The walk along Santorini’s caldera to Oia from Fira is one of the best and most scenic walks I’ve ever done. As it is, Santorini is stunning and you can get a lot of iconic Greek isle photos along this route. And at the end of the walk, grab a good lunch or dinner in Oia.

We walked in the morning, starting the 9km walk from Fira – following the signs from the cable car in the direction of Imerovigli. After this it’s fairly evident that there’s only one path going toward Oia. Other than a climb mid way through and a very steep patch downhill going in Oia, the walk is relatively undemanding. Because I stopped to take a lot of photos, it took us around four hours but I’ve heard some people do complete the route in less than three hours.

At the end of the walk, we rewarded ourselves with a great lunch at a restaurant called Roka (website for more info: http://roka.gr) and spent the afternoon relaxing in Oia.

Here’s the walk:

We approached Santorini by boat and the zig zag in the photo below is the route up to the town Fira, if you want to walk or take a donkey ride up. Otherwise, there’s a cable car available.

After taking the cable car up, we basically headed north towards the direction of Imerovigli. There’s a monastery – Aghios Nikolaos (St Nicholas) – from where you can get a great view looking back on Fira.  My mom, who couldn’t walk with us for the whole way, joined us to this point and we were able to get some great group photos. From here, the walk passes a number of small hotels, homes and churches.

I would say the first third of the walk is through pretty built up areas. Lots of white washed buildings – which in itself is stunning against the blue sky and water. The village of Firostephani is very quaint – the doorway pictured here was from one of the houses there. The Prophet Elias monastery, which is a slight diversion off the path, is also an iconic scene.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The buildings thin out after passing through Imerovigli. And amazing views of the caldera as it curves around can be seen from here on.

There is a stretch where the path meets the road and which you walk along the road for around 300 m. There was a small hut by the road with some beautiful Spring wildflowers.

After joining up with the trail again, the walk begins to climb towards a white church at the top of the hill. Along the way we were walking along what is called Mavro Vouno – Black Mountain in english – with black lava rock walls on the side. This stretch of the walk can be a bit more demanding as it’s a bit steeper. The white church at the top is Stavros and there’s an arch after which you can see all the way to the northern tip of Santorini to where Oia is. It was great photo op and also a relief to know that it was downhill from here on.

If you’re wondering why the picture above is more blue (or why some photos are more blue than others), it’s because they were taken using Fujifilm Velvia 50 and the other photos were with a digital SLR (Nikon D200).

Oia is a wonderfully quaint town with a lot of arty stores to browse in. We had a great lunch at Roka. It wasn’t the easiest restaurant to find as it’s off the main street in Oia but it’s worth looking up. Excellent food.

After lunch, we walked around Oia and I went down to the tip where you can get some great shots. There were a few spots where you could get a view of the town as well as where we had walked in from. Quite spectacular!

While I was disappointed that I didn’t have a chance to hang around for the sunset, it was still nonetheless an amazing experience. The only thing I would add is that we did this walk in mid May but I imagine that it could be uncomfortable in the summer heat. I’m planning to come back – soon I hope.