Paros tours bring travellers to a Cycladic island of white harbour towns, Parian marble villages and sandy coves, a short ferry ride from Piraeus. For more routes, see our tours in Greece page.
This page covers what Paros tours include, how the island is reached from Piraeus, Parikia and Naoussa, the inland villages and Parian marble, the beaches, Antiparos and Despotiko, and how Paros tours combine Naxos, Mykonos and Santorini.
What do Paros tours include?
Paros tours cover the island by road and the sea around it by boat. Local operator pages list bus tours, cruises to Antiparos and Despotiko, walks, bike trips and classes in cooking and pottery. Local operators on the island run these tours.
Paros is an island of Greece, in the middle of the Aegean and within the Cyclades group. According to Wikipedia, the island covers 165 square kilometres. It is 21 kilometres long and 16 wide. The municipality, which also takes in uninhabited offshore islets, covers about 196 square kilometres. Wikipedia lists 14,520 people there. Greeka puts the coastline at 120 kilometres.
One listing for Paros tours by road describes a full-day bus trip. It starts with a walk through Parikia and crosses by ferry to Antiparos. Then it stops at the village of Lefkes and the fishing village of Naoussa. See the Paros photo gallery for pictures of the island.
Paros tours by boat start at the island’s ports. One listing describes a full-day trip on a traditional fishing boat from the main port in Parikia. It stops at remote beaches around Paros and Antiparos that only boats reach and sails along the coast of Despotiko. The same page notes that boat tours depend on the weather.
The operator pages add five more kinds of trip:
- bus or minibus rounds of the island, as a full or half day, with or without a tour guide;
- a half-day cooking class with fresh seafood and local ingredients, followed by lunch;
- a three-hour pottery class near Pounta, with three clay techniques;
- a private half-day tour of the island, with transport and an English-speaking tour guide;
- a herbs and wine tour that meets local farmers, as one walking operator lists it.
Walking operators run Paros tours on foot and by bike along centuries-old footpaths. One operator lists tours of between two and a half and six hours, always in small groups. A Bike and Hike tour combines cycling with hiking, on regular bikes or e-bikes. For a wider list of trips, see our page on tours in Paros.
How do Paros tours reach the island from Piraeus?
Paros lies around 150 kilometres from Piraeus, which serves as the port of Athens. The route runs south-east, according to Wikipedia. Ferries and catamarans reach Parikia harbour every day, and an airport takes flights. Paros tours begin on the island itself.
Travellers bound for Paros tours from Athens begin at Piraeus. Wikipedia calls Piraeus the main seaport of Athens and Greece’s biggest port, with ferries to the Cyclades. A metro station sits right beside the port. A direct airport express bus, route X96, runs around the clock between Piraeus and Athens International Airport.
Parikia lies on the west of the island and is the capital and main port. Wikipedia lists daily sailings from its harbour to Piraeus and to Heraklion on Crete. Greeka adds that ferries also leave from Rafina and Lavrio. Naoussa Bay in the north is a natural, spacious harbour. One local operator lists a snorkelling cruise from Naoussa.
Flights land at Paros Airport, in the south-west, about 10 kilometres from the port of Parikia, Wikipedia says. A bus links the airport to Parikia, and taxis run across the island. Greeka lists domestic flights from Athens and Thessaloniki, and VisitGreece gives 45 minutes for the flight from Athens. For more background, read the general information about Paros.
Paros belongs to the Cyclades islands, a group of roughly 220 islands, according to Wikipedia. One local operator page puts Paros at the centre of the group. From there, it says, a visitor reaches the neighbouring islands in a short time. Local operators run Paros tours by sea on those routes.
What do Paros tours show in Parikia?
Paros tours show Parikia, the capital of the island. Wikipedia counts 4,500 permanent inhabitants, and describes cobbled lanes, old churches and houses in blue and white. The landmark of the town is the Church of the Hundred Doors.
