Europe Gets Even Better After Summer — Here’s Where to Go
Europe settles down once the summer holidays finish. The crowds thin out, prices drop, and September and October are often the most comfortable months of the year to walk around a city or drive along a coastline.
And if you are anything like me, that’s exactly the time when you love to travel. I always avoid July and August, when I usually find a place to housesit and work on my projects and plan my fall trip. This year, actually, in about 5 days as I am writing this article, I will be on an epic road trip around Scotland, and I have waited for the fall on purpose. Fewer people around, lower prices, and, well, maybe more unpredictable weather, but I’ll take it 100 times over crowds. Besides, I don’t like the heat, so I welcome cooler and cloudy days, even for my pictures. I am looking for that gloomy atmosphere.
So I put together my ten favorite places to visit in that time of year, what to see in each one, and how to get there. Let me know in the comments if you agree or want to add anything.
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1. West Kerry, Ireland
The southwest corner of Ireland, built around the Iveragh Peninsula and the mountains and lakes of Killarney National Park. It is the part of the country most people picture when they think of Ireland, and it lives up to it.
What to see in Kerry, Ireland
The Ring of Kerry drive is the anchor, a loop of about 180 km around the peninsula. You can do it in a long day, but two days lets you actually stop. Tour coaches run counterclockwise from Killarney, and it is easier to go the same direction than to meet one coming at you on a narrow bend.
Killarney National Park sits at the eastern end and deserves a day on its own. Muckross House and its gardens, the ruins of Muckross Abbey, Torc Waterfall, which is a five-minute walk from the car park, and Ross Castle on the shore of Lough Leane. Ladies View gives you the best of the lakes from the road.
The Gap of Dunloe is a narrow mountain pass between the Macgillycuddy’s Reeks and the Purple Mountain. You can walk the 11 km through it, or take a jaunting car, the horse and trap that leaves from Kate Kearney’s Cottage at the northern end.
Out on the western tip, the Skellig Ring is a smaller loop off the main road and worth the detour. It takes you to the Kerry Cliffs, the fishing village of Portmagee, and across the bridge to Valentia Island, where you have Geokaun Mountain, the old slate quarry and a set of fossilized tetrapod footprints on the shore.
Boats to Skellig Michael, the monastic island eleven kilometers offshore, leave from Portmagee. Places are limited, and they book up a long way ahead, so look at the Skellig tour options early if this matters to you.
Kenmare, at the southern end of the ring, is a good place to eat and quieter than Killarney. If you have extra days, the Dingle Peninsula sits just north and the Slea Head Drive there is shorter and in some ways better than the Ring of Kerry.
How to visit
Kerry Airport at Farranfore is small but has flights from Dublin and a few UK cities. Cork is around an hour and a half away by car, Shannon a little under two, and Dublin about three and a half.
You want a car. The roads are narrow, often with stone walls or hedges right at the edge, and the public bus network does not reach most of what you have come to see. My driving in Ireland guide covers what surprises people, including the road width and the way distances take longer than the map suggests.
Killarney is the easiest base, with the most places to stay and eat and the national park on the doorstep. Kenmare is smaller and calmer. Staying out on the western end near Portmagee puts you close to the Skellig boats if you have booked one. I have gone through the options in the Ring of Kerry accommodation guide.
I visited Ireland in October and drove the Ring of Kerry for the second time and loved it. If you are not comfortable driving at all, you can always book guided tours from Dublin.
2. The Causeway Coast, Northern Ireland
The stretch of coastline between Ballycastle and Portrush, on the north coast of Northern Ireland. It is short, around 50 km end to end, and packed with things worth stopping for.
What to see along the Giant’s Causeway
The Giant’s Causeway is the reason most people come. Around 40,000 basalt columns, mostly hexagonal, formed by cooling lava roughly 60 million years ago and running down into the sea. It is a UNESCO site. The visitor center has parking, an exhibition and an audio guide, and a shuttle bus goes down to the stones if you would rather not walk the kilometer-long path.
