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Naxos, Greece, top 10 things to do (Wimup travel guide)
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Top 10 Things To Do in Naxos

Country
Greece
Best months
May · Jun · Sep
Population
20,578
Language
Greek
Budget / day
€100–150
Quick answer

The best things to do on Naxos are the Portara at sunset, the Venetian Kastro above Chora, the climb up Mount Zas, the marble village of Apeiranthos and an afternoon on Plaka beach. Give the island four days, hire a car for at least two of them, and come in June or September rather than August.

Best of Naxos

▶ Video guide

Naxos is the largest island in the Cyclades and the least dependent on visitors, and both facts show. Four hundred and thirty square kilometres hold a mountain range, a marble industry running since the Archaic period, potato fields and cheese dairies, so the island feeds itself and the beaches are a by-product rather than the business.

The 10 best things to do in Naxos

Watch the sun set through the Portara, Naxos, Greece
1

Watch the sun set through the Portara

Landmark· Palatia islet, Chora, Naxos

The Portara is a marble doorframe on the islet of Palatia at the mouth of the harbour, and it is all that was ever finished of a temple of Apollo begun around 530 BC. Four blocks of Naxian marble, roughly twenty tonnes each, were set in place and then the project stopped. A causeway takes ten minutes to walk. No gate, no ticket.

Time45 min
CostFree
Best atSunset
TipWalk out half an hour before sunset; the light comes through the frame from the west
Map↗ Website
2

Climb into the Kastro above Chora

Old town· Kastro, Chora, Naxos

A Venetian quarter has held the hill above the harbour for more than eight hundred years, and descendants of those families still live inside the walls. Of the twelve towers that once ringed it only the Tower of Crispi survives; beside it the Della Rocca-Barozzi house is opened as a private museum by a member of the family.

Time2 hr
CostFree to walk
Best atLate afternoon
TipThe Archaeological Museum is shut for the Islet of Museums works
Map↗ Website
Climb Mount Zas, the highest point in the Cyclades, Naxos, Greece
3

Climb Mount Zas, the highest point in the Cyclades

Hike· Aria spring trailhead, Filoti, Naxos

Zas reaches 1,004 metres, higher than anything else in the Cyclades, and the marked path starts at the Aria spring above Filoti. Twenty minutes up, a wide mouth in the rock is the Cave of Za, which myth gives to the infancy of Zeus. Two and a half to three hours return from the spring, and the last stretch takes the wind directly.

Time3 hr
CostFree
Best atEarly morning
TipStart from the Aria spring car park and carry all your own water
Map
4

Spend a morning in Apeiranthos

Village· Apeiranthos, Naxos

Apeiranthos is built of the grey marble it stands on, streets included, high on the eastern flank of the mountains and settled long ago from Crete. The lanes are stepped and too narrow for a car, and four small museums sit within a few minutes of each other. The tavernas cook goat and Naxian pork rather than anything adjusted for visitors.

Time2 hr
CostFree
Best atMorning
TipPark at the entrance to the village; everything inside is marble steps
Map
Take an afternoon on Plaka beach, Naxos, Greece
5

Take an afternoon on Plaka beach

Beach· Plaka, southwest coast, Naxos

Plaka runs about four kilometres down the southwest coast, white-gold sand backed by dunes and cedar. The northern end is organised, with sunbeds and bus stops behind it; walk south and the crowd thins to nothing within twenty minutes. The water shelves gently, which makes it a swimming beach rather than a wading one.

TimeHalf day
CostFree
Best atLate afternoon
TipSunbeds and tavernas are at the north end; walk south for space
Map
Taste kitron at the Vallindras distillery in Halki, Naxos, Greece
6

Taste kitron at the Vallindras distillery in Halki

Distillery· Halki, Naxos

Grigorios Vallindras set up a workshop in Halki in the second half of the nineteenth century to make the local citron spirit, and in 1896 his son turned it into the liqueur the island still sells, distilled with citron leaves rather than the fruit. The copper stills are kept as they were, and the three strengths are poured at the end.

