Naxos By The Sea

One of the things I always wanted to do was to visit Greek islands. I decided to skip out on Santorini and Mykonos altogether and jump straight to Naxos and Paros. To get here, I flew into Athens and took a domestic flight out to Paros, and then from there took a ferry to Naxos. Seems like a ton of commuting, but it was worth it. I grabbed a ferry ticket through Ferryhopper and they had reasonable schedules. Luckily my flight lined up with the ferry so I could do a quick transition from plane to boat.

Side note: the reason why I picked Paros and Naxos was because of their close proximity to one another (less than 1 hour) since I only had 3 days to explore. Each island offered something different, but both are beautiful and scenic.

Naxos is more of the party island with a ton of bars and restaurants. My driver mentioned that it gets so crowded during the summer months and then becomes a ghost town at the end of the season as everything closes down and the residents leaves to spend their earnings elsewhere. So make sure to make a trip here during the summer before the end of October!

One of the highlights of my visit here was seeing the Portara or Temple of Apollo. It’s a huge marble gate that welcomes visitors near the port and sits pretty looking over the island. The views here are so breathtaking, I took so many pictures that all look the same, but I really couldn’t help it. It was a quick and easy stroll to even after a huge seafood meal from the restaurants nearby.