Best Things to Do in Paros

Paros offers a rare variety for a medium-sized Cycladic island: you can spend the morning walking a 1,000-year-old marble trail between mountain villages, swim among surreal granite boulders at midday, and dine beside a sunken Venetian fortress at sunset. Here are the ten experiences that define a visit.

1. Walk out to the half-sunken 15th-century castle in Naoussa's Venetian Fishing Harbour. Watch wooden kaiki boats bob beside octopus lines and candlelit tables in the Cyclades' prettiest port basin.
2. Admire the ancient marble temple drums built into Parikia's 1260 Frankish Castle and visit 326 AD Panagia Ekatontapyliani. Explore one of Greece's oldest early-Christian basilicas and photograph the blue-domed cliff church of Agios Konstantinos.
3. Take the wooden water-taxi boat to the sculpted granite coves of Kolymbithres and Monastiri. Swim in warm, shallow turquoise pools carved between smooth moon-like granite boulders.
4. Hike the 1000 AD marble-paved Byzantine Road from Lefkes to Prodromos. Start in Paros's pine-scented mountain capital of Lefkes and walk an gentle 3.5-kilometre medieval marble path downhill to the pink arches of Prodromos and Marpissa.

5. Cross in 7 minutes on the ferry to Antiparos Island, Antiparos Cave and Despotiko. Stroll bougainvillea-draped Antiparos Chora, descend into a 45-million-year-old stalagmite cavern and boat to uninhabited Despotiko.
6. Relax on the east-coast golden sands of Chrissi Akti (Golden Beach), Piso Livadi and Faragas. Swim facing Naxos, lunch on fresh seafood in Piso Livadi port and lounge in wind-sheltered southern Faragas Bay.
7. Visit the ancient underground Parian Marble Quarries at Marathi and Aliki's Cycladic Folklore Museum. Peer into the tunnels of the Cave of the Nymphs where the marble of the Venus de Milo was cut.
8. Taste PDO Monemvasia and Mandilaria wines at Moraitis Winery (1910) and grilled gouna. Sip crisp island wines in an underground stone cellar steps from Naoussa beach.

9. Hike among granite arches at Paros Park (Cape Korakas Lighthouse). Follow coastal footpaths around the wild northern peninsula above Monastiri beach.
10. Watch the sun sink into the Aegean from Agios Konstantinos cliff or Parikia's windmill promenade. Enjoy unobstructed western sunsets over the strait of Antiparos.