Santorini is such a dream. It’s such a uniquely beautiful island and when you arrive you instantly see why it’s on everyone’s bucket list. When you visit Santorini you have two major towns you can stay in, either Fira or Oia. There are other amazing areas and towns as well but they have much less restaurants, bars and things to do. If it’s your first time in Santorini you will definitely want to choose between Fira and Oia. To learn a bit about Fira you can read my blog post here. But for now, let’s learn all about Oia!
Where to Stay in Oia, Santorini
I’m a bit bummed I can’t recommend a spot to stay in Oia because ours was quite the disaster. Aside from this incredible view we had a terrible experience with the owner, the power went out, heat didn’t work and the room was not clean. If you’re looking for an awesome place to stay I recommend checking out this blog post from Santorini Dave as he has great recommendations.
Explore Oia
Our room wasn’t quite ready yet, so we decided to explore Oia! There are so many places and views to experience so you’ll definitely want to give yourself a few hours to simply walk around and take it all in.
My favorite surprise when visiting Oia, Santorini was all the wildflowers! We didn’t know the island had so many and they were so gorgeous.
We were here in April and learned that April and May are used by the locals to spring clean, get all the painting done and get ready for high season. On smaller islands this means that many places aren’t open yet but in Santorini almost everything was open! I loved visiting during this time because it wasn’t near as crowded as I’ve read it gets in the summer.
There are so many insane views from Oia…
More flowers! The locals call these Margarita flowers.
I preferred the shops in Oia over Fira since Fira was much more “cruise ship souvenir” shops. Oia seemed to have more unique and handmade goods. I loved this little book store.
I do love a good itinerary AND it’s so fun to walk around and check out random places. It’s fun to see if anything catches your eye that wasn’t in a blog post or book you read before your trip.
Walk Down To Ammoudi Bay
You will see this spelled differently everywhere. Amudi, Amoudi, Ammoudi and Ammoudie. I do not understand but I guess that’s just how it goes in Greece as we noticed a lot of words were spelled a few different ways. The stone stairs from Oia to Ammoudi start near the Castle of Oia and have almost 300 steps (exactly 278). You can go down on foot, but some people decide to rent donkeys or grab a taxi back up. The total rise of the stairs is about 400 feet or 120 meters. Here is a picture of us looking down at the stairs deciding if we are really going to do it, lol.
The only downside of doing this for lunch is you’re doing it at the hottest part of the day.
But it’s absolutely gorgeous…
If you didn’t go to Red Beach then you’ll get an idea of what it looks like here on the walk down to Ammoudi Bay. I love the contrast from red rock to the white houses.
We did the walk down when it was about 70 degrees F and although we did get a bit sweaty it wasn’t near as bad as we thought it would be.
Lunch at Sunset Ammoudi
When you get down to Ammoudi Bay you’ll have about 5 restaurants to choose from. We asked multiple locals and they all said that all the restaurants are about the same quality and offer similar options. The two we heard the most about were Dimitris Ammoudi and Sunset Ammoudi. We decided to have lunch at Sunset Ammoudi and it was great. Keep in mind if you don’t like the smell of seafood, Ammoudi Bay is not the place for you…
The menu here is filled with so many options (seafood and not) and even offers fresh fish by the kilo caught that morning.
I ordered the fresh tuna tartare with chilis and avocado and it was some of the best tartare I’ve ever had!
Lotti ordered the creamy salmon pasta and I ordered their seafood risotto. I enjoyed my tartare more than the risotto as the Aegean Shrimp were a bit too strong for me, but overall it was a great lunch enjoyed with fantastic Greek assyrtiko.
Now that you’ve walked the 300 stairs down and enjoyed some lunch, it’s time to walk back up! We were obviously not dressed for 300 stairs and I almost took a taxi back up (we learned it takes 3 minutes but costs 15-20 euros). I was so close to taking one due to sunburn and pure laziness but decided to walk back up with Lotti. It’s sad to see how the donkeys are treated and I highly recommend not using them, but understand it is quite common in Santorini. The worst part was the smell of their shit as you’re trying to take deep breaths walking up! It wasn’t easy but it wasn’t near as challenging as many complain it is. We were even presentable enough to take these photos about half way up!
