Greece · Aegean · Parikia & Naoussa
Almost nothing leaves from the harbour you are staying in. Pounta sends the Antiparos fleet, Parikia sends the long days, Naoussa sends the small stuff — and the ramp printed on your ticket decides whether your morning starts with a bus.
Quick answer
Thirteen well-reviewed boats work out of Paros in a normal summer week, and eleven are going to the same place: the channel between Paros and Antiparos. The cheapest full day is $58 around Antiparos and Despotiko; the most-booked boat on the island is the $76 Blue Lagoon half-day out of Pounta, with 1,180 reviews behind it. A private hull runs to $465 for the boat rather than the seat.
The trap is the pier. Most of the Antiparos fleet loads at Pounta, a ferry ramp on the southwest coast — fifteen minutes by road from Parikia, twenty-five from Naoussa. The long days to Delos, the catamaran and the sailing cruises leave from Parikia's own quay; Naoussa has one small snorkelling boat and a harbour that takes nothing bigger. KTEL buses serve all three, minimum fare €2.20, bank cards only.
If you only want to stand on Antiparos, do not book a boat. The Pounta car ferry crosses the 1.5-kilometre channel in seven minutes for €1.50 as a foot passenger, every twenty to thirty minutes all summer. What it does not buy is Despotiko, the Pateronisia islets or a single swim stop — the arithmetic is below, and so is what the meltemi does to afternoon sailings.
Compare
The six kinds of day afloat sold on Paros, each with the cheapest well-reviewed example on this page and the harbour it actually loads from. Prices, ratings and durations are the operators' own figures from the listings below, re-checked in September 2026; the last column is the thing that settles it.
| Type of day | Time out | Leaves from | From | What decides it | Book |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Lagoon half day | 3.5 hours | Pounta | $76 | Three swim stops, back for lunch | Details |
| Antiparos + Despotiko full day | 7 hours | Parikia | $58 | The sanctuary landing, cheapest long day | Details |
| Kaiki with a cooked lunch | 6 hours | Pounta | $105 | Wooden boat, BBQ aboard, slower pace | Details |
| Catamaran, full day | 9 hours | Parikia | $314 | Shade, trampolines, a meal and a small group | Details |
| Delos and Mykonos | 9 hours | Parikia | $87 | A different island entirely, and no swimming | Details |
| Private hull | 2 – 7 hours | Parikia | $465 | You set the route and the length of each stop | Details |
The boats
Every boat below is bookable now and carries its operator's own rating and review count. Prices are per person unless the card says the boat is private, in which case the figure buys the hull and everyone on it. Re-checked in September 2026.
4.8★ (1180 reviews) · 3.5 hours · from $76
4.6★ (737 reviews) · 7 hours · from $58
4.9★ (620 reviews) · 7 hours · from $199
4.9★ (443 reviews) · 6.5 hours · from $134
4.8★ (369 reviews) · 6 hours · from $105
4.8★ (300 reviews) · 3 - 3.5 hours · from $76
4.4★ (185 reviews) · 9 hours · from $87
4.9★ (157 reviews) · 9 hours · from $314
4.9★ (53 reviews) · 3 hours · from $81
4.8★ (52 reviews) · 8 hours · from $139
4.9★ (38 reviews) · 2 - 7 hours · from $465
4.9★ (20 reviews) · 3 - 7 hours · from $101
4.9★ (22 reviews) · 3 hours · from $105
The piers
Paros has one big ferry port and three working boat departure points, and they are spread around the coast rather than clustered in one town. Turning up at the wrong one here is not a five-minute correction; Pounta is eleven kilometres of road away from Parikia.
Pounta is not a village. It is a concrete ferry ramp on the southwest coast with a car park, a ticket booth and two cafés, and it exists because the channel to Antiparos is only 1.5 kilometres wide here. Most of the Antiparos and Blue Lagoon fleet loads from the quay beside it — the most-booked half day on the island, the kaiki with the BBQ, the seafood-lunch cruise and the sunset semi-private. It is about fifteen minutes by road from Parikia and twenty-five from Naoussa, the KTEL bus runs there from the Parikia terminal, and the car park fills by late morning in August.
Parikia is the island's real port, and the boats that leave it are the long ones: the seven-hour Antiparos and Despotiko cruise, the catamaran, the sailing yacht, the Delos crossing. The excursion berths run along the waterfront to the left of the main ferry gate, not on the ferry ramp itself — which is where people go wrong at eight in the morning. The same quay sends the Express Panormitis passenger boat straight to Antiparos town in about half an hour for roughly €5 to €7, and water taxis to Krios and Marcello for €3 one way.
