Onto the third country of our 2-week Europe trip! After a brief stop in Italy and a few nights in Malta, it was time to head to our final destination – the island of Naxos in the Greek Cyclades.
We’ll be jumping right in here with Day 8, so if you haven’t already, go check out my previous posts to follow our trip from the beginning!
Day 8: Travelling to Naxos
In my last blog post, we left the story in Valletta, Malta where Sam and I were about to head to the airport for our night flight over to Athens. All went smoothly from that point onwards, and we landed as scheduled around 2am local time.
But there’s one major problem with Athens airport.
It has one airport hotel, which just so happens to be a Sofitel at an eye-watering price of £200-300 per night. There was absolutely no way I was going to pay that for a few hours of kip, and even if I wanted to we could never have afforded it. So, as we entered the main airport arrivals hall we were searching for a quiet space to sleep – ideally a bench, but the floor would do.
What we didn’t anticipate was that there would be hundreds of other people doing exactly the same thing! After scouring every possible seating area for a space and discovering that all of them were taken, we resigned ourselves to the floor. Finding a space out of the way proved to be trickier than expected and all the best floor spots were also taken, but eventually we succeeded. I even managed around an hour of sleep, which I was very impressed with as usually I can only sleep in a bed.
Hilariously there are signs in the airport saying that sleeping on the floor or benches is banned. Clearly this must never be enforced because so many people were doing it – just build a budget hotel if you don’t want people sleeping in the airport!
Shortly after dawn we headed out to find the pickup point for the minibus which was to take us to the port of Rafina. Athens has two ferry ports, the larger and more well-known Piraeus port and then Rafina, which is closer to the airport but much smaller. This bus was an experience to say the least! It was pretty old, and with almost no suspension we bounced over every bump in the road. But it was a cheap and cheerful way to get us where we needed to be, and offered us some nice views of mainland Greece.
Our ferry to Naxos was due to leave at 8.05am, but I wanted to grab some food first as all we’d eaten so far was half a sandwich each (airport food prices…) Unfortunately with it being a Sunday morning, nothing was open so we had no option other than to get on board and brave the extortionate prices of the ferry shop.
Supposedly this was a “fast ferry” but it still took about 5 and a half hours to reach Naxos. We passed the time roaming the outdoor spaces on the ship, playing musical chairs on deck to avoid breathing in constant streams of cigarette smoke, and working out how much we were willing to spend on food to keep us going until we docked.
Most of this journey I was tired and a bit hungry and therefore not in a great mood to be honest! But I still enjoyed standing out in the breeze and watching the picture-postcards islands drift by as we chugged towards our destination.
Finally we made it to Naxos! We docked into the island capital, Chora, which was everything you’d expect a Greek island town to be. With its shiny white-and-blue buildings and old-town cobbled streets, I was immediately charmed and very excited for the week ahead.
We grabbed food and suncream (at painfully high prices…) and then headed to the bus station to find out how to get to our hotel in Agios Prokopios, a small and family-friendly resort town about 5km away from Chora. Life on the Greek islands is slower and hasn’t quite been modernised in the same way as other places I’ve visited, and the buses are no exception. Here, instead of a standard urban transit system, they use coaches as their bus network, and old-school paper tickets instead of an app or online booking tool.
There’s a certain charm in doing things the less modern way, and I certainly enjoyed the novelty of the little shiny paper tickets (even if they were a little awkward to get hold of!) We hopped onto the next coach heading down the coast, and soon found our way to our hotel just outside of Agios Prokopios.
On reaching our room, Sam decided to take a quick nap to refresh after the long journey and minimum sleep. I don’t do naps, so spent my time chilling out and researching good places to visit in Naxos.
We then decided it might be a nice idea to walk back over to Chora for our evening meal – both to save money and to experience the island more fully, which can often be missed when travelling by vehicle. Our route took us through tiny dusty backroads, winding our way around the coastline before rejoining the main road on the approach to Chora.
Though late in the afternoon, it was still pretty warm and we were ready for some refreshments by the time we got to Chora!
One of the things I instantly fell in love with here was the al fresco dining. In Chora alone there’s an almost overwhelming selection of seafront restaurants to choose from, and we spent some time wandering up and down the street comparing options and trying to decide where to eat. In the end it came down to two things: what can we afford, and which place has a lot of customers? My rule of thumb is to choose somewhere where lots of other people are eating, and it’s served me well so far.
With this in mind we settled on a restaurant close to the port, which offered a 2-person meal deal of sorts. For just over 20 EUR we got local dorado fish, fries and salad and a small glass of wine each. We also ordered some local homemade pomegranate juice to try which was delicious! Unfortunately I managed to spill most of mine all over the table… but luckily the waiter was kind and patient and sorted us out swiftly with a new table covering.
