Naxos

Introduction

Naxos - Greece

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Naxos is an island in Greece, with 429 square kilometres the biggest of the Cyclades group. It's located right in the centre of the Aegean Sea. Roughly 20,000 people live on the island and it's a popular tourist destination, including some fine beaches and ancient ruines as well. Something for everyone's taste.

Towns

• Naxos town
• Drymalia

Sights and Activities

• Beaches like the ones at Agia Anna, Agios Prokopios, Alikos and Kastraki.
• Ancient ruins like Dimitra's temple at Sangri, and Dionysus' temple below Glinado village.
• Portara gateway.

Weather

Naxos has a mild Mediterranean climate with warm, sunny and dry summes and mild but wetter winters. Summers from June to September average around 25-27 degrees Celsius during the day and still above 20 degrees at night. The influence of the sea means that it never feels oppresively hot and nights are kept nice and warm as well.
Winters from December to February are mostly betweeen 13-15 degrees Celsius during the day and 10-12 degrees at night. Most of the rain falls during these months with heavy rainshowers mainly in December. Summers are almost completely dry.

Getting There

By Plane

Naxos Island Airport is only served by Olympic Airlines to/from Athens. There are no direct flights from other places, so you have to connect here.

By Boat

Naxos has around six ferries a day to Piraeus (five hours), Paros (one hour), Ios (1¼ hours) and Santorini (three hours), as well as four daily with Mykonos (three hours).
There is one daily boat to Tinos (4¼ hours), Syros (three hours), Iraklia (one hour), Schinousa (1¼ hours), Koufonisia (two hours), Amorgos (2½ hours), Donousa (one to four hours, depeding on route) and Ikaria (1½ hours).
There are five ferries weekly to Anafi (seven hours).
There are two boats weekly to Astypalea (5½ hours), Sikinos (3½ hours) and Folegandros (2½ hours).
One ferry goes weekly to Kythnos (seven hours), Kea (8¾ hours), Lavrio (10 hours), Thessaloniki (15 hours), Rhodes (14 hours), Kos (8¼ hours) and Heraklion on Crete (seven hours).

Alltogehter, there are around half a dozen companies who operate on the above routes.
Check the Greek Travel Pages for an impression about companies, schedules and prices, as the choice is very wide. Or check the Greek Ferries website or another one about Ferries between islands in Greece.

Apart from the regular ferries, there are fast boats and catamarans. Note that they are much more expensive, though much faster as well of course. For example to Crete, it saves at least 3 hours.
There are at least two catamarans daily to Paros (45 minutes), Mykonos (1½ hours) and Piraeus (four hours). There are also daily services to Ios (50 minutes), Santorini (1½ hours) and Heraklion on Crete (3¼ hours), and four weekly to Tinos (1½ hours) and Syros (1¼ hours)

Sleep