Top Things to do in Oia
What to do and see in Oia, South Aegean: The Best Things to do
Oia is carved out of the cliffs, and visitors can see houses built for Venetian sea captains as well as the more typical "cave houses" of the villagers. You’ll find the pure white buildings with colorful roofs that are typical of Greek architecture, and you’ll probably enjoy poking around the town. But don’t breeze through in an hour—you must stay for the sunset. It’s legendary. Watch from a café, or, better yet, from a boat—you’ll be spellbound.
Restaurants in Oia
1. Mnemossyne Gallery
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 147 reviews
Unique variety of fine art photography and jewelry, all astonishingly handmade by local artists. The gallery has a very harmonic atmosphere in an elegant cave house located only a few steps before the Castle and the famous sunset spot in Oia.
Reviewed By AnaV1979
Small and kinda hidden shop just next to the famous Oia's castle, with great art gems. You can find rare, beautiful gold designs of jewellery and fine photography. Def a must visit for gallery lovers.
2. Amoudi Bay
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 3,828 reviews
Reviewed By stardust2newyorkcity - New York City, United States
Ammoudi Bay feels like a quintessential Greek island experience to me. You can walk a rustic path from the town of Oia down to the bay...smelling donkey doo-doo then entire way and chatting with fellow travelers and locals along the way. Once down at the water's edge there is a path for walking around the rocky coast and exploring a bit...you can watch the famous Santorini sunset from here...AND you can have an amazing lunch at the Sunset Ammoudi Tavern--here you can gobble sun-dried octopus, grilled squid, fried red mullet, fried sardines and anchovies, and grilled whole scorpion fish--absolutely wonderful! We love Ammoudi Bay and the restaurants down here...be sure to come down here if you visit Santorini, it has the best views and best dining on the island.
3. The Castle of St Nicholas
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 570 reviews
Reviewed By R6874UWjoshuap - Wilmette, United States
This place is absolutely amazing! This is the spot from where people take pictures of the famous Oia windmills, although many people know this and take advantage of this making it a very popular destination for tourists during sunset. Best time to go here would be after dark. You'll have the place to yourself and get the gift of seeing the beauty of Santorini being bathed in ambient light!
4. Domaine Sigalas
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 656 reviews
An award winning winery and restaurant of Santorini that offers Wine Tasting, Menu Degustation, and Private Tours. Domaine Sigalas was included in the 2016, 2018 and 2020 Top 100 Wineries in the World by Wine & Spirits magazine (US).
Reviewed By RyanBJ - Birmingham, United Kingdom
Highly recommend visiting this winery. We chose the €50 tour and tasting, the tour consisted of about 20mins walking through the vineyards talking about the history of the winemaking on the island and of Domaine Sigalas - our guide Pablos, was superb and answered any question I threw at him, really fantastic knowledge. The wine tasting consisted of 8 wines - 6 whites, 1 rose, 1 red and 1 dessert wine. A real great introduction to Santorini wine, providing a broad range and showing the differences achievable with Assyrtiko wine (the main produce of Santorini). At the end we decided we would buy the dessert wine to take home but ended up buying the more expensive one after our host kindly offered us a tasting when we were deciding which to buy (it’s a 4.3 on Vivino and simply glorious). Overall strongly recommend this tour and tasting and give a huge commendation to Pablos for making the whole experience.
5. Sunset in Oia
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 9,564 reviews
Reviewed By iaink2001 - Southend-on-Sea, United Kingdom
I'm so glad I managed to get to travel to Santorini and take in it's beautiful sights. If you get a chance it's an island you must visit at least once in your lifetime, amazing white washed villages against the blue and volcanic backdrop is a site to behold. Although the sunset wasn't as good as normal when I went to Oia, as there were clouds on the horizon which covered the sun in it's final moments before dipping into the Aegean. Even in these times there's still a large crowd that gathers on every spare vantage point, so give yourself a bit of time before sunset and get ready with your camera, you won't regret it.
6. Church of Panagia
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 370 reviews
Reviewed By Krishhere - Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), India
Located on the main square of Oia, this church with spotless white walls, blue some and a bell tower with six bells is an iconic image of Santorini. The inside of the church is also beautiful. A mass was on when we went in and it was such a peaceful atmosphere inside.
7. Nikolaou Nomikou
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 62 reviews
Reviewed By Temer2 - Horley, United Kingdom
When you think of Santorini, this is what you imagine. Picture perfect white buildings, blue domes and a stunning turquoise sea. The views are incredible and Oia in Santorini is a beautiful town with little cobbles streets and boutique shops (along with the touristy ones). This is THE shot everyone wants so time it early in the morning - we were there around 10 from a cruise ship and the crowds got busier as the day went on - and had to wait for a couple of people to take photos, but it's worth the wait. Santorini gets packed and when we walked back past, there was a long queue just to take a photo from here. Worth waiting for!
8. Katharos Beach
9. Armeni Bay
Overall Ratings
4.0 based on 107 reviews
Reviewed By KAC689 - Chicago, United States
Access is by boat or the trail down from Oia, so this is a very tranquil spot. There is a lovely restaurant right on the edge of the water which offers lounge chairs, umbrellas and snorkel equipment. The owner is a great guy with a super personality. We hiked down the mountain and then back up, which wasn't bad and had great views. The restaurant does have free boat service to Ammoudi Port, too.
