Greece, Mykonos and Paros

A year ago, my boyfriend and I decided to visit Greece for a holiday. We were not clear on what parts of the country to go to, as we had seen these amazing videos on Facebook, showing these incredible views, and houses. Turns out most of those videos are based in Santorini, and as we looked for accommodation and flights to go there we realised it was completely out of our budget. The way to get to Santorini as wellwas by ferry, and forus it would take too long to get there, as we only had six days of holidays.

We decided to go to Mykonos first and then we would go to one of the small islands around it. We live in Belfast, Northern Ireland, so we had to take a flight from there to London, and then from London to Mykonos.

We didn’t want to be in Greece when most tourists travel, so we were advised to go in September, whenever the summer season is coming to an end. We were warned about the high temperatures during July and August, so September seemed perfect as the normal temperature was 24 degrees. The truth is that yes, it was quieter than it would have been in mid-summer, beaches mainly occupied by older and retired people, which meant most of the party scenes were quiet and empty. This was a little bit weird to see, as you hear so much about the parties in Greece, but we did not complain as we got what we were looking for, a quiet time away from the crowd.

Day 1

We arrived at Mykonos quite late and tired, the hotel we stayed in had shuttle bus which was very handy as we had not rented a car, and the buses timetables are not too regular.

We booked a hotel next to Platys Gialos Beach, we are not really the party type of people, so we were looking for a calmer beach and we knew this one was a little bit further south and quite difficult to access by public transport, this is why the shuttle from the hotel came in very handy.

We arrived at the hotel and had a walk at the beach, there was a lot of choice for restaurants and these closed quite late, lucky us! I was actually pleasantly surprised with the prices of the restaurants, they looked very elegant and were not too expensive. Most of these restaurants had sofas and tables on the sand. The food was amazing too! I tried peppers filled with risotto and raisins, and it was one of the best plates I tried in the trip. My boyfriend tried the typical Moussaka, which is basically a shepherd’s pie. It was very tasty, however I wouldn’t recommend it for summer, as it can be quite heavy for the high temperatures.

One of the greatest thing we found out about Greek restaurants is that they will usually give a little something for free. For example, a shot of Ouzo (an anise-flavoured drink) at the end of your meal, or some fruit like melon or watermelon, or some mini doughnuts called Loukoumades with Nutella (these were so so yummy!).

It was quite late by the time we were done with dinner, so we just headed back to our hotel, which was just 5 minutes away walking.

Day 2

We chose to stay in the hotel’s pool during the morning, as the location of the hotel was perfect, with direct views to the sea. After this, we decided to check out the two famous beaches that were near us, these are Paradise Beach and Paraga beach. We walked to both of them on the coastal path, which has some rocks and hills!

Our first stop Paraga beach was very beautiful, with clear blue waters, golden fine sand and cosy looking restaurants and bars. This beach wasn’t as busy as we expected, so we set camp on the sand for a few hours. The sea was not cold at all, and nearly transparent.

For lunch, we ate at one of those little restaurants, as it was quite hot, we went for a tomato salad and fish. They were not too expensive taking into account that we were right next to the sea and beach. Again, we were offered some free fruit by the end of the meal and we washed the food down with a couple of beers!

Our next stop was Paradise Beach, not because we wanted to party, but we were curious because of the party fame this beach has, and we were right next to it, just a five-minute walk.

This beach was of course busier and had more clubs and bars than restaurants, so we made a good decision by having lunch at Paraga beach. It was a beautiful beach too, and it had more activities to do, like water sports and inflatable activities. Music blasted from the bars and clubs, mainly house and pop music, which we didn’t mind, as it gave the whole beach a fun and young vibe to it. There were a few young people, but not as much as we expected and I guess this is due the time of the year we decided to go. We only stayed here for a while and then headed back to our hotel.

At night time, we tried another restaurant that advertised dancing shows at night time. This part was so fascinating, as Greek dancers performed their typical routine and then invited members of the public to join them. It was very entertaining, fun and we had a better understanding of what Greek dancing is like! 

Day 3

On our third day, we had booked a ferry online to go to the small island of Paros. We weren’t too sure on which island we should visit, but after reading a few blogs, we thought that Paros would have enough things to do in three days. Our hotel was kind enough to offer us a shuttle in the morning to the port, it only took about 10/15 minutes. As I said, we had booked our ferry tickets online, but we still had to go to the ticket office to get a real ticket, not just our printed receipt from home. Don’t worry if the port seems a little bit chaotic at the beginning, by your departure time it will be clearer to which departure point you need to go to. There is a little café with toilets where you can wait comfortably.

I had never been on a ferry before, so the whole thing was really exciting for me. Once boarded, you need to leave your luggage at the bottom (where the cars are parked) and then head upstairs where the seating area is located. There are different spots to buy food and drink, and there was a woman selling hot pizza slices going around the ship too. We realised there was a sort of an outdoor balcony where you could see the sea and islands around you. It was quite windy and scary but exciting too!

We finally arrived at the small island of Paros around lunchtime, the ferry made one other stop. The port in Paros is located in the part of Parikia the capital of Paros. This town is very calm and beautiful, however, we were recommended to stay in Naoussa, a village at the north of the island, and then visit Parikia one of the days of our trip.

