The traditional settlement of Oia is located on the northern tip of the island, high on the cliff-top. OIa hosts the most magnificent views on Santorini and a picturesque road, with cliffs on one side and sea on the other, leads to this attractive town. A square overlooks the sea and visitors are encouraged to observe a truly fantastic sunset well worth saving on film. The distance that separates Oia from Fira is not over 10km. The small houses, carved into the rock, the mansions with their stairways and their neoclassical architecture, with white and ochra as their dominant colors, the walls decorated with small stones, the roads paved with flagstones, and the flowers, form a harmonious total of the impressive picture of the Oia village.

The Oia village square is a balcony looking at the caldera. The view of the volcano and the infinity of the sea take a different dimension when seen from here. The wealth of the villagers of the last century is exhibited in the Nautical museum of Oia. Oia in 1900 had close to 9,000 inhabitants with virtually all of them mariners and who today many live in Piraeus. They owned 164 seafaring vessels and seven shipyards. In the area there were 79 churches. After the devastating 1956 earthquake and the passing of 80 years, 1980 presented us with the following: just 500 permanent residents, 75% who are mariners and who have 112 seafaring vessels. They decorated their village with neoclassical buildings which today bear witness to an age that has passed. The architecture of Oia is typical Santorini with houses sunk deep into the volcanic soil, their whitewashed walls and blue domes sparkling in the sunlight.

Once the Oia had been officially listed as a protected traditional community, some sixty derelict houses, abandoned in the wake of the 1956 earthquake, were repaired and converted into hotels and rented rooms. Visitors looking for atmosphere and peace and quiet come to Oia, where they can find some of the most beautiful hotels on the island, perfectly integrated in the landscape.

Directly below is the beach of Ammoudi across the bay are the Burnt Islands. Ammoudi, accessible only by foot, is 214 steps below, and Armeni beach is 286 steps below.. In 1951 Captain Antonis Dakoronia established a Maritime Museum. Although it was destroyed in 1956 earthquake, it was reopened in 1979 and is functioning today.
As the sun descends to the horizon and the pink of the evening sky turns to mauve, the shutterbugs line the walls of the mediaeval castle, their lenses hungrily devouring the island's most famous sunset. When the last rays of the sun are gone, they pour into the tiny ethnic shops along the central street, in every respect the equal of the famous Gold Street in Fira. Here you will find Indian shawls and bedspreads, exquisitely carved silver jewellery, Venetian mirrors, antiques...