Naxos The Ferry Hub of the cyclades
Overview & Reasons to visit
Naxos is the largest and most fertile of the Cyclades. The main town, Chora is a stunningly beautiful town with narrow streets and houses under a Venetian fortress and the remains of a picturesque temple to Apollo on a small promontory. There is a bustling seafront and harbour with lots of bars and restaurants as well as shopping and restaurants in the back streets.
Many of the restaurants feature local menus with locally grown produce from the fertile parts of the island. Naxos also produces it own excellent wine.
There are good accessible beaches along the coast to the South of Naxos Town with water sports for beach orientated stays.If you have your own transport there are plenty of other beaches to the North and on the east coasts.
Inland there are a succession of villages including Filoti and Apirathos which has stunning views over the island and several interesting museums.
There are a number of archaeological sites on the island reflecting its long history
How to reach
There are no direct flights to Naxos from UK but there are flights from Athens with Olympic & Sky Express alternatively Naxos can be easily reached from other islands with direct flight e.g. Mykonos
Ferries:
Fast Ferries & Seajet sail from Rafina to Naxos and Blue Star, Hellenic Seaways & Minoan have services from Piraeus.
Naxos has many connections with other islands in the Cyclades so is an ideal base for reaching other island including the Small Cyclades group of Islands
As is normal the faster ships are usually more expensive than the larger slower vessels
Naxos makes a good base for visiting other islands for example the Small Cyclades islands because of the network of ferry Routes
Travelling Around
Car Hire:There are numerous car and motor bike hire companies in Hora
Trekking: Naxos is ideal for walking and trekking with marked paths but it is a large island so many walks would need to be linked with other forms of travel
Buses:
Buses run from the bus station which is near the ferry terminal, tickets and information are available from the office. There are regular services to Agia Anna beach and several routes to the mountain villages including Filoti & Apiranthos and also to Apollonas in the north of the island but the services are sporadic. Details on KTEL Naxos website via link below but timetables are not easy to work out and also vary with more services in high season.
Sights & Beaches
Hora is the main town on Naxos and has all the main services including the port that you would expect, a number of sights of interest and a plethora of restaurants,bars and plentiful accommodation.
The most photographed of the sights is the ruin of the Temple of Apollo or Portara this is a 5th century B.C. project which was never completed!There is a Venetian castle overlooking the town and harbour which contains the Catholic Cathedral and Ursaline convent, the entrance is usually found by accident via the maze of small streets at the back of the harbour. The Archaeological and Folk museum are in the Castle complex, musical events are also held in the complex.
There are bars and tavernas all along the sea front, perfect for people watching and these have the added benefit of facing the sunset so you can watch the sun slipping behind the island of Paros. Venture into the streets behind the seafront and you will find even more bars & restaurants, more sheltered if the wind is blowing!
Tourist shops are scattered through out the town varying from high fashion to tacky souvenirs.Banks and travel agents are mostly on sea front. Naxos is renowned for the locally produced handicrafts and food items including Kitro Promponas for Kitron products as well as cheeses, wine and much else.
Food and basic shopping is to be found in the area south of the castle but don’t miss visiting Kiriakos Tziblakis on Sokratous Papavasiliou which have everything you need for Greek cooking from herbs & spices to pots & pans and locally manufactured baskets.
Beaches:
The nearest beach is the wide shallow sandy beach of Agios Georgiou which is at the southern end of Naxos Town, there are then a string of beaches further down the west coast including Ag. Prokopis then Ag. Anna and Plaka. Buses run to these beaches regularly in season.There are numerous other beaches all around the island from Kaladou on the southern tip, along the east coast including Panormos up to Apollonas in the north and also on the north east coast. There are limited buses even in season so advice would be to use car or motorbike to access most of these beaches. The road network is not extensive so journeys could be reasonably long.
Villages:
There are villages scattered throughout the island,some accessible by bus others less so, notable are Filoti which is one of the largest with restaurants shops & a market and is the access point for Mount Zas which the highest point of the island, further up the road from Filoti is Apiranthos which is well worth a visit with a good selection of restaurant, stunning views and 4 museums. Agriculture is the main focus of most of the villages some of which specialise in particular crops for example Glinado is renowned for potatoes and in the valleys of Eggares and Sagri citron is produced
History
Naxos has been inhabited from earliest times with evidence of the Cycladic culture in 3rd millennium B.C then Mycenaeans and Ionians
. The marble to be found on the island was used to create a number of kouroi sculptures in the classical period before the Persians ravaged the island. Naxos was part of the Athenian league during the Peloponnesian War. After occupation by the Romans the Byzantine Empire rules the island and during this time many of the islands churches were built.
In 1207 the Venetians under Marco Sanudo took the island and built a number of buildings notably the Kastro. Naxos was taken by the Ottomans in 1537 like many other of the Cycladic islands and remained under their rule until 1829.