Time45 min
CostFree tasting
Best atMidday
TipHalki was the island capital before Chora took over
Map↗ Website
7

Stand in front of the frescoes at Panagia Drosiani

Church· Moni, Naxos

The oldest church on Naxos sits below the road between Moni and Halki, a low stone building with three chapels grafted onto its northern side. Some of its frescoes are sixth century and are counted among the oldest surviving in the Balkans. It is a working church, opened by a caretaker, and photography inside is not allowed.

Time30 min
Cost–
Best atMidday
TipOpening depends on the caretaker, so ask in Moni or Halki before driving up
Map↗ Website
Learn to kitesurf at Mikri Vigla, Naxos, Greece
8

Learn to kitesurf at Mikri Vigla

Water sports· Mikri Vigla, Naxos

Mikri Vigla is a headland with a beach on each side, and the geometry is what brought the schools here. The northern bay takes the meltemi side-onshore over sand that stays shallow a long way out, which is about as forgiving as a kite beach gets. The southern side stays out of the wind and is where the rest of the family swims.

TimeHalf day
CostTicketed
Best atAfternoon wind
TipThe south-facing side of the headland
Map↗ Website
9

Drive to Moutsouna for the emery cableway

Industrial heritage· Moutsouna, east coast, Naxos

The mountains around Koronos held the best emery in Europe, and between 1926 and 1929 the state strung a nine-kilometre aerial ropeway from the mines down to the sea: seventy-two pylons and 340,000 tonnes of rock carried by 1982. The pylons still stand, and the road down through the switchbacks is the best drive on the island.

TimeHalf day
CostFree
Best atMorning
TipCome over the mountain through Apeiranthos rather than returning the same way
Map
10

Take an evening at the Bazeos Tower

Tower· Sangri road, 12 km from Chora, Naxos

The tower twelve kilometres south of Chora was built in the seventeenth century as a monastery, a two-storey block inside a heavy wall with a chapel and a refectory. The Bazeos family bought it at the end of the nineteenth century and hold it still. Since 2001 it has run the Naxos Festival: concerts, theatre and exhibitions.

Time2 hr
CostVaries by event
Best atSummer evenings
TipThe festival programme runs into September
Map↗ Website

8 of the 10, mapped

Naxos · 8 spots
AllLandmarksMuseumsFoodFree

Naxos travel FAQ

How many days do you need on Naxos?+
Four. One for Chora, the Kastro and the Portara, one for the mountain villages and Mount Zas, one for the southwest beaches and one for the sanctuaries and the north coast. Two days covers the town and one beach and misses the reason the island is different from its neighbours.
Is Naxos better than Santorini or Mykonos?+
It answers a different question. Naxos is bigger, cheaper and largely self-supporting, with farms, cheese dairies and a mountain range behind the sand, so it holds a week where the other two hold a long weekend. If you want caldera views or the nightlife of Mykonos, go there; both are a short hop by ferry.
Do you need a car on Naxos?+
For the interior, yes. KTEL buses cover Chora, Agios Prokopios, Agia Anna, Plaka and the main villages several times a day in summer, and tickets must be bought at the office before boarding. The mountain routes thin out sharply from late September, and a car is what makes Moutsouna, Melanes and the Apollonas road practical.
When is the best time to visit Naxos?+
May, June and September. Temperatures sit in the low to mid twenties, prices drop either side of the peak, and the sea is warmest in September because it lags the air by about a month. July and August bring the meltemi, which keeps the heat bearable and the kite beaches working but can delay high-speed ferries.
How do you get to Naxos from Athens?+
Two ways. Ferries leave Piraeus up to seven times a day in summer, three and a half hours on a SeaJets high-speed boat or five to five and a half on a Blue Star, arriving at the quay in Chora. Olympic Air and Sky Express fly from Athens airport to Naxos in forty to fifty minutes.
Where to swim

Best beaches in Naxos

Six more sands beyond Plaka and Mikri Vigla, running north to south down the west coast.
All 6 beaches →
Walkable
Chora

Agios Georgios

Town beach

The town beach, a ten minute walk from the port, shallow and sheltered enough that children stand a long way out. The windsurf school teaches here.

