Naxos Boat Tours to the Small Cyclades: Which One to Book

By DiChatz

The best Naxos boat tours head south to the Small Cyclades, and the moment that sells them comes about an hour out from Agia Anna, when Naxos has shrunk to a long brown ridge with Mount Zas on top and the water under the hull turns that pale, almost milky turquoise as the low white houses of Koufonisi rise over the bow.

That crossing is why most Naxos boat tours exist. The trip worth booking runs south to the Small Cyclades: Koufonisia, Iraklia and Schinoussa, a cluster of small islands with clear water and sea caves you only reach by boat. A shared full-day trip costs from roughly €55 to €70 on a big cruise boat up to around €160 on a sailing yacht with lunch. For a first visit, book the Rina Cave and Koufonisia cruise from Agia Anna. If you would rather share the deck with twelve people than a hundred, pay more for a shared sailing trip, and whichever you choose, book it early in your stay in case the wind cancels it.

Four kinds of boat, and the cheap ones are not a mistake

Almost every listing calls itself a cruise, which hides the fact that you are choosing between four very different days. The boat decides how many people you share the deck with, how long you spend sailing versus swimming, and how much the wind matters.

Big cruise boats and traditional wooden boats. The cheapest way to see the Small Cyclades. They carry dozens of passengers, sometimes well over a hundred, run a fixed route with two or three stops, and usually include a barbecue or simple lunch on board or leave you time to eat ashore. They are stable in a swell and the least likely to cancel. The trade-off is crowds at the swim stops and a set timetable. Names you will see on the quay include Jason Daily Cruises (the Rina Cave barbecue trip), the Kerras boat, Buru Boat Wood and Azul Cruises with its wooden yacht Michelle. SanMed Travel organises a Schinoussa and Iraklia cruise, and local agencies such as MTM Tourism sell boat days too.

Shared sailing yachts and catamarans. A small group, often ten to twelve guests, a skipper who picks anchorages to suit the wind, and a cooked lunch on board. You see fewer villages and more coves. Xanemo Sailing is the best-known operator. These trips last nine to nine and a half hours and cost roughly double the cruise boats.

Speedboats and RIBs. Fast, wet and flexible. A RIB covers in half a day what a cruise boat does in a full one, which suits families with young children and anyone who does not want nine hours at sea. In a strong north wind the ride gets rough.

Private charters. The same yachts and RIBs, just for your group. Split between ten people, a private sailing day costs about the same per head as a shared one, which makes it the obvious pick for a large family or a group of friends. Some skippers also run two- and three-day charters that sleep on board in the island bays.

Tour	Style	Length	Best for
Rina Cave and Koufonisia full-day cruise with BBQ	Cruise boat from Agia Anna, barbecue lunch	Full day	First-timers who want the sea cave and Koufonisi in one go
Xanemo shared sailing trip to the Small Cyclades	Shared sailing yacht, lunch on board	9.5 hours	Couples who want a small group
Shared sailing trip to the Small Cyclades with lunch	Shared sailing yacht, lunch on board	9 hours	A sailing day with more time swimming than on shore
Boat cruise to Schinoussa and Iraklia from Naxos	Cruise boat	9 hours	The two quieter islands, on a budget
Iraklia and Koufonisia day cruise from Naxos	Cruise boat	Full day	The cheapest way to see Koufonisi
Kerras boat trip to Iraklia and Koufonisi	Cruise boat from Naxos Town, Wednesdays	Full day, 4+ hours on Koufonisi	Long beach time on Koufonisi
Traditional wooden boat trip from Agia Anna	Wooden boat, boards 9:30	Full day	Staying in Agia Anna or Agios Prokopios
Private RIB cruise to Rina Cave and Koufonisi	Private RIB	4.5 hours	Families with young kids, short on time
Koufonisi shared speedboat day tour	Shared speedboat from Paros, stops at Agia Anna	Full day	Fast crossings and a small group
Private sailing charter to the Small Cyclades from Naxos	Private yacht for your group	Full day or multi-day	Groups of eight to ten

Verdict: best value is the Rina Cave cruise from Agia Anna, which has one of the strongest review records of any boat trip on the island (several hundred reviews averaging 4.8). Best for a calmer, more personal day is a shared sailing yacht. Best for a family or friends travelling together is a private charter, where the per-person cost lands close to the shared price.

What a full day looks like

Most full-day trips follow the same rhythm. You board between 9:00 and 9:30, reach the first swim stop or sea cave mid-morning, and land on Koufonisi or anchor off it around midday. After two to four hours there, the boat makes a last swim stop on the way home and you are back on Naxos in the early evening. On a sailing yacht the stops are fewer and longer, and the skipper may swap one island for a sheltered cove if the wind is up. Dolphins turn up on some crossings, but no honest operator promises them.

What they cost

• Half-day coastal trips around Naxos: usually €40 to €80 a head.
• Cruise boats to the Small Cyclades: about €55 to €70 for a full day, with the Wednesday Kerras boat at the top of that range.
• Shared sailing: from €160 per person with lunch for a nine-hour day.
• Private sailing: from €1,600 for the boat, priced on a group of ten, so about €160 a head when full.