The hospitality we received here in Greece was world-class, and we were delighted when the waiter brought us a small slice of cake each after paying the bill. On our tight budget, the kind gestures and freebies we received here were very welcome!
As evening drew in we sat on a low wall by the sea and watched the sun set behind the Portara (Temple of Apollo). One of Naxos’ most famous landmarks, the Portara is a huge marble gate on the islet of Palatia, connected to mainland Naxos by a strip of rocks. It is the sole surviving part of an unfinished Temple of Apollo dating from 530 BC, and is famously beautiful at sunset. Of course, this means it gets swarmed by tourists in the evening, so we opted to stay on the mainland and observe from a distance in relative peace and quiet.
And the view certainly did not disappoint:
We then wandered round the old town streets for a little while, waiting for the tourists to disperse from the Portara so we could head closer for a better look. And as it turned out, night is also a great time to marvel at this ancient feat of design and engineering:
From here we caught the next coach back to Agios Prokopios and headed to bed after a very long day, tired but excited for the days ahead.
Day 9: Relaxing beach day at Plaka
As much as I want to be on the go all the time when travelling, sometimes you just need a good night’s sleep and a bit of a lie-in. We took the opportunity to catch up on sleep after yesterday’s pretty much sleepless schedule and awoke around 9am.
Our hotel happened to offer a complimentary breakfast which of course we took full advantage of! It was a simple but tasty continental buffet style, with cereal, fruits, cheeses, pastries and Greek yoghurt. We took our plates outdoors to sit on the terrace, looking out over Agios Prokopios as far as the sea.
The first plan for the day was to find a bigger (and hopefully cheaper) supermarket to get some provisions, as the mini-market prices in the local area were threatening to bankrupt us. We were lucky enough to have a fridge in our room, so we would be able to store sandwich supplies and make our own lunch each day. This is something we often do when travelling and it saves us a lot!
The only larger supermarkets were in Chora, so after breakfast we caught a bus there and stocked up on the basics that we needed. It was still much more expensive than we thought Greece would be, but I was realising that Greek mainland prices and Greek island prices are not the same… I was glad we hadn’t gone to the famous islands of Mykonos or Santorini where we probably wouldn’t have been able to afford anything at all!
Our plan for the afternoon was to have a relaxing beach day at Plaka – a long sweeping curve of sandy beach south of Agios Prokopios. With its large size and being located further down the bus route, we were hoping to find a quiet spot away from the crowds. We went by foot, and the beachside route proved to be a very enjoyable walk in the sunshine.
Since we had no beach umbrella and didn’t fancy being burned to a crisp, we decided to hire a beach umbrella and sunbeds somewhere along the beach. Some of these had crazy prices though! We didn’t have much cash with us and would rather buy ice cream than an expensive place to sit, so we wandered down the beach hoping that the prices would drop with the distance.
We eventually stumbled across a small section of basic sunbeds and umbrellas, with no price sign present and no attendant to ask. Sam got talking to a couple nearby, who told us that it cost 5 EUR and that the attendant comes round towards the end of the afternoon to collect the money. This must have been the only sunbed section on the entire beach that cost less than 10 EUR so we were more than happy to pay this.
We were even more happy when no attendant showed up that day and we managed to get ourselves a freebie!
Our afternoon was spent very happily sunbathing, reading and splashing in the turquoise sea. We were also delighted to find that there were no jellyfish anywhere! After our experiences in Malta we were relieved to be able to swim freely without having to constantly scan the water around us.
We stayed at Plaka until almost sunset, then packed up and began walking back along the beach. It was a very pleasant walk, watching the sky change into pastel colours and feeling the air drop to the perfect summer evening temperature.
On reaching Agios Prokopios we scoured the options for a budget meal. Having spent a lot on our shopping earlier, we couldn’t really afford a restaurant but still needed something to eat. Luckily two takeaway places came to save us – a savoury pancake for Sam, and a Greek gyros for me (except without the meat of course – so more of a Greek wrap) which were less than 5 euros each, but very tasty and filling.
Day 10: Iraklia
I had been doing some reading about the Cyclades and discovered the “Small Cyclades” – as the name suggests, a cluster of small, mostly uninhabited islands located not too far away from Naxos. Generally considered to be somewhat of a hidden gem, they are a world away from the over-touristed Mykonos and Santorini, and I was immediately drawn to the idea of a more natural, laid-back and secluded beach day on one of these islands.
Due to their size and the lack of tourist traffic, the Small Cyclades are somewhat difficult to get to, with ferry services operating only a couple of times a week. It seemed that the best option for a day trip would be to head for Iraklia, the nearest, since the ferry would arrive after midday as it was. There was a returning service the same day at around 9pm, which left a nice chunk of time of around 8 hours to spend on Iraklia.
In the morning we had a leisurely start, following our breakfast with some time spent reading in the hammock chairs at the hotel pool. I’m obsessed with these hammock chairs and if I could’ve brought one home with me I would have!