Map
Bus route
Agios Prokopios

Agios Prokopios

Organised

The headline beach: a long band of thick golden sand with water that stays clear and calm at the northern end. Buses every half hour, and busy in August.

Map
Shallow water
Agia Anna

Agia Anna

Family

The same coast continued around a small fishing harbour, with tavernas set back off the sand and cedars for shade. Shallow water and frequent buses.

Map
Bring supplies
Kastraki

Kastraki

Unspoiled

Golden sand broken into a run of small coves south of Mikri Vigla, largely undeveloped and quiet even in season. Bring what you need; there is no shade.

Map
Shade
Alyko

Alyko

Cedar forest

A cedar forest on a headland with several beaches around it, from the long sand locals call Hawaii to the cove of Mikrolimano. The shade is why you choose it over Plaka.

Map
Far south
Pyrgaki

Pyrgaki

Quiet

Near the southern end of the road, sandy, shallow and calmer than the beaches further north. It stays quiet because most visitors turn back sooner.

Map
Where to eat

Best tavernas in Naxos

Six kitchens cooking Naxian, from the Chora old town to the marble villages.
All 6 tavernas →
Courtyard
Chora old town

Doukato

Naxian

A courtyard in the old town under the Kastro, cooking Naxian dishes with the island cheeses and the local pork. The octopus is the order people come back for.

Map
Good value
Chora backstreets

To Elliniko

Greek

A casual room in the Chora backstreets doing the standards properly: courgette fritters, fried cheese and whatever fish came in. Cheaper than the harbour.

Map
Book ahead
Southwest coast

Axiotissa

Farm to table

Twenty minutes south of Chora, a leafy courtyard attached to a kitchen that grows much of what it serves. The best-known taverna on the island, and still local.

Map
Charcoal grill
Apeiranthos

Stou Lefteri

Mountain

On the marble street through Apeiranthos, with a courtyard shaded by a walnut tree. Mountain food: beef patties stuffed with graviera, lamb over charcoal.

Map
Local first
Apeiranthos

Amorginos

Meat

A meat taverna in the middle of Apeiranthos that runs to local habit rather than to what visitors expect. Order what the village orders.

Map
Valley view
Melanes

O Vassilis

Inland

In Melanes, looking over one of the greenest valleys on the island, cooking inland Naxian food: rooster in wine with handmade pasta, grilled meats.

Map
Inland Naxos

Best villages in Naxos

Six villages worth the drive, beyond Apeiranthos in the Top 10.
All 6 villages →
Filoti
Zas trailhead
Tragaea

Filoti

Largest village

The largest mountain village, spread across the lower slopes of Zas and mostly given over to livestock, which is why the cheese is better here than on the coast.

Map
Halki
Kitron
Tragaea

Halki

Former capital

The island capital before Chora took the title, set in the olive groves of the Tragaea with neoclassical mansions and the Vallindras distillery on its square.

Map
Stepped lanes
North

Koronos

Mining village

Stacked down both sides of a ravine on stepped lanes, with the emery mines that made it in the hills above. It keeps some of the strongest festival traditions.

Map
Kouros
North coast

Apollonas

Coastal

A fishing village at the northern tip with a small beach, tavernas along the water and the unfinished kouros above it. Two hours by road in summer traffic.

Map
Kouroi
Melanes

Melanes

Valley

A green valley of springs and orchards fifteen minutes inland from Chora, with the Flerio kouroi lying in the trees below the village. The easiest inland half day.

Map
Temple of Demeter
Sangri

Sangri

Plateau

A scatter of hamlets on the plateau south of the Tragaea, surrounded by towers, chapels and the Temple of Demeter below it. The Bazeos Tower is nearby.

Map
Ancient Naxos

Best ancient sites in Naxos

Four sites in the marble that made the island rich, all within half an hour of Chora.
All 4 ancient sites →
Site museum
Sangri

Temple of Demeter, Gyroulas

Archaic temple

An Archaic marble temple below Sangri, partly re-erected on its own foundations, with a site museum that won a Europa Nostra award for how it sits in the landscape.

