Santorini Greece - Emborio - Pirghos Monastery and Beach Walks.

Touring and Visiting Emborio, Pirghos, Profitis Ilias Monastery, Vothonoas, Perisa and Kamari while on Santorini Greece.

Emborio - Pirghos - up to the Monastery and back to either Perisa or Kamari. This Santorini walk is actually quite strenuous - obviously the heat is a factor but also it is really hard on your knees for both climbing and descending - a walking stick is really useful. It is not too great a distance but you do have a continuous climb on a really nice but somewhat rocky-underfoot mule-path from Emborio to Pirghos and then another hard climb up on a moni-pati to the Monastery area. From the monastery you then undulate a little over the Profitis Ilias hills before heading down on a zig-zag rock and sometimes scree path to the saddle above Kamari and Perissa. Possible Vertigo issues: The first 100 yards or so from the monastery is on a quite narrow path and the drop to the left is about a 30 degree slope. As you cross the hills further along the path will take you left round the hill-top - this again has a similar slope on the left however if you instead walk right over the pinnacle the drops are not apparent. The path down to the saddle is ok with only at most 45 degree or so drops on the right. You can get to Emborio by using one of Santorini's buses - the town is on the Perisa to Thira route.

From the main bus stop (by the church) in Emborio and facing a large children's play area go right - the road forks almost immediately - take the left hand fork soon passing a school on the left. Continue down on this quiet road and just having passed an infants school on the left the road ends at a t-junction in front of a wall - an even smaller village road goes off sharp left here.

Follow this heading slowly up and eventually arrive at a junction with a road sign - you can see the castle higher up on the left. Turn right into a narrow road - this passes by occupied houses and then the road becomes much narrower and the houses are now sometimes derelict. Just after passing a church on the right the road becomes a narrow path with high walls either side - continue on under two buttresses and then arrive at a junction. Go left here (there are red arrows and dots on the walls) and head very steeply up and round on a rough concrete track. Do stop (to get your breath) but also to look over the village where you can see churches, threshing circles and lots of old interesting buildings.

The concrete ends and now becomes a really nice walled mule-path - it steadily climbs to ultimately reach a dirt road. Turn right along the track and then shortly after a bend the mule-path continues on the right. The path continues to climb steadily - ignore a path leaving on the right. Just after this the path levels out and goes along with the wall on the right and fields on the left. The path ends at the main tarmac road - Pirghos itself is visible on the left and high above you can see the aerials sat on top of the hill. Turn left and after a few metres look for a shrine with a cross on it on the right-hand side of the road and a sign mentioning "old route to the monastery".

This goes as a concrete drive as it passes some houses but then becomes a beautiful moni-pati - soon passing a renovated church on the right. Simply follow the path as it climbs sometimes quite steeply up towards the monastery - you can see the road to the monastery below you and often lots of coaches heading up and down on it - (the lazy way to get to the top of course). The moni-pati arrives at the road just below an old military establishment - cross the road and find a narrow path which continues half left up to reach the road again. Turn right and make your way on up to the monastery - note the monastery has been closed for many years - however apart from on Mondays the church and a seating area within

part of the gardens is opened. Heading towards the entrance to the aerials look for a small gap on the left between a low concrete wall - this is about 40 yards before the barriers - take this narrow path which goes round the left of the hillside heading towards rocks - there is a significant drop on the left here. Follow the path heading towards a high point. If you dislike heights the best way is to in fact go right over the top of the high point and has several cairns along it's route - else follow the main path which goes round to the left side of it.

