A different Greek island experience away from crowds: 4 days in Naxos

I was looking to spend a few days in one of the less touristy islands to get a real feel of the Greek island life away from the tourist rush of Mykonos and Santorini.

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If you have been to some of the Greek islands, there is every chance that you been to Santorini and Mykonos, the most famous of the lot. Infact the very 'instagrammable' whitewashed buildings and blue domed churches are synonymous with a Greek island vacation.
This is a short travelogue mostly about the relatively lesser known island of Naxos.
I was looking to spend a few days in one of the less touristy islands to get a real feel of the Greek island life away from the tourist rush of Mykonos and Santorini.
But of course I also needed to see at least one of the famous two, so I decided to spend a couple of days in Athens and then fly to Santorini, spend another couple of days there and then take the ferry to Naxos and spend 4 days there, away from the crowds.

A first look at Naxos.

The ruins of the temple of Apollo, with its majestic marble gate.


The town of Chora or simply Naxos town beyond, connected by a narrow pathway

Infact we were so keen to avoid the crowds that we booked a villa in Naxos that is located very far (approximately 45 min drive from the main town of naxos).
It was a place called Abram, a small village along the coast with hardly a dozen or two houses, a small beach filled with pebbles, a single tavern, a wild and rugged coastline and endless vineyards.

The villa entrance.

The view from the balcony, the small beach on the right with a single family run tavern, walking trails all around.

Lonely trails along the coast, perfect for long walks with only the sound of the crashing waves and the wind in your hair

A small church.

Vineyards and the Aegean sea beyond.

Some of the sweetest grapes we have ever tasted.

The small beach full of pebbles

Spending time out here on the countryside was so different from the experience at Santorini, boy was I glad we were spending four days here compared to only two in Santorini.
Even going to the nearest departmental store was a 30 min drive away, but somehow we enjoyed that also, especially when the roads look like these..

The road to town.

beautiful drives along the coast.

A fiat panda this time, manual transmission was a bother especially in a left hand drive car, the left hand instinctively goes for the non existent gear lever ! But I liked the car, it was much better than the Renault Clio automatic I drove around for two days in Santorini.

The main town of Naxos or Chora is maze of white buildings, with quaint little shops everywhere and a lot of eateries towards the port side.
The thing that impressed me about this town is the great food at a much cheaper price compared to Santorini, and portion sizes were the biggest I've ever seen anywhere. Looking for a big fat greek feast..head over to Naxos !

some interesting wall art !

The beaches of Naxos were better than those of Santorini.
The Agios Prokapios beach is the most popular and nearest to town. But since we were looking for more uncrowded beaches, we skipped this one. The Hawai and Alyko beaches were less developed but equally beautiful, so we spent more time there.

An interesting thing about the Alyko beach is that there is an immense half finished and abandoned hotel here.


It's location is terrific but now it is just lying there abandoned and graffiti artists have made some really unique wall paintings here.





Many of the paintings on the inner walls were of the darker side, with the devil and ghosts making a lot of appearances, but the outside ones were more beautiful. The place will surely be a bit unnerving after dusk
.
A rocky coast with sandy beaches in between. you can enjoy your own little private beach in any of those.


Sunset from one of the rocky outcroppings.


A moment in time.

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