Community Highlights Europe Greece - 2025 - Athens, Naxos and Astypalia

Greece - 2025 - Athens, Naxos and Astypalia

Published 7 May 2025 · Greece · Comments

We wake up early, and walk to the bus station, catch a bus to the airport, 5 euros, and catch our EasyJet flight to Athens from Naples, 80 minutes, 71 euros each. We arrive in Athens, catch the Metro and check in at the Cosmos Hotel (35 euros), basic but well located. We then go for a lovely lunch at the PS Restaurant, highly recommended if you are ever in this hood, then it’s time to catch up on our sleep. We’ve been to Athens many times before, this time is just a pit stop on our way to the islands. So we wake up at 4 in the morning, catch the Metro back to the airport and then our Olympic Air (52 euros each) 25 minute flight on a propeller plane to the island of Naxos. It feels a lot like home, we haven’t been here for 2 and a half years now but it’s our 6th time here and we believe that altogether we have lived on this island for over a year, always staying at Alsos Studios. Can’t tell you the price we pay for it but its the same as in 2010, our first time here. We know the family very well and have watched their 3 kids grow up over the years, they’re grandparents now. Studios are kitchenettes, usually with a well equipped kitchen, giving the guests the option to self cater, which can make the holidays more affordable, mostly for families and longer term travellers. We hit the supermarket for some supplies and quickly reacquaint ourselves with this island we love so much and know so well. We revisit all the places that made us fall in love with this island amongst all the others, the castle, the port, the waterfront, the whitewashed churches with their iconic blue rooftops and the lovely beaches. We visit our friends and get a nice bear hug from Angela, go back to Maros, one of our favorite restaurants in the world and catch up with a few old friends, it’s just so great to be back. We easily fall into the same routine, a run in the morning then a long walk along the incredibly azure beaches, rest, go for a sunset walk to the castle, the port and the old town followed by dinner, of course at Maros.

Naxos is always even more beautiful and pleasant than we remember it on our previous visit. We are supposed to stay for 7 days but as soon as we arrive we change it to 10 days, which is the maximum we have to play with at the moment. It’s our first Easter here and we go to Maros on Good Friday just to have our dinner comped. Why, we asked?, cos it’s Easter, says our friend Katarina with her gorgeous winning smile.

We are invited to a very traditional Easter family lunch, just 5 minutes before the event so we don’t have time to organise anything to take with us. They pick us up and take us to this amazing whitewashed house up on the mountains with the most incredible views of the island. There are the 2 of us, their very extended family and a few other guests and Greek music is blaring from the speakers and there’s a whole lamb, Kontosouvli and Kokoretsi being cooked on the spit. There’s bread, fresh salads, homemade wine and raki (a very strong homemade spirit), followed by an incredible assortment of desserts. Did I mention Greek music? Of course there’s a lot of traditional dancing and we might have even joined in at some stage, as I said, there’s a lot of homemade wine involved... We feel so privileged for being invited to this family Easter celebration and the memory of this day will be with us forever as no words can describe it. I know Greece has many islands and it’s recommended that, as a traveller, you find your own favourite, but we feel so welcome on this island, so connected, that the magical moments keep coming, Naxos keeps on giving.

During a morning walk around the Kastro (the Venetian castle, built in 1207) the next day I said to a man who I think is just hanging around, “beautiful views”, and he says to us, “do you want to see the best views? Come with me”. It turns out that he’s, very proudly, renovating an ancient ecclesiastical residence previously owned by the Archbishop of Naxos and turning it into an incredibly gorgeous hotel, he shows us around and takes us to where the terrace is going to be, and we see the most beautiful views of the island, another incredible experience with local residents. Another perfect evening at Maros, catching up with old and new friends, lots of laughs, fabulous food and of course, copious amounts of wine. So, our 10 days on Naxos are coming to a close, there’s a bit of excitement for what is coming up next on this trip but also a very nostalgic feeling is kicking in on our last day. We say goodbye to our friends, have our last meal at Maros, chill for a few hours then walk to the port to catch our 1am Blue Star ferry to Astypalia, a 4.5 hour trip (18 euros).

Here's a link if you would like to learn more about the Naxos Castle https://www.greeka.com/cyclades/naxos/sightseeing/castle-chora-naxos/

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We arrive on Astypalia, our 22nd Greek island, at around 6am and there’s the most beautiful moon in the sky, what a nice welcome. We climb around 1,000 steps, or at least it feels like it, up to Gyroulis Studio (30 euros), our home for the next 4 days and they very nicely let us check in at 6am instead of 12pm. The studio is nice and has the most incredible views of both the castle and the bay, the mother of the owner is also very friendly and gives us fresh eggs for breakfast, lovely. We try to recover from a lost night of sleep, go for some breakfast and have the weirdest pastry stuffed with something like chicken balls, I guess we’ll never know… We go for some supplies at the local supermarket, then go for some lovely rose wine at a local bar while waiting for the Ouzeri O Kouklas place to open. We have another great half litre of Rosé then a couple of pork gyros, unbelievably our first ones on this trip, crazy, I know. This island has been calling me for a long time and suddenly we’re wondering if one can fall in love with a place in less than 60 minutes, the answer is a resounding YES. This island is gorgeous, chilled, affordable, has great food, slow-paced, has very friendly people and of course there is the amazing white and blue Cycladic architecture everywhere, just stunning... however I have to say it’s not recommended in any way, shape or form for people with mobility issues or dragging wheeled suitcases, there are abundant white steps everywhere and they’re not easy to navigate or very friendly at all, I’m not joking, and we’re quite fit.

Next morning we walk up all the way to the castle and the 2 churches in its walls just to return to our studio with over 160 photos, yes, it’s that beautiful. Then we go back to Ouzeri O Kouklas. As I’ve said before, some people think we’re boring, we just think of it as food loyalty, if we find our favourite place to eat, we’ll keep going back for more and we usually only like a town once we find our favourite place to eat... We have some pork chops and a kebab platter with half a litre of wine for 20 euros, delicious. Another lovely, sunny day and we go for a little 11k hike to see Livadi & Stenaki beaches, with some stunning villages and bays along the way. Then back to our favourite haunt for lunch. Just below the castle is the Chora, the main town, where you have the most breathtaking views (did I mention the steps?) of the castle and the red topped windmills, gorgeous from all angles. It’s funny to hear Paul saying to me he hasn’t seen me enjoying a new place so much in a long time, yes, that’s what Astypalia does to you, and just by talking to some locals, we get the feeling that it hasn’t yet been ravaged by overtourism, we hope it stays this way. It’s our last day here and we go for another hike to the other side of this butterfly shaped island, towards Steno, not as set up for tourists, no restaurants or bars but lovely villages and bays and fantastic views from the port, the Chora and the Castle, totally worth the walk. Then back for another perfect kebab platter & rosé lunch. It’s now time to say ciao to the magic island of Astypalia after 4 fantastic days, so we catch a taxi (10 euros) to the smallest airport ever and after another 35 minute propeller plane flight with Olympic Air, we arrive back in Athens, till the next chapter.

Here’s a link if you would like to learn more about the Astypalia Castle
https://www.greeka.com/dodecanese/astypalea/sightseeing/venetian-castle/

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