Travel Thursdays: Greece Part 3 – Paros

If you missed parts 1 & 2, you can check them out over here:

• Greece Part 1 – Athens
• Greece Part 2 – Santorini

So from Santorini we hopped onto yet another ferry to take us to Paros…  Now to be completely honest, we really didn’t know anything about Paros, but it kept coming up as a top 3 island in the Cyclades region, so we figured why not.  Also, it was pretty much slap bang in the middle of Santorini & Mykonos (our final Greek destination), so seemed like a good idea to do a mid way stop and break up the ferry time.

We left Santorini at 12:30 and got to Paros at 16:25 – so not too bad travel wise.  Also, as with the previous ferries, it’s a pretty slick ride:

Upon arrival in Paros harbour, otherwise known as Parikia, it was only about a 5min walk into the centre of town to get to our apartment.  But seriously, that 5min walk covered some of the prettiest scenery I’ve ever seen in my life.  Let me show you what I mean:

I mean have you ever??  I think it’s safe to say it was love at first sight.  Paros was definitely the place to be & we were very happy to be there.

Our accommodation was a super cute 2-level studio apartment which we booked through AirBnB (you can view the listing over here).  It cost us R4034 for 3 nights (so approx R1340 per night or R670 per person per night).  It was right in the heart of the traditional settlement of Paroikia which is about 500m from the main harbour & bus station and 50m from the beach.

We really loved our little apartment.  Not just because of its great location (and did I mention how super cute it was??), but also because the area around it made for a great backdrop for some beautiful holiday snaps.  In fact, the blue door right next door to us produced my favourite shot from our entire trip:

The area also offered endless options as far as shopping, eating & drinking goes.  I pretty much did all my clothing shopping here as their little boutiques are awesome beyond.  For example, the striped dress in the photo above was a Paros find.

We also had the best gyro at a little Taverna not too far away:

And I’m sorry, but this simply has to be the cutest gelato shop in the world:

So yeah, overall our location and accommodation was winning.  Even though we had a beach right in our hood, we decided to venture out a bit further.  The first beach we tried was Golden Beach which was about a 20min bus ride away, but so worth it:

The next day we took a 5min boat taxi to Martselo & Krios which is right opposite the Parikia harbour.  Basically these are two long & wide beaches that connect on the same stretch.  The Krios section is more vibey with loungers, a bar, etc. – so we settled there.  But the Martselo side is lovely too.

The rest of our time in Paros was spent drinking rose wine and chilling hard…  The party scene in Paros is apparently quite good, but that wasn’t really our vibe at the time.  The island definitely attracts more of a younger crowd, but not in a way that’s off putting in any way.  We found it was a good mix of young and old (and everything in between).

Paros… without totally spoiling next week’s Mykonos post… was definitely my favourite island.  If I had to pick one place to live, other than Cape Town of course, it would be very high up on my list.

Next week: Mykonos!

xxx