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Naxos & Paros

Greece · Europe · northern hemisphere

SwimmingLakes & CoastlineHiking

Naxos & Paros is at its best for hiking in April to May and October. Good but not prime in March, June and November. Crowds peak in July and bottom out in November.

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Swimming
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13
13
15
42
70
89
91
90
64
17
13
Lakes & Coastline
6
14
42
65
91
92
69
69
92
88
23
11
Hiking
9
19
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69
20
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65
14
Crowds

Swipe the table sideways for the rest of the year.

primegoodpossibleoff-seasoncrowds, on this place’s own scale

The short version

The Cyclades without Santorini’s crowds — Naxos has long sand beaches and a mountainous green interior — the largest island in the Cyclades, with its highest peak, and both islands stay open through the summer

What the walking is like

Village-to-village walks on stone paths, plus one mountain. No guide needed on the marked paths; do not walk alone.

When not to come

Booking a ferry-dependent island hop in August without allowing slack. The meltemi regularly cancels sailings for a day or more, and August is the worst of it.

Busiest

August, and the meltemi wind from June to September

With children

Naxos’s west-coast beaches — Agios Prokopios, Plaka — are long, sandy and shallow, which is as easy as Greece gets. Interior villages need a car.

Where to stay

Naxos Town and Parikia are the ferry hubs and the busiest. Naxos’s west-coast beach villages are quieter for similar money, and Antiparos across the channel is cheaper again.

Dates that matter

  • Meltemi season (Jul–Aug) — strong northerly wind, and the reason ferries cancel
  • Panigiria, village saint’s-day festivals (Jul–Aug) — food, wine and dancing until dawn
  • Orthodox Easter — date moves; the islands are at their most local

Walks

  • Mount Zas, Naxos — the highest point in the Cyclades, about three hours return from Filoti
  • The Byzantine footpaths of the Tragaea — old marble-paved routes between inland villages
  • Lefkes to Prodromos, Paros — a preserved Byzantine road across the island, mostly downhill

These are old stone paths between villages rather than wilderness routes, which makes them unusually pleasant in spring and unbearable at midday in August.

Crowds, month by month

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0 is this destination’s own quietest month and 100 its busiest. The scale never compares one destination to another. Source: Wikipedia — Naxos

See everything else at its best in May

Elsewhere in Europe

ChamonixZermattThe DolomitesJungfrau RegionZakopane & the TatrasChianti & TuscanyDouro ValleyRioja