Sunset without the crush
The full view with a fraction of Oia's crowd.
jokin.lacalle — CC BY 2.0 · Klearchos Kapoutsis from Santorini, Greece — CC BY 2.0 · Klearchos Kapoutsis from Santorini, Greece — CC BY 2.0 · LBM1948 — CC BY-SA 4.0
The best-known walk on Santorini: **about 9–10 kilometres** along the caldera rim from Fira through Imerovigli to Oia, taking **three to four hours** with stops. The caldera is in view the whole way, which makes it one of the finest walks in Greece. ⚠ But it is **not a level stroll**: continuous climbing and descending, many steps, dirt and gravel sections, and **almost no shade**. Don't do it between ten and four in summer. Take plenty of water, a hat and closed shoes, start **very early** or in the late afternoon, and take the bus back from Oia.
An excellent choice for many. The village combines the **full caldera view** with a **quiet** you won't find in Fira (loud, and the bus hub) or Oia (packed with day visitors). And it sits **midway** along the rim, so Fira is ten minutes away and Oia twenty by car. ⚠ But know the drawbacks: **a great many steps** between the road and the hotels — bad with heavy luggage or mobility problems (ask the hotel how many before booking), **no nearby parking**, and options there are **expensive** because of the view.
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**The highest village on the caldera rim**, called the **"balcony of the Aegean"** — and the practical answer for anyone who wants the Santorini view without the crush of Oia. Its name comes from the Greek **imera** (day) and **vigla** (watchpost): this was the daytime lookout that watched for pirate ships coming in from the sea and warned the villages. Which is why its position is the highest and its field of view the widest. It is markedly quieter than Fira and Oia: few souvenir shops and no coaches, but white houses, small hotels with cliff-edge pools, blue-domed churches and stairways dropping between walls. Directly below it is **Skaros Rock**: a great promontory jutting into the caldera that once carried the medieval castle and capital of the island, until earthquakes destroyed it. You can walk out to it in about twenty minutes from the village. And from Imerovigli runs the island's best-known walk: the **caldera rim path from Fira to Oia** — some nine kilometres, passing through it.
The full view with a fraction of Oia's crowd.
The island's old castle on a promontory in the caldera.
The Fira-to-Oia walk passes through here.
Imerovigli, 84700 Santorini