Naoussa is a fishing harbour that can physically take nothing large: the three-hour snorkelling boat and the water taxis to Kolymbithres, Monastiri and Langeri, ten minutes across the bay. Anything bigger sold as “from Naoussa” means a transfer to Pounta or Parikia — read the meeting point, not the title. Piso Livadi on the east coast uses no boat on this page, but Kerras Cruises runs from it to Agia Anna on Naxos in about 25 minutes, four days a week in summer.
| Pier | What leaves from it | Distance from Parikia | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pounta ramp | Most Antiparos, Despotiko and Blue Lagoon day boats | 11 km — about 15 min by road, KTEL bus from the terminal | Also the Antiparos car ferry ramp; the car park fills by late morning in August |
| Parikia waterfront | Long cruises, catamaran, sailing yacht, Delos crossing | In town | Excursion berths sit left of the main ferry gate, not on the ferry ramp |
| Naoussa harbour | One snorkelling boat and the beach water taxis | 10 km north — frequent buses until after midnight | Too small for a catamaran; larger boats sold here transfer you elsewhere |
| Antiparos town quay | The 66ft wooden boat and the gulet | Ferry from Pounta or the direct boat from Parikia | You cross to the start; build the seven-minute ferry into your morning |
| Agios Georgios (Antiparos) | Captain Sargos' boats to Despotiko | South coast of Antiparos, bus or taxi from Antiparos town | The only scheduled landing at the Apollo sanctuary |
Blue Lagoon
Four of the boats on this page sell a Blue Lagoon, and the name appears on no chart. It is worth knowing what you are being taken to before you pay for it.
What the operators mean is the water around the Pateronisia — the three low islets of Tigani, Panteronisi and Glaropounta, scattered in the channel between southern Paros and Antiparos. The sea over the sand between them is two to four metres deep and turns an implausible pale turquoise in flat light, which is the whole of the attraction. No beach bar, no shade, and on most of them nowhere to land: you swim off the boat and get back on it.
That geography explains the pricing. The islets sit twenty minutes from the Pounta ramp, so a 3.5-hour boat reaches them, gives you three swims and is back for lunch at $76, while the same operator's Pirate Cave version adds a cave on the Antiparos coast for the same $76. A full day at $139 or $58 is not buying more lagoon; it is buying Despotiko and the far side of Antiparos on top of it.
The arithmetic
The honest comparison on Paros is not a rival tour operator. It is the public car ferry across the Pounta channel, which lands you on the same island the boats spend all day circling.
The Pounta–Antiparos ferry is a small open-deck car ferry that crosses in seven minutes. A foot passenger pays €1.50, children half, under-tens free; a scooter is about €2 and a small car €7.30 to €10. It sails every twenty to thirty minutes from around 07:00 to past midnight in July and August, roughly 07:30 to 23:00 in the shoulder months, tickets at the booth or on board, year-round. No booking exists to be made.
So: two adults from Parikia to Antiparos town and back is €4.40 each way on the KTEL bus at the €2.20 minimum, plus €3 each way on the ferry — about €14.80 for the pair, door to door. Add the cave at €6 a head and you have a full day on Antiparos for roughly €27 for two. Two seats on the cheapest guided full day cost $58 each.
What €14.80 does not include: Despotiko, which has no public ferry of any kind; the Pateronisia, which have no landing; the west-coast sea caves; and any swim that is not off a public beach you walked to. There is a middle option — Captain Sargos runs from Agios Georgios on the south coast of Antiparos to Despotiko, about €7 for the archaeological site alone or €25 for a half day with Livadi beach, €15 for children. That means the ferry, then a bus or taxi across Antiparos, for a boat that leaves once around midday. Three connections to undercut a seven-hour cruise that starts at $58 with all of them built in.
One warning about the bus: KTEL Paros takes bank cards only on board, and the €12 all-island day ticket pays for itself the moment you do Parikia, Pounta and Naoussa in one day.
Hulls
Four hull types cover everything sold on Paros, and on this island they split by harbour as much as by budget: the fast open boats work out of Pounta, the big and slow ones out of Parikia.
