Oia and its acclaimed "World's most beautiful sunset" made it the most popular town on Santorini. However, the island has other options to escape the crowd and also, in my honest opinion, better sunset spots.
Sights visited: Fira-Oia walk, Megalochori (Agios Nikolaos hiking path, Gavalas Winery)
The first off the beaten path activity on Santorini was the Fira-Oia walk. This is actually a well-known hiking route, but remained off the beaten path because most people came to Santorini for a romantic, relaxing holiday, and hiking is not the priority.
Contrary to the lack of people we encountered on the trail, the experience was top-class. It was one of the easiest, yet really beautiful walks I had done. It's about 10 km long, and mostly flat. No hardcore hiking equipments needed, just good walking shoes, lots of water, and sun protection.
We started the walk at 3 pm, estimating the walk to take around 4 hours. We decided to walk the direction from Fira to Oia, so we could catch the sunset near Oia, and have dinner when we finish the hike. Doing the opposite direction is of course also doable.
To get to Fira, we took the local bus. The bus system was super easy, as all bus routes use Fira as a hub. Forget about finding out the timetable in advance, as it's always changing and not that reliable. Most bus routes were fairly frequent though, so we never had to consult the timetable.
Finding the bus stop was a bit harder, as it looks like a small...grave.
The actual location of the passenger pick-up was across the street and not outside the bus station, which might be a problem when the bus gets full. We really had to be aggressive to get on the bus because nobody queued.
Tickets were sold on board by one person who goes around the bus collecting fares. It was 2.80 EUR between Fira-Oia. Small notes were accepted as he had plenty of change.
The first thing we did once we got to Fira was to pick up our ferry ticket leaving Santorini. I used Open Seas to search for available ferries on my date of departure. Other search engines includes Greek Tourism Guide, Ferries.gr, and many others, but regardless of the website, they all use the same system, so the search results are all the same.
Seajet2 and Prevelis were the only two options available on my intended date. Seajet2 is a small catamaran with limited seats, and Prevelis is a huge vehicle ferry. When traveling by ferry in Greece, a larger ferry is preferable, even though the small catamarans are faster. The reason will be obvious in the next trip report. In this case however, I still chose the Sea Jet because of the odd timing of Prevelis.
When taking a small catamaran ferry during high season (July-August-September), on a popular route, or during weekends, pre-book! Don't listen to the many advices of buying tickets one or two days before. As Greece is becoming a more popular destination every year, the tickets can sell out.
I booked the tickets on the Sea Jets website, and had to print out the confirmation code to retrieve my actual tickets from its agent on Santorini. I wonder why passengers couldn't just print out their own ferry tickets?
We then walked through the town of Fira to start our hike. Compared to the romantic Oia, Fira has a much more backpacker's vibe.
The Fira-Oia walk basically follow the caldera rim so it's near impossible to get lost. Here are two websites that map out the walk and also described it in detail in text.
It's also an option to walk the first short segment of the trail to see a panoramic view of Fira town.
Looking down at the Old Port, cable cars and the donkey path.
Loosely connected to Fira was the town of Imerovigli. Compared to Fira's backpacker atmosphere, Imerovigli looked more upscale, posh and quiet.
The buildings in Imerovigli were even more immaculately painted compared to Oia.
Because of Santorini's distinct shape, this walk allowed a sweeping view in all directions without much change in elevation.
Apparently this trail is called no.9, but nobody seemed to know of the name.
We passed by five different churches along this trail, and all of them were well maintained and very pretty.
An orange juice stand at exactly the half way point. One glass was 3.50 EUR but worth it.
Path conditions were generally good, but there were segments of loose gravel and driving road, so good footwear is recommended.
The sceneries from the halfway point on was not as spectacular as the first half, but a highlight awaited us. The tiny chapel of Stavrós, 20 minutes away from Oia, is the best place for sunset in Santorini (yes, better than the Oia fortress). There were a small pink chapel and a white bell tower located on a hill. Through the tower we could see the town of Oia, the volcano islands, and caldera rim. Definitely the perfect place for a proposal.