A short drive east is the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, a 20-meter span about 30 meters above the water, crossing to a small island that salmon fishermen used for centuries. It runs on timed tickets through the National Trust, and the walk from the car park takes about a kilometer.
Dunluce Castle sits on a cliff edge between the two, a sixteenth-century ruin where part of the kitchen reportedly fell into the sea. Ballintoy Harbor is a tiny working harbor at the bottom of a steep winding road. The Dark Hedges, an avenue of beech trees planted in the eighteenth century, is a few minutes inland.
The Old Bushmills Distillery has been licensed since 1608 and runs tours and tastings. For beaches, Whiterocks near Portrush and Portstewart Strand are both wide and easy to walk. Further west, Mussenden Temple sits on the cliff at Downhill Demesne, with views along the whole coast.
Rathlin Island is a short ferry from Ballycastle if you want a half day away from the road, with a seabird colony at the West Light.
The coastal walk between the main sites is worth doing on foot rather than driving from one car park to the next. You see far more of the coastline that way.
How to visit
Belfast is the closest city, about an hour and a quarter by car. Dublin is around three hours. The route to follow is the A2 Causeway Coastal Road, which runs up the Antrim coast from Belfast through the Glens of Antrim and is a good drive in itself.
Rent a car if you can. If you are picking it up in the Republic and driving north, check the cross-border cover with the rental company first, which I cover in the Dublin car rental guide.
Day tours run from both Belfast and Dublin and cover the main sites, which works if you would rather not drive, though the Dublin ones make for a very long day.
For a base, Bushmills or Portrush put you in the middle of everything. Ballycastle is at the eastern end and closest to the Rathlin ferry. Belfast works if you only want one day on the coast.
3. The Cotswolds and Oxford, England
I housesat first in Stroud, where I had a car and enjoyed exploring the Cotswolds. Then I moved to Oxford for another housesit, where I had a couple of days to explore the city freely before locking myself in and working on these guides while snuggling with the dogs and cats I was looking after.
If you have not heard of it, the Cotswolds is a stretch of limestone hills and villages west of Oxford, roughly two hours from London. People come for the old honey coloured stone houses and the fairy-tale villages, and for the fact that a lot of it looks much the same as it did two hundred years ago.
What to see in the Cotswolds
Start with the villages, but do not try to do all of them. Two or three in a day is plenty, and they are close enough together that you will not feel rushed.
Bibury has Arlington Row, a line of seventeenth-century weavers’ cottages along a stream, and it is probably the most photographed spot in the region. Castle Combe sits in a wooded valley with no modern buildings visible on its main street, which is why film crews keep using it.
Bourton-on-the-Water has the River Windrush running through the middle with low stone footbridges over it, plus a model village built in the 1930s. Stow-on-the-Wold has a large market square and the north door of St Edward’s church, framed by two yew trees. Broadway has a wide main street and a folly tower up on the hill above with views over several counties on a clear day. Chipping Campden was a wool merchants’ town and still has its market hall from 1627.
If you want somewhere quieter, Upper and Lower Slaughter are a twenty-minute walk apart along the water and get a fraction of the visitors that Bourton does.
Blenheim Palace at Woodstock deserves a half day on its own. It is a UNESCO site, Winston Churchill was born there, and Capability Brown laid out the grounds.
For walkers, the Cotswold Way runs 164 km from Chipping Campden down to Bath. You do not have to do the whole thing. Plenty of people pick a day section and get a taxi or bus back.
If you don’t feel like driving, many tours run from London, and I have put together a guide to the most highly rated ones for your convenience. Link above.
In Oxford, the main sights sit within walking distance of each other. The Bodleian Library and the Radcliffe Camera, Christ Church college with its dining hall, Magdalen with its deer park, and the Ashmolean Museum, which is free to enter. The Covered Market is good for lunch. If the weather holds, you can hire a punt at Magdalen Bridge and take it up the Cherwell, though it takes most people a while to get the hang of the pole.
