Naxos Greece: Our Favorite Island

Naxos Greece

Greece is our favorite country. We go at least once a year, typically to Naxos and/or Paros every other year, and then to other islands or mainland destinations in the off years. Naxos remains our favorite island.

I wrote about our first two trips to Naxos in this post, but now that we’ve spent over 35 days on the island over the years, and given that things have changed since those early trips, I feel like a completely new post is in order.

Why Naxos is the Best Island in Greece

First, we’ve only visited eleven Greek islands. We will keep exploring, and of course I’ll write about other islands we fall in love with, but for now Naxos remains our favorite. The reasons:

1. No cruise ships. I’ve said this before, but cruise ships are terrible for small islands. Most destinations have a natural tourism balance based on the number of hotel rooms. Greek islands are wonderful even when all of those hotel rooms are filled. But when you add 8,000-15,000 people off cruise ships, it completely changes the balance and makes for a negative experience for locals, for normal tourists and for cruise visitors. Santorini and Mykonos used to be wonderful (I’ve been visiting Mykonos for 30 years and Santorini for 13 years), but the cruise ships in the summer lead to the main towns being overrun, and over the years we’ve seen smaller shops close up, only to be replaced by upscale clothing stores and international chains. Santorini and Mykonos aren’t charming anymore. The Greek islands without cruise ships still are.
2. The locals. When we’re walking from our hotel into town, we’re passing apartments where people live year-round, and hearing a lot more Greek than English. Even in town we hear more Greek than on neighboring islands. That’s a much better feeling than when everything is based around tourism.
3. The airport is very close to Naxos Town and the ferry port is in town. Every trip we walk to and from the port several times to take ferries to neighboring islands. Even with luggage it’s an easy walk. That’s not the case on Santorini and Mykonos, and even on islands like Paros and Kos the ferry and airport are far from each other, and not necessarily near where you want to stay.
4. The island is large enough to have places to explore, and a lot of good restaurants, but small enough that we don’t need a rental car the majority of the time.
5. Naxos is near a lot of other islands, so there are good day trip options.

How to Travel to Naxos Greece

To get to Naxos Greece, you can either fly or take the ferry. If you want to fly into Naxos, the only option is to go through Athens. There are direct flights from other European cities to nearby Santorini and Mykonos however. And Paros is only a short ferry away if you happen to find good flight options there.

The ferry from Athens takes 3.5-6 hours and in Athens you would have to get from the airport to the ferry terminals. That’s never been tempting – we’ve always chosen to fly.

My goal in getting to the Greek islands is to have as few flights as possible but also to avoid overnight layovers, especially in Athens. If there’s a perfect flight schedule into (or out of) Naxos, we’ll go for it, but a lot of the time it works better to fly into Santorini or Mykonos and out from the other. Mykonos is easier – it’s a shorter ferry ride from Naxos, and in Mykonos the airport and port are just 5-10 minutes from the town/hotels. In Santorini the airport and ferry port are 20-30 minutes from Oia and Fira. Two years ago we flew Lufthansa into Santorini (Los Angeles-Frankfurt-Santorini), spent three nights, took the ferry direct to Naxos, and then after a week took a ferry to Mykonos, spent one night, and flew to Florence via Zurich on Swiss Air. This year we flew Austrian Air into Mykonos (Los Angeles-Frankfurt-Vienna-Mykonos), spent two nights on Mykonos, spent four nights on Naxos and three on Paros (including a day trip to Antiparos), and then flew out of Paros. We’ve never had flight issues. Our hotels on Santorini and Mykonos always arrange transportation for us to/from the airports and ferry ports.

Naxos Hotels: Where to Stay

We’ve stayed at the same Naxos hotel every time we’ve visited the island, and it’s become one of our favorite hotels in the world. Nissaki Beach Hotel is perfect. The first few trips we stayed in a two-room suite with the kids in one room (three twin beds) and us in the master bedroom. Both rooms have balconies over the pool and look out to the sea. With our kids older now, we prefer to get two rooms. This year we were in 207 (kids) and 208 (adults, with a great sea view).

