Wind and Kite Surfing

Naxos with its strong winds, especially in the summertime, is the surfing and kite paradise for both beginners and experienced surfers. Saint George Beach, Plaka, Mikri Vigra and Orkos are the ideal places for wind and kite surfers. In Naxos you will find the best equipped windsurf and kite centers for hiring equipment and training. The advanced surfers and kiters, who already have the necessary equipment, the only thing they need is their excitement and lots of energy. As for those who want to do their first steps in this sport, the island has schools to introduce them to the secrets of this special experience. So, the only thing they have to do is to arm themselves with courage and willingness and leave the rest to the experts and to the wind’s mood, of course.

Watersports

Naxos has the ideal beaches for watersports. Due to the northern summer winds, most of them offer the perfect conditions for watersports. You can either challenge yourself by windsurfing or kitesurfing, or you can visit Saint George Bay or Plaka beach, where you can find several fully equipped watersport centers that offer jet ski, water skiing, wakeboard, wake skate, knee board, tube-rings, banana-boat, canoe, SUP, and any other watersport activity you might wish for!

Diving

The rich coastline of the island will definitely attract the divers. Grab the opportunity to become a scuba diver and dive into a great adventure. For the advanced fans of this sport, there are fascinating places for them to explore, such as shipwrecks, caves and sunk airplanes. For the beginners, highly experienced instructors combined with premier scuba diving facilities offer a full range of training courses and dive packages. The diving schools of the island are a first-class opportunity to discover the magic bottom of the sea. There are diving schools in all the organized beaches, offering modern equipment and experienced staff, as well.

Sailing

Naxos Island is the ideal place to go sailing. If you are an experienced sailor you can hire a sailboat yourself, in order to explore the island’s secret spots and sheltered caves, or even sail to the neighbouring islands like Paros, Antiparos, Mykonos, or Koufonissia. Otherwise, you can rent a space on a yacht for the day with an experienced captain who knows the waters around the island anchoring wherever you want to have a swim. The yacht captains offer various day trips to several parts of the island and even neighboring islands if you wish. The route may change, depending on the weather as most times it is the wind that defines the cruise. Usually all boats set sail from the port of Naxos Town but after arrangement with the captain you can come aboard from another safe pre-arranged pick-up point and start your sailing holiday adventure.

Trekking – Hiking

All around Naxos island, there are dozens of paths featuring a network of hundreds of kilometers hiking and trekking to explore. In all those walking routes you will meet and cross trails, cobbled streets and dirt roads that once used to join the villages and bring people into contact. There are many available hiking guides who developed an extensive offer of hiking tours over the years to fulfill your needs, in order to know more about the history, the people and the vegetation of the island. The walks take you to magical parts of the island that you would never discover on your own, such as old marble walkways, fertile plains, rivers, waterfalls, vineyards and olive groves!

Bike Riding

Cycling on Naxos Island can be an enthousiastic way to explore the mountainous and the coastal part of the island. The variety of mountain trails, dirt or asphalted roads, provide a unique network for everyone, whether it is biking or mountain biking. Organized biking tours are also available, whether you want to visit old villages, the mountains, the green valleys or the sandy beaches.

Horse Riding

On Naxos, horse riding is a whole new experience to explore parts of the island and enjoy an adventurous and out of the ordinary holiday. It is a unique experience to gallop along Naxos’s beaches and ride the trails that offer the chance of seeing the beauty of the island at a walking pace. There is no need to worry about lack of experience in this matter since the local operators also provide rides on Naxos beaches to riders of all skill levels and even ponies for children. Guided tours are a pleasure on horseback if peace of mind is what you need and time is not an issue.

Other Suggested Activities

Other very interesting suggestions are traditional fishing tours, cookery lessons by specialized chefs, a visit at Vallindras Distillery in order to learn how the island’s very own kind of liquor – “kitron” – is made, or a walk at Bazeos Tower especially during July and August when it hosts the annual Naxos Festival. If you are athletic enough, you can also visit Naxos tennis club in Chora.