Paros to Antiparos: the vertical cave, Soros, and back for dinner in Naoussa
A quad on the seven-minute car ferry from Pounta, Europe's only vertical show cave at opening time, a long lunch at the Greek end of Soros, and the harbour at Naoussa after dark.
14 playbooks shared · added to 45 trips
- 8:30 am 1Ride down from Naoussa to PountaPounta
About 18 km and 25 minutes on a quad. Take the vehicle across rather than crossing on foot — Antiparos has one bus and the cave is eight kilometres from the town, so on foot the day collapses into taxis.
- 9:20 am 2The Pounta car ferryPounta
Every half hour through summer, no booking, no timetable to memorise: drive on, pay the deckhand, seven minutes. The crossing that matters is the last one back, which runs very late in high season and very early out of it — check the board on the ramp on the way over.
- 10 am 3Antiparos Cave, first entryAntiparos
Opens at 10:00, last entry 15:30. It is a vertical cave — 411 concrete steps down and the same back up, which is the whole visit, and it is the reason to be on the first entry rather than behind two coach groups on a single staircase. Around 15C inside whatever it is doing outside; take a layer and shoes with grip, the steps run wet.
8 min by train or taxi · 2.1 km - 11:45 am 4Soros: the south end, not the beach clubAntiparos
Two long-running tavernas anchor the two ends of the bay and they are completely different days: the north end is loungers, playlists and a younger crowd, the south end is Greek families eating for three hours. The inland ridge shelters this bay from the meltemi, which is why it is swimmable on days the north coast is not, and the water stays shallow for forty metres.
8 min by train or taxi · 2.8 km - 4 pm 5Across to the Despotiko dig from Agios GeorgiosAntiparos
A five-minute boat from the beach at Agios Georgios to an uninhabited island with an active excavation of an archaic Apollo sanctuary. It is not a museum — access depends on whether the dig team is working, so ask at the taverna on the Agios Georgios beach before committing the afternoon to it.
14 min by train or taxi · 8.6 km - 6:15 pm 6Ferry back to PountaAntiparos
- 7 pm 7Drink in the old fishing harbourNaoussa
The half-sunken Venetian kastelli in the water is a thirty-second walk out along the mole and nearly everyone photographs it from the wrong side — go out on it and look back at the harbour instead.
- 8:30 pm 8Dinner at Barbarossa on the quayNaoussa
Tables literally on the quay among the moored caiques, and it books out — call in the morning, not on the way. Order the octopus, which is drying on a line beside you, and let them bring the mezedes rather than reading the menu.