re: Greece Island Review (Crete, Naxos, Santorini)

I would highly recommend staying on Agia Anna. It is smaller, but not crowded at all - at least in June. Soft sand, calm and beautiful water. It’s also a short (5-10min) bus trip into Naxos Town. (Honestly, it was such an easy ride into town, that I would not stay in Naxos Town and choose a beach to stay on instead. Naxos town is great, but not so much more to do that I would choose to stay there instead of on the beach.). For a lazy few days, Agia Anna is perfect. Lots of restaurants to choose from and nothing is more than a 2 minute walk. We stayed in a beachfront house, but my brother stayed at Naxiam Queen and they had affordable villas and suites with a great pool and rooftop hottubs.

Plaka beach is very nice too, but its bigger and takes more effort walking down. Agia Anna also has a few trees on the beach and doesn’t feel as deserty as Plaka.

Agia Anna:



Naxiam Queen a block from the beach in Agia Anna:

You would be correct about late September. The shoulder season where everything is cheaper and not many folks around. We did Crete , Santorini and Mykonos. Best trip we’ve even been on . Highly recommend

Just got back from Greece and we did Naxos a few weeks ago. I wouldn’t stay in Naxos Town like the previous poster stated. We had a Vrbo with infinity pool looking over plaka beach. We would drive into Naxos town in the evening for food and drinks. Best food I had in Greece was at MEZE 2

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Also, did you notice how many houses had unfinished rooftop areas... re-bar sticking out? A local told me they do this bc the govt allows them tax breaks as long as the house is still in the building phase.

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This is also very common in the Caribbean but the reason was always that in case family grew/in-laws moved in you could add another floor.

Tons of unfinished stone houses in general. Someone told us it’s because the families build a house for their daughters to have once a man marries them and takes them out of the house. They just slowly build the houses over the years as they get money to complete it.

Who knows how true that is though lol

Just wanted to thank you for all this good info. Mrs jkyle and I have been so back and forth on what trip to take next summer but we’ve finally settled on Greece. Going first week of June 23’. Was able to snag round trip airfare (Hou-Athens) for 750$ per person. Gonna spend first night in Athens before flying down to Santorini for 3 nights(stayin at Phaos suites in Imerovigli). Taking ferry from santorini to Naxos (staying beachside in agia Anna) for another 3 nights before returning for one last night in Athens before an early flight home. Thanks again for the insight. This thread helped a lot with some ideas for a trip I’ve wanted to take for a long time now.

We did santorini and crete a few years ago. One of the cool things about Santorini is that you can rent a 4 wheeler / ATV and go anywhere on the island. There are no restrictions about travelling with them on the roads. So we had a blast exploring the island this way.

Crete - we got screwed on our rental car. They required some international drivers license and wouldn't let me rent the car. I misunderstood the rental agreement. So we were stuck in the capital and took a bus to Chania one day.

The one thing I loved about both islands was how reasonable the cost of food was and how after every meal, the restaurant always comped a dessert and also gave us a carafe of Raki. The Raki on Crete (and Santorini) was very good and didn't have the liquorish after taste you find in Turkish Raki or Ouzo.

This is fantastic!

I need to see if the admin‘s can free up another page for me, there’s about 15 trip reports that I can’t add to the sticky because the character count has exceeded their limit