Naxos

Highlights

Beaches

Sights

Hiking / trails

Suggested 5-day itinerary

Where to stay in Naxos

Naxos is big enough that the base you pick shapes the whole trip. Five areas cover almost everyone.

• Naxos Town (Chora) — the obvious first choice. You step off the ferry into it, you can walk everywhere, and you do not need a car. Tavernas, the Kastro quarter, the Portara at sunset, and Agios Georgios beach at the end of the promenade. Best for a first visit and for anyone arriving without a car.
• Agios Prokopios and Agia Anna — the main beach strip, five to six kilometres south of town and joined to it by a bus every twenty to thirty minutes in summer. This is where most of the studios and small hotels are. Best if you want the beach on your doorstep but still want dinner options.
• Plaka — low-rise, spread out along four kilometres of sand and dunes. Quieter and greener than Agia Anna, but you will want a car or a scooter. Best for couples and for stays of a week or more.
• Mikri Vigla — the windsurf and kitesurf end of the island. The meltemi that annoys everyone else is exactly why people come here. Best if the wind is the point.
• The mountain villages — Halki, Filoti, Apiranthos. Cooler, far cheaper, and the version of Naxos that has nothing to do with beach holidays. You need a car. Best for a second visit, or for spring and autumn.

Read the guide: where to stay in Greece →

The beaches, south from town

Naxos keeps its famous beaches on the west coast, in a row, so you can work your way down.

• Agios Georgios — the town beach. Shallow a long way out, which makes it the easy answer with small children, and you can walk to it from dinner.
• Agios Prokopios — the postcard one. Golden sand, organised, busy in August.
• Agia Anna — smaller and more sheltered, with tavernas right at the water and a working fishing harbour next door.
• Plaka — four kilometres of sand behind dunes. Organised at the northern end, empty if you keep walking. The far southern end is traditionally naturist.
• Orkos and Mikri Vigla — dunes, rocks and wind. The kitesurf schools are here.
• Kastraki — long, shallow and usually quiet even in high season.
• Alyko — a cedar forest grows right behind the sand, and there is an abandoned hotel shell covered in street art. Strange and worth the drive.
• Pyrgaki — the last of the line, a calm bay where the road more or less gives up.

The east coast — Moutsouna, Psili Ammos, Panermos — is a different island: remote, barely developed, no facilities. Take water and a full tank.

Getting to Naxos

• Ferry from Piraeus is how most people arrive. Roughly three and a half to four hours on a fast ferry, five to six on a conventional one. The conventional boats are considerably cheaper and far steadier in a meltemi.
• Rafina is the other Athens port and is closer to the airport, useful if you are connecting from an international flight.
• Naxos is a hub, which is the real argument for it. Paros is thirty to forty-five minutes away, Mykonos about an hour, Santorini around two, and the Small Cyclades — Koufonisia, Iraklia, Schinoussa, Donousa — plus Amorgos all connect from here. Island hopping from Naxos is genuinely easy.
• The airport takes domestic flights only, about forty-five minutes from Athens on small aircraft. Seats are limited and sell out early.
• The port sits in Chora itself, so if you are staying in town you can walk to your room.

How many days do you need

• Three days — Chora, the Portara at sunset, and two of the west coast beaches. Enough to see why people come back.
• Five days — adds the mountain villages, the Temple of Demeter or one of the abandoned kouros statues, and either Mount Zas or a slower day at Plaka.
• A week or more — adds a day trip to the Small Cyclades, the east coast, and the time to stop rushing.

Useful tips

• Portara is a must for sunset
• Try Naxos graviera cheese

Pairs well with

Where it is