The line that matters is between the three-hour Pounta boats and the six-to-nine-hour Parikia ones. The short boats give you the Blue Lagoon and nothing else, which is fine — it is the sight everyone comes for. The long boats buy you Despotiko, the far side of Antiparos and the caves, and they are the only ones with a galley. Between them sits the $105 kaiki, six hours with a barbecue cooked on board.
| Hull | Price here | Time out | What it does well | Where it lets you down |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open motor boat | $76 – $105 | 3 – 3.5 hours | Reaches the islets fast; three swims in half a day | No shade worth the name once the sun is high |
| Kaiki / wooden day boat | $58 – $139 | 6 – 8 hours | Cooked lunch aboard, a shaded saloon, unhurried stops | Slow — the sailing itself eats a third of the day |
| Catamaran | $314 | 9 hours | Shade, nets, room to lie down, small numbers | Costs four times the wooden boat for the same coves |
| Sailing yacht | $101 | 3 – 7 hours | Actual sail, quiet, the only canvas sunset slot | Wind decides the route, and sometimes cancels it |
| Private hull | $465 | 2 – 7 hours | Your route, your stop lengths, no strangers | Only sensible from four people upwards |
Prices
Three bands, drawn from the thirteen listings on this page rather than an average of the market.
The Blue Lagoon half day and the Pirate Cave version both sit at $76 for three to three and a half hours, and the Naoussa snorkelling boat at $81 for three. The outlier that changes the maths is the seven-hour Antiparos and Despotiko cruise at $58 — cheaper than any half day on the island, because it carries a large group.
Food and a smaller deck arrive here: the sailing cruise at $101, the kaiki with a BBQ and the semi-private sunset at $105 each, the seafood lunch cruise at $134, the gulet capped at 25 guests at $139, and the 66ft wooden boat at $199 — the highest-rated long day on the island, 4.9★ across 620 reviews.
The catamaran at $314 is still a per-person price and reads as expensive until you compare its nine hours and small group against two seats on anything else. The private boat at $465 buys the hull for two to seven hours: for two people that is poor value, for four it is level with the gulet, and for six it is the cheapest way to control where the boat stops and for how long.
Season
Sea temperatures are the long-term monthly averages published by Climates to Travel for Paros; the sailing notes are what the season does to this particular channel.
Rain is not the problem on Paros. The meltemi is — a dry northerly that sets in from about late June and peaks through July and August, typically building to force 4 or 5 in the early afternoon and dropping at sunset. Calm from seven to eleven, rising late morning, hardest between two and four, settling after six. Where a boat runs twice a day, take the morning slot.
Geography decides who feels it. Paros shelters its own south coast, so the Pounta channel and the Pateronisia stay workable in conditions that make the north unpleasant — which is why the Blue Lagoon boats keep sailing on days when Kolymbithres is white-capped and the Naoussa boat is the first thing cancelled. The same asymmetry hits the crossings: on a strong meltemi day the direct Parikia–Antiparos passenger boat can be delayed or dropped while the seven-minute Pounta ferry carries on. At force 7 to 8 the port authority suspends sailings outright, and high-speed catamarans go before the conventional ferries do.
Windsurfers come to Paros for this wind — Pounta and Chrissi Akti hold international competitions on it. It is the same wind your skipper is reading, which makes free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead worth more here than in most Mediterranean ports.
| Month | Sea | Boats running | What it means on the water |
|---|---|---|---|
| April | 16 °C (61 °F) | A few starting up | Cheap and empty; the swim stops are a dare rather than a swim |
| May | 18.5 °C (65 °F) | Most of the fleet | The direct Parikia–Antiparos boat resumes; the Despotiko dig is on site |
| June | 21.5 °C (71 °F) | Everything | Warm enough to swim properly, and the meltemi is only beginning |
| July | 23.5 °C (74 °F) | Everything, selling out | Peak meltemi; morning departures sail, afternoon ones get shortened |
| August | 24 °C (75 °F) | Everything, sold out | Warmest sea of the year, fullest boats, longest ferry queues at Pounta |
| September | 23.5 °C (74 °F) | Everything | The month to pick: same water as July, calmer wind, fewer people |
| October | 21.5 °C (71 °F) | Thinning out | Still swimmable; the cave and the small boats wind down mid-month |
| November – March | 15.5 – 19 °C (60 – 66 °F) | Almost none | The Antiparos car ferry keeps running for residents; the cave closes |
Extras
Paros itself charges very little at the quayside, but three of the destinations on this page collect their own money, and one of them is set by a ministry rather than by the operator.
