Greece Trip Report

My family & I recently visited Greece (June 2024) using a combination of points/miles and regular spend. Below you can find our itinerary and links to additional blog posts for other islands & our flight information.

Greece Itinerary

Mykonos 2 nights – Mykonos details
Naxos 3 nights – Naxos details
Paros 3 nights
Athens 2 nights

Paros, Greece

Having never visited Paros I imagined it being super similar to Naxos. But they are less similar than I thought…

Paros is like an up & coming Mykonos. It’s got amazing, more high end shops and restaurants without the crazy crowds Mykonos has. Because like Naxos, it doesn’t allow cruise ships. This island felt much more of a “vibe” than Naxos. I personally loved it because I like that more lux feel. My husband’s vote is for the more casual Naxos.

Hotel: We booked very late and while the service at the hotel was 100/10 (amazing) we didn’t love to hotel so I hesitate to name it here.
Had we booked earlier, I would have booked the Cosme. This is a Marriott property. With nightly award rates around 120K+ points.

There are 2 main “downtowns” in Paros. Parikia and Nassau.
We stayed at a boutique hotel in Nassau. I LOVED this area of town. You want to try to stay somewhere walkable to downtown Nassau because this is where most restaurants & shops are.

Paros Highlights:

-The beach in front of our hotel was rocky and not swimmable. So we visited a couple of different beach clubs. Even the lux ones are WAY more affordable than what you’ll find in the French Riviera. And the casual ones had front row sets for $20/day. All are full service.

We visited 2.
The lux one was SeaRocks. It was $50 for 2 chairs + $15 for a pouff seat (which you need when you have 3 people). Pros: I LOVED the vibe here. An adorable shopping boutique and a live DJ who was great! Attentive service & plush chairs. Cons: Didn’t love the beach itself.

The casual one was Parilia Beach Club just a few minutes drive from downtown Parikia. Pros: $20 for 2 chairs front row, a parking lot, fantastic beach. Cons: no music, not as great of service.

-Boat day with Escape from Reality visiting coves and beaches in Paros & Antiparos. This was a splurge and my son says his #1 favorite day of the vacation. They depart from Aliki, which is about a 40 minute drive from Nassau, so not the most convenient – but that meant it gave us a chance to see Aliki also which is an adorable fishing village.

seacocks beach club – LOVED the beds & service

And this terrifying jump – See my husband?!

Rental Cars in Paros

We decided to rent a car in Paros and it was one of the easiest experiences you could ask for. We did everything through our hotel and paid $70/day for a small automatic car. When we got off the ferry the rental person was waiting for us, walked us to the rental card, took our payment there then off we went. To return the car, he was again waiting near the ferry, flagged us down where he was holding a parking spot for us, and off we went.

The roads on all the islands are super windy and a bit chaotic. Many times, side roads will all of a sudden only fit 1 car. And motorcycles/mopeds will cut around you at turns so you have to be super cautious always. But I’m glad we had a car to explore more of the island, as everything felt a bit spread out.

Greek Island Hopping

From Paros we took the ferry to Athens. I booked through Ferry Hopper and paid $70 euro per person for business lounge seats. Because I am prone to seasickness, we always take the large slow ferries. We were on the same boat we arrived to Paros on – BLUE STAR 1.

I usually love taking ferries and find them so much easier than flying. But the boarding and debarking from this ferry was awful in every way. Boarding was absolute chaos. A lot of pushing/shuffling. Debarking took over 30 minutes (which is crazy – ferries are usually lightning fast at this), to the points our Athens driver almost left.

We chose to book the business lounge because this is a 4 hour 15 minute ferry. But the business lounge is a large room where maybe 1 person is sitting at a 4 top with their items splayed out. And so finding actual seats is hit or miss. Would I choose the ferry from Paros to Athens again? Yes. But I’d probably pay for numbered seats.

Next up… Athens

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