Sunset at Castle of Oia
We actually took photos before our walk down to Ammoudi Bay because we knew we’d be quite sweaty when we got back up. We were so glad we did because a crazy storm came later that night and there wasn’t a sunset. It wasn’t too big of a bummer because we had already seen so many great sunsets in Greece, but if they weather is nice definitely head to the Castle of Oia for sunset as it’s beautiful.
We came the next night and got here 2 hours before the sunset and we still weren’t the first ones there. We did get a front row spot though and were so glad we got there early! I recommend grabbing a bottle of wine and enjoying it while the sun goes down, so much fun!
The view facing West is what everyone comes for but don’t forget to look to the East as well as it is also gorgeous!
We were stuffed from lunch but after sunset check out one of Oia’s yummy restaurants for dinner! I’ve heard some great options are Ambrosia, Lotza, Black Rock Restaurant and Karma Greek.
Breakfast at KooKoo Cafe Lounge Bar
We had one of our favorite breakfasts’ in Greece at KooKoo Cafe Lounge Bar in Oia. The service in Greece never blew me away except here, the owner served us and was so kind and helpful. We were experiencing issues with our hotel and he was nice and the food was so good! We got the Avocado Toast, Breakfast Plate, their famous Greek waffle and my personal favorite their special fries (their style of fries with feta cheese and yogurt sauce). YUM!
Drinks at Melenio
After breakfast we made our way back to the hotel in hopes that the water and electricity were back on. We got ready for the day and decided to walk around towards the East side of Oia as we had already spent most of the day in the heart of town and West side the day before. We walked over by the blue domes and saw this adorable cafe, Melenio Pastry, and we just knew we had to stop and enjoy a drink with this insane view.
Here we each ordered an aperol spritz and reminisced on our wonderful trip so far.
This is a great cafe for some awesome photos.
Lotti decided to take this casual one drink stop to the next level and ordered us two Ouzo shots. Ouzo is the the king of Greek spirits and apparently they serve giant shots of it. To me it tastes a bit like peppermint schnapps.
I wish I would have had the appetite to try one of their pastries because they all looked amazing, but I wanted to save up for gelato. If you plan to come here make sure you try a pastry. Melenio was another great reminder that sometimes it’s nice to not have a plan and stop at the cute little cafe with a view!
Lunch at Pitogyros
If you’re doing research on where to eat in Oia, you’ll most likely come across Pitogryos. It’s because they are so damn good and have awesome reviews. They have great pita gyros, souvlaki, kebabs, handmade sausages and even have vegetarian options.
We ordered the greek salad in pita, the gyros pork in pita and some grilled haloumi. They were all awesome and were definitely some of my favorite gyros in Greece.
Gelato at Lolita’s
After enjoying some awesome gyros head on over to Lolita’s Gelato for the best gelato in Oia!
I was feeling really good from that Aperol Spritz and ouzo shot and practically happy cried ordering a cone of cinnamon gelato as it’s my favorite and so hard to find! So damn good!
Sunset at Castle of Oia
We spent our last night enjoying one of our favorite bottles of wine we had in Greece while watching the sunset. I forgot to capture it with the view at the Castle of Oia, but here is a screenshot of it. It was the perfect dry white wine to enjoy our last night in Santorini!
Notice our outfits changed a bit from earlier that day. Just a reminder that when you are visiting Santorini in April, you’ll be in a dress during the day and have your beanie on by sunset!
And just like that your 48 amazing hours in Oia are over! Overall, I have a really hard time choosing between Fira and Oia if you can only choose one. They both have so much to offer and each have their pros and cons. Thanks so much for reading along! Have you been to Oia? What was your favorite thing to do? I am going to write a post next about things I wish I knew before visiting Santorini so keep an eye out for future posts!