Parikia is found in the west of Paros. The Parikia article lists the small shops, the old churches and a preserved windmill in the port. It says the port made Paros a great naval power. Manto Mavrogenous has a statue in the town, and Wikipedia calls her a heroine of the war for Greek independence.
Two of the Paros tours in the listings begin in Parikia. One full-day bus tour opens with a walking tour of the town. One full-day boat trip sets out from the main port. Both days start at the capital, and a third listing runs a snorkelling cruise in the Gulf of Parikia.
The Church of the Hundred Doors, Panagia Ekatontapiliani, is a Byzantine church complex. Wikipedia describes a main chapel with two chapels around it and a baptistery that holds a cross-shaped font. The Parikia article says the first church was built in the fourth century where an ancient gymnasium once stood. A remodelling followed in the sixth century under Emperor Justinian.
The name is a puzzle, because the church has 99 doors. A legend says a hidden hundredth door will open when Hagia Sophia in Constantinople is an Orthodox church again. Tradition says Saint Helen, the mother of Emperor Constantine, founded the church on her way to the Holy Land.
Parts of a medieval castle survive above the seafront road. The Paros article says its walls are made almost wholly of marble from an ancient temple of Apollo. Greeka adds that the small Archaeological Museum of Paros holds finds from the Neolithic to early Christian times. Ask whether your Paros tours include it.
What do Paros tours show in Naoussa?
Paros tours show Naoussa, a fishing village in the north of Paros. Its natural harbour and old port hold a Venetian fort. Wikipedia gives the village 3,134 residents in its latest count, and in summer the village draws visitors from across Europe.
Wikipedia describes the bay of Naoussa as a roomy natural harbour for boats. In antiquity the bay was shut off by a chain or boom. Greeka lists fish restaurants, lounge bars and cafeterias around the old port. Wikipedia says tourism has developed strongly there in modern times.
Among the Paros tours in the listings, one full-day bus trip ends in Naoussa. Visitors watch local fishermen bring in the day’s catch on their colorful boats. The same listing adds a stroll around the ruins of the Venetian castle. Another listing is a half-day snorkelling cruise from Naoussa.
Wikipedia says the Venetians founded Naoussa in the late fourteenth century. A fortress went up early on to protect the new port. Greeka dates the small Venetian fort in the old port to the fifteenth century. It says the fort served as a watchtower, and only a part of it survives.
History adds to Paros tours in Naoussa. Wikipedia says Russia used the village as a naval base in the seventeen-seventies, during a Russo-Turkish war. It was also the administrative centre of the military expedition of Alexey Orlov. The Russians called the base Auza, Wikipedia notes.
Greeka names more sights to look for when you join Paros tours here. The blue-domed church of Agios Ioannis Detis, built in the seventeenth century, overlooks the bay. The Byzantine museum sits in the church of Agios Athanasios at the entrance of the village. A wine and vine museum fills an old building.
Which villages do Paros tours visit inland?
Paros tours visit Lefkes, Prodromos and Marpissa inland, away from the ports of Parikia and Naoussa. Wikipedia describes Lefkes as an inland settlement in the mountains, 10 km from Parikia. It places Prodromos and Marpissa on the eastern side, on an open plain. Greeka points to the tranquil traditional villages of Lefkes and Marpissa for travellers who dislike busy places.
Lefkes appears on Paros tours by road. One full-day bus tour in the pack stops there after the Antiparos ferry and calls it a hilltop village. Greeka describes pure Cycladic architecture in the centre of the inland. Wikipedia says Lefkes led the municipality of Iria, an ancient name of Paros. It gives a census count of 545 residents.
Greeka’s page on Lefkes describes a paved footpath from the Byzantine period that leads to the village of Prodromos. One walking-tour listing in the pack shows Paros tours on foot on this path and in the lanes of Prodromos. Greeka says the village of Prodromos is built in the traditional Cycladic style. Wikipedia says it was once called Dragoulas.
