Blog Three: Paros, Cyclades, Greece

[4th-11th October 2024]

Sitting here in our small but entirely adequate hotel room in Piraeus, the port for Athens, the Cycladic Islands of Santorini, Folegandros, and Paros already seem like a distant dream.  Outside on the Port Square, there’s lots of people coming and going, some of them looking quite dodgy, and all the activity you’d expect in a busy marine terminal.

It’s been quite difficult to drag ourselves away from the tranquility of the lovely Parasporos Villa on Paros this morning, after 8 very enjoyable days on the island.  The tranquility is only broken by the sounds of constant traffic on the main circular road around the island – why it is still quite so busy in October we can’t quite figure.

Parasporos is the first villa we’ve stayed in since our family holiday in the Algarve in 2014 – it is pretty much the opposite of a typical Airbnb.  Kris, who picks us up from the ferry on the evening of our arrival, clearly lives in the villa for part of the year.  Her sister stays in the villa over the garden wall, and her mum comes to water plants and do some cleaning, so it really is a family enterprise.

The two-level house is beautifully kept and has every amenity you could ask for.  It really feels like sharing someone’s home for a period, rather than just letting a holiday property.  40 years on, however, it’s still a case of no paper down the toilet on Paros – you get used to it!

We arrive in the dark, so when we set out in the car the next day to find the supermarket (2 minutes away!) we are confident it will be a straightforward trip.  The “ring road” around the island is unpleasant – driving here is almost as bad as on Crete.  Cars pass on the inside as we attempt to turn left down our rough driveway, and vehicles that would not be allowed on roads back home are commonplace – one car we pass has the right front wing, including the headlight, entirely missing, with the axle visible through the hole!

We miss the supermarket and have to carry on all the way back into the main town Parikia, and back out again.  Then we miss the turn into our driveway, a number of times, and the afternoon takes on all the qualities of a farce, but with none of the laughter.  Tempers shorten as the trip lengthens – I’m sure you can imagine.

Driving around Paros is so unpleasant that we limit our excursions in the car, not helped by fears of incurring the Euros 900 excess on the hire car insurance!

We take a short road trip to Pounda to catch the ferry to Antiparos, the small island off the west coast of Paros.  It’s reckoned to be so attractive that Tom Hanks has apparently bought a house here.  The harbour and backstreets indeed epitomise picture postcard Cycladic beauty, and the shops, bars and restaurants look classier and cooler than on the main island.  The island seems laid back now, in October, but no doubt Antiparos gets very busy with visitors in high season too.

We also take a nostalgic trip to the town of Naousa, where we stayed more than 30 years ago, when Fiona was pregnant with Kathleen.  Google Maps leads us to the tiny harbour whose tavernas we used to visit back then – we sit at one long-established family-run taverna, in virtually the same spot as we did back in 1991.

The waiter is friendly, so I ask him how old he is.  “33” is the reply, so I tell him that 33 years ago we sat in the same taverna, so it is a nostalgic visit for us.  Like several people on the islands so far, he remarks that we’ll notice a lot of changes, implying that few of them are positive.  I remark that the island is still beautiful.  He says: “Yes – beautiful in October.”  The themes of overcrowding, and relief that the tourism season is virtually over, regularly recur amongst local folk.

Particularly on Santorini and Paros, and to a lesser extent on Folegandros, we’ve been met with evidence of the sort of reactions to over-tourism that have been making the news in 2024.  No one has been anything like aggressive to us, and the folk we have stayed with on Folegandros and Paros have been very genuine, friendly, and super welcoming.

However, the more Instagrammable the location, the more jaded and disillusioned the general atmosphere seems to be.  Santorini seems to be almost a case study waiting to be analysed, and that’s quite sad.

Many things have inevitably changed since we set eyes on our first Greek island, not least ourselves and our experiences.  Island food hasn’t changed much over the years. The wine on offer, in particular, is vastly overpriced for the quality of the product, and Greece in general seems to now be an expensive place to go.

All of these factors contribute to an inability on our part to divine much of the elusive Greek island magic that we felt so strongly in our younger days.

The rest of our stay is spent lounging by the pool reading, swimming, and eating on the huge terrace on the first floor of the property – five expertly cooked barbecues ensure that Fiona at least gets some enjoyable meals.

We enjoy our time on Paros, largely because the villa we’ve picked has not disappointed, and it is the perfect place to chill out in the sunshine and not do very much at all.  Antiparos and Naousa are both lovely spots at this time of year and it was good to visit the former for the first time, and to re-visit the latter.

Now we’ve got the hang of the ferries and can use the maritime traffic app on our phones, travel between the islands has become less stressful and more enjoyable.  A longish ferry trip to Piraeus then sets us up for Hydra, in the Argo-Saronic archipelago, the next island on our itinerary!

My dozen favourite images from our stay on Paros are included in the gallery below. Click on a thumbnail to see a bigger image. If you’re using a mobile phone, turn your screen sideways to see the bigger image to best effect.

Image Gallery