Santorini and taking the donkey path to Fira - I did it up and down

[ajm]

I know when I was researching the port of Santorini, I was very discouraged about stories of how long the lines were for the cable car to get to Fira from the port and back down.  To mitigate this, I booked a ships excursion (Village of Oia On Your Own - Royal Caribbean) that would at least end up dropping us off at Fira so that we only had to be concerned about the trip down.  

 

That morning I woke up not feeling well and decided to stay behind while my family went on the excursion.  However a couple hours later, I was feeling much better and decided to meet them in Fira to explore that town.  That meant I had to get to the top on my own since I missed the excursion that bussed them to the top.  With a total of four ships in port, by the time I got off and into port, the line for the cable car was very long so I decided to walk up as far as I could to at least get some pictures.  This is my opinion about walking the donkey path.

 

There is indeed a  smell along the path but it's not unlike walking through the barns at the state fairs in the US.  It is not the most pleasant smell but I didn't think it was overwhelming.  There is also some poop and pee along the path but it was easy enough to walk around.  The biggest issue I had was when the donkeys would come along and they would get very close to you.  If your are timid around animals, this could be a problem but I would simply nudge them out of my way.  They are actually quite docile.  I learned that if  you jut put your hand out at their eye level, they will simply walk right around you.

 

As for the walk up, I did make it all the way to the top.  There are about 600 steps and they are spaced pretty far apart where you need to take a couple steps between each one that goes up.  You wind back and forth and it is a fairly gentle grade going up but it will make you winded.  I am in my mid 50's and in ok shape but nothing spectacular.  I walk maybe a couple miles a day with my dog and bike occasionally.  I'm overweight by 25 lbs and not even close to an athlete but had very little problem making it up.  I was certainly winded and sweaty but would just take stops along the way to admire the view.  That said, on the way down I did come across a much younger person who looked like they were about to faint and their family was attending to them.  It really depends on your fitness level.  

 

After touring around with my family, most of us decided to walk it back down based on my success in going up.  Going down was in some ways more difficult.  I never noticed it being slippery on the way up but I did slip a couple of times on the way down.  So did one of my adult kids.  For the most part it is fine but you will occasionally find a few rocks that are slick.  You just need to take your time and watch where you are planting your feet.  

 

For what it's worth, if I were to visit the port again, I would walk it again both up and down.   I can't imagine how long the cable car line took for the ride up when I was there but I'm sure it was hours.  I didn't time how long it took me to walk the path but I would guess about 45 minutes up and maybe 20 down.  I do know part of our group who took the cable car down waited over an hour and we came back relatively early and the line wasn't too long.  Even if the line were short, the views along the path were some of the best we had.  There aren't a lot of people so you can get some great pictures. 

It's definitely not for everyone but I just wanted to assure those who might be considering it and are healthy that it is doable and can even be a good experience.

[nextcruiseonmymind]

Has anyone walked down the donkey trail after sunset? Was it scary or difficult? Well light?

[Milhouse]

3 hours ago, nextcruiseonmymind said:

Has anyone walked down the donkey trail after sunset? Was it scary or difficult? Well light?

We did it after sunset in 2016 during a fall month to catch our last tender because the line was so long.  We kind of ran down.  Very dark and hard to see with mainly the light from our cell phones.  YMMV depending on the amount of moonlight which we had some but not a lot of.  Had quite a few slight slips but no falls.  Good in that the path was empty and we didn't have to avoid other people and donkeys.  Less smelly because the donkeys had long finished for the day.

 

For comparison, we decided to take the donkey path down a few days ago because the queue for the cable car was insane.  I was somewhat surprised by the number of people taking the donkey path down but I'm guessing many were in a rush to catch the last tender for one of earlier arriving ships.  This time we slowed it down due to the shear number of people, donkeys still taking people up, and quite a bit of donkey pooh.  It took us roughly 30 mins to get down this time.  For context, while I thought we were still pretty quick, a few younger folks passed us.  A lot of elderly but nimble/mobile folks were walking down too, taking their time.  

 

However, the missus doesn't want to do the donkey path again.  We still found it  somewhat slippery because of various smooth stones.  We both slipped a bit a few times (even tho I was wearing hikers; she wore runners).  She also really hated the smell, mainly from the ammonia-like urine, and gagged a few times whereas I could tolerate it and made various washroom jokes.  😃

[ninjacat123]

I'm hoping on October 23 (the day we are in Santorini) that the cable car line isn't crazy for getting back down to the tender.  Or the donkeys start wearing diapers💩🤣

[Random Cruizer]

Thanks for this excellent and detailed post!  I'll be there in about 3 weeks, and I was planning to walk the path up and down.  After your report, I have no worries!  I will be very careful walking down.