Santorini is the picture postcard idyllic image of a Greek island … but does it really live up to the hype?

We went for a week and discovered it’s an island of two halves … the hyper expensive and the, well, rather more affordable.

The island is known for its white-washed buildings and blue-domed churches set against that piercing blue Greek sky … and there are certainly plenty of them around.

It’s hot, dry with a lot of scrubland in the central part of the island but it’s the famous exploded volcano and seaside resorts that count. And it’s a small island – only around 6 miles wide and 15 miles long – so you can often see both coasts from most vantage points.

What we’ll call the expensive part, which takes in the capital, Fira, and cute cliff-top village of Oia, is set around the caldera on one side of the island. A caldera is a large, bowl-shaped depression in the ground formed when the top of a volcano collapses after a large eruption. The caldera in Santorini became filled with sea after a massive eruption in 1,600 BC literally blew the island to pieces.

It’s a stunning sight with hotels, apartments, rooms and suites all on the top of the volcano edge facing one of the world’s most magnificent views.

And that’s why you pay the big bucks for it. We did an EasyJet holiday package which made it reasonable, especially going in October at the end of the season.

When we first arrived and knew little we walked into a torch-lit bar close to where we were staying in Imerovigli – a village midway between Fira and Oia - asked for a wine and a beer and took a look at the menu.

Hindsight is a most wonderful thing and we remain scarred by the prices we now can’t unsee. The tasting menu was 180 Euros per person and it turns out we’d innocently walked into one of the top 50 restaurants in the world in the dark. We mumbled our excuses about not being that hungry and left having paid 20 Euros for a glass of wine and 7 Euros for a beer.

Once bitten twice shy? Well, we kind of fell for it again. The next day we walked the 30 minutes along and then down the side of the caldera – surely one of the world’s most stunning walks - into Fira and had a meal at a restaurant overlooking the caldera at sunset. The meals didn’t look too bad at around 22 euros a dish … but once again we got stung by the wine which turned out to be 14 euros a glass for the cheapest tipple and you couldn’t get a bottle below 68 Euros.

So, we only had a glass each and decided we’d find ways round this expense to help others who visit Santorini.

We’ve no idea why wine is so expensive in Fira and Oia and no-one could really explain it to us. All we can think is that they’re such tourist hotspots they can literally charge what they want and with three cruise ships anchoring in the caldera most days the area quickly gets mobbed. Oia was especially hectic even in October – you could hardly walk for folk – so it must be manic in summer. And then, of course, you’d have the intense heat to contend with too.

By their nature being set high up on a rock face Fira, Imerovigli and Oia have steps … lots and lots of steps. If you’re not reasonably fit and able you’ll really struggle and there’s no way anyone in a wheelchair could access our hotel as it’s set down the cliff face without a lift from top to bottom.

But then there’s the other side of the island with the resorts of Kamari and Perissa next to black sand beaches on the water’s edge … and both are flat although there’s a massive cliff inbetween them.

And this is what I’ll call the other side of the island, the reasonably priced one.

Prices here are far more what you’d expect in Greece with a half carafe of wine around 11 Euros and dishes typically 14 to 16 Euros.

Probably the best and certainly the least expensive way to get around is by public bus. All the buses run from the bus station in Fira and it’s only 2 euros a journey … just about any journey except to Perissa where it’s pushed up to 2.5 Euros.

They run regularly - usually every half-an-hour to most destinations – but beware the bus station is health and safety mayhem. They reverse constantly where crowds of tourists are walking.

Also beware taxis that tout for business and can charge a fortune. Friends of ours paid 20 Euros for a journey of less than 10 minutes from Fira to Imerovigli while others were quoted 40 Euros to be taken back to the airport just seven miles away.

We were waiting at a bus stop in the countryside to go to Oia and had several taxis stop, wanting to take us there, along with a bloke who reckoned he was a taxi yet his car had absolutely nothing on it to remotely suggest it was one. Once in the taxi, they can make up any price.

Another popular way to get around is to hire a quad bike but these 500cc bad boys look monsters to drive so best avoid unless you know what you’re doing. And, apparently, they drink fuel like there’s no tomorrow.

One of the main trips is to go on a five-hour catamaran cruise but, again, be careful how you book it. Our hotel quoted us 400 Euros for two but we looked on trip booking website Viator and got it for 170 euros for both of us which included as much wine or beer we could drink plus a barbecue meal along with a pick up and drop off at our hotel.

It was a cracking trip, to be fair, just six of us on a catamaran designed to take 13 and it sure was plush. The young crew had an obvious pride in their boat – we even had to take our shoes off before we were allowed on – and they cooked up a brilliant barbecue of grilled chicken and kebabs along with salad, potatoes and Tzatziki.

It’s a well-worn route with catamarans sailing usually from a small jetty below Oia across the caldera, stopping first at the volcano’s epicentre, and then on to moor off the island’s famous red beach where they hand out snorkels and masks so we could go and swim with the fishes while they’re busy throwing another kebab on the barbie.

Then it’s round the other side of the island to see the black molten lava cliffs before finishing up in a marina.

The sunset cruise then retraces its steps, mooring off Oia to watch the sun dip into the sea at sunset … and the sunsets sure are glorious.

When it came to eating out ‘on the cheap’ we found a great kebab shop in Imerovigli called Jimmy’s so got three meals from there all wrapped up which we ate on our balcony watching the shimmering lights from Oia in the distance … and a bottle of wine.

There are quite a few small supermarkets if you search for them but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a bottle of wine under 12 Euros on that side of the island.

We also found a reasonably-priced restaurant called Four Seasons at Imerovigli with a really friendly frontman so stuck with them for a couple of nights too. It worked out around 65 Euros a couple with wine.

Best bar we found was Tranquilo in Perissa … you can’t miss it as it’s orange, very orange. But what a vibe with world music, a relaxed natural chill and massive portions. We had a mushroom dish with potatoes, dips and salads that was huge. It cost us less than 30 Euros for that and a half carafe of wine. They even have chairs right next to the sea so you could eat with your feet dipped resting in the waves.

So Santorini is a stunning place around the caldera and the views of the beautiful white buildings perched down cliff-tops with the tranquil sea and the bright blue sky quite rightly rank among the best in the world.

It’s well worth a visit but I’d suggest you avoid mid-summer. October was perfect with around 26ºC (80ºF) but it does drop sharply in the evening to around 14ºC (58ºF) and we had a cold-edged wind for a couple of days.

Keep an eye on the weather forecast if going on a catamaran as it can get quite choppy out there if the wind’s blowing and, with it being a small island, there’s usually a breeze.

If you’re into walking you can walk from Fira right round the caldera to Oia which is about 6.5 miles and you’ll not want to rush it as you have a spectacular view every step of the way.

To see everything, best go for at least five days or a full week if you want to push the boat – or perhaps we ought to say catamaran – out.

And best buy a bottle or two of your favourite tipple in duty free on the way out.