget

For a typical Greek islands week this summer, budget roughly 20 to 40 euros per person for the marquee islands, plus 5 euros for each additional Greek stop. It is a modest add on for most travelers, but it is real money for a family and worth penciling in alongside shore excursions and gratuities.

If you are weighing two similar sailings, one that trades Santorini or Mykonos for a quieter island such as Milos, Naxos or Syros trims the fee to 5 euros a stop and usually means thinner crowds as well, a trade some cruisers are happy to make. Our guide to the Greek islands worth visiting after Santorini lays out the alternatives. The fee does not change how Santorini works on the day, where ships still anchor and tender guests up to Fira and Oia, so plan that stop around the cable car and caldera crowds exactly as before, as covered in our Santorini cruise tendering guide. Greece is also not the only port raising costs this year. Barcelona increased its own cruise passenger charge for 2026, so Western Mediterranean itineraries carry separate fees of their own.

Why Greece added the fee

The charge is one piece of a broader response to overtourism. Mykonos alone welcomed about 1.3 million cruise passengers in 2024, up more than 8 percent from a year earlier, and that volume strains island water supplies, roads and housing during the summer crush. Athens has also discussed capping the number of cruise ships allowed at the busiest ports on a given day, a step that could reshape itineraries as soon as 2027.

For now the takeaway is simple. The fee is here to stay, it is at its yearly peak through September, and it belongs in your trip budget rather than in a surprise on your final bill. Greece is leaning on charges like this, plus the threat of tighter limits on its most crowded islands, to keep its biggest draws livable for the people who call them home.

Featured image: the cruise ship Grand Celebration off Santorini, by Norbert Nagel, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

For broader planning, compare this update with Deep Arrival’s cruise planning guides.