🇬🇷 Episode 1 — Oia and Ammoudi: our first steps in Santorini

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27 October 2023, our first walk through Oia’s lanes. The cliff drops sharply, the bay opens out in front of us, and we immediately realise that photographs cannot convey the height.

We knew the pictures: white houses, blue domes and terraces above the void. Seeing them in person is different. We chose to spend our first night in Oia overlooking the caldera before moving to a more central base.

Exploring Oia on foot

Some homes are partly carved into the cliff. This cave-house architecture shapes the village, with buildings following the terrain and terraces stacked above one another. Behind today’s hotels and white houses, Oia also has a maritime past.

We walked all afternoon and evening. Exploring the lanes means retracing your steps and occasionally leaving the busiest passages.

The village sits on the edge of the caldera, a huge volcanic depression filled by the sea. Several eruptions and collapses shaped this landscape, including a major Bronze Age eruption. Houses follow the terrain and the view changes at every turn.

Late October was pleasant. The famous viewpoints still attracted people, but it was a far cry from the summer crowds we had heard about.

For photographs, we prefer finding our own angles to queuing for a single shot. Oia offers plenty if you take time to look around. Respect private areas: many terraces and rooftops belong to homes or hotels.

Practical information:

Getting there: Oia is about ten kilometres from Fira, at the northern end of the island. Park at the village entrance and continue on foot; buses also connect it with Fira.

Explore on foot and wear comfortable shoes: the lanes slope and there are plenty of steps.

Castle viewpoint: the ruins at the western end are the most popular sunset spot, and therefore the busiest.

Ammoudi, the harbour beneath the cliffs

We also went down to Ammoudi, the small harbour below Oia.

The setting changes: instead of hilltop lanes, you find boats, waterfront restaurants and red cliffs. It complements the village visit well.

A night at Ambition Suites

We booked Ambition Suites as a special treat for our first night.

The room, private hot tub and caldera view were exactly what we wanted. We appreciated the privacy, without intrusive views from neighbouring terraces.

At around US$330 a night in 2023, it was a sizeable part of the budget. We booked just one night before moving to Nano Suites.

In hindsight, we would have stayed another night. We did not want to spend the whole trip at the hotel, but enjoying the terrace was part of the experience here.

Our advice for this first stop

Explore Oia at different times of day. There is more to it than a blue-dome photograph or a sunset.

We enjoyed starting here before exploring the other villages. This first stop introduced the caldera beautifully and made us want to see the island’s other sides.

To explore the caldera further, see our walk around Imerovigli and Skaros and our Santorini sunset viewpoints.

Map: Santorini

Find our sightseeing stops, accommodation and restaurants. Suggested places we did not visit are marked separately on the map.

Episodes from our trip to Greece

• Full itinerary — Greece in 11 days: Santorini, Meteora, Delphi and Athens
• 🇬🇷 Episode 1 — Oia and Ammoudi: our first steps in Santorini
• 🇬🇷 Episode 2 — Imerovigli and Skaros: our favourite views in Santorini
• 🇬🇷 Episode 3 — Pyrgos, Emporio and Megalochori: Santorini’s villages
• 🇬🇷 Episode 4 — Southern Santorini: Zoodochos Pigi, Perissa and Red Beach
• 🇬🇷 Episode 5 — Santorini boat trip: volcano, hot springs and Thirassia
• 🇬🇷 Episode 6 — Santorini sunsets: our viewpoints and favourite restaurants
• 🇬🇷 Episode 7 — Meteora in two days: monasteries, viewpoints and a walk
• 🇬🇷 Episode 8 — Visiting Delphi: Apollo’s sanctuary, museum and Athena Pronaia
• 🇬🇷 Episode 9 — Athens: our visits from the Acropolis to Lycabettus
• 🇬🇷 Episode 10 — Cape Sounion at sunset: the Temple of Poseidon

Planning your visit

Greek National Tourism Organisation.

Currency note: prices were paid in euros. US dollar amounts use an illustrative conversion of €1 = US$1.10 for readability; this is neither a live rate nor the rate applied to our 2023 payments.