The Cyclades · Excursion Guide
Paros
Everything I’d actually book here — boats, villages, beaches and tables — with what each one costs and who it’s for.
The Cyclades · Excursion Guide
Everything I’d actually book here — boats, villages, beaches and tables — with what each one costs and who it’s for.
Read through, send me the ones you want, and I’ll build the days around them and hold the bookings that fill up first.
Paros is the island I recommend more every year — big enough for distinct villages and beaches, compact enough that everything is within reach. Four nights fits all of it without ever feeling rushed.
Nothing here is more than forty minutes from anything else, so a small car turns the whole island into your neighborhood — the hill villages, the far beaches, and dinner wherever you want it.
The Antiparos sail and the handful of Naousa tables worth planning around go early — Naousa books up even in October. Tell me those first and the rest can stay loose.
Paros is roughly a circle with a mountain in the middle. Naousa and the best beaches sit around the north, Parikia and the ferries on the west, the hill villages climb the slopes inland, and Antiparos — with the clearest water in the Cyclades — hangs just off the southwest corner. Tap any pin for what it is.
The one island where I say rent one for every day you’re there. Roads are good, parking is easy outside the two towns, and the best beaches sit at the end of short dirt tracks.
Everything docks at Parikia — about three hours from Piraeus direct, or forty minutes from Mykonos and Santorini. Naousa is twenty minutes across the island from the port.
Forty minutes from Athens into a small, calm airport in the south. Flights sell out well before the ferries do in season, so this is the first thing I lock in.
The little car ferry shuttles from Pounda every half hour and takes ten minutes. No booking, no drama — drive on, drive off, and you’re on a different island for lunch.
The water on the Antiparos side of Paros is the clearest I know in the Cyclades, and the only way to reach the best of it is by boat. Both sails below run out of Piso Livadi on the east coast — a working fishing harbor twenty minutes from Naousa, with none of the marina scrum you get on the bigger islands.
The one I’d protect on Paros. Out of Piso Livadi under sail at 9:30, down into the Antiparos Strait, anchored in the Blue Lagoon, then right around South Antiparos with a full lunch cooked and served on deck. A last swim off South Paros on the way home. Antiparos is a genuinely unusual little island and the water on that side is the best on Paros.
Can be fully private for the two of you, or shared with up to ten — your call.
From $1,583 for the boat, privately
The shorter version, and lovely on its own night. Sails up at 18:00 from Piso Livadi toward Naxos or the south coast, a drink in hand, a swim in a sheltered bay, then dinner served on deck as the sun drops. Back at the dock by dusk.
From $110 per person
If the sail isn’t your day, take the ten-minute car ferry from Pounda instead. One long main street of galleries and good tavernas, the cave in the hills above, and Soros beach on the way back — a different island for the cost of a coffee.
Three boats run the private days. Rates are for the whole boat rather than per person, so the cost is the same whether it’s the two of you or a full group.
| Boat | Half day | Full day |
|---|---|---|
| Aether / Nisaki | €630 | €900 |
| Armonia Fost Matrix | €900 | €1,600 |
| Aegean Breeze Rock | €1,250 | €2,100 |
Every rate includes the skipper, fuel and VAT.
This is why Paros over the bigger names: real villages with real life in them, and beaches you choose by mood rather than by whichever one your hotel happens to sit on. None of these need more than the car and a loose sense of when lunch should be.
The heart of Paros once the sun goes down. Browse the boutiques, wander the little Venetian harbor, then a long dinner at Siparos with the waterfront coming alive around you.
Morning in the mountain village of Lefkes — marble lanes, no sea, no crowds — then south to the fishing village of Aliki for a seafood lunch at To Balconi tou Aki, and the clear water at Lageri in the afternoon.
Wind-carved granite coves and water you can see straight through. Unlike any other beach in the Cyclades, and a short hop across the bay from Naousa — go early, before the boats arrive.
The island’s most relaxed beachfront setting for swimming and a slow lunch. Nothing to do but stay put until the light changes — the day that asks nothing of you at all.
Santa Pacou back in Lefkes, or Parostia at Cosme — one of my favorite restaurants on the island and the right way to close out Paros. Both are tables I’d lock in before you land.
Lageri for calm, shallow water and almost nobody on it; Santa Maria when you want loungers and a bar. Both face Naxos across the channel, and both are ten minutes from Naousa.
Four nights means all three of these days fit, with room for a sailing day on top.
Ease into Paros with an afternoon at your hotel before heading into Naousa as the sun begins to set. Browse the boutiques, wander the harbor, and settle in for a leisurely dinner at Siparos while the waterfront comes alive after dark.
Start the morning exploring the mountain village of Lefkes, then continue south to Aliki for lunch at To Balconi tou Aki, one of my favorite seaside tavernas on the island. Spend the afternoon swimming in the crystal-clear waters of Lageri Beach before returning to Lefkes for dinner at Santa Pacou.
Ease into the morning before spending the day at Crios Beach Club, where you’ll find one of the island’s most relaxed beachfront settings for swimming, lunch, and an afternoon by the sea. End your stay with dinner at Parostia — it’s downstairs at Cosme, one of my favorite restaurants on the island, and the perfect way to close out Paros without going anywhere.
Tucked into the old harbor with the fishing boats almost at your table. The evening there is the point as much as the fish.
On the water looking across at Naxos, and the seafood benchmark on the island. The long first-night dinner that sets the tone for the trip.
The best cooking on Paros, plate for plate — modern Greek in the lanes behind the harbor, without a view and better for it.
Where I’d send you when you want the night to keep going — good plates, better energy, and no rush to give the table back.
Dinner up in the marble village, a world away from the harbor scene. Time it after the sunset walk through Lefkes and it’s the most memorable evening on the island.
A seaside taverna down on the south coast and one of my favorites on the island. The lunch I’d build the Lefkes day around — go after the village in the morning, before the beach in the afternoon.
Downstairs at Cosme, and one of my favorite restaurants on Paros. The right way to close out the trip — and if you’re staying there, an evening with nowhere to drive afterward.
Naousa books up even in October, so it’s worth deciding early — send me the ones you want and I’ll arrange the tables through your hotel’s concierge once you know which ones you want.
Reply with the ones you want and anything you’d skip, and I’ll build the days around them — the boat held, tables booked, car and transfers arranged before you land.
Prices are operators’ published starting rates, converted from euros — final cost depends on date, group size and boat. I’ll quote exactly before anything is held.