Santorini Day 1: Arrival and Hiking Fira to Oia

Wednesday 8th May 202

Flight to Santorini and Hotel Arrival

The trip has finally arrived! Dragging myself out of bed with a 2:30 a.m. alarm was a struggle, but I was soon on the road and heading to Manchester Airport for my 7:30 a.m. flight to Santorini. Surprisingly, everything went smoothly: parking was easy, security was a breeze, and we even took off just a few minutes after the advertised time! Combined with Easyjet’s generous estimated flight duration, we landed a full 30 minutes ahead of schedule, touching down at Santorini Airport at 1:20 p.m. local time.

The skies were clear on our route down from Athens towards Santorini, and I managed to get some pretty cool photos out of the window on my phone:

My luck continued as I was close to the front of the security queue. A few minutes later, I was outside waiting to catch the early 2:10 p.m. bus that I’d expected to miss, thus saving me a 4km walk to my hotel. The bus route to Fira goes through Karterados, and I knew the bus stop was close to my accommodation, Hotel Lodos, so I hopped out and was in my room before 3 o’clock. Result!

Hiking from Fira to Oia

In the previous post, I described my plan to hike from Fira to Oia in some detail, so I won’t repeat it here. The weather forecast I’d seen prior to my arrival was quite mixed, with some clouds and even a chance of rain. I was pleased to find it was sunny when we landed, and a pleasant 23 degrees Celsius, but the hourly forecast on my phone suggested more clouds were likely as the day progressed. Regardless, I was determined to complete the hike, and a bit of cloud would make the conditions easier.

Armed with my camera gear and some water I’d bought from a supermarket opposite the hotel, I set off towards Fira, full of enthusiasm.

The capital was quite busy, but I was prepared for that: even in May, Santorini is popular! I made my way to the caldera edge and the start of the hike.

The hike itself was fantastic, with stunning views all the way. In total, it took exactly three hours, but that was starting from outside my hotel and with lots of photos/video stops along the way, as you can see from my Strava data below:

I wouldn’t say it was a massively challenging hike, though I’m glad I did it outside of the peak summer season in relatively cool conditions. It clouded over about halfway to Oia, which ruined the sunset photos at the end, but since I’d already seen the Oia sunset back in 2017, I wasn’t particularly upset, and it made the hike easier. Here’s a selection of photos I took on the way:

Sunset…or not, and back to Fira

Despite the obvious cloud cover blocking out the sunset, I dutifully headed through Oia to the famous sunset spot (roughly here). I was surprised at the size of the crowds, given the weather, but I guess for many people, it’s their only opportunity to see it, and anything is better than nothing. I quickly retraced my steps in the direction of the bus station, hoping I wouldn’t have to wait too long to get back to Fira. I had considered eating in Oia, but I knew it would be expensive. I was pretty exhausted from the hike and the early start, which left me with little enthusiasm to walk the streets in search of a reasonably priced menu.

It seemed my lucky day wasn’t over yet: I arrived at the bus stop just as a local bus was turning around in the small square. There was a fairly long queue, though, so I wasn’t optimistic about making it onto the bus, but somehow I got the last space! It meant standing up perilously close to the driver for most of the journey, but a few passengers departed en route, and I was able to sit down for the rest of the short ride back to Fira.

Snack Dinner and Overdue Bedtime

As the bus drew nearer to the central Fira station, I contemplated whether to head into the capital for food or try my luck finding somewhere on the walk back to my hotel in nearby Karterados. The latter was more appealing as I expected to find somewhere cheaper, which would also shorten the resulting walk home. I spotted Golden Grill House on Google Maps and decided a nice cheap pork gyros was just what I needed, but before I got there, Yogi caught my attention from across the road (despite Google suggesting it’s temporarily closed). It’s a similar fast-food type place, but it looked popular and had some outside seating available. I practically fell down onto a chair (after relieving my back of its heavy rucksack) and quickly ordered a large Mythos, pork gyros, chips and extra tzatziki! It turned out to be too much food, even for my big appetite, but it sure was tasty! The beer went down far too easily and made me a bit light-headed, but fortunately, the food soaked it up before I felt reckless enough to order a second drink. I had a busy day planned for tomorrow, and the last thing I wanted was a hangover!

Feeling satisfied at the completion of a successful travel day and epic hike, I ambled back to the hotel as quickly as my slightly sore feet would carry me, showered myself clean and went straight to bed.