Map↗ Site museum
Near the airport
Livadi plain

Sanctuary of Dionysus at Yria

Sanctuary

Three kilometres south of Chora in the Livadi plain, a sanctuary in use from the fourteenth century BC into Roman times. Its temple was marble throughout.

Map↗ Ephorate of Antiquities
Free
Melanes

Kouroi of Flerio, Melanes

Unfinished statues

Two unfinished colossi left lying in the quarry where they cracked, about 4.7 and 5 metres long. They are in an orchard rather than behind a fence.

Map
10.7 m
Apollonas

Kouros of Apollonas

Colossus

A bearded figure 10.7 metres long and around eighty tonnes, cut from the quarry face around 600 BC and never moved. The largest of the abandoned kouroi.

Map
On the water

Best water sports in Naxos

Three centres on the two bays that get the meltemi honestly.
All 3 water sports →
Flisvos Kite Centre
IKO courses
Mikri Vigla

Flisvos Kite Centre

Kitesurf school

On the northern bay at Mikri Vigla since 2007, teaching to IKO standards on sand that stays shallow well offshore. Equipment is rented as well.

Map↗ Website
Beginner lagoon
Agios Georgios

Flisvos Sportclub

Windsurf and wing

The original centre on Agios Georgios bay, running windsurfing, wing foiling and paddle in the shallow lagoon. The easiest place to try a board.

Map↗ Website
Lessons and rental
Mikri Vigla

Naxos Kitelife

Kitesurf school

A second kite school on the Mikri Vigla bay, offering lessons and rental on the same stretch of wind. Worth a call when the first centre is booked out in the August peak.

Map↗ Website
After dark

Best bars in Naxos

Four rooms in Chora. Nightlife on Naxos means a drink with a view, not a club strip.
All 4 bars →
Port view
Chora old town

520 Bar

Sunset terrace

A whitewashed Cycladic house on the old town lanes with a terrace over the port, which gives it the best sunset seat in Chora. Come early if you want the rail.

Map
Naxos on the Rocks
Late
Waterfront

Naxos on the Rocks

Cocktails

On the waterfront in the middle of Chora, busy and loud, with a long cocktail list and sport on the screens. It runs later than most of the island.

Map
Portara view
Waterfront

Like Home

Cocktails

A stylish room looking out over the harbour toward the Portara, with cocktails made properly and music kept at conversation level.

Map
Seafront
Waterfront

Ocean Club

Late night

The seafront option when the evening is meant to keep going, with a wide drinks list including island wines and a terrace facing the sunset.

Map
Beyond the island

Best day trips in Naxos

Five trips from the Chora quay. Naxos is the hub for the Small Cyclades, which is the reason to base here.
All 5 day trips →
Paros
Year round
Ferry

Paros

25 to 50 min

Twenty-five to fifty minutes across the strait, with up to nine sailings a day all year, which makes it the one day trip that needs no planning.

Map
Beaches
Small Cyclades

Koufonisia

2 hr

The busiest of the Small Cyclades and the one with the sand: two hours on a Blue Star sailing. Check the return before you commit to the day.

Map
Quiet
Small Cyclades

Iraklia

1 hr

An hour away on a Blue Star sailing and the quietest of the group: a couple of settlements, a cave walk and very little else, which is the point.

Map
Walkable
Small Cyclades

Schinoussa

Small Cyclades

A low island of coves and footpaths between Iraklia and Koufonisia, served by the same Skopelitis run. Small enough to cross on foot between boats.

Map
Delos and Mykonos
10 hr
Cyclades

Delos and Mykonos

Full day

The long day: a boat north to the sanctuary island of Delos and on to Mykonos, roughly ten hours door to door. Delos is the reason to go.

Map
What's on

Festivals & annual events in Naxos (2026)

Time your trip around the island's biggest dates.
Feb

Naxos Carnival

Torchlight processions on the Saturday and a carnival of floats, music and satire along the Chora seafront on the Sunday.

Apr

Orthodox Easter

The largest religious week of the year, kept village by village, with the midnight resurrection service and lamb on the Sunday.

