Paros or Naxos? How to choose between them

We live on Sifnos, a little to the west of Paros. Below is how the two islands compare on the questions people ask when they are choosing between them, with the figures and their sources at the end of the page. The last section is for anyone who reads all of it and wants neither.

Paros and Naxos, side by side

Beaches

Naxos has the long sandy beaches. Agios Prokopios, Agia Anna and Plaka run down its west coast, and Greece's national tourist board picks them out as ideal for families and for watersports.

Paros packs more variety into a smaller island. Kolymbithres is the one in the photographs, granite worn into shapes that leave small natural pools between the rocks. Golden Beach on the east coast is where the windsurfers go, and Pounta is the kitesurfing spot, so a group with a sailor or a surfer in it will be happier on Paros.

Food

Naxos is the most fertile island in the Cyclades, and it shows on the table. The island grows its own potatoes and citron, makes its own cheeses and presses its own wine.

Paros has the range you would expect from one of the most visited islands in Greece, and the tourist board counts its food among the reasons people come. If eating well is the main point of the trip for you, read the last section too.

Villages

The heart of Naxos is inland. Mount Zas, the highest mountain in the Cyclades, rises in the middle of the island, and villages such as Apeiranthos, with its marble-paved lanes, sit on its slopes alongside Halki and Filoti. Chora, the main town, is crowned by a Venetian castle.

On Paros the two villages people go for are Naoussa, by the water, and Lefkes, up in the hills. From Lefkes an old marble-paved path known as the Byzantine Road runs down to Prodromos, about three and a half kilometres. Paros marble is famous in its own right, since the Venus de Milo was carved from it.

Crowds

Paros is the busier island, on much less land. In the last summer both islands were counted the same way, July to September 2021, Paros took 560,479 ferry arrivals and Naxos 306,805. Naxos is also the bigger island, so its visitors have far more room to spread out.

Families

With small children, Naxos has the edge for its long sandy beaches on the west coast. Paros suits families who want more choice close together, and older children who want to try windsurfing or wing-foiling at Golden Beach.

Getting there

Paros and Naxos each have an airport with flights from Athens, and ferries connect both islands with Piraeus and with each other. Timetables change every season, so look at the current sailings before you plan around one.

When neither suits you

Some people read all of this and want a third kind of island, small enough to get to know in a week, where the evening is about dinner. For us that island is Sifnos, west of Paros, and it is where we live.

It runs at a different scale. Sifnos is about 74 km² with 2,777 residents and has no airport, and in that same summer of 2021 it took 89,186 ferry arrivals against 560,479 for Paros. People come for the food and the walking. Nikolaos Tselementes, whose cookbook shaped Greek cooking across the country, was born here, and old footpaths still link the villages.

Sifnos suits you less if you want to fly in, dance until late or windsurf, and in that case Paros is the better call.

If Sifnos sounds right, start with our guide to the island, and we have written a separate comparison of Sifnos and Paros.

If you are travelling as a family or a group of friends, we host guests in our house above Platis Gialos.

Paros or Naxos, quick answers

Sources

Island character, villages, produce, beaches and airports from Greece's national tourism site, visitgreece.gr. Populations from the 2021 census of the Hellenic Statistical Authority. Ferry arrivals for July to September 2021 from the Hellenic Statistical Authority, as reported by GTP Headlines in April 2022, the most recent period published for these islands together. Checked October 2026.

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