Some Santorini hoteliers and restaurateurs are reporting bookings down a staggering 50 per cent this year - it's a crying shame. The good news is? The island has one of the longest "seasons" in the Mediterranean, starting from early March and finishing end of November, so there's still plenty of opportunity to go.

Most visitors will pass through the island’s capital of Fira - the only place that comes even close to a mass market Mediterranean destination - loud music, nightclubs, discos, bars and a young feel - but this is very much the exception on Santorini.

Santorini is a product of nature at its rawest and as such can be quite challenging. Just about everywhere dangles on the edge of a cliff and it means that steep climbs are an everyday fact of life. The elderly may find it difficult to walk about easily and most hotels do not allow children under 14 for safety reasons.

And despite the last volcano eruption occurring in 1956, the island is still subject to tremors. On one night I was there, Santorini had seven earthquakes - mostly small but one at 5.1 on the Richter scale that had my room shaking from side to side.

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And just in case anyone thinks 5.1 isn’t all that, some locals spent the night in their cars – a reflection of the violent explosion 1,500 years ago that virtually wiped out the Minoan civilization that is still flexing its muscles today. Having said that, the millions of tons of rock that exploded upwards and eventually imploded into the sea forms the almost perfect circular caldera that makes Santorini so impossibly wild and romantic.

The island of Nea Kameni sits glowering at the centre of all this smouldering activity and it’s perfectly possible to take one of the numerous boats from Fira - use the telepherique to descend the mountain (€4 single trip) across to its base. But be careful. The blazing heat - despite the wind - makes the 381ft ascent an extremely tough proposition. Take plenty of water and sun cream - this is nature throbbing at its most powerful.

But for the sheer thrill of walking up to a still active volcano on the hot black lava, it can’t be beaten. Climbing up 381ft sounds a doddle, It isn’t. It’s an arduous, difficult ascent on moon-like rock strewn with damp magna and amid sulphorous smoke still pouring out of the ground, but the magnificent view from the summit looking down into a volcano’s crater is worth it.

Getting about is fairly straightforward from the ubiquitous donkeys to a plethora of buses. The driving standard is unpredictable though. Be prepared for some ancient Mercs, cliff-hugging bends and the omnipresent quad bikes replete with unhelmeted tourists.

The central bus station at Fira is a hive of activity as fleets of vehicles – often air-conditioned embark and disgorge beach passengers. Check the times carefully, hotels often provide timetables but these do not always correspond to the actual departure.

As the local Oia Santorini blogger puts it: “During peak months the island's transport system is clearly stretched to its very limits, however, it manages to run fairly efficiently and in a timely manner.”

Apart from tourism, Santorini’s other main income is wine-making and the Wine Museum near Santorini Airport presents a fascinating tour through the island’s viticulture history using moving mannequins and memorabilia from the four family generations.

The museum, whose annual 40,000 visitors include 10,000 Brits, also explains the uniquely challenging feat of making wine on Santorini. An often fierce wind means grapes simply cannot grow conventionally; rather they are encased in circular vines at ground level to protect them from the tough climate.

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