Paros: what to see, where to stay and how to get around

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Parikia is a port, a maze and a quarry site all at once, and the third one is the key to it. Paros had no trade empire and almost no farmland; what it had was the finest marble in the ancient world, and the town was built, demolished and rebuilt out of its own monuments. You will walk past column drums used as doorsteps and architraves used as lintels, and they are not decoration — they were simply the nearest building material. Two hours, flat, and start early because the lanes have no shade.

A short history of Paros

Paros was famous in the ancient world for its white, translucent marble, from which many statues and temples in Greece were carved. In the 7th century BC the poet Archilochus was born here. According to tradition, Empress Helena founded a church on the island in the 4th century, and in the 6th century Emperor Justinian built the Church of Panagia Ekatontapiliani, one of the oldest churches in Greece still in use. In 1537 the pirate Barbarossa raided the island, and it passed into Ottoman hands. In the early 19th century it became part of independent Greece.

The ten best sights in Paros

1
Parikia
The lanes behind the waterfront are a deliberate maze and the postcard part is the back, not the quay
2
Naoussa
A fishing harbour that became the island’s evening; come at seven, when the boats are in and the tables are not yet full
3
Lefkes
The island’s medieval capital, built inland and out of sight of the sea on purpose; 300 metres up, and cool in August
4
Marpissa
Four windmills on the ridge and a village that still has its Easter procession through the lanes
5
Prodromos
The church courtyards are gated and roofed over the lane — the village was built as one closed shell against raiders
6
Kostos
The smallest of the mountain villages, on the old road, and almost no one stops here
7
Drios
The quiet south-east corner, with the old boat sheds cut into the rock below the village
8
Antiparos
One street, one castle courtyard, and it is a seven-minute boat ride — go for the afternoon, not for the day trip
9
Panagia Ekatontapiliani
The Church of a Hundred Doors: ninety-nine are countable, and the hundredth is said to appear when Constantinople is Greek again
10
Frankish Castle
Built in 1260 out of a demolished classical temple — the column drums are still stacked in the wall

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Tours in Paros →

A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Paros:

Free walking tours in Paros

The town built out of a temple

Parikia Port · Paros sits in the middle of the Cyclades, which is why nearly every ferry route in the island group passes through this quay — you can reach a dozen islands from here without going back to Athens. That geography is also why the island was raided so often: whoever controlled Paros controlled the crossing.
Panagia Ekatontapiliani · The Church of a Hundred Doors is one of the oldest churches still standing in Greece — a fourth-century foundation rebuilt under Justinian in the sixth. Ninety-nine openings can be counted, and the tradition is that the hundredth will be found when Constantinople is Greek again. The sunken cross-shaped baptismal font in the side chapel is one of the best preserved in the Orthodox world, and it was built for adults, because that is who was being baptised.
Archaeological Museum · The museum holds a fragment of the Parian Chronicle: a marble slab on which someone in the third century BC carved a dated timeline of Greek history, year by year, from 1582 BC down to 299 BC — the fall of Troy, the first Olympics, the poets. A larger piece of the same slab was bought in Smyrna in 1627 and sits in Oxford. It is the oldest surviving attempt to put dates on the Greek past.
The Frankish Castle · Built in 1260 by the Venetian lords of the Duchy of the Archipelago, and built the quick way: they pulled down the classical temple on the hill and stacked its pieces into the wall. The column drums are set in horizontal courses like huge bricks, and you can read the fluting on them. One building was destroyed to make another, and both are now the same wall.
Agios Konstantinos · The rock this chapel stands on is the ancient acropolis of Paros — the high point the temple was built on, and the reason the castle was built here and not somewhere easier. It is the one spot in town where you see the whole bay and Antiparos across the strait at the same time.
Livadia · Five minutes on foot from the ferry gangway, which makes this the beach you can use between boats. The long sand here is also the reason the town grew on this side of the headland rather than the sheltered side — the ancient harbour needed the beach to pull ships up on.

The marble, and the capital that hid from the sea

This is the inland half of Paros, and it exists because of two things: a stone and a fear. The stone is lychnites, the translucent white marble that came out of one hillside here and ended up in half the sculpture of the ancient world. The fear is piracy, which is why the island’s capital was built three hundred metres up and out of sight of the water. Three hours with a car between the stops, or a full day on the bus, and the last stretch is downhill on foot.

