Day 5 - Paros to Naxos: Travel Day

We woke up at 9am to pack up our suitcases and enjoyed the hotel breakfast one last time. I sat back and took in my favorite view from the hotel’s balcony – Naoussa harbor below us, the sun reflecting off of the boats in the water, the Aegean Sea spraying up against the rocks along the coastline, and the mountains faded back into the distance — it’s truly magnificent, a photo doesn’t do it any justice.

Last breakfast with a view of Naoussa, Paros

The hotel called a taxi for us and Dimitri, the same driver who picked us up from the airport took us to the ferry port in Parikia. We said thanks for everything & our goodbyes to the friendly hotel staff. Taking the ferry from Paros to Naxos was fairly easy. We used Ferryhopper to book our tickets in advance and you can check in online 48 hours prior to your ferry departing. The App also has a live view so you can see where your ferry is, if it’s coming on time, or will be delayed. Rather than waiting in the direct sun on line for the ferry, we sat across the street and sipped on some espresso. Once the boat was 10 minutes away we crossed and waited in the underpass in the shade. We bought business class tickets which were comfier and more spacious than the economy deck below. You can definitely feel the sway of the ferry going over the ocean waves, which was not the best feeling, but overall it was a quick and easy venture to the port of Naxos and much less hassle than dealing with the airport and checking our bags.

We walked 8 minutes from the port of Naxos to our Airbnb. The apartment was decorated like a cute little beach house & has a great view of the harbor.

We walked around the town of Naxos to explore and stopped for lunch at Scirocco cafe. The menu was so THICK! I needed some sort of greens today so I ordered an avocado caprese salad, except apparently a traditional caprese does not come with lettuce (thanks for the confirm Amanda) and neither did this one, so that was a bummer. The side of fresh pita bread made up for it — the bread and hummus was warm and melted in your mouth. We ordered a Moussaka for our entree and it hit the spot. Stelios said it reminded him of his moms, I agreed — it was cooked home style and bursting with flavors of meat and béchamel sauce. Very different than the one we had in Paros but both equally impressive.

My first impression of Naxos Town was that it was busier and more casual than Naoussa. The stores and restaurants feel tighter together and more compact, but overall it’s a bigger port town than Parikia. The prices are also more inexpensive compared than Paros. I also noticed a ton of creperies, gelaterias, and restaurants with vegan option signs.

After lunch we walked to Falcon Motor Rental , a brother & sister duo who own the rental bike shop. They were highly rated on Google & the guy gave us a map and circled the top spots to check out while we were here. We did a lap around the town and headed back to the hotel for a nap to take advantage of mesimeriano. We passed out from 3-6pm — a solid nap that was much needed. We were both exhausted from traveling and felt refreshed after waking up.

For our first night in Naxos we decided to bar hop around town. Our first stop was Flamingo, a cocktail bar with a rooftop that we passed earlier. I ordered the Mastiha Margaritas & Stelios got an espresso martini. There was also live Greek music, a guy playing Bouzouki (Greek style guitar) which was cool to listen to. However the drinks were sub par so after one round we were onto to the next.

Our next stop was Like Home. This rooftop bar was a VIBE – chill bar music, excellent cocktails & amazing views. We got a second row seat to sip, enjoy & watch the sunset. My favorite cocktail was called Home and it was creamy like a piña colada, but not as coconut-y. Nostimo (it was delicious).

Dinner was at Nostimos Hellas at 9:30pm. This restaurant was much deeper into the town of Naxos which gave me a good feeling we were about to have an excellent, authentic Greek cuisine experience. We ordered a bottle of red wine from Trikala, the lamb meatball appetizer which was breaded with kataifi (angel hair phyllo dough) , risotto with 4 types of mushrooms & Naxos Gruyère cheese, and the Naxos steak which also came with an incredible salad drizzled with balsamic glaze. The winner for me was the lamb meatballs & mushroom risotto.

After dinner we were stuffed so we continued walking to explore Naxos at night. We didn’t use GPS, just followed our instincts and the dimly lit roadways. We ended up at Agios Georgios Beach which had a small boardwalk that we took to the end. We passed about 5 different beach bars and cute restaurants, each had their unique style. We may check out the two with the comfiest lounge chairs on Thursday since it’s a quick walk from our AirBNB and the beach was a decent size. Once we hit the end of the boardwalk we turned around, went up some steps and saw signs for the Venetian Castle that we followed. This part of the city was giving me King’s Landing Game of Thrones vibes. There were city walls and alleys within the castle and lots of doors that looked historic/abandoned. It reminded me of one of the scenes that Aria was running around the capital through alleys away from the guards. By 12:30am we decided to call it a night and headed back to our AirBNB. Overall it was a successful travel day & first night in Naxos.