In Ancient times, Oia was one of the two harbours of ancient Thera (modern day Santorini). Oia became prosperous through her merchant fleet which plied trade throughout the Eastern Mediteranean, especially the route between Alexandria and Russia. In 1890, Oia had approximately 2,500 residents and approximately 130 sailing ships but the economy of the town declined in the early 20th century due to wars, economic depression and the overexploitation of fishing resources. The 1956 earthquake (measuring a magnitude of 7.2) caused considerable damage and, following renewed emigration, by 1977 Oia had only 306 inhabitants. During the early 1980s the village took advantage of its picture-perfect beauty and redeveloped into an tourist destination.
When we visited Oia in September, 2023 we only spent a couple of hours there before being defeated by the crowds. Santorini receives 3.4 million visitors a year and until the Greek government capped numbers last year, over 17,000 cruise ship passengers disembarked at Oia every day! We vowed that if we ever returned we'd travel out of season and avoid the madness.
I took this photos three years ago. I couldn't get close enough to the sea wall to take a photo.
And here's Oia on 20th October, 2026.
From Perissa we caught the bus to Thera (40 mins, €2.70) and then hopped on a bus to Oia at the bus station (20 mins, €2.20)
The labyrinthine alleyways are crammed with chi-chi boutiques and the price tags are enormous. An embroidered velvet jacket which I'd seen on a lot of festival traders' stalls this summer priced at £70 was €290 here!
I've no idea how much this gold jewellery was but I knew I wouldn't be able to afford it!
That's the idylic island of Thirasia in the distance, we visited it in 2023.
If you've ever seen a travel show on the TV featuring Santorini, you'll have seen the crowds at Oia photographing the sunset, the reason everyone flocks here (see below, not my photo). We had no intention of doing this in 2023, the daytime crowds were bad enough!
October is a lot more civilised.
Make the most of that Mythos, Jon warned me,
it's €12 a bottle! Back in Perissa it costs €4.
Was the sunset at Oia better than those we'd seen elsewhere in Greece? I'm not sure about that but it was certainly the most expensive!
The memory I'll take away with me from our trip to Oia is meeting Brula, the six year old chonk from the
Anemos gift shop, She's got over 30,000 followers on Instagram (
HERE).
Still with me? I'll be back with another instalment of our Santorini adventures very soon.
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