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Paros at a Glance

Paros is a very popular island with many nice beaches. It has a large Cycladic capital/port, with characteristic labyrinthine streets, the lovely old walls of its Venetian castle, the stunning Byzantine church of Panaghia Ekatondapiliani (Virgin of One Hundred Gates), and a vibrant nightlife, with many bars, cafes and tavernas.

The inland valley of the Butterflies (Petaloudhes), where beautiful Jersey moths breed is a major tourist attraction; there are several monasteries and a nunnery to visit. The island landscape is gentle and rolling, with nice walking paths and some fine villages, the picturesque second port of Naoussa, which has a big summer Wine Festival, and many good beaches, some of which are famed surfing destinations.

Paros has an airport but is also easy to reach by ferry boats. Paros is one of the ’hubs’ of the ’central Cyclades chain’. The Cyclades as a whole consist of 25 or so inhabited and un-inhabited islands which are segregated in to ’route groupings’ by the several ferry boat companies which in summer serve them.

’Cyclades’ itself means ’cycle’. Presumably named thus in ancient times because mariners could sail or row between them in one day or less, successively in a cyclical fashion and were hardly ever out of sight of land or a sandy beach to pull up on to.

Today the Cycladic islands chain of which Paros is a part are the most popular of the Greek island chains.

The Greek islands themselves are divvied into geographical groupings and the Cyclades chain further sub-divided into: eastern Cyclades, western, northern and central groupings.

Each of several Greek ferry boat companies specializes in its routes, prices and the speed, or lack of it, of its boats. If short on time it behooves one to pay the almost double price to go via a high speed carrier. Paros is about 5 hrs by slow ferry from Piraeus and the slow boats can often be a lot more friendly and fun offering good opportunities to make friends early!