How to visit
Trains from London Paddington reach Oxford in about an hour. If you want to go straight into the Cotswolds instead, the same line carries on to Kingham and Moreton-in-Marsh, which is around an hour and thirty-five minutes from Paddington and sits right in the middle of the northern villages.
You will want a car once you are there. The bus links between villages are slow and infrequent, and the walking routes are lovely, but they are walking routes, not transport. Distances are short, twenty minutes or so between most of the villages, so you are not spending your day driving.
Parking is the one thing to plan for. The car parks in Bibury, Bourton and Castle Combe are small and fill up, so going earlier in the day makes the difference.
For a base, Oxford suits you if you want a town around you in the evening with restaurants and a bit of life. Stow-on-the-Wold and Burford are central for the villages. Broadway and Chipping Campden put you in the north near Blenheim and the top of the Cotswold Way.
4. The Scottish Highlands and Skye
The mountains, lochs and glens north of Glasgow, running up the west coast and across to the Isle of Skye.
I visited in winter, in February, and the mountains were snow-capped. It was beautiful. As I gear up for my second trip to Scotland this September, I can’t wait to see and photograph the fall colors, with fewer crowds and, hopefully, without spending a fortune. If you want to follow my journey and see real-time updates, follow my YouTube channel, my Facebook page or subscribe to my newsletter.
What to see in the Scottish Highlands and Skye
Coming up from the south, Glencoe is the first place that stops you. A glacial valley with the Three Sisters ridge on one side, a visitor center, and walking routes from short viewpoint paths up to full hill days.
Loch Ness is the one everyone knows. Urquhart Castle on its western shore is the best place to actually see the loch, and Fort Augustus at the southern end has a flight of canal locks running down into the water. Inverness sits at the northern end and is the main town of the Highlands.
Eilean Donan Castle at Dornie, where three lochs meet, is on the road to Skye and hard to drive past.
On Skye itself, the main stops are on the northern half of the island. The Old Man of Storr is a rock pinnacle above Portree with a steep path of about an hour and a half return. The Quiraing is a landslip further north with a walking route from a small car park along the ridge. The Fairy Pools at Glenbrittle are a series of clear pools along a river, around forty minutes’ walk from the road. Neist Point Lighthouse is on the western tip and is where most people go for sunset.
Portree is the island’s town, with a row of painted houses around the harbor and most of the restaurants. The same family has lived in Dunvegan Castle for eight centuries. The Talisker distillery at Carbost offers tours. Sligachan, where the road divides, gives you the best view of the Cuillin ridge.
Give Skye at least two nights and preferably three. The island is bigger than it looks and the roads are slow.
If you have longer, the Bealach na Bà pass over to Applecross, the village of Plockton, and the Glenfinnan viaduct are all within reach.
How to visit
Inverness Airport is the closest to Skye, about a two-and-a-half-hour drive to Portree. Edinburgh and Glasgow are both around five to five and a half hours, so if you fly into either, plan a stop on the way rather than doing it in one go. The Edinburgh to Isle of Skye guide covers the route options, and where to stay in Edinburgh has the city end.
Skye is connected by bridge at Kyle of Lochalsh, so no ferry is needed and there is no toll. There is also a ferry from Mallaig to Armadale on the south of the island if you want to arrive one way and leave the other.
A car is close to essential. I always book with Discover Cars, mainly because I always find great deals and their full coverage gives me peace of mind.
Much of the Highlands and most of Skye are on single-track roads with passing places, and the etiquette matters. Pull into a passing place on your left, or stop opposite one on your right, to let oncoming traffic through; you can also pull in to let faster traffic overtake. Fuel stations are far apart in the northwest, so fill up when you see one, not when you need one.
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5. The Silver Coast, Portugal
The Atlantic coast north of Lisbon, running from Ericeira up past Nazaré towards Figueira da Foz. I lived in Nazaré for three months and explored the area extensively, mainly in winter. I may go back in the fall next year, but I will definitely avoid summer. It’s one of the most crowded destinations in Portugal for the summer vacations.