We used to love the breakfast buffet, but it ended during the pandemic, so instead you place your breakfast order the night before. The honey-cinnamon pancakes (basically loukoumades) with Greek yogurt are amazing! And the setting, at the beach with cats running around, is wonderful.

Speaking of the beach, St. George Beach in front of the hotel is one of the most kid-friendly beaches we’ve found anywhere. The water is shallow almost as far as you can see. We usually bring (or buy) a ball and frisbee and throw them around in the water. It’s also enjoyable to walk to the far end of the beach and back. In the past we’ve rented pedal boats with slides, but the rental place never brings them out in June, which is is our preferred time to visit.

Naxos Town

Nissaki Beach Hotel is maybe a 4-minute walk from Naxos Town (the main town on the island) and 10 minutes or so to the ferry. We walk into town several times a day to eat, shop and get money from ATMs (see below). Almost every store is locally-owned, as far as I can tell. Walking around feels authentic. Don’t miss the narrow, meandering market area below the castle – that’s where a lot of the best stores are.

The Portara (Temple of Apollo) is a very large doorway/ruin dating back to the 6th century BC. You’ll see it from everywhere in Naxos Town – it’s maybe a 15-minute walk from the hotel but only a couple minutes from the ferry port. It’s best at sunrise and sunset, but is a fun walk any time of day.

Exploring Naxos Island

We usually rent a car twice every trip (€45-60 a day as of summer 2024) to explore the island. We’ve been told by locals that the towns and beaches down south aren’t worth the drive, so we always concentrate on the middle and north of the island. Worthwhile destinations:

The Villages of Halki, Apiranthos and Filoti

Well worth a trip. All three towns are small, but have good stores, markets and restaurants, and it’s nice to get out of Naxos Town for a meal or two. We like them in the order I listed them above, but really there’s no need to choose since it’s easy to visit all three in a short period of time.

Don’t miss the Theonas Traditional Shop in Filoti, maybe 100m from the main square along the road. It’s part museum, part shop, and it’s fun to talk with the owner about the shop and his life. We always buy baskets and pots.

Kouros of Apollonas

There are a few historic sites around the island. We tried to visit the Temple of Demeter but it was closed (on a Tuesday). That’s the only site with a fence, museum and admission booth. Otherwise you can drive, park and get up close to Greek history, likely with no one else around. The Apollonas Kouros (near the villages of Apollonas) is the best site we’ve found on Naxos – a 1,300-year-old statue that depicts either Apollo or Dionysus. Just a short walk from the road (park anywhere).

Apollonas and Lionas

I mentioned above that the southern beach villages aren’t supposed to be worth the drive. The same is probably true of the northern beach villages. We always want to aim somewhere though, so our last couple drives we went to the villages of Apollonas and Lionas. In Apollonas we relaxed and went swimming. In Lionas we had lunch at one of the top-rated places on the island. Neither stop was amazing, but if you have a full day with a rental car, you may as well check out coastal areas. And we really like the drive around the northern coast.

Agios Prokopios

Here’s where we differ from a lot of visitors to Naxos Greece. We like basing in Naxos Town, and relaxing at St. George Beach. Others though choose to base at Agios Prokopios, 15 minutes south of town, and then drive or take the bus into Naxos Town. Agios Prokopios undoubtedly is a great beach, but it’s never worth it to us to pack up and head there for a day when basing out of our hotel is so much easier. It’s an easy stop on a loop around the island though.

A Day Trip to Paros

Paros is our second favorite island in Greece, and it’s only 45 minutes away on the ferry. We always purchase ferry tickets far in advance since there are only a couple of good options for going over in the morning and coming back in the afternoon. The ferry drops you in Parikia, which has probably the best shopping of any island, and there are good restaurants for lunch. This trip we had lunch at Taverna Mouragio, and would return.

