Fira Old Port, and the three ways out of Skala
No road reaches Skala. The cable car climbs about 220 m in three to five minutes and moves 1,200 people an hour across both directions. The stepped path has been closed since 28 July 2026.
Fira Old Port, known locally as Skala, sits at the foot of the cliff below Fira, and no road reaches it. Cruise tenders land here. Since the Karavolades stairway closed on 28 July 2026, there are two ways out: the cable car up the cliff, or a boat along the water.
Skala is a quay, a handful of shops and tavernas, and a cliff. Everything else about the place is a question of how you leave it.
Stop 6 of 7 on the Semi-private day cruise · the boat is here around 13:45
The three ways up, and where each one stands
| Way up | What it is | Status |
|---|---|---|
| The cable car | Doppelmayr, opened 1982. About 220 m of rise in three to five minutes. Six per cabin, 1,200 an hour across both directions. €10 adult, one way. | Running. No pre-booking and no skip-the-line ticket, so a queue stays a queue. It shuts in strong wind. |
| The Karavolades stairway | The roughly 590-step zigzag mule path between quay and town. Karavolades means snails, for the spiral. Counts run from 558 to about 650. | Closed since 28 July 2026, after a wall collapsed onto the path. The Municipal Port Fund of Thira banned foot and animal traffic. No reopening date published. |
| A mule | The traditional ride up the same stepped path. | Not available while the path is closed. Several publishers discourage mule rides on welfare grounds anyway, and we do not book them. |
Cable car hours are seasonal and published by the operator. We do not quote them, because the sources we can see disagree.
The fourth answer, which does not go up
Skala has no road. A taxi cannot collect you there and neither can a bus. That is the whole problem, and it is why the cable car queue exists at all.
A boat does not solve the cliff. It removes it. From the tender pier the water runs north to Ammoudi under Oia, which does have a road, or south to Athinios for a ferry. Our water taxi is a private boat for up to eight, and the fuller argument sits on skip the cable car.
One more number before you plan the day: the Greek cruise levy at Santorini is €20 per person from June to September, €12 in April, May and October, €4 from November to March.
What Skala looks like from the water
A narrow shelf at the base of the cliff, with Fira on the rim roughly 260 m above it. The cable car line runs straight up the face and the old stairway zigzags beside it.
Ships anchor out and tender in, because the basin is roughly 390 m deep at its deepest. Four can tender at once, and the pier shows it.
In port for the day? Send us your ship and your all-aboard time
We will tell you what a boat can do with the hours you have, and whether it beats the queue on your date.
Call the harbour office+30 698 977 1888
Common questions
Can you still walk the 588 steps?
No. The Karavolades stairway has been shut since 28 July 2026, after a wall collapsed onto it. The Municipal Port Fund of Thira banned foot and animal traffic and has published no reopening date. Counts vary anyway: 588 is usual, roughly 590 honest.
How long is the Santorini cable car queue?
Published reports put it at 60 to 90 minutes at peak, worst late morning and late afternoon. The system carries 1,200 people an hour across both directions, six to a cabin. Several thousand tender passengers inside two hours is more.
Do cruise ships dock in Santorini, or is it a tender port?
A tender port. The caldera is roughly 390 m deep at its deepest, so ships anchor offshore and run tenders in to Skala. Up to four tender at once. There is no road at the Old Port, which is what makes arrival awkward.
How do I avoid the long cable car queues?
Be on an early tender, leave Skala by boat, or accept the wait. There is no skip-the-line product, and buying online does not buy a place in the line. Since the steps closed, the water is the only route that removes the cliff.
Santorini Boat Tour - Water Taxi is a catamaran cruise and water taxi operator based in Fira, Santorini.
Updated August 2026