Santorini - Firostefani to Oia Trail Walk

Our alarm was set for 5:45 am so that we could get an early — and more importantly, cooler — start to our walk today. We were walking to Oia along the trail that runs from Fira to Oia.

The trail is a mixture of footpaths through beautiful clifftop villages and more rugged gravel and rocky sections. A very small portion goes along the road — less than 1 percent. The first village is Imerovigli, which is also where you can access Skaros Rock. We didn’t stop there today but plan to go back tomorrow.

To say that the views along the way were epic, amazing, and brilliant is an understatement. It really was like walking through picture postcards. We left the apartment at 6:30 am, and the sun didn’t rise until 7:20 am, so the temperature stayed pleasant for more than half of the walk. There was also a nice breeze blowing. We didn’t see any other walkers until about the halfway point, when four or five people caught up with us, and after that we started to see a few heading in the opposite direction. Walking Fira to Oia meant less uphill for us, but there were still two or three solid climbs.

One climb in particular was long, with plenty of rough spots underfoot and absolutely no wind to cool things down. I had originally thought I might do the walk on my own, but Sarah was having none of that — it was firmly on her to-do list. She did very well and is clearly much fitter than she was three months ago. 👍

We arrived in Oia after around 2.5 hours. The trail runs right through the tourist centre, which is paved in marble — literally, I think! It’s super fancy and everything looks very expensive: restaurants, cafés, hotels, and plenty of shops. We passed a place overlooking the caldera and stopped in for breakfast. It was 9 am! We headed to the rooftop area, which was shaded, and found a table with a great view. Coffee and toast? Nah — we went for beer and pizza! Best idea ever. A small Greek pizza (a good size), a 500 ml local beer for me, and a 300 ml for Sarah. The best €29 we’ve spent yet!

Feeling fully refueled, we finished the last part of the walk through the throngs of tour groups, checking out Oia Castle and the windmills. Our final stop was to find the bus stop for the ride back. The bus arrived within five minutes — fortunate timing.

Total walking time: 3 hours. 

Distance: 11.2 km. 

Elevation gain: 330 m. 

That included walking up to Oia Castle at the end and around to the windmills before heading back into town for the bus.

Not a lot happened in the afternoon — we were both pretty stuffed. We did some clothes washing by hand in the sink (always a bit of a chore). I had a couple of swims while Sarah took a short nap. Plus some reading. That was quite enough for today.

At dinner time we walked back into Fira to try a kebab shop that came highly recommended. It was OK, but sorry to report that it didn’t make our top three. Still, we’ve got a very long comparison list, so that must be taken into consideration.