Santorini island, Cyclades, Greece

we are going to Santorini on Monday for a week.
Even though it's a small island I could imagine that there is lots of beautiful things to do or see beyond the tourism mile.
Has anyone special recommendation about places, restaurants beaches or bars?
EDIT: we being me and my boyfriend (romantic time:-))

Santorini is beautiful, but be prepared for it to be baking hot at this time of year.

A Greek colleague of mine recommended Saltsa for Greek food unlike you would get it in a taverna. We went there and it really was good food - not touristy, and with a commanding view of the East of the island and of Mount Profitis Ilias. Waiter was a bit snobby when we asked for a Greek coffee, apparently aspiring Greeks drink espresso, which to be honest is preferable to me.

We went in late May and the place was already fairly rammed, especially Oia for the stunning sunset. Taxis are cheap, but apparently hard to get hold of in summer.

If you can avoid the crowds, it's definitely a good place to go for romance. We were on our honeymoon, apparently like a good few others.

I was in Santorini a couple of years ago, and some things I can recommend are:

1) Walking around Oia and watching the Sunset (and the postcard views). We stayed in Oia for the trip.
2) Taking a sail boat tour of the caldera (ex . http://www.vacation.gr/tours/santorini/cal...ia-sunset7.html ) The boats leave from lower Oia and you get to swin in the hot springs and visit both islands in the caldera.
3) Wine cellar tours and tasting (ex. http://www.boutari.gr/ )There was one a few kms from Oia.
4) Dinner at the bottom of the cliff in Oia
5) Rent a motorcycle and drive aimlessly around the island
6) Stay away from the Fira, its a dump.
7) The beaches (red and black sand) in the south are supposed to be good, but we stayed more towards the north.
8) Cliff diving near lower Oia
9) The retsina, grilled octopus and ouzo are always good...MMmmm

Yeah, we checked out the Red Beach, and it was good. Ideally take some beach shoes, though.

Disagree about Fira being a dump. Not as nice as Oia, maybe. We stayed just south of Fira on the caldera rim. Very nice hotel, and it was great opening the door in the morning to get a view of the caldera and the bay with lots of sun. The tour boats also go from Fira.

We bought a lovely painting of Oia at one of the many art shops there and it now has pride of place above our sofa.

Pyrgos is also worth a trip, although it seemed to be dying out and was not recognisable from the descriptions in our guide books, which weren't that old. Sweeping views of much of the island, though.

Does anyone have any new/additional tips or recommendations for Santorini? We're considering visiting the island for a week in the middle of July (yes we know it will by hot!) I'm interested in anything and everything, especially recommendations on places to stay. Thanks in advance for anything you can share.

We stayed at the Volcano's View. Great view, breakfast on the terrace overlooking it, but we chose to eat out in the evenings, getting the shuttle bus to Fira.

We stayed at the Nine Muses hotel in Perissa in July 06, It's main road along the beach has a lot of restaurants and bars but can gets very noisy at night with both loud music and motor scooters. We loved exploring Fira, it is a beautiful little town. You can take a boat along the coast a little from Perissa to Kamari which is quieter and a little classier than Perissa. I'd also recommend that you take the sunset cruise around the Caldera or the trip where you can also bathe in the mineral hot springs.

In July it can get up to 40 degrees, Bring some sunscreen, I don't generally have any sunburn trouble but I found I needed to use a high SPF to prevent burning.

BBC News: Gruesome crime shocks Greek isle

Yikes, not very in keeping with Santorini's image.

As an aside, the BBC article confuses Fira, the island's capital, and Thira, the (other) Greek name for Santorini.