Day Trip to Antiparos Island (7-Minute Ferry), Antiparos Cave and Despotiko

Barely one nautical mile (1.5 kilometres) across a shallow turquoise channel south-west of Paros lies its laid-back, bohemian sister island of Antiparos (Ancient Oliaros). Because ferries shuttle across the strait every 15 to 30 minutes from morning until past midnight . visiting Antiparos is as easy as crossing a river, yet the moment you step ashore into its flower-draped Chora, you feel a world away.

1. How to Cross from Paros to Antiparos (Two Easy Ways)

• Way 1, The 7-Minute Car & Foot Ferry from Pounda Port: take KTEL Bus #2 from Parikia (15 mins) or drive your rental car/scooter/ATV to Pounda Port. Open-deck ferries depart every 20 to 30 minutes and dock at Antiparos Town in 7 minutes flat.
• Way 2, The 30-Minute Passenger Boat Directly from Parikia Port (Summer Only): if you are staying in Parikia without a car, a small wooden passenger boat departs directly from the Parikia windmill pier several times a day straight to Antiparos port.

2. Three Highlights on an Antiparos Day Trip

1. Antiparos Chora & The 1440 Venetian Kastro: stroll up the car-free flagstone main street from the harbour, shaded by a continuous ceiling of crimson and purple bougainvillea, and duck through a pointed stone arch into the 1440 Venetian Kastro, a square residential fortress built by Giovanni Loredano where two-storey whitewashed houses form a protective ring around a central courtyard. (Walk 8 minutes past the Kastro to the western shore for sunset cocktails at Sifneiko / Sunset Beach).
2. The Cave of Antiparos: high on Agios Ioannis Hill, descend 411 safe concrete steps (85 metres deep) into an awe-inspiring subterranean cathedral housing a 45-million-year-old giant stalagmite. Visited since antiquity, its stone columns bear historical graffiti carved by 7th-century BC poet Archilochus, the Marquis de Nointel, and King Otto of Greece (1840).
3. Agios Georgios & The Boat to Uninhabited Despotiko Island ( Sanctuary of Apollo): drive or take the Antiparos bus to the southern tip of the island at Agios Georgios (famous for Captain Pipinos seaside octopus taverna), where boats cross in 10 minutes to uninhabited Despotiko Island to see the newly restored 6th-century BC Archaic Sanctuary of Apollo and swim on empty golden beaches, or join a full-day Captain Ben sea-cave boat tour around the blue lagoons of Panteronisia ("Blue Lagoon") and Epitaphios sea arch.