Two things worth flagging that carry no price. Despotiko is not a ticketed monument: Mandra is an active excavation run by the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades under Yannos Kourayos, with no gate, no booth and no official public opening — access is by authorised boat operators, along concrete walkways laid across the site, and the dig itself works from about the middle of May to early July. And “drinks included” on the half-day boats means water and a round, not an open bar; the $199 full day and the catamaran are the listings where the food genuinely is the product.
| Item | Amount | Who collects it | When it applies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delos site and museum entry | €20 adult, €10 reduced | Greek Ministry of Culture, at the Delos jetty | The Delos and Mykonos day — the crossing price never includes it |
| Antiparos Cave | €6 adult, €3 child 6–12, under 6 free | Municipality of Antiparos (KEDA) | Any independent visit; no boat tour on this page lands you at it |
| Pounta–Antiparos ferry | €1.50 foot, ~€2 scooter, €7.30–€10 car | The ferry operators at the ramp | Reaching Antiparos town or the boats that load there |
| KTEL bus to the pier | €2.20 minimum, €12 island day ticket | KTEL Paros — bank card only on board | Every Pounta departure if you are not driving |
| Despotiko landing boat | €7 site only, €25 half day, €15 children | Captain Sargos, from Agios Georgios | Only if you reach the sanctuary independently instead of by cruise |
On the water
Almost everything on this page happens in the 1.5-kilometre channel between Pounta and Antiparos. Parikia and Naoussa are on opposite coasts of Paros, and Despotiko lies beyond the far side of Antiparos.
Questions
Three different ones. Most Antiparos and Blue Lagoon boats load at the Pounta ramp on the southwest coast, eleven kilometres and about fifteen minutes by road from Parikia. The long cruises, the catamaran, the sailing yacht and the Delos crossing leave from the Parikia waterfront, on the berths left of the main ferry gate. Naoussa's fishing harbour is too small for anything big. The voucher names the meeting point; the listing title often does not.
It is the shallow water around the Pateronisia — Tigani, Panteronisi and Glaropounta, three low islets in the channel between southern Paros and Antiparos. No road reaches it, most of it has nowhere to land, and you swim off the boat. That is why the $76 half day from Pounta is the most-booked trip on the island, at 1,180 reviews. The public ferry crosses to Antiparos town, several kilometres north of it.
Much cheaper, and it does a different job. The Pounta car ferry crosses in seven minutes for €1.50 as a foot passenger, every twenty to thirty minutes; two people from Parikia and back, bus included, comes to about €14.80, against $58 a seat on the cheapest full-day cruise. What the ferry cannot do is Despotiko, the Pateronisia, the sea caves or any swim stop. To walk around Antiparos town, take the ferry. To be in the water, book the boat.
Yes, though it is not a ticketed monument. Mandra is an active excavation run by the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades: no gate, no booth, no official public opening, and access by authorised boat along concrete walkways laid across the site. The $58 full day, the kaiki and the private boat all include the landing. Independently, Captain Sargos runs from Agios Georgios for about €7 for the site alone. The dig works roughly mid-May to early July.
No — the cave is a land trip and no boat on this page lands you at it. It sits under the Agios Ioannis hill eight kilometres from Antiparos town: 411 cement steps down to about 85 metres, €6 for adults and €3 for children aged six to twelve, the Historical and Folklore Museum included in the ticket. It opens through the middle of the day from spring to mid-autumn and closes in winter; the hourly summer bus from the ferry dock gets you there.
Mainly July and August, and mainly in the afternoon. It builds to force 4 or 5 after late morning, peaks between two and four and drops at sunset; at force 7 to 8 the port authority suspends sailings. Paros shelters its own south coast, so the Pounta channel stays workable when the north is white-capped — the Naoussa boat goes first, and the direct Parikia–Antiparos passenger boat can be dropped while the Pounta ferry keeps sailing. Book the morning slot.
September. The sea is still 23.5 °C (74 °F), the same as July, the meltemi has eased and the boats are no longer selling out days ahead. June is the other good answer, at 21.5 °C and before the wind sets in properly. August has the warmest water of the year at 24 °C and the fullest boats; by mid-October the small operators start shutting down.
It turns on whether you want Despotiko. A 3.5-hour half day at $76 gives you the Blue Lagoon islets, three swims and your afternoon back. The long boats add the sanctuary landing, the far side of Antiparos, the sea caves and a cooked lunch — and the cheapest of them is $58, less than the half day, because it carries a bigger group.
Mykonos yes, on the $87 nine-hour Delos and Mykonos day: it crosses, gives you the archaeological site, then free time in Mykonos town — the €20 Delos entry set by the Ministry of Culture is collected on the island and is never in the ticket price. Santorini is a scheduled high-speed ferry run of two to three hours each way, not a boat tour, and a long weather-exposed day out of Parikia in high summer.
Nearby
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