The paths rejoin the other side and then follow this sometimes rough path to reach a large cairn. The path from here is slightly indistinct but on the right there are two cairns which mark the start of the zig-zag path heading down towards the saddle. This is now again a really nice path but is quite hard on your knees as it often has rock steps. The views - particularly of Ancient Thira and Perisa and it's coastline are really good from the path. As you get closer to the saddle the path becomes far more narrow and has a lot of scree - pick your way on down to arrive on a sandy wide path and then on to the saddle. There is a refreshment van here which is open during the Ancient Thira opening times - namely Tuesday to Sundays mornings until 14:30. Depending on where you are staying the walk continues as:

Perissa: the path goes on the right side of the saddle - this is yet again another really nice walking path - it follows the right hand side of the hills and gives great views of Perisa and the coast. (note when you see a large white cross on the rocks ahead this marks a small path which forks off left and climbs up to Panaghia Church - well worth visiting.) Else and anyway from the white cross just continue on down the clear path to reach a track on the outskirts of Perisa - from there go on to where you want to go to in the town.

Kamari: Follow the tarmac road which leaves the saddle on it's left hand side - at it's third hairpin bend you will see a large white cross painted on a rock on the left. A gravel and scree path leaves here - it eventually becomes a rocky stepped path - and ends up at Zoodochos Pigi church and cave.
From here the path continues zig-zagging down to reach the outskirts of Kamari.

Pirghos - Vothonoas - Kamari. 8kms. For a change whilst walking on Santorini - this route either descends or is pretty well flat - the actual distance you end up walking will depend on how much you decide to divert to look at various things on the way. You can get a bus to Pirghos from Perisa or Thira. From Pirghos's bus stop in the main square the first thing to do is walk up into the old castle and upper town area to look at the various churches, buildings and ruins.

The walk itself starts from below the Castle - locate the castle's entrance gateway to the right of which is a church with a war memorial. Head north i.e. with the war memorial behind you and shortly arrive at a church with a bright blue dome, walk past the church on it's right hand side and then continue down the alley going under a concrete archway - go right at a fork to soon arrive at a concrete ramp and then on to a road. Turn right and about 40 yards along go left down another concrete road. On the other side of the road and almost opposite there is the quite disguised start of a moni-path (there was building going on when we walked here and unsurprisingly the builders had been quite careless with their building debris which somewhat hid the start of the path).
This moni-path takes you down to reach another road - cross the road and slightly to the right find the continuation of the path. The moni-path is quite sunken but extremely nice to walk down although there is quite a lot of undergrowth to negotiate in places i.e. thistles and thorns. The further into the valley you get the nicer the path is - it passes by vineyards and then goes into a pumice gorge - here the undergrowth was sometimes quite thick.

The path arrives at a very small road - there is a church built into the cliffs opposite and also lots of cave houses in the area. Turn left and follow the road - which soon becomes a dusty track and then just a path - to reach one of the most unusual churches we have ever visited.
This really old cave church (Panagiatis Sergeinas) is totally built into the pumice rock face - it has a small bell-tower, a cistern and several other rooms plus above there is a large chamber which was used for a hideout from pirates during the Middle Ages.

Note all the doors to the church and rooms were locked but you can sort of peek through gaps in the doors to see inside. Having looked round the church area return back down the path and track and keep ahead to walk on into the village of Vothonoas. Initially there are lots of cave houses and really old buildings many of which must have been quite grand in their day but are now somewhat dilapidated. When you reach the large church of Panaghia with it's massive eucalyptus tree it's worth diverting left and wandering off into the village - there are some nice alleys, lots of churches and buildings to look at. Return back to the road by the Panaghia church and go left to continue the walk.

  Stay on this road which bends here and there - it passes more cave houses and old buildings and then arrives at a road junction. Go straight ahead here and soon arrive at a twin caved church which is mostly built into the slope. From there continue along the road - pass under the main road and on into more of Santorini's countryside and now heading towards the sea. When you reach a group of houses turn right and soon bear left now walking through vineyards and eventually arrive at a t-junction. Turn right and keep walking to reach a tarmac road - turn left and follow this on down to the coast a little way outside of Kamari. From here turn right and walk back along the stoney beach into Kamari.

Please take a look at our Santorini Holiday Guide for more topics and information about this scenic holiday Island.