What to see
Nazaré is built on two levels. Down at sea level, you have the wide town beach and the old fishing quarter behind it, with the streets running back from the sand. Then a funicular built in 1889 takes you up the cliff to Sítio, the old village on top.
Up at Sítio, you have the sanctuary of Nossa Senhora da Nazaré, the Suberco viewpoint looking straight down over the town and the beach, and a walk along the clifftop to the Forte de São Miguel Arcanjo, the small red lighthouse fort. Inside the fort, there is a surfing museum, and from the walls you look down on Praia do Norte, which is the beach where the record-breaking waves come in during the winter.
Those waves exist because of the Nazaré Canyon, an underwater canyon about 230 km long that runs out into the Atlantic and funnels swell toward this stretch of coast. It is worth understanding before you look at the water, because it explains why the waves here are so much bigger than anywhere else nearby.
Around Nazaré, there is a lot within an hour. Óbidos is a walled hilltop town where you can walk the top of the walls, and where they serve ginjinha cherry liqueur in small chocolate cups. Alcobaça and Batalha both have very large medieval monasteries, and people go to Alcobaça for the tombs of Pedro and Inês. Peniche is a fishing port with a fortress and boats out to the Berlenga islands. São Martinho do Porto has a shell-shaped bay with calm water, which is a nice change from the Atlantic surf. Ericeira further south is a protected surf reserve.
There is more in my Nazaré guide and the wider Portugal coastal towns post.
How to visit
Lisbon airport is about an hour and twenty minutes away by car. Buses run direct from Lisbon to Nazaré and take a little over two hours, which is fine if you are staying put in the town, though a car makes everything around it much easier.
Parking in Nazaré is easier at the northern end of the seafront than in the middle. If you are staying up in Sítio rather than in the town, remember the funicular is the easy way between the two levels. Walking up is possible but steep.
The Lisbon to Porto road trip runs right through this stretch of coast and picks up most of what is listed above.
6. The Algarve, Portugal
The southern coast of Portugal, running about 150 km from Sagres in the west across to the Spanish border. The western half has cliffs and rock formations; the eastern half has lagoons and quieter towns.
What to see in The Algarve
Lagos is the natural base for the western half. Ponta da Piedade, just outside the town, is a set of sandstone cliffs, arches and sea stacks, and you can see it from the clifftop steps or from a boat below. Praia Dona Ana and Praia do Camilo are the two beaches most people go for, both reached by steps down through the rock.
Benagil cave is the famous one, a sea cave with a circular opening in the roof. You can access it by boat, kayak or stand-up paddleboard from Benagil or Carvoeiro, and the rules about what boats can do inside have changed in recent years, so check what your operator is offering before you book.
Praia da Marinha nearby is the beach that appears on most postcards of the region. From there the Seven Hanging Valleys trail runs about 6 km along the clifftop to Praia de Vale Centeanes, and it is one of the best coastal walks in Portugal.
I covered the rest in the Algarve beaches post.
At the western end, Sagres has a fortress on a windswept headland, and Cape St Vincent a few kilometres on is the southwesternmost point of mainland Europe. The water here is rougher and colder, and the beaches are far emptier.
Heading east, the coast changes. Faro has a walled old town, a cathedral you can climb for the view, and a chapel lined with bones. Behind it is the Ria Formosa, a lagoon and sandbar system that runs for 60 km, with boats out to the barrier islands of Deserta, Farol and Culatra. Olhão has the best fish market in the region. Tavira is built around a river with a Roman bridge, and its beach is on an island reached by a short ferry.
Inland, Silves has a red sandstone castle from the Moorish period, and the Monchique hills give you a completely different landscape of cork oaks and eucalyptus with views back down to the coast.
How to visit
Fly into Faro. It is the only airport in the region, and it is well connected across Europe.
