Two Days in Paros
Located in the enchanting Cyclades Islands, Paros is well known with the A-listers such as Tom Hanks, but less known as nearby Mykonos. Known as “Little Myknonos”, with beaches and well built towns, Paros is off the beaten track that provides more city life than fellow islands.
Logistics:
In Paros, there are a few different villages to stay at depending on your budget, preference, and whether or not you have a car! I used Santorini Dave’s helpful website to decide between a few factors as well as TripAdvisor for their recent reviews!
By Public Transportation
Paros has a decent bus system based on the blogs and rumor mill. Because we were only here for three days, we preferred having a car for convenience! While we definitely saw the bus, the times are sparse. I would recommend a car!
By Private Taxi
Similar to other islands, Paros has plenty of taxis. While it is really nice, the cost quickly adds up as these are not cheap rides!
By Private Hire
As with every Greek island, there are a host of ATV, scooter, and car rental shops. Unlike Milos, I rented directly with Acropolis Rent-a-Car, that was within 10 meters of the port. While the car was more dinged up than our Milos automatic, it served its purpose! For three days, our automatic car rental was 60E, so a complete steal especially when we had four people. The benefits outweighed the costs in this scenario!
Travel Tip: While there may be a flood of rental folks greeting you at the port for your business, I recommend hiring in advance to obtain the best deals! We had our car waiting for us instead of us waiting for a car!
Lodging
On Paros, there were plenty of options but I went with the highly recommended and rated Villa Isabella, located in the village of Naoussa.
While we booked a family room, it turned out to be two adjoining rooms complete with their own kitchen and bathroom. There was a connecting door as well as a huge shared patio with great sunset views and over a nearby beach! The beds were harder than we expected, but the family was extremely nice and the hotel was in a great location as it was close enough to the village, but far away for peace and quiet! I highly recommend Villa Isabella.
Travel Tip: For the Greek islands, I relied on booking.com because Santorini Dave said most hotels are listed on this site.
Food & Drinks
Because we were staying in Naoussa, most of our recommendations are in this sleepy town although we did explore the other great restaurants on the island!
Yemeni: Listed first for a reason, our favorite meal on our entire Greek trip and definitely on Paros, Yemeni is off the beaten path in Naoussa. Serving local dishes in the traditional farm to table method, Yemeni offers fantastic food! For our final dinner, I ordered one of the best lamb and pork kebabs while MF enjoyed a fresh Moussaka. Our appetizers included their house salad and fried zucchini flowers.Our friends, Sara and Kelly, enjoyed their slow roasted beef short ribs and 65 dry aged ribeye! I recommend booking a reservation or going early!
Glafkos: On the seaside, Glafkos is a classic Greek taverna offering fresh seafood! We also had good sunset views behind the Naoussa buildings and the beach. For our main meal, I had their tasty house salad and MF had grilled chicken with French fries. We were on a healthy kick! Sara made up for our lack of seafood for grilled octopus and it looked amazing!
Moraitis Winery: While Paros’ wine is not as well known as Santorini’s wine, we enjoyed our wine tasting and local cheeses and meats!
Souvlakia KARGAS: Perfect for drunk food, we actually ate at this gyro shop on our first day. While not as tasty as Santorini’s Pitagyro, we enjoyed the extremely low prices!
Ephesus: Outside the Parikias and on the beach, Ephesus offers the best sunset views. While we went their for sunset drinks, the restaurant also has highly rated food from their stone oven.
Parea Local Cuisine: Literally a 5 minute walk from Ephesus, Parea is your classic traditional Greek taverna with the whole family working at the restaurant. With a beautiful outdoor courtyard, Parea is great for relaxed evening. For our dinner, we all ordered off the black chalkboard of daily specials. I had the homemade pasta with beef ragu while MF ordered chicken with figs and potatoes.
Our hotel recommended a few other places in Naoussa so check them out!
Activities
On Paros, one can explore cities by night while lounging on pristine beaches during the day. In fact, we even explore a separate island! Paros is the quintessential Greek island.
Unique Paros Towns
Compared to our first two islands of Santorini and Milos, Paros offers a few more modern towns while continuing with the small Greek island life unlike Mykonos. Paros continues to be one of our favorite islands because we think it still has the small island charm!
- Naoussa
- Parikias
- Lefke
Paros Beaches
These beaches have tranquil green-blue waters and your typical sandy beaches. Perfect for any type of weather!
- Golden Beach
- Faragas Beach
- Kolympethres Beach
- Santa Maria Beach
Lastly, there is the separate island of Antiparos. While the name may suggest nothing like Paros, Antiparos is popular with A-list celebrities such as Tom Hanks to European royalty. Offering even quieter beaches and villages, you can truly escape here! From Paros, we went to the car ferry at Pounta while the main town of Paprika offers passenger ferries throughout the day. For 4 people and 1 car, it only costs €11.1 and the ferry operates every 30 minutes.
Rest Day
Because our ferry from Milos arrived at 11am, we had an entire day in Paros! While the girls went to the beach, I decided to hang back and enjoy the serene views from our patio and plan our next island.
Upon Arrival
Coming off the ferry is similar to getting hit in the face with peddlers. Surrounded by pushy car rental salespeople, we pushed our way to Acropolis Rent-a-Car. Waiting for us was a converted manual to automatic and easily our least favorite rental car! Oh well, the car got us from point A to B without any issues!
