Visiting Oia from a Cruise stop

Sunday, August 12, 2018 nenolovesyou 6 Comments

Oia, Santorini. You've seen the photos. Dreamy white buildings overlooking the sea, clinging to cliffs, surrounding the beautiful blue-domed Oia church. It was a wish of mine to visit here for quite some time. 
We spent a day here - more accurately, just a couple hours. There was a lot I needed to know so I could get the most of the time we had! 
Before I visited, I thought getting to Oia was easy-peasy. Just head straight to the blue dome, right? Wrong. We took a MSC cruise which meant we were getting off just for the day to enjoy an excursion on an island. There are numerous ways to get to Oia, but I'd like to share my experience. 
Around 9AM sharp we were off the cruise ship. We got onto a tender boat (a smaller boat) and made our way to the island towards Fira. On the island we walked up stairs to head to the cable car. 
Note: We did see signs to take boats straight to Oia, so this could be a possible route option but we didn't do it so I won't vouch for it. There are also donkey rides but the donkeys seemed to be sadly overworked so we didn't want to do this either.
After a short cable car ride, we headed to the center to the bus station. We paid for the bus ticket on the bus in Fira, which drove us up through gorgeous mountains. The ride itself took a little bit of time (about 30-45 minutes) so if you're strapped for time, keep this in mind! Since we were on a cruise ship, we knew we had to budget our time wisely. Our bus ride was 1.80 euro per person (as of July 2018).
During our ride to Oia, we noted a ton of different 'blue domed' churches. If you are taking a taxi ride, you need to specifically ask for Oia (pronounced EE-aah). Don't confuse your taxi driver or get quoted a wrong amount!
Once the buses arrived at Oia we followed the crowd toward the blue domes. However, friends of ours had difficulties finding the blue domes. The best way to describe the route is: Find Ekklisia Panagia Platsani church, and with your back against the church, take a right and find BVLGARI store then take the alley towards the blue domes.  
Oia is a pedestrian town so walking by foot is your best option. It's also recommended since you'll definitely really want to take in the scenery and stop at multiple places for awesome food and photos.
If you're staying in Santorini and want to visit the other nearby villages such as Imerovigli, Fire, or Firostafani - there are buses and taxis that can take you there. 
There are a number of residential areas surrounding Oia. This can be a little limiting if you're not staying there. One notable spot that is restricted is in this very spot that I'm standing. Yup. It's a residential area. We didn't know this, thinking the "no entry" was for safety purposes. It looked safe enough so we passed the rope and started photographing away --- only to be stopped by the man staying in the room adjacent to the dome! We apologized, of course, and left. 
Before heading back we needed to eat a delicious meal (I'm def not into cruise food haha!). There are so many awesome places to try, but our first stop was Skiza cafe. We ordered drinks and dessert here. Yum!!! Definitely recommend this place! If you want some yummy gyros check out Pito Gyros. We heard that Catch Restaurant has an unforgettable experience!
We visited in July (peak tourist season). Even though I've heard May is the best time to go, sometimes you just can't help when you travel somewhere, right? That leads me to my last piece of advice: be mindful of the time it takes to go back to the cruise ship. So many friends were very late (almost missing departure) since the way back is extremely congested with tourists.

 Oia was as dreamy as I imagined it would be. Truly a place I would love to visit again. 
Until next time Santorini!


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