Jul

Agios Nikodimos

The island patron is honoured in Chora on 14 July. The icon is carried through the streets and the feast runs late.

Jul

Naxos Festival, Bazeos Tower

Concerts, theatre and exhibitions in the seventeenth-century Bazeos Tower near Sangri, staged every year since 2001.

Aug

Panagia Filotitissa

Filoti holds the biggest village panigyri on Naxos on 15 August, with food, wine and dancing past midnight.

Aug

Agios Ioannis, Apeiranthos

The marble village keeps its own panigyri on 29 August, smaller than Filoti and closer to the way these feasts used to run.

Sep

Dionysia

Chora marks the wine harvest over the first weekend of September with free local wine, island food, music and dancing.

Oct

Rakitzo

The raki distillation, held village by village in late autumn once the harvest is in, with goat baking alongside.

Getting around

Naxos transport, ferries and the airport

How to arrive and how to move around the island.
Port

Ferries from Piraeus

Conventional Blue Star sailings take five to five and a half hours from Piraeus; high-speed boats do it in around three and a half. The port sits at the edge of Chora.

Map↗ Website
JNX

Naxos Island National Airport

Olympic Air and Sky Express both fly the Athens route on turboprops, forty to fifty minutes in the air. The runway sits three kilometres south of Chora.

Map↗ Website↗ Sky Express
KTEL

KTEL buses

The bus station is on the harbourfront, opposite the ferry quay, and tickets are bought at the office rather than from the driver. Far routes thin out by late September.

Map↗ Website
430 km²

Hire car and island roads

Naxos is the largest island in the Cyclades and the interior is where most of this guide is, so a car for two days is the difference between the island and its beaches.

Map
Traditional food

Must-try dishes in Naxos, Greece

The classics to order before you leave.
Graviera Naxou, Naxos (Wimup travel guide)

Graviera Naxou

The island cheese, a firm golden wheel mostly of cow milk, nutty when young and sharper with age.

Arseniko Naxou

A hard kefalotyri from the mountain pens, aged up to sixteen months. Strong and salty; ask for it shaved.

Naxos potatoes

Grown on the plains behind the west coast and sold across Greece on the strength of the name.

Kitron of Naxos

A liqueur distilled with citron leaves rather than the fruit, made in Halki since 1896. Green is the sweetest.

Rosto

Pork cooked slowly in a pot with wine and garlic until it falls apart. The Naxian Sunday dish.

Kalogeros

Veal baked with aubergine and cheese, an Apeiranthos dish that has spread across the island.

Patoudo

Goat or lamb stuffed with liver, herbs and cheese and roasted whole, cooked for Easter and feasts.

Melachrino

A dark spiced cake somewhere between a walnut pie and a syrup sponge, served with kaimaki ice cream.

Naxos fact sheet

Naxos at a glance

The essentials worth knowing before you go.
Country
Greece
Region
South Aegean, Cyclades
Population
20,578 island wide, 8,897 in Chora (2021 census)
Founded
Sanctuary at Yria in use from the 14th century BC
Nickname
The island of Dionysus
Language
Greek
Currency
Euro (€)
Time zone
EET (UTC+2)
Calling code
+30 22850
Airports
Naxos Island National (JNX)
Power
230V, types C and F
Emergency
112
Ideal length
4 days
Getting around
By hire car, by KTEL bus, on foot in Chora
Tourism board
Official site

Interesting facts

  • Mount Zas is 1,004 metres and the highest point in the Cyclades. The cave below the summit is where myth puts the infancy of Zeus.
  • Naxos owns the other half of the Ariadne story: Theseus left her on this shore, and Dionysus found her here.
  • The Kouros of Apollonas is 10.7 metres long and weighs around eighty tonnes. It was abandoned in its quarry around 600 BC.
  • Between 1929 and 1982 a nine-kilometre aerial ropeway carried 340,000 tonnes of emery from the mines above Koronos down to the sea.
  • Nikos Kazantzakis spent the school year of 1897 to 1898 in the Kastro, in the building that later became the Archaeological Museum.

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