Rent a car. The good beaches are spread along the coast and down side roads, and the buses are built around connecting the main towns rather than getting you to the water. The Faro car rental guide covers what to check before you drive off, including the tolls. The A22 motorway that runs the length of the Algarve is electronic toll only, with no booths, so you need to sort out a transponder or a prepaid arrangement with the rental company, or you will get charged fees afterward.
For a base, Lagos suits the western half and has the most life in the evening. Albufeira is central and busy. Tavira is the calmest of the three and better if you want the eastern lagoons. The 7 day Algarve itinerary lays out a route if you want one ready-made. Or if you have fewer days, I’ve got you covered too, with my 3-day Lagos Itinerary.
7. São Miguel, Azores
I have been to the Azores three times for a total of 5 months, and I am in love with these islands. I would completely avoid July and August, although I reckon that traveling in the low season is a bet. The weather is unpredictable and not always friendly, but I still would choose the low season, anyway, for the reasons mentioned above.
Sao Miguel is the largest island of the Azores, an archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic, about two hours from Lisbon by plane. It is green, volcanic and much wilder than most people expect.
There’s a lot to unpack about this destination that doesn’t fit in a 500-word blurb; that is why you should get a general idea here, then head to my full guides to the Azores islands to learn more about planning your trip.
What to see in Sao Miguel
Sete Cidades is the one that ends up on every photograph of the Azores, two lakes sitting inside a volcanic crater, one blue and one green. Most people know the view from Vista do Rei, and from there a short walk takes you to Boca do Inferno, the better of the two viewpoints. The abandoned Monte Palace hotel above the crater is also up there. Down at lake level, you can walk or cycle around the water.
Lagoa do Fogo sits in another crater in the middle of the island, with a steep path down to the shore. It clouds over easily, so if you drive past and it is clear, stop then rather than planning to come back.
The Furnas valley is the geothermal part of the island. The Caldeiras are steaming vents and mud pools in the middle of the village, and by the lake there are pits where cozido, a stew, is buried in the ground and cooked by the earth for hours. Terra Nostra Park has a large thermal pool in a botanical garden; the water is iron-rich and orange, and it stains light-colored swimwear, so bring something you don’t mind. Poça da Dona Beija nearby is smaller and open into the evening.
Elsewhere on the island, the Gorreana tea plantation is Europe’s oldest and free to walk around. Caldeira Velha is a hot waterfall and pools in the forest. At Ponta da Ferraria on the west coast, a hot spring runs into a rock pool in the sea, and it works best around low tide. Ponta Delgada is the main town, with the three arched Portas da Cidade on the seafront. The east of the island around Nordeste has a run of viewpoints and gardens with almost nobody at them.
Whale and dolphin watching runs from Ponta Delgada, and there are resident sperm whales around the islands.
I have collected these in the things to do in São Miguel, hot springs and natural pools posts.
How to visit
Fly into Ponta Delgada. Direct flights run from Lisbon and Porto, and seasonal flights run from a few North American cities.
You need a car. Distances are short; the island is only about 65 km long, but the bus service is designed for residents and will not get you to the viewpoints. Roads are in good condition.
The one thing to plan for is the weather, which changes fast and varies a lot across the island. It can be raining at Sete Cidades and clear in Furnas an hour later. Build your days loosely and swap things around rather than committing to a fixed order. Five days is a reasonable minimum for São Miguel alone.
If you want to add other islands, there are short flights between them and the Azores ferry guide covers the sea routes. The Things to Know Before Visiting the Azores post has the rest of the practical details.
8. Madrid and Toledo, Spain
The Spanish capital, sitting high on the plateau in the middle of the country, with one of the best day trips in Europe half an hour away by train.
What to see in Madrid
Madrid’s three big art museums sit within a few minutes’ walk of each other. The Prado has the Spanish collection, including Velázquez’s Las Meninas and Goya’s black paintings, along with Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights. The Reina Sofía has twentieth-century work and Picasso’s Guernica. The Thyssen-Bornemisza fills in the gaps between the two with everything from early Italian painting to Pop Art. All three have free entry windows in the late afternoon and evening, which are worth checking if you are watching the budget, though they are busier then.
