North on Paros you find the small fishing-village Naoussa. The village, or more accurate, the surroundings has undergone big changes during the last 10 to 15 years. Many new hotels and apartments have been build, and it is no exaggeration to say that at least 50 new units are recently build on the hillsides surrounding the city. If you have been there before 1985 and returns today, you will probably not recognise the city’s surroundings. Luckily the old town has kept its charm despite some new shops. Naoussa is the second largest town on Paros after Parikia with approx. 1800 inhabitants. From old times it was the biggest and the most important town on the island.
Naoussa was constructed as a defence against foreign intruders. Therefore this town, as many other of the Cycladic towns, was given narrow, maze-like and often blind-alleys, to confuse the enemies and make it difficult to find the way through the city. Most of its buildings are lived in by locals, but of course, today some of them are rebuild to excellent shops and restaurants. Among others you find antique-shops, fashion-shops, leather-shops and the traditional souvenir-shops, and if you are curious there are quite a few small galleries in the alleys.

Naoussa city is famous for its harbour with its fishing-boats in bright colours. In the evening the harbour transforms into the towns most popular restaurant area, and the quay is crammed with small tables, and it is amazing to watch how the waiters twists between them. Soon the whole harbour-area is filled with smoke from the small kitchens frying seafood. They offer a broad variety of fish-dishes to hundreds of hungry tourists. Their speciality is grilled squid, which you can see, hanging in the sun for drying on clothes-lines during daytime. It is well worth a try, but do not taste much. On a hill by the city stands a beautiful church, containing fine icons. You find plenty of in almost all Greek churches. As a tourist you are expected to know the ethical and moral rules in the country you visit. So also in Greece, where you are supposed to dress proper when entering churches. Long trousers and shirts for men and dress and a blouse for women. On the big square by the end of the steps beyond the church, frequently cultural arrangements are held on Sunday evenings.

Holidays in Naoussa - Paros, GREECE
Holidays in Naoussa are a long-standing Paros favourite. Naoussa features one of the most picturesque fishing harbour villages in Greece. It is based in a famous Greek island beauty spot on the north coast of Paros, that more than lives up to its reputation. Naoussa is ideally placed for some of the best Paros beaches and the popular resort of Parikia. Naoussa ise particularly attractive in early and late season. The largest sandy Naoussa beach is Santa Maria. For a quiet sandy Naoussa beach try Monastir beach. Naoussa also features a series of tiny coves at Kolimbrethes. Watersports fans head to Santa Maria. Tiny sandy coves reached on tracks over the hills from the main beaches. Naoussa offers plenty of interesting excursions and fine walking in the pretty interior of Paros.
Naoussa holidays centre on the colourful quays of the harbour with its fisherman’s cottages and a delightful selection of romantic waterfront cafes, tavernas and restaurants. The wonderfully pretty, photogenic harbour and the superb setting on a gorgeous, cosy bay make Naoussa truly memorable. Naoussa also features the picturesque, narrow lanes of the old village with traditional, whitewashed houses, flower-decked patios, quaint chapels and architecture dating back to Byzantine times. Photographers and painters will find plenty of inspiration, whether the beautiful churches of Aghios Ioannis and Panagia Pantanassa, the Paros island topped with a little chapel in the bay, or the submerged ruins of a Venetian castle in the  harbour entrance.
Information about Naoussa beach
There are many beaches in the neighbourhood of the town. When you travel from Perikia by bus, you find a couple of small beaches just before arriving the town-centre, but these are not recommendable. We recommend to go by boat or bus for better beaches nearby, as Kolymbithres which can be reach by boat and is absolutely worth a visit.
It is not the beach or the sand in particular that is special, but the rocks full of holes carved out into different shapes during thousands of years of disintegration. On Paros you will find these special rocks only in this area.
Another beach which can be reach by boat situated in the great Naoussa bay, is the Monastiri beach which is a typical youth-beach where you are welcomed by a big beach-bar with the right music and the right loudness. Just north-east of the city (not within walking distance though) is a long, narrow fine beach which is all right, but even further north-east you can find even better beaches. These are easily reached by bus, and the largest is the one who is situated by Santa Maria, where you also find a wind-surfing-centre. Even further north by bus you find the little spot Santa Maria with its two nude-beaches. Further information on beaches you can find under Paros Beaches.
Getting to Naoussa - Paros
Being one of the top three destinations of the Cyclades and located in the centre of the archipelago, many ferries go to Paros and thousands of visitors stay or just pass in the island, waiting for a transfer to another island. During summer, daily ferries link Paros with Piraeus and Rafina. From the harbour of Piraeus, Paros is reachable in 5 hours or in 2, 45 hours with a High-speed catamaran. From the harbour of Rafina (second main port of Athens, 1 hour drive from the centre, nearby the new airport) the trip to Paros is shorter. During summer, frequent ferry services operate to various destinations such as: Amorgos, Anafi, Ikaria, Ios, Samos, Koufonisia, Mykonos, Naxos, Rhodes, Santorini, Skiathos, Syros, and Tinos, but also to Crete, Volos and Thessaloniki.