My blog post on Paros is here.

Best Naxos Restaurants

We’ve never had a bad meal on Naxos – and that’s a lot of meals. We typically have sit-down lunches in restaurants, although we’ll get take-away gyros periodically (still only €4). And dinners are almost always in restaurants, unless we get pizza and bring it back to our room.

As opposed to Santorini and Mykonos, it’s rarely necessary to make reservations before you arrive on Naxos. Sometimes we’ll make reservations a day in advance, but most time we can show up anywhere and be seated within a few minutes. Having said that, if you’re visiting during a busier time and it looks like restaurants are mostly full, figure out where you want to eat and stop by either the day before or that morning and make a reservation. It can’t hurt.

Our meals are anywhere between €50 and €110. We typically order four main courses for the five of us, since portions are large, along with tzatziki and another starter, several bottles of water, and maybe a half carafe of wine.

These are our favorite Naxos restaurants right now:

Nissaki Restaurant

Probably the best restaurant on the island, and at our hotel which makes it really easy! We love dining on the beach. The food is always excellent. TripAdvisor.

Dal Professore

We usually get lunch at Dal Professore our first afternoon. We love the mix of Naxian and Italian, and the pizzas are amazing. TripAdvisor. Slightly more expensive than other places though.

Oasis

Everything that’s amazing about Greek food, a great setting and close to the hotel. The only place we were given complimentary ouzo this last trip – it used to be far more common. TripAdvisor.

Naxian Capriccio

Of all of the places along the water in town, Naxian Capriccio usually impresses us the most. Normal seafood and Greek dishes. TripAdvisor.

Avaton 1739

Avaton 1739 (along with its earlier iterations) has always been our favorite place to go for pre-dinner drinks. It’s a hike to get up to the castle, but the view is worth it. We usually go for the homemade lemonade and the sangria (not currently on the menu, but they’ll make it for you if you request it). TripAdvisor.

Pizzadelia

Close to the hotel and very good pizza. An easy option when we don’t feel like committing to another restaurant meal. We always bring the pizzas back to our deck and dine on the balcony. TripAdvisor.

To Elliniko

Excellent food and a really nice outdoor setting, on a street that we usually never walk down. We usually make a booking a day in advance since they tend to fill up. TripAdvisor.

Metaxi Mas

I love walkway restaurants, and Naxos doesn’t have a lot of them. Metaxi Mas is in the old market area. Several TripAdvisor reviews talk about poor service, but we didn’t experience that. Good Greek food at slightly lower pricing than other places. Easy to head to after having drinks at Avaton 1739.

Cash and ATMs in Greece

Stores, restaurants and hotels in Greece all prefer cash. We therefore make daily trips to ATMs. Always choose ATMs associated with Greek or international banks (don’t use the stand-alone bright-colored ones in front of stores), and always have the payment go through to your bank as Euros. If you choose US Dollars, you’re throwing money away – as much as 11% per transaction. Some of the ATMs get tricky, really wanting you to let them convert the transactions to dollars, so take each screen slowly and choose the correct prompts to keep everything in Euros. Do the same in stores and restaurants – always choose the local currency and not dollars.

Note: there’s a €1.80-3.00 charge every time you use an ATM. My US bank refunds those. If you have the choice of several banks / credit unions, try to find one that reimburses you for ATM fees. Also, it doesn’t hurt to have two debit cards from two banks so you have a backup in case of loss or fraud.

Is it possible to get by in Greece only using a credit card? Maybe, but the Greeks really like cash, so don’t be the ugly tourist that’s making a small market pay credit card fees for your €1 water. The flip-side: there’s often a cash discount at hotels and stores. But also, we visited a lot of places that said that their card machines were down and so they were only accepting cash transactions. Basically, carry cash at all times.

Naxos Greece – Your Turn

Have you been to Naxos? What did we miss? What’s your favorite Greek island?