We caught a coach into Chora and arrived with just enough time to top up on water before our ferry arrived, and then we were off!
The journey was smooth, and as usual we spent our time up on deck. From here we got a good view of Naxos as we travelled along its coastline before pulling away and heading for Iraklia. The whole journey only took around an hour.
After docking we were greeted by a smattering of locals meeting guests or advertising their hotels or restaurants, but they quickly melted away. We sat on a bench to eat our packed lunch and put suncream on, and were pleasantly surprised to find a local cat sitting under it. Stray cats are everywhere in the Greek islands and at first I was worried about their welfare, but most of the time they’re decently fed and cared for by locals or animal charities.
We decided to head for one of the local beaches, Livadi bay. There didn’t seem to be any sort of bus running so we just walked instead, and it was a very scenic and peaceful walk regardless. With so few inhabitants and comparatively few tourists, cars were almost non-existent and we had the road to ourselves the whole way.
Livadi was wonderfully quiet. There were probably only around 10-12 other people on the entire beach whilst we were there, and everyone kept to themselves and found their own spot of sand. As with other beaches in Greece, the far end was a nudist section (something we were not aware of until we got closer!) but it didn’t bother me at all.
Being north-facing, the beach was pretty breezy with the Meltemi wind, but not enough to roughen up the sea. Breezy enough though, for us to decide against putting up the cheap beach umbrella we had bought that morning! Instead we found a spot under some scrubby trees which provided a bit of shade.
We spent a good few hours here playing in the sea, then sunbathing to warm up, rinse and repeat. After the busyness of Naxos it felt like a real retreat, like a glimpse into local life and the Greece of years past before tourism took over.
As nice as Livadi was, we wanted to see more of the island than just one bay. So after a few hours, we headed off to Panagia, the largest settlement on the island after the port village Agios Georgios.
On the island map it didn’t look too far, but although we were in the “Small” Cyclades we realised we had massively underestimated the size of Iraklia! From memory it took us about an hour to walk from Livadi to Panagia, and we were quite exposed in the sun with no viable shade on the route. Panagia was pretty though, and there was literally nobody else around aside from the odd local here and there.
This really felt like the Greek Islands that most tourists never see. We were right in the heart of Iraklia, and it was a privilege to be able to get a glimpse into local life – not as glossy as the resorts, but charming in its own way.
From Panagia we began our way back along the quiet roads to Agios Georgios. Although Panagia is the island capital (or Chora), Agios Georgios is more of the social hub. The ferry docks there, most of the accommodation is there, and most of the tavernas and restaurants are also there!
There wasn’t a huge amount of choice for food, so we decided to keep it traditional and head for a local taverna for some freshly-caught seafood. Just around the bay from the harbour we spotted signs for a taverna called Syrma, promising all kinds of dishes. It was very quiet, but we were cheerfully greeted by the waitress (here from Athens to work for the summer season) and secured ourselves a table in the prime spot overlooking the bay.
We were limited again a little by budget, but managed to stretch it enough for me to try stingray fish! I had no idea what to expect, but always like trying new foods where I can.
It came served cold – I think this was intentional? – with onion and lemon, and surprisingly it was very tender and not at all chewy. Sam ordered fried mini squid, and we also got a small glass of wine each.
Whilst sat in the taverna we were periodically surrounded by a group of stray cats, who fought with each other but were pretty chilled around us. Signs informed us that the cats were in fact well-fed, as the taverna owner looks after them, and takes food to them each day. It was a bit like a cat café, but better!
We sat here until sunset, and after we paid the owner/chef himself came out to bring us a shot each of a clear spirit. He told us in limited English that it was a gift for us to try, and we were very grateful! So far in my travels, Greece has really taken top spot when it comes to restaurant hospitality.
We didn’t quite catch the name of the spirit, but we knew it began with a “t” and with a bit of research it was probably Tsipouro or Tsikoudia. Both hail originally from Crete and are often served after a meal. It had a fresh and herbal taste, and was a great way to end our meal.
We watched the sun set from our little corner, then headed down to the local shop for some ice cream. It wasn’t long before our ferry approached in the twilight, and we said goodbye to Iraklia, bound again for Naxos.
Day 11: Halki and Agios Prokopios
When you think of the Greek Islands, you think of beaches. And sure, the beaches on Naxos are superb! But I thought it would be a shame to miss out on seeing some of the rural inland villages in Naxos too.
With the limited inland bus schedule, we wouldn’t be able to see more than one or two of the villages unless we went on a specific tourist bus tour. I wasn’t keen on this option as I like to see places at my own pace and try to avoid being in a crowd of tourists wherever possible. It was definitely better to see fewer places but on my own schedule in my opinion!