Marathi Quarries · Parian marble was called lychnites, which means won by lamplight, because it was cut inside tunnels rather than off an open face — and the tunnels here run straight into the hill. The stone is translucent for a few centimetres, which is why sculptors wanted it: the Venus de Milo and the Hermes of Praxiteles are both Parian. A French company reopened the galleries in the nineteenth century, and marble from this hill went into Napoleon’s tomb in Paris.
Longovarda Monastery · Founded in 1638, and still a working monastery with an icon workshop — the monks paint in the Byzantine technique with egg tempera and gold leaf, which is a trade and not a hobby. It is open to men only, in the morning, and that rule is not negotiable; women see it from the gate.
Kostos · The smallest of the mountain villages, and it sits exactly on the old road between the quarry and the capital — the stone went down this way on sledges and mules. Almost nobody stops here now, which means you can see what the other villages looked like before the buses found them.
Lefkes · Lefkes was the capital of Paros through the Middle Ages, and the reason it is here rather than on the coast is pure defence: it is three hundred metres up, folded into the hillside, and invisible from the sea. The lanes are narrow enough to block with one cart and they curve so that no one can see down them. The administration only moved to Parikia in the nineteenth century, once piracy stopped.
Agia Triada · Built in the 1830s entirely of island marble, and deliberately far bigger than a village of this size needs. That was the point: the Ottomans had left, and a church this size on this hill was a statement that could be seen from the valley.
The Byzantine Road · A marble-paved mule road that drops from Lefkes to Prodromos, and for centuries it was the only link between the capital and the island’s east-coast port. The slabs are cut from the same quarry as the sculpture, which is why a service road is paved in material that museums display. An hour downhill; do not attempt it in the other direction in summer.

Naoussa, and the bay that was a navy base

Naoussa looks like the gentlest place on the island, and its bay has been fought over for four hundred years. The Venetians fortified the harbour mouth, the Ottomans took it, and between 1770 and 1774 the Russian fleet wintered here and built a dockyard, calling it Port Auza. Then the whole northern headland became a closed military zone and stayed closed until 2009. Two hours plus swimming, and the harbour is best at seven in the evening.

Naoussa Harbour · The low stone ruin in the mouth of the harbour is a Venetian fort, and it is half sunk — the sea level and the sea bed have shifted, and you can wade out to it in summer. The same bay sheltered the Russian Mediterranean fleet for four winters in the 1770s, when Catherine the Great’s navy used Paros as a base against the Ottomans and built a shipyard on this shore.
Moraitis Winery · Working since 1910, and the island grape is monemvasia — white, and grown on vines trained very low so the wind does not take them. Paros is one of the few places where the appellation allows a white grape and a red grape to be blended together, which is a rule that exists almost nowhere else in wine.
Kolympithres · These are granite boulders, not the island’s marble, and the sea and wind have worn them into bowls and hollows over a very long time. The pools between them hold water that is several degrees warmer than the open bay, which is the reason people swim here rather than on the wide sand next door.
Paros Park · This entire headland was a military area, closed to the public, and it opened as a park only in 2009. That is why it is the one stretch of Paros coast with nothing built on it — forty years of being off-limits did what no planning law managed anywhere else on the island.
Monastiri · A horseshoe bay inside the park with a chapel behind the sand, and the water is flat here almost every day in August. The reason is the headland: the meltemi, the north wind that blows through the Cyclades all summer, hits the rock and goes over the top of this bay instead of into it.
Santa Maria · The widest sand on Paros, and it faces north-east straight into that same wind — which is exactly why the windsurfers are here and the families are at the sheltered end. One bay, two completely different beaches, decided by which way you walk from the car park.

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Getting to Paros and getting around

Paros National Airport · Eight kilometres south of Parikia, and the new terminal opened in 2016; the bus runs with the flights only
Parikia Port · Every ferry docks here and the town starts at the gangway; the fast boat from Athens is about three hours
KTEL Bus Station · Beside the port, and one road circles the island; buses thin out sharply after October
Pounda · The crossing to Antiparos takes seven minutes and the barge takes cars; it runs all year

Cheap eats in Paros

Paros food is island food, which means it is built around what keeps without a fridge and what the boats bring in that morning. Two things are properly local: gouna, mackerel split open and dried in the sun and wind before it goes on the charcoal, and souma, a grape spirit distilled from the pressings after the wine is made. The going rate for a souvlaki anywhere on the island is a few euro; a plate of gouna at a harbour taverna is three or four times that. Nothing on this list is a restaurant with a view.