Naoussa is very scenic, it feels very village-y and rural but offers many options for restaurants, bars, beaches and scenic spots. You can get lost in its small and narrow streets surrounded by white walls and houses with many decorations on them. In these narrow streets, we discovered a new place every time we turned a corner. It caught my attention the many handmade jewelleryshops.

We decided to have dinner at one of the most “expensive” areas of Naoussa, next to the port. This part was so lovely at night, with lights and lanterns decorating the main square filled with wooden tables and chairs, belonging to different restaurants. I decided to try another typical dish, the Dolma, which are stuffed vine leaves with red pepper and tzatziki. The taste was different than anything I had ever tasted before, it was interesting. When I say “expensive”, I mean maybe twenty five euros per person.

At night time this is where most of the “party” took place in Naoussa, as there were several cocktail bars and live music hosted by the restaurants. We were lucky that the night that we were there, a band of local musicians were playing typical tunes, everybody around us knew the lyrics and the dance that accompanies the music. It was a great show to see.

One curious thing to mention about Paros and Naoussa is that most of the tourists are not English for once! Most of them were Italian or French, so don’t be surprised if the locals try to communicate with you in these languages.

Day 4

We had booked this second day in Paros to do some kayaking. The excursion lasted about four or five hours and it included lunch and transport. The instructor Alex picked us up from our hotel in Naoussa, along with other people, and took us to the port in Parikia. There we bought tickets for the ferry with destination Antiparos, a small island very close to Paros.

Once we arrived, we drove to the nearest beach and unloaded the kayaks. My boyfriend and I had a double kayak, which is actually easier to control and manoeuvre. Some tips if you´re going to do kayaking in summer is to bring sun cream, a bottle of water, a cap and sunglasses!

The trip took us all around the amazing rock formations of the island, exploring its caves, and even some ancient Greek ruins. We stopped for lunch and had the opportunity to do some snorkelling, the water was so clear, we took our GoPro with us and captured amazing videos.

We ended up going to beautiful places and beaches, and it wasn’t too tiring, we could easily enjoy the views. There were practically no waves, so the kayak was pretty easy to control.We finished the trip, got on the ferry and Alex dropped us off at our hotel where we decided to relax by the pool before heading out to dinner.

For dinner, we went to very cheap places to eat the famous Gyros, which are very similar to a kebab, just a different type of wrap. We did a bit of shopping too, and even went up to the church.

Another thing about Greece are the cats! It was paradise for me! There are cats absolutely everywhere and they are so used to humans that they were very friendly.

Day 5

We noticed a lot of tourists travelling in quads and scooters, so we figured we would give that a try too on our last day in the beautiful island. The rental of the quad was only about twenty five euros for the day (not including the fuel, but the tank was full with about ten euros!).

We basically drove around the whole island on the coastal roads. There was barely any traffic. We did a brief stop at a little town called Lefkes, in the centre of the island. This town was very local, barely any tourists or shops. It was the heart of Paros. White houses, narrow streets that ended in small squares with cafes, where the typical thing to cool off was a Frappe, an iced coffee with milk, and of course Baklava everywhere. We loved this town so much, I definitely recommend making a quick stop if you are in Paros.

We ended our little road trip in Parikia, the part of the island we hadn’t yet visited. The town had more shops, bigger squares and it felt a bit more touristic. There were white walled churches with their blue ceilings that were really gorgeous.

We decided to go back to make one quick stop at the beach before we had to give the quad back. One problem we did encounter was when it was becoming darker, not all the roads were lit, and the lights of the quad weren’t too strong, so we did have to drive very carefully and hoping cars would guide us through the right path.

We had dinner in Naoussa again, tried some local wine which I definitely recommend getting in different local restaurants as they were always different, and then headed back to the hotel for our last night in Paros.

Day 6

We returned by ferry again to the port of Mykonos, where the bus to head to our hotel was waiting. We were very close to the entrance of the city, and had a nearby beach that we could access in which we spent most of the day.

In the afternoon we headed to the streets of Mykonos. These were an absolute labyrinth of white-walled houses filled with souvenir shops and cafes. One thing that I loved about Mykonos was their many free entrance galleries filled with modern art, sculptures and sometimes provocative pieces of art. It was refreshing to see these mixed with the old style of the architecture.

Day 7

We walked again through the streets, stopping at cafes to grab some Baklava filled with ice cream, super tasty and refreshing! We went to a few galleries and then found ourselves at the hill of the windmills. This was one of the main touristic spots of Mykonos, we were a little bit overwhelmed by the number of people taking photos there. This hill offers an amazing view of the coastline, and the restaurants that are on the shore, and some above the water.

We stopped for lunch and decided to cool down at the shores of this city, with ice cream and beer. In the afternoon we passed through the main churches, even though they were locked, they offered a great spot to take pictures.

Mykonos was a lot busier than Paros, more people, more shops, more restaurants and also more waiting time at the restaurants. But there were also cheaper options to have Gyros and have a drink with modern music.

We really enjoyed our time in Greece, tried all kinds of different food and drink and realised that Mykonos is not just a party place.