Compared to the nearly empty Milos roads, Paros appeared to be a city metropolis! We were not ready for traffic, but ended up just fine after we parked at Villa Isabella.
After a quick, hot walk to town for gyros, the girls went to Kolympethres Beach for sunny R&R. Meanwhile, I had the whole patio to myself. With a beer in my hand and Google Maps open, I plotted our next destination. Plus, there is only so much beach I can do before I get too bored!
Just “Another” Sunset
Unlike our Milos hotel, we had to search for great sunset locations. For our first night, we went to the capital of Parikias as some of the restaurants have terrific unblocked views! We chose Ephesus from Lonely Planet and Santorini Dave’s recommendations and could not have chosen a better spot!
With sailboats in the harbor, the sunset was perfect as it disappeared beneath the waters. I think we are beginning to take these for granted as winter is coming…
Paros' sunset
After sunset, we walked another 5 minutes to a more local Greek taverna, Parea Local Cuisine. For our first night here, the restaurant ambience is perfect as we were served by the family and had home cooked meals! A perfect ending to a perfect day!
Antiparos to Paros!
Because today was Kelly’s birthday, we celebrated with great Greek wine and visiting another Greek island!
Exploring Remote Antiparos
Compared to Paros, Antiparos is more remote and has possibly more undisturbed nature. Once our ferry dropped us off, we first went to the famous Cave of Antiparos.
We're on a boat!
As we twisted around the roads, we kept our eye out for Tom Hanks’ house on the island. I had a great joke for our whole trip that asked if that house belonged to Tom Hanks or THAT house was his house. As soon as we arrived at the caves, we enjoyed the views because that was the only good thing since the caves were closed!
Antiparos!
Soros Beach
During check-in, our guide recommended three things in Antiparos: the caves, Soros beach, and Antiparos town. Thus, our next location was a quick 45 minutes on one of the most secluded beaches. With fine sand and calm waves, Soros beach was fantastic - especially for a short time!
Travel Tip: Soros Beach has sun beds and a nice restaurant for those wanting an all day experience.
Antiparos Town
As the main (and possibly only) town, Antiparos is a mini Naoussa or Parikias! With a main street lined with boutique shops, cafes, and restaurants, it was the perfect Greek experience. Between the pretty pink flowers adorning the buildings to the tasty Greek treats, we loved Antiparos and we were sad to leave it!
Wine Tasting at Moraitis Winery
For Kelly’s birthday and to escape the sun by not going to the beach, we made appointments for a special wine tasting at Moraitis Winery. Located 10 minutes from central Naoussa, Moraitis Winery is great for a sun break! More importantly, they have a wonderful outdoor and indoor space that perfectly relaxed us!
For our three glass wine tasting, MF decided on the organic white and I went with their signature wines.
Here are the wines we tasted:
- 2017 white: This came from their oldest vineyard as it was aged for 6 months. These vines are at least 99 years old, and produce caramel and white pepper taste in their wine.
- 2016 White: For this wine, it is organic and aged in stainless steel for 6 months. It had a fruity melon and passion fruit. It pairs well with fatty fish and mature cheese.
- Red Reserve: Aged for 16 months oak barrels and 6 months in a bottle, the wine flavor is chocolate, cherry, and plum, and pairs with meats.
- 2019 white: Stainless steel, peach mint basil, 2019
- 2019 white: Most popular variety, stainless steel, 2m, 2019
- Rose: It is made with 3 local varieties with 1 hour in touch with red skin. The wine has jasomine, white pepper, and fruity flavors.
The Experience
In addition to a delicious wines, we also had a tasty meats and cheese board! Every cheese and meat is from the Greek islands, with most of them coming from Paros. It is amazing to see how sustainable these islands are as they use every item on the farm. Either way, we loved all the meats and cheese!
Sunset at Glakfos
On Kelly’s big day, she chose our sunset dinner at Glakfos. Although the sun doesn’t really set over Naoussa, the fading glow hits the buildings and harbors and becomes a great show. Thankfully, we had front row seats to a more secluded and hidden show and we loved it! It doesn’t hurt that we also had a great meal here!
Lazy Greek Days
On our final Greek island day with our friends Kelly and Sara, we opted to spend it in paradise otherwise known as another Greek beach!
Golden Beach
Located on the southern coast, Golden Beach wasn’t initially golden. I highly recommend parking at the Blues Restaurant because the view, sun beds, and restaurant are much better here versus elsewhere on the beach! We rented sun beds for €7.5/each and then proceeded to do nothing. I read 2-3 books and tried not to get burnt!
Lazy Beach Days
Final Goodbye
Because it was our final night, we went to the highest recommended restaurant in Naoussa, Yemeni. After our best meal on the island, we had a terrific food coma induced walk back to our hotel.
Final Paros Sunset
The UnChartered Summary
Although we visited Paros two years ago on our Greek Yacht Week trip, our second visit reminded us why we love Paros. The traditional Greek island life is combined with beaches, towns, and surreal beauty.
- When in Paros, I highly recommend Yemeni! The food and service is out of the world and the price tag is very reasonable!
- For a “Little Mykonos” experience, stay in Naoussa! While we liked Parikias on our first trip, we enjoyed Naoussa a little bit more!
- If someone has extra time, I recommend Antiparos to escape any Paros crowds - not that there are any!