The souvlaki counter, market lane · A few euro, standing, and open late
The bakery on the market lane · Open from six; the cheese pie is the breakfast
Ragoussis, Naoussa · From early morning; take it to the harbour wall
Yemeni, Naoussa · Small, no view, and the fish is whatever came in
Soso, Naoussa · A few tables in the lane, cash is simpler
The ouzeri, Naoussa lanes · Order one plate at a time, not a meal
The boats at Aliki · Afternoon, straight off the deck, by the kilo
Piso Livadi quay · Gouna is the dish to ask for here

Museums in Paros

Paros has one small museum that happens to hold a document of the first order, and beyond it the island’s history is outdoors — in a quarry, a castle wall and a paved road. Treat the four as one collection.

Archaeological Museum · Closed Tuesdays as a rule in Greece; check at the gate
Marathi Quarries · Free, unguarded, and stay at the mouth of the galleries
The castle wall, Parikia · Open street, and best in the late afternoon light
The Aegean Center · A working art school; exhibitions are open to the public
Paros Library · Quiet, cool, and a reading room when the heat is impossible

Holy places in Paros

There are said to be hundreds of churches and chapels on Paros, most of them one room built by one family, and the island’s big one is older than almost anything else standing in Greece. Modest dress at all of them; shoulders and knees, and that is enforced.

Panagia Ekatontapiliani · Open all day, modest dress, and the baptistry is round the side
Longovarda Monastery · Men only, mornings, and the icon workshop is the reason
Agia Triada, Lefkes · Marble throughout, and twice the size the village needs
Agios Konstantinos · On the ancient acropolis; five minutes up from the castle
Agios Nikolaos, Naoussa · The fishermen’s church, and the name is not a coincidence
Agia Anna · One room, one family, and a thousand like it on the island

Nature and day trips near Paros

Paros is granite and marble with very little soil, which is why the interior looks bare and the walking is good — nothing blocks the view. The one green valley and the one protected headland are both here, and both exist by accident: one because monasteries planted it, the other because the army closed it.

Paros Park · Four marked trails, a small fee, and an open-air cinema in summer
Thapsana · The green middle; tracks between the monasteries, and no shade on the way
The Byzantine Road · An hour from Lefkes down to Prodromos; downhill only in summer
Kolympithres · Granite worn into basins; shoes help on the rock
Farangas · Three coves under a cliff, and the clearest water on the island
Kefalos Hill · Twenty minutes up from Marpissa for the whole east coast
Despotiko · By boat only, and the dig runs in summer

Things to do in Paros with kids

The practical question on Paros with children is wind, not sand: the meltemi blows through the Cyclades all summer and it decides which beach is pleasant and which is a sandblasting. These are the sheltered ones, plus the two things that are an outing rather than a swim.

Monastiri · Flat water almost every day; the headland blocks the wind
Logaras · Shallow a long way out, and tavernas right behind the sand
Santa Maria, sheltered end · Walk left from the car park, not right
Kalogeros · The grey clay on the cliff is the whole activity
Cave of Antiparos · 411 steps down and the same back up; not for toddlers
The Antiparos barge · Seven minutes, runs all year, and takes the car

Nightlife in Paros

The island’s evening is Naoussa, and it has a shape: the harbour tables fill at seven, the lanes behind them at ten, and the beach clubs on the other side of the island take over after midnight. Parikia keeps the older version of a night out — a bar on the waterfront and an open-air cinema.

Naoussa Harbour · Seven in the evening, before the tables are full
Agosta, Naoussa · In the lanes behind the quay, and it starts late
Siparos · On the water on the north coast; booking matters in August
The Pirate, Parikia · A jazz bar in the old lanes, and it has been there for decades
Cine Rex · Open-air cinema; one screening a night, and it starts when it gets dark
Punda Beach · The beach club side of the island; music from midday

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Frequently asked questions about Paros

What is there to see in Paros?

The top sights in Paros are Parikia, Naoussa and Lefkes. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.

How many days do you need in Paros?

Three to four days are enough to see the best of Paros without rushing, including at least one walking tour.

Is there a free walking tour in Paros?

Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Paros, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The town built out of a temple.

How do you get to Paros and get around?

The main ways are Paros National Airport, Parikia Port and KTEL Bus Station. Full details are in the transport section on this page.

Where to stay in Paros, and for how much?

sleepntrip shows only rooms in Paros that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.

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