We did a bit of research into our options and the best idea seemed to be a trip to Halki. Halki is a charming hilltop village in the centre of the island, located around 16km from Chora, and it also happens to be home to the oldest Kitron distillery on Naxos (now functioning as a museum).
Kitron is the island liqueur – and with a Protected Designation of Origin, it is still produced solely on the island. We were keen to learn more about it, and more importantly to taste it!
Our coach journey from Chora took us up some winding hillside roads, dropping us off at the entrance to the village after about half an hour. We piled out with all the other tourists and headed up into the village centre to explore.
The sudden influx of tourists somewhat crowded out the centre, so I suggested that we head off on a walk first and return to explore the village later when other people had dispersed into the restaurants and cafes. After a brief bit of wandering we soon found a trail leading out of the village to an 11th-century Byzantine church. That sounded interesting enough so we set off, with the sound of crickets filling our ears and lizards scurrying across in front of us.
The route wound its way through olive groves and – to our delight – led past a field of goats with bells! They were friendly and active despite the heat, and we watched as a couple of them went up onto hind legs to reach the juicy green leaves of the trees above. Goat’s cheese is popular in Greece, and in Naxos alone there are several different varieties of cheese that use goat milk. So it was nice to have a connection between the food and the animal it comes from.
After about 10 minutes or so we reached the Byzantine church, the church of Saint George Diasoritis. I know nothing about Byzantine churches but I’d never seen another church like it and it seemed to be well preserved for an 11th century build. I actually think it looks more like a mini castle than a church, except for the cross on top.
Since this walk had taken so little time, we decided to go further and extend the route. We doubled back on ourselves to a junction of paths that we had spotted earlier, this time taking the opposite direction to that which we had come from.
We weren’t entirely sure where we would end up, but the way was very pretty, with views out to other hilltop villages and some huge bushes studded with pink flowers:
The route took us to another old church building which looked similar in construction style to the first one. Although we were only half an hour or so out of Halki, few tourists had ventured this far and aside from a group of three girls, we had the place to ourselves.
From here we decided that we should head back and visit the Vallindras Kitron Distillery whilst we still had time. The return buses were only running around every couple of hours and we didn’t want to get stuck here with hours to wait, so planned to catch the next one back.
The Vallindras Kitron Distillery is located in the centre of the village and is the main tourist attraction. It was established in 1896 and the site now operates as a museum, though Kitron production continues today.
The distillery is free to enter and we first headed for the museum section towards the back. They have a good collection of old machinery, tools and bottles which were used to make the Kitron in the past. Alongside this there are also information boards to learn more about the history and production of this local liqueur.
Kitron is made from the fruit and leaves of the citron tree, which is somewhere in between a lime and a lemon. It comes in three varieties, which are coloured to distinguish them from each other. Green is the sweetest and has the lowest alcohol content, whilst yellow is the strongest and has the least sugar. The clear colourless variant is somewhere in between the two.
At the Vallindras distillery they offer a Kitron tasting, where you can learn a little more about its flavour and have the option to choose one of the variants to try (ideally I would have tried all 3 to be able to decide my favourite, but I can’t complain when it’s free!). Sam and I tried the clear and green variety between us, and decided that the clear one was our favourite of the two.
In the adjoining shop we were able to buy a tiny bottle of clear Kitron each to take back home with us. It’s very difficult to take any liquid souvenirs back due to hand luggage liquid restrictions but these tiny samples were perfect.
Halki also seemed to be a bit of a textile centre. As we wandered down one street, we came across an older woman sat weaving outside her shop. It was interesting to watch these traditional crafts, and I bought a small woven keyring as a souvenir and in support of the local business and community.
Unfortunately it appears that I forgot to take any photos of Halki centre, but rest assured it was charming – with old cobbled streets, small bursts of Bougainvillea flowers and a vibrant village atmosphere.
We caught our planned bus back to Chora and decided to head to the beach for the rest of the afternoon. With our new watermelon-patterned beach umbrella we wouldn’t need to pay for sunbeds, and we always enjoy a beach trip.
This time we headed up the far end of Agios Prokopios beach instead of going all the way to Plaka. By this time of day the crowds had already thinned out somewhat, but the weather was still warm enough for a swim.
We also practised some karate kata on the beach here, much to the puzzlement of the nearby beachgoers! I felt a bit self conscious but was trying to improve my confidence to do “weird” things in public, so went ahead with it anyway.
For the evening meal we went back into Chora, mainly because it had a few more budget-friendly restaurants than Agios Prokopios. We continued our theme of trying local foods, so Sam went for a Greek salad with Naxian cheese, and I opted for a baked aubergine dish. And, as had become a tradition for us here in Greece, a glass of wine each.
The food tasted amazing, we definitely didn’t sacrifice taste for price. After our meal we split an ice-cream between us, wandered around Chora taking photos of cats, and then headed back for the night.
