Traveldocs.io
Naxos Island

Naxos is one of the Cyclades islands in Greece. Somehow, it got to be referred to as an underrated island, but it surely does not deserve the status. It's a beautiful island with beautiful beaches, diverse landscape and nice people. We arrived on the island by ferry from Athens and stayed pretty central, not very far from the port.

On our full day on the island we explored the main town, Chora.

We visited Portara, also known as "The Great Door" situated on top of a hill overlooking Naxos town and with very beautiful views of the island.

Then headed to Kastro, meaning the castle, the beautiful fortress in the middle of the town.

We ended up walking along beautiful Chora waterfront, watching locals in their boats and finally witnessing a wonderful sunset in the port.

On the second full day on the island, we explored some of the most popular hikes around.

We rented a car and headed to Mount Zas. We took a hiking trail up the mountain. We took it slowly on the marked trail and arrived on top of the mountain where we fully enjoyed a spectacular view all around the island.

After the long hike in the sun, we felt pretty exhauseted. We headed to a nice village, Melanes, which is set on the side of the mountain. First stopped to eat and drink something cold and after that visited the village a bit.

We returned to Naxos in the evening.

Had breakfast in Naxos.

Then we took the car to explore some other sites of the island as well. We went to see the fallen Kouros statues, on an interesting archaeological site. They were carved back in 7th century BC. We got there after a short walk from where we left the car.

We then went to visit the old church Panagia Drosiani, a small mountainside church. We bought some fine olive oil from there, from village women sitting outside the church.

This village of Chalkio is one of the most beautiful villages of the island. We enjoyed walking along its streets and in the end stopped at Giannis Taverna to rest our feet and have something to drink.

On our last day on the island we simply relaxed at the beach swimming, reading and just resting.

Got back to Naxos, had a final walk along the port before leaving.