Wikipedia groups Prodromos, Marmara and Marpissa under one name: the villages of Kephalos. A steep hill, Kephalos, names the group. Wikipedia suggests they occupy the site of an ancient town. A monastery of Saint Anthony stands on the hilltop, with the ruins of a medieval castle around it. The castle belonged to the Venetian family of the Venieri.
Marpissa was once called Tsipidos. Greeka describes whitewashed cubic houses, churches and windmills, and places the village just above Piso Livadi. Paros tours that stop in the village find two sights in the pack’s list. One is a sculpture museum dedicated to the local artist Nikos Perantinos. The other is a Byzantine art gallery near the village’s central square.
What does Parian marble add to Paros tours?
Parian marble gives Paros tours old quarries to visit and statues to name. Wikipedia calls it a pure white marble with a fine grain, cut on Paros in the classical period. It adds that masterpieces of ancient Greek sculpture were carved from it, including the Venus de Milo. Wikipedia names Pentelic marble as its main rival in antiquity.
Wikipedia says the island is composed of marble, with working and abandoned quarries on it. Parian marble was cut underground by lamplight and named Lychnites, from the Greek word for lamp. Exports started in the sixth century B.C. Wikipedia adds that the state owns the larger share of the white marble left. It serves only to restore ancient sites.
Wikipedia’s article on Parian marble names three main open-pit sites: Agios Minas, Marathi and Chorodaki. Miners also dug shafts, including two in the Agios Minas valley. Greeka says the Marathi quarries worked from the third millennium B.C. until recently. Paros tours that include Marathi show underground corridors and buildings of the nineteenth century, as Greeka lists them.
Wikipedia also lists the Medici Venus among the Parian masterpieces, along with the Winged Victory of Samothrace. The Venus de Milo is over 2 metres tall and was found on the island of Milos. It is now shown in the Louvre. Among the Paros tours in the pack, one walking listing offers a Parian marble tour on the Parian Stone.
The Parian Chronicle, found on Paros, is a Greek chronology inscribed on a marble stele. It covers the years from the sixteenth century B.C. to 299 B.C., Wikipedia says. The poet Archilochus, from Paros, lived about 680 to 645 B.C. Wikipedia says he was the first known Greek author to write nearly all his work about his own feelings.
Which beaches do Paros tours stop at?
One full-day cruise listing says Paros tours stop for swimming at Agios Spyridonas, Faneromeni and Agios Nikolaos. Roads reach sandy beaches from Golden Beach in the east to Santa Maria in the north-east. Greeka gives Paros 120 km of coastline.
On the east coast, close to Drios, Wikipedia puts Golden Beach. Greeka describes soft sand and clear water there and calls it a windsurfing hub. Wikipedia ties windsurfing to the steady, strong wind that blows through the channel between Paros and Naxos. It names Drios as a harbour on the south-east side.
Santa Maria is a long coastline split into two golden sandy beaches. Greeka says it looks across to Naxos. Wikipedia calls Small Santa Maria Beach next door a sheltered bay with shallow water, about 6 km north-east of Naousa. A road from Naoussa reaches it, so road-based Paros tours can stop there.
Kolymbithres lies opposite the bay of Naoussa, Greeka says, and is known for clear water and rock formations. Granite blocks border the shore, and the main beach has rental sunbeds and umbrellas. For Paros tours that start in Naoussa, a bus or a boat from the town reaches it.
Kolymbithres also has a water ski and wakeboard school, Greeka’s beach page says. Monastiri Beach lies in the same bay as a small sandy beach among rocky hills. Greeka names Pounda Bay as a kitesurfing hub. It says the Meltemia winds rank Paros as a top water sports destination.
The Wikipedia list of Paros beaches continues with Agia Irini, Parikia, Naousa Bay, Piso Livadi and Logaras. It names Alyki as a village and beach on the island too. The shore list behind Paros tours is long, and each name is a different stretch of coast. Wikipedia calls Paros a popular tourist destination known for its beaches.
