Experience the wonderfully all-round island of Paros

With Naxos to the east and Mykonos to the north, Paros has long occupied an enviable position in the Cyclades. It is also a place of rare versatility. The island shifts effortlessly between registers: working harbours, farmland, wind-beaten beaches, and a deliberate kind of hospitality. That looseness, and the sense that it still belongs first to itself, is what makes visitors reluctant to look elsewhere once they’ve discovered it.

What to see and do in Paros, Greece

Unlike other islands that have been distilled into a singular image, Paros carries multiple timelines at once. Inhabited since antiquity, its legacy runs through the landscape – from 19th-century windmills built to harness the meltemi winds and a Byzantine trail, to narrow alleyways paved with psaroplakes (fish-scale-shaped stones), katikies (traditional whitewashed Cycladic homes), and marble bell towers, many of which were built from Parian marble quarried at Marathi. It is this same material that was used for some of the most enduring works of classical Greece, including the Venus de Milo.

Ceramic artist Christiane Smit, who has lived on the island for nearly two decades and runs the guesthouse Moonhouse (a ten-minute drive from the Port of Parikia), points to a growing international community of artists, designers and independent makers: ‘What I find special is that many of them don’t come just for summer – they stay through winter and buy houses here, to live and create.’

The same shift is evident across the hospitality landscape. One bijou hotel at a time, a new wave of hoteliers is tapping into the island’s momentum. Among them, father-and-daughter duo Elie Khouri and Sophie Khoury, founders of Luura – a family-owned brand within Ennismore’s Morgans Originals portfolio – are preparing to debut their first property on Paros. Perched on a cliff above the Aegean, between Naoussa and Aliki, Luura Cliff – designed by Elastic Architects, with interiors by Lambs and Lions – draws on the pared-back purity of Cycladic architecture.

‘Most islands at this level of international attention have been reduced to a single story,’ say the Khoury family. ‘Paros still has layers.’ That instinct is echoed by Antonis Eliopoulos and Kalia Konstantinidou of Empiria Group, who opened Parīlio in 2019, marking their first move beyond Santorini. For them, Paros felt ‘more fluid, more social, and more grounded in everyday island rhythms.’

Amid rising tourism, it is the projects working within the vernacular – attentive to proportion, material and scale – rather than a generic model of luxury, that resonate most. As Eliopoulos and Konstantinidou note, ‘there is now a level of sophistication that can stand comfortably on an international stage, but the most successful places are still the ones that feel rooted in Paros rather than imported onto it.’ In a similar vein, architect Christina Seilern, who has been coming to Paros for decades and maintains a home here, adds, ‘You could not suddenly build something like a Venetian house there.’

Yet growth brings a degree of unease. The trajectory of neighbouring islands looms large, and concerns around overtourism and overdevelopment are never far from the surface. Stamos Hondrodimos of Interior Design Laboratorium – the studio behind Parīlio – points to the need for restraint: ‘there should be a conscious effort to ensure that each project contributes to the preservation and continuity of Paros’ identity.’

‘What preserves authenticity is investment in the right things: local supply chains, local employment, architecture that responds to the landscape rather than imposing on it, and businesses that champion local communities. We’ve all watched islands in the Cyclades lose themselves in the span of a few summers. The answer isn’t fewer visitors, it’s better visitors and more responsible operators – alongside architectural codes that enforce visual coherence with the landscape,’ the Khoury family add.

For now, a degree of limitation remains built into the island. Infrastructure is relatively contained, access is still mediated, and that friction enforces a different rhythm. It keeps Paros from tipping too quickly into excess, preserving the sense of space that defines it. As Seilern notes, ‘For now, you still have to fly to Mykonos and take a ferry, or fly via Athens – and I hope it remains that way.’

A version of this article appears in the June 2026 Travel Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.