Our first stop of the island-hopping-tour was Paros, smaller and touristically less frequented than her famous sisters Mykonos and Santorini. A good choice if you like it relaxed and don’t miss a vibrant nightlife. Beautiful towns like Naoussa and Parikia, nice beaches! And many opportunities for lower-priced accomodations.
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| Destination | Paros, Greece |
| How and when I got there | Eurowings; return flight from Cologne/Bonn; September 2018 |
| Where I stayed | Petalides Apartments (managed by the campground “Krios Beach”close by, no breakfast available), ttps://www.tripadvisor.de/Hotel_Review-g189432-d7160719-Reviews-Petalides_Apartments-Paros_Cyclades_South_Aegean.html, http://petalides.com/ |
| Restaurants | Restaurant Arodo, near Krios Beach, https://www.tripadvisor.de/Restaurant_Review-g189432-d2218580-Reviews-Arodo-Paros_Cyclades_South_Aegean.html, (no own Website) Taverna Mira, Parikia, on the sea promenade, https://www.tripadvisor.de/Restaurant_Review-g642171-d3299377-Reviews-Taverna_Mira-Parikia_Paros_Cyclades_South_Aegean.html, (no own Website) |
| Things to do | Watch amazing sunsets in Parikia, e.g. with a sundowner at the Bebop Cafe Bar Rent a car, bike, quad or whatever and explore the island, e.g. Naoussa |
| Recommendations in a nutshell | Comparable to Naxos, but a bit smaller in every respect (size, crowd, beaches…) – good place if you prefer it more familial and less busy |
| Recipe | Crispy Feta Fingers (see at the bottom of the post) |
As usual, I planned this trip many months ahead – in this case in January 2018. Island hopping requires a coordination of many different bookings: accommodation, flights and ferries, rental car etc. – and again I don’t know how we did this thirty years ago without the intent.
Arrival by plane and ferry
For our dates the only direct flight options were from Cologne to Santorini by Eurowings and from there by ferry to Paros. And again – see our Tenerife trip in January/February 2018 – a “nice surprise” from Eurowings. A few weeks ahead our flights were rescheduled. Fortunately not to another day, but still from 05:25 to 03:10. A.m, not p.m. – urghh! For us, this meant a sleepless night, as we had to leave home at 0:30. Thanks a lot!
So, we arrived quite early on Santorini and took a taxi to the ferry harbor (costs approx. 35 Euro, but is the best options if there are not enough people to share a ride, as in our case). First thing there was a good breakfast. Despite having booked a “smart tariff” we were not given any free snack or drink on board, I had to pay 3 Euro for a tomato juice – my complaint was answered by an unfriendly “there’s only coffee and tea for free!”.
Greek ferries and punctuality…well it’s almost as bad as the German Railway. So, in general they are a bit late. Ours on that day was approx. 75 Minutes late, which gave us an entire morning to watch the (permanent) chaos at the harbor: small boats, bringing tourists from the cruise ships; lots of busses to pick them up and ship them to the towns above; tourists waiting for or boarding from ferries; cars, minibuses, lorries…
Finally, the Seajet Ferry arrived, we were chased on board and we enjoyed a 3,5 hour trip from Santorini via Ios, Naxos and Mykonos to Paros. And could the first sunburn. At Parikia harbor we were picked up by a driver from the Krios Beach Camping, and brought to our vacation home, that he called “paradise”. And in fact, the location of…
Petalides Apartments
…is spectacular. It’s a small building (four small rooms on the first floor), nestled between rocks and the Arodo Restaurant, with the sea at its feet.
Our rooms on the first floor were basic but clean (well, for 30 Euro per night completely OK), and the view from the balcony was just gorgeous. There’s no breakfast available, and if you don’t want to wait for the Adorno opening at 11 a.m., you have to organize yourself. We just bought essentials at Parikia town and enjoyed our breakfast on the balcony, including the spectacular view:
After breakfast, it was just a few steps downstairs to the nice, small beach club next to the Arodo Restaurant. At that time of the year, there are always sunbeds in the first row. And the water is WARM. So, thumbs up for this place.
When staying at the “Petalides Apartment” you can use the bus transport to and from Parikia by the Campground. This is particularly convenient for returning from Parikia at night, because the footpath which is a nice walk at daytime is completely dark at night. The bus leaves at 10, 11 and 12 p.m. (maybe even more often during high season), and the ride takes only 15 Minutes.
Parikia: relaxed town, great place for a sundowner
Speaking about dinner: despite a large variety of restaurants at Parikia town, our favorite was Adorno, the Restaurant next to the “Petalides Apartments”. Great food, excellent wines, and tables right beside the water.
Moving between beach and room can get a bit boring over the days – so what else? First choice is Parikia, just “around the corner”. It’s a nice little town, with small shops (among them a lot of shoe shops), a medieval tower, typical blue-white Greek churches and beautiful places.
And a large variety of restaurants. We tried several and recommend “To Bountaraki” (see the Picture below), “Franca Scala” and “Taverna Mira”, the last one being our favourite in Parikia.
A real highlight is the sundowner. There are several bars above and on the costal promenade, and the sunsets are fantastic. Here’s just a small selection:
What else to see on the Island?
We decided to rent quads for a day (30 Euro each) and explore the nothern part of Paros: the monastery of St. John, with a nice view to Naoussa on the other side of the bay:
On the way to the monastery we stopped at the famou…
Kolimbithres Beach
…a beautiful beach, but VERY crowded. In fact, virtually every square meter was occupied either by sunbeds or just people and their beach towels. I wouldn’t want to know how it looked like in high season.
Another aim in the North is the beautiful town of…
Naoussa: Small alleys, cute little shops, bars and restaurants, nice places to rest
Our resume: Paros is a typical Cycladic island, smaller and touristically less frequented; a bit calmer than Naxos and way less touristic than Santorini. Still, there’s some night life and many nice places to see.
And here’s my favorite recipe from Paros:
| My Paros Recipe: Crispy Feta Fingers á la Adorno:
Ingredients for a starter (4 persons)
Spread the filo plates with parsley and honey; lay the feta sticks on the filo and wrap the filo plate around the feta stick like a small parcel, use the beaten egg to glue the overlapping dough parts together. Deep-fry the sticks until golden to brown. Roll the hot fried sticks in sesame seeds and serve! |
Related trips:
 Naxos – September 2018 |
 Santorini – September 2018 |
*According to a German Court decision, all texts containing links to commercial pages (e.g. links to Tripadvisor, Airline, hotel or restaurant websites) have to be identified as “commercial” (in German “Anzeige”). As my texts do contain links like that, I therefore identify each post and page containing a link as “Anzeige”. However (and referring to the “About Me” page) I would like to point out that I do NOT post any sponsored content in my texts; I pay for all my trips myself.