It was about 19:00 when we arrived so we waited a bit for the sun to set, and it was splendid. It was the most beautiful moment I had in Greece, so without much thought I chose the photo as the cover. We couldn't wait too long though, as it was getting cold and too dark. For anyone who plans to stay until dark, bring a flashlight and warm clothing as wind really do pick up on the Cycladic Islands (the windmills were there for a reason!)
We started to hurry back to Oia but unexpectedly found another great sunset spot. It was a parking lot on the way, and while the sunset was quite far in person, a telephoto lens produced some great shots.
We got back to Oia before it became completely dark. The lighting was beautiful and the bougainvillea were blooming.
We were starving after the long walk. As per suggestions by TA I chose Anemomilos, located on the outer part of Oia town. I wanted to at least dine once in Greece under bougainvillea and their outdoor seatings fit the bill perfectly.
We tried a wine named "Vinsanto", which is completely different from the Tuscan wine "Vin Santo". It is made from dried grapes, hence I found it more similar to ice wine. It's very sweet and suitable for most people.
This restaurant served the most amazing vinegar octopus. It wasn't over-marinated but very tender. I would come here to eat just for this dish.
Grilled veggies were fresh, and drizzled in good quality balsamic.
The next day, we decided to explore other parts of Santorini with only public transportation. It was more limiting than renting a vehicle, but I was content with not visiting the ruins or beaches of Santorini, as we got better options in other parts of Greece. I read about this interesting trail in a town called Megalochori, on the southern part of the island, so we took the bus there.
The bus stop still looked like a grave, and in front of it was a very simple map outlining all the hiking trail in this area.
This town was certainly not as popular with tourists so there were only a few options for lunch, and we decided to give this Avlogyros Grill House a shot.
Vinegar octopus was decent, but I prefer it to not look so purple like that, which usually meant it's soggy.
Tomato fritters is one of Santorini's "signature dishes" along with lobster spaghetti. It is made from locally grown cherry tomatoes and a very good veggie dish.
Sorry for posting another photo of calamari, but it was so good! We didn't have one bad calamari in Greece.
Lunch was a simple but satisfying, and only 23 EUR for the two of us. This restaurant looked fairly new, as their Facebook page started in 2014, lucky that it turned out to be a good one!
It was still very hot in midday so we headed to Gavalas Winery, a traditional family-run winery built in a traditional cave house. We didn't get a tour of the winery and nobody offered, so we just looked around on our own. The only staff onsite helped us choose the wine for tasting and explained the wines well. I wasn't a fan of the red or the white wine, so ended up buying more Vinsanto. The Vinsanto could be bought in grocery stores on the island and cost exactly the same.
The hiking path I was looking for is called Agios Nikolaos, named after the small chapel located on the trail. It was not easy to find the entrance, so the map from this website was extremely helpful. The website also contains great details of other hiking trails on Santorini.
As we were on the southern part of the island, I could see Fira and Oia in the distance.
The path was carved between interesting shaped volcanic rocks.
At first I thought this was going to be a tough hike, judging from the steep slope, but the chapel was actually only five minutes walk from the entrance. I only wanted to see this part of the trail so didn't continue downward.
There was no chapel, but a lone bell tower sticking out from the face of volcanic rock cliffs. Not a single person was around, so I enjoyed a few minutes of serenity before heading back up.
Right across from the chapel was a heart shaped hole formed from erosion, which made it a perfect location for proposals. Santorini is indeed a very romantic place!
This would also a great place for sunset, but we had to catch a bus back to Oia and couldn't stay until then.
Three nights in Santorini I felt was just the right amount of time, and we were happy and ready to move on to the next island. It really deserved all the fame and is among the list of the prettiest places I've visited. What it lacked was soft-sand type beaches, and we would be getting a full serving of that on our next island, Milos.