What do Paros tours show on Antiparos?
Paros tours cross to Antiparos, a small Cyclades island across a channel under 2 km wide from Paros. Wikipedia gives Antiparos 1,265 permanent residents and a historical centre inside a Venetian castle. The main settlement sits opposite Pounda on Paros, where the ferry sails from.
From its northern tip to its southern tip Antiparos stretches 11 km. At the widest point it is 4.5 km across. Its highest peak, St. Elias, stands at 308 m in the middle. Wikipedia names white houses, cobbled lanes and yard flowers as what the island is known for. The strait between Antiparos and Paros is called Amfigeio.
Builders raised the castle around the mid fifteenth century, and Wikipedia calls it a typical Venetian fortified settlement. Its houses form one ring around a central mound, and the only entrance sat in the south wing. Wikipedia names Psaralyki, Sifneiko and Agios Spyridon as beaches near the centre.
One full-day cruise listing for Paros tours names the Cave of Antiparos among its stops. The cave sits at the island’s centre. Wikipedia traces its use as a natural refuge back to the Neolithic period. Archilochus is said to have left an inscription there. Lord Byron and King Otto cut their names into it on later visits.
Despotiko is an uninhabited island about 700 m south-west of Antiparos, Wikipedia says. Boats to it start from Antiparos, either from the main village or from Agios Georgios. The southern part holds a large sandy beach. Digs in the north-west part uncovered a sanctuary from the late Archaic period, apparently devoted to Apollo.
Wikipedia says a shuttle ferry runs all day between Pounda and Antiparos. One bus-tour listing counts a 10-minute ferry from Pounda, then free time on Antiparos. Another listing runs a boat tour to Antiparos, the Blue Lagoon and Despotiko, leaving Piso Livadi port. The same page notes that Paros tours by boat always depend on the weather.
How do Paros tours combine Naxos, Mykonos and Santorini?
Paros tours join the neighbour islands because Wikipedia calls Parikia harbour a major hub for Aegean island ferries. It lists Naxos, Ios, Mykonos and Santorini as examples of the islands that the harbour links. All four sit in the Cyclades, the chain that holds Paros.
Paros tours can add Naxos, the close neighbour. Wikipedia gives the distance from Paros to Naxos as 8 kilometres, with a narrow channel between them. Wikipedia adds that no island in the group is larger than Naxos. Our page on Naxos covers that island.
Wikipedia names Tinos, Syros, Paros and Naxos as the neighbours of Mykonos. Mykonos is nicknamed Island of the Winds, and the article ties that to its strong winds. It puts Delos only 2 kilometres away. Delos covers just 3.43 square kilometres, yet the island appears on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Read about Mykonos on its own page.
Of the Cyclades, Santorini lies furthest south, says Wikipedia. It stands about 200 kilometres south-east of the mainland. About 3,600 years ago an eruption left a large water-filled caldera there. A plan that pairs Paros tours with Santorini therefore adds a volcanic island. The Santorini page goes further into it.
Halfway between Naxos and Santorini lies Ios, according to Wikipedia, and it covers 109 square kilometres. The article adds that steep stairways leave Chora, the main village, largely inaccessible to cars. Our Ios tours page covers the island between them.
The Cyclades hold about 220 islands, according to Wikipedia. The name points to Delos: the other islands circle that sacred island. Only Milos and Santorini have a volcanic origin. Wikipedia calls the rest peaks of a sunken mountain terrain.
Greeka says ferries reach Paros from Mykonos, Santorini, Naxos and other Cycladic islands. It also calls Paros a base for island hopping, because Mykonos, Santorini and Naxos lie close by.
Where do travellers stay between Paros tours?
Between Paros tours, travellers can stay in Parikia, Naoussa or near Golden Beach. Greeka names all three among the popular areas to look for accommodation. Parikia is where the capital and the main harbour of Paros sit.
