The ferry ride to Naxos was another very calm and serene trip with stunning sea views so we arrived at the main port in Naxos feeling pretty chilled. However, after the relative quiet of Folegandros the hustle and bustle at the port was quite a shock. Naxos is a much larger island than the previous ones and now we were in July it seems like the whole world had decamped here. I’m sure in non-pandemic times the number of visitors must be off the scale, so we were lucky to be here now, but I would definitely plan a trip to these Greek islands off season if I were you. Oh well, let’s see what this popular isle has to offer.
We had booked a studio apartment at Ag Anna beach a few clicks south of the main town. We finally hooked up with our pick up and were taken to our accommodation. We drove through the main town which was chocka with traffic and then along the beach at Prokopios. It seemed pretty busy here too with lots of restaurants and bars and the beach packed with brollies and loungers. Now, having lived in Asia for 15 years this was not our idea of a beach holiday, but our host assured us we were heading to a quieter spot. Our choice of digs was a wise one this time as we had a small apartment with a balcony a short walk from the beach. It was in a peaceful area and we felt immediately calm again. There was also a nice pool which we could use and a shop just around the corner so we had everything we needed.
We stocked up on provisions and then walked the short distance down the road to the beach. At the end of the road the beach to the right was full of loungers and lined with clubs, yet the lovely sandy bay to the left was empty. You can guess which beach we spent time at. We also found a traditional restaurant here with nice views of the bay which served up delicious local grub.
We enjoyed relaxing on our balcony watching the sunset and having a dip in the pool but by now we realised that a European beach holiday in summer was not like an Asian one, and maybe not for us. So we decided to explore more of the island and took the bus into the main town to connect with a bus to take us up into the mountain villages for the day. There were a few villages that sounded lovely and worth visiting but the bus schedule would only give us opportunity to visit one, so we plumped for Apirathos which was the furthest up in the mountains.
The bus set off and was packed with tourists and then it stopped to pick up locals, luckily they weren’t going far as it was standing room only. We soon left the hectic town behind and started to climb the twisting winding road up into the mountains. This was much more our thing, the views were magnificent and you could tell this was a much vaster island and it was also much greener and more picturesque as a consequence. They must get a bit more rain here but not today, not a cloud in the sky and pretty dam hot.
We disembarked at the last stop and started to explore the village. It was wonderful to wander around all the small cobbled alleys up and down the hillside without knowing or caring where we were heading. We finally wandered back into town and found the main drag with quite a few cafes and of course the crowds. We decided on one of the many places to eat by going for the one offering a free beer with a meal – well I did tell you about the extortionate prices in Greece, so you can’t turn that down can you? The place also had a cracking view across the valley and was fairly empty so it turned out to be a good choice. After lunch we walked out of town to get some great views before it was time to catch the bus back to Naxos Chora. We had time to wander around the old town which was really lovely compared to the busy streets surrounding it before jumping on another bus back to the beach.
We really liked Naxos but we wished we had planned our time here differently. We loved the mountainous interior and I think we would have preferred to spent more time exploring the villages there instead of basing ourselves at the beach. As you travel you live and learn and I had to agree to stop going on to Emma about having a beach holiday in the future. Although we still had one more beach on the trip to stay at.