The Retiro park sits just behind the museums, with a boating lake and the Crystal Palace, a glass pavilion used for exhibitions. On the other side of the center, the Royal Palace is the largest working royal palace in western Europe by floor space, with the Almudena Cathedral facing it.
For the older part of the city, Plaza Mayor, Puerta del Sol and the streets of La Latina. On Sundays, La Latina holds El Rastro, a large flea market that has been running since the sixteenth century. Malasaña and Chueca are the neighborhoods for bars and small shops, and Lavapiés offers a more mixed, less polished version of the same.
On food, the Mercado de San Miguel next to Plaza Mayor is the easiest to find and the most expensive. The neighborhood markets like San Antón and Antón Martín are better value and more local. My Madrid food tours post covers the eating side properly.
For sunset, the Temple of Debod is an actual Egyptian temple, given to Spain in the 1960s and rebuilt in a park on high ground west of the center.
In Toledo, the whole old town sits on a hill inside a loop of the Tagus River, and it was a place where Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities lived alongside each other for centuries. The cathedral is the main sight, one of the largest Gothic cathedrals in Spain. The Alcázar fortress, on the highest point, now houses the Army Museum. Santa María la Blanca is a twelfth-century synagogue built in Moorish style, and the Sinagoga del Tránsito nearby holds the Sephardic museum. El Greco lived and worked in Toledo, and his Burial of the Count of Orgaz hangs in the church of Santo Tomé. For the view of the whole town, cross the river to the Mirador del Valle.
How to visit Madrid
Fly into Barajas. Metro line 8 runs from the terminals to Nuevos Ministerios in around fifteen minutes, with a supplement on top of the normal fare, and connects onward from there. Airport buses also go to Atocha.
You do not need a car in Madrid. The metro is extensive, cheap and easy to use, and the center is walkable.
For Toledo, fast trains leave from Atocha and take around 33 minutes. They sell out, so book ahead rather than turning up. Buses go from Plaza Elíptica and take about an hour but run more often. Once you are there, Toledo is steep and cobbled, so wear something sensible on your feet. Public escalators run from the car park area up into the old town if the climb isn’t appealing.
The Madrid itinerary, where to stay in Madrid, Madrid to Toledo guide and Toledo day trip posts have the detail.
9. Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont, Italy
Two northern Italian regions on either side of Milan. Emilia-Romagna is where most of Italy’s famous food comes from, and Piedmont has the wine and one of the country’s most underrated cities. I included these Italian destinations instead of the most obvious ones, like Rome or Florence, because they’re often overlooked and deserve attention.
What to see
Bologna is the place to start. The city has around 62 km of covered walkways, the porticoes, which are a UNESCO site and mean you can walk most of the center in the rain without getting wet. Piazza Maggiore is the main square with the enormous unfinished front of the Basilica di San Petronio on one side. The Two Towers lean over the eastern end of the center.
Behind the square, the Quadrilatero is a grid of narrow streets that has been the food market district since medieval times, with stalls of pasta, cured meat and cheese. The Archiginnasio, the old university building, has a wooden anatomical theatre upstairs that is worth the small entry fee. Santo Stefano is a complex of interconnected churches around a courtyard. And on Via Piella there is a small window in a wall that opens onto one of the canals the city built over.
Modena is twenty minutes away by train. The cathedral and the Ghirlandina tower are UNESCO-listed, the Mercato Albinelli is a covered food market, and the balsamic producers in the hills around the city run visits where you see the barrels and taste vinegar that has been aging for decades. The Enzo Ferrari museum is in the house where he was born.
Parma is an hour from Bologna. The baptistery in pink marble is the main sight, along with Correggio’s dome fresco in the cathedral and the wooden Teatro Farnese. This is where prosciutto di Parma and Parmigiano Reggiano come from, and both have producers open to visitors.
