Best Things to Do in Naxos

Naxos combines the finest sandy beaches in the Cyclades with a rich Venetian castle town, archaic marble sanctuaries and authentic village gastronomy. Here are the ten experiences that define a visit.

1. Watch the sun sink through the 530 BC Marble Portara (Temple of Apollo). Walk across the stone causeway from Chora harbour to Palatia islet to stand beneath a 6-metre-tall archaic marble doorway weighing 80 tonnes.
2. Get lost in the 1207 Venetian Kastro and the whitewashed Old Market of Chora. Pass through the medieval Trani Porta to see coats of arms on noblemen's mansions, the 1207 Catholic Cathedral and the vaulted lanes of Bourgos.
3. Swim in the neon-turquoise water of Agios Prokopios and Agia Anna. Stretch out on coarse crystalline granite sand that never sticks to your skin and dine with your feet in the sand at Agia Anna fishing pier.
4. Walk the endless sand dunes of 4-Kilometre Plaka Beach and the Cedar Forest of Alyko. Explore juniper-topped sand dunes and deserted turquoise coves below street-art-covered ruins at Alyko.

5. Stand before the 530 BC Marble Temple of Demeter at Sangri and the Giant Kouros Statues. Inspect a white marble precursor to the Parthenon and see 6-to-10-metre archaic statues still lying inside the ancient quarries of Flerio (Melanes) and Apollonas.
6. Sip PDO Kitron liqueur at the 1896 Vallindras Distillery in Halki and hike to Panagia Drosiani. Stroll neoclassical Halki and visit a 6th-century AD paleochristian triple-domed church in the olive groves.
7. Wander the gleaming white marble streets of Apeiranthos ('The Marble Village'). Explore a 600-metre-high mountain village fortified by two 17th-century Venetian towers and five small museums.
8. Hike to the 1,003-Metre Summit of Mount Zas and the Cave of Zeus. Climb from Aria Spring past the mythological cave of young Zeus to the highest peak in the Cyclades.

9. Feast on PGI Naxos Potatoes, PDO Graviera, Arseniko cheese and Kalogiros. Taste Greece's most famous island farm produce in Chora or under the giant plane tree of Filoti.
10. Take a day boat south to Koufonisia (The Small Cyclades) or Delos/Mykonos. Swim in the natural rock pool of Pori and Italida on Pano Koufonisi.