Wikipedia gives Parikia 4,500 permanent inhabitants and lists it among the busiest spots on the island. Cafés and restaurants line the waterfront, and the town is known for its nightlife. A port base puts the harbour and the town in one place for travellers back from Paros tours.
After Parikia, Greeka ranks Naoussa as the next largest settlement on the island, with fish restaurants, lounge bars and cafés. Wikipedia names the two towns together as the busiest tourist resorts of the island. It says Naoussa is seeing great tourist development.
Greeka says the nightlife of the island beats in these two towns. For visitors who dislike busy places, it names Lefkes and Marpissa as tranquil traditional villages.
Greeka describes Drios as a seafront village with a relaxed atmosphere. It lists Golden Beach nearby as well organised, with sunbeds and sun umbrellas. Travellers who plan beach days between Paros tours can weigh that base against the two port towns.
Wikipedia counts Piso Livadi among the beaches of the island. Greeka’s accommodation page lists it among the places with beachfront facilities. Greeka says the majority of places to stay are central or on the seafront. Others sit in small villages or in the countryside.
Greeka says the tourist infrastructure of Paros is well developed. It lists hotels, apartments, family-run studios and villas with private pools among the options, built in Cycladic style. Our hotels on Paros page holds the listings for the nights between Paros tours.
What else do travellers ask about Paros tours?
What is the weather like on Paros tours in summer?
Greeka calls August the hottest month on Paros. It adds that heat is a daily fact in June, July and September too. On the warmest August days the temperature can reach 35 degrees Celsius, Greeka says.
The sea matters when Paros tours add a swim stop. Greeka puts the average sea temperature in August at 24 degrees Celsius. Its rainfall table lists no rainy days in July or August.
How strong is the meltemi wind on Paros?
Wikipedia calls the meltemi a dry wind out of the north. The word etesian, another name for it, goes back to the Greek word for year. The windy season starts in late spring and finishes by the middle of September. Greeka says Paros gets the winds especially from late July to the middle of August.
Afternoons bring the strongest blasts, Wikipedia says, and nights can be calmer. On a strong day it puts the wind at Beaufort force 7 to 8. The same article says the winds temper the summer heat of the region.
Wikipedia’s page on Greek climate says very windy days hit the Cyclades in particular. To plan around the wind, ask us about a trip to Paros.
How high does the island rise, and what past does its name carry?
Paros tours cross an island formed by a single mountain, 724 metres high, according to Wikipedia. The island has a round, plump-pear shape. From the summit the land falls away at an even slope to a plain by the sea.
Wikipedia gives old names of the island, among them Plateia, Demetrias and Strongyle, which means round. It calls the story that Paros of Parrhasia settled the island an invented explanation of the name. Under the Delian League, Wikipedia says, Paros paid the highest tribute of all the island members.
Which other sights can travellers add to Paros tours?
Greeka lists a Valley of Butterflies near the Monastery of Jesus of the Woods. In hot months, it says, butterflies visit the area to reproduce. Greeka adds that only two places in Greece hold such a natural reserve: Paros and Rhodes.
One local listing for Paros tours describes a half-day donkey ride with a visit to the butterfly park. Greeka also names the Monastery of Logovarda, the largest on the island, with a library of rare manuscripts.
The ancient cemetery of Paros lies close to the port of Parikia. Greeka calls it a major ancient cemetery of the Aegean. It says finds suggest use from the eighth century B.C.
What food do travellers find on Paros?
Wikivoyage points to the seafront of Parikia for tavernas. In Naoussa, it recommends the ouzeri for gouna fish and octopus in vinegar.
One cruise listing for Paros tours describes a Parian lunch on board with wine and soft drinks. The same listing adds fresh fruit and snacks through the day.
One walking operator says a wine picnic called Taste of Paros can round off a walk.