In Piedmont, Turin is a grand, arcaded, slightly formal city most visitors skip. The Mole Antonelliana is the tall building on the skyline and holds the national cinema museum, with a glass lift up through the middle to a viewing platform. The Egyptian Museum there is the second most important in the world after Cairo. Piazza San Carlo and the arcades around it are lined with cafés from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, where you can order a bicerin, the local layered drink of coffee, chocolate and cream. Porta Palazzo is the largest open-air market in Europe. Up on the hill above the city, the Superga basilica gives you the whole of Turin with the Alps behind it.
South of Turin, the Langhe hills are wine country. Alba is the main town, with Barolo and Barbaresco nearby, and La Morra has the best view over the vineyards. This is also truffle country in autumn.
Check out all the places to visit in Italy in October in my detailed guide
How to visit
Fly into Bologna Marconi, which is close to the city and connected by a short monorail, or into Milan and take the train.
The train network here is one of the best in Europe, and you do not need a car for the cities. Bologna to Modena is around twenty minutes, Bologna to Parma about an hour, and Bologna to Turin around three hours on the fast line.
You do want a car for the Langhe hills, and possibly for visiting the balsamic and Parmigiano producers around Modena and Parma, since many are out in the countryside. If you drive, learn what a ZTL is before you go. Italian city centers have restricted traffic zones marked with a white circle and a red border; cameras enforce them, and the fines arrive months later through the rental company. My guide to renting a car in Italy covers the rules.
Where to stay in Bologna has the neighborhoods.
10. Paros and Naxos, Greece
Two neighboring islands in the middle of the Cyclades, close enough together to combine easily on one trip. Naxos is the larger and greener of the two, with mountains and farming villages inland. Paros is smaller and more polished.
What to see
On Paros, the ferries arrive at Parikia, where the Panagia Ekatontapiliani church dates back to the fourth century and is one of the oldest still in use in Greece. Naoussa on the north coast is a fishing harbour with the remains of a Venetian castle half sunk in the water, and it is where most of the restaurants are.
Inland, Lefkes is a hill village of white houses and narrow lanes, and the old Byzantine Road, a paved marble path, runs from there down to Prodromos in about an hour on foot. For beaches, Kolymbithres has smooth granite rock formations you can sit between, Santa Maria is sheltered, and Golden Beach on the east coast is where the windsurfers go.
Antiparos is ten minutes across the water by ferry from Pounta and has a large cave you can walk down into.
On Naxos, the Portara is the first thing you see coming into the harbor: a huge marble doorway standing alone on a small islet, the remains of a temple to Apollo begun in the sixth century BC. Behind the port, the old town climbs to a Venetian kastro, with a maze of covered lanes beneath it.
The beaches run down the west coast: Agios Prokopios, Agia Anna and Plaka, all long and sandy and shallow. Inland is where Naxos separates itself from the other Cyclades. Halki is an old village with a kitron distillery you can visit; Apiranthos has streets paved in marble, and Filoti sits below Mount Zas, which, at just over 1,000 meters, is the highest point in the Cyclades and can be walked in a few hours. Two unfinished kouros statues also lie in the fields: one near Flerio and a larger one at Apollonas, abandoned by their carvers thousands of years ago.
Both islands are covered in the things to do in Paros and things to do in Naxos posts.
How to visit
Ferries run from Piraeus in Athens to both islands. High-speed boats take around three to four hours, conventional ferries around five, and slower ones are more comfortable in rough water. Some services also leave from Rafina, which is closer to Athens airport.
Both islands have small airports with flights from Athens if you would rather skip the sea crossing.
Getting between the two is easy and takes well under an hour. The Naxos to Paros ferry guide covers the crossing and the operators.
Once you are there, a car or a scooter opens up a lot, particularly on Naxos where the mountain villages are the best part of the island. Book ahead rather than arriving and hoping. Buses do run to the main towns and the popular beaches and are cheap, so you can manage without if you are staying near the coast.
The Greece travel guide has the general practical information.