Drinks beyond water and a glass of wine with lunch usually cost extra on the cruise boats, and the cheaper trips often leave lunch to you on Koufonisi. Prices move each season, so check the euro price and what is included before comparing two trips that look close.

Koufonisia first, then Iraklia and Schinoussa if you sail

The Small Cyclades sit in a tight group between Naxos and Amorgos. Day trips cover three or four of them, and they are not interchangeable.

Ano Koufonisi (also called Pano Koufonisi) is the star. It is small and flat, with a whitewashed village above the harbour and a string of sandy coves along the south coast: Finikas, Fanos, Italida and, furthest out, Pori. The water here is the reason people take the trip. Many boats also anchor off Glaronissi, a rocky islet off the north-east coast with sea caves and arches you swim into.

Kato Koufonisi sits across a narrow channel. Almost no one lives on it. It has a small chapel at Panagia, a taverna near the landing in summer and quiet beaches. Some tours anchor here for a swim, and from Ano Koufonisi a local water taxi runs across.

Iraklia is the most rugged of the group and the closest to Naxos. Boats come for the swim stops along its cliffs, while Rina Cave, the sea cave the smaller boats nose into, lies beside Rina bay on the south-east coast of Naxos and is a stop on the way to Koufonisia. Livadi beach near the port is the island’s main sand.

Schinoussa is low, green in spring and very quiet, with a hilltop village and beaches such as Tsigouri a short walk from the harbour. It turns up on the budget cruises paired with Iraklia, and less often on Koufonisi itineraries.

Donoussa is the outlier, further north-east, and almost never fits into a Naxos day trip. Reach it on the ferry and stay a night or two. Closer to home, some Naxos-beaches trips combine a Small Cyclades stop with the coves of Naxos’s own south-west coast around Alyko.

For a first trip, pick an itinerary with real time on Koufonisi. Iraklia and Schinoussa reward a second visit, or a sailing day where the swimming matters more than the villages.

Pick the boat by its port: Naxos Town, Agia Anna or Panermos

Where the boat leaves from shapes your morning more than anything in the itinerary. Naxos has three departure points for Small Cyclades trips, and they suit different bases.

Port	Where it is	What leaves from it	Suits
Naxos Town harbour	Main port below Chora	Most cruise boats, the Kerras boat, many sailing yachts, all public ferries	Anyone staying in Chora or Agios Georgios
Agia Anna	West-coast beach village south of Chora	Rina Cave cruise, wooden boats boarding at 9:30, the Paros speedboat stop	Anyone staying in Agia Anna, Agios Prokopios or Plaka
Panermos	South-east coast, facing the Small Cyclades	Smaller boats and private trips	Groups with a car who want the shortest crossing

Naxos Town is the easy default. You walk to the boat, and if you are staying in Chora or on Agios Georgios beach you skip any transfer. The run south to Koufonisi is longer from here, so more of the day goes on sailing.

Agia Anna gets you a later breakfast if you sleep on the west-coast beaches and starts the trip already partway south. Several of the best-reviewed trips leave from its small jetty. Some include a pick-up from Chora, so check the listing if that is where you are staying.

Panermos is the shortcut. It faces Koufonisia across a short stretch of water, so the crossing is the shortest of the three, but it is a long drive across the island from the west coast and there is no useful bus. It makes sense only with a car and a boat that departs from there.

Naxos or Paros? Koufonisi trips also leave from Paros, including the shared speedboat from Piso Livadi that calls at Agia Anna on the way. Naxos sits closer to the Small Cyclades, so from Naxos less of your day goes on the crossing and more on the water you came for. If you are based on Paros, the speedboat is the sensible choice. A slow cruise boat from there means a lot of open sea.

A car also opens up the rest of Naxos on the days you are not at sea: the marble villages of the interior, Apiranthos and the long southern beaches.

Compare Naxos car hire prices with Discover Cars

Go in June or September, and leave a spare day for the meltemi

Most Small Cyclades tours run from late spring into early October, with the most frequent departures in July and August. From November to April almost nothing runs as an organised trip, and the islands are reached only by ferry. Operators usually confirm the new season’s dates in spring, and some of the cheapest boats sail only on set days, like the Wednesday Kerras trip, so plan your week around them.

Then there is the meltemi, the dry north wind that blows across the Aegean in high summer. It is at its strongest in July and August, often for two or three days at a stretch. When it blows hard, sailing yachts move to sheltered water, RIBs bounce and soak everyone on board, and some trips are cancelled outright, often the evening before or early that morning. The big cruise boats handle it best, but the crossing can still be lumpy enough to send a few passengers to the rail.

Three things follow from that:

• Book the boat early in your stay, not on your last full day. If the wind cancels it, operators normally offer another date or a refund, and you need a spare day to use the new date. Keep your phone on the evening before so you see any message.
• June and September are the sweet spot. The sea is warm, the wind is usually calmer and the swim stops are half as crowded.
• If you get seasick, choose a large boat or a catamaran over a RIB, sit low and towards the back, and take your tablet before you board, not once you feel bad.

If the wind does keep you on land, the island itself is a good day out. Head inland to the mountain villages, the Kouros statues and the old olive-press towns: spend the day on a Naxos highlights and villages tour instead.

The public ferry is a lifeline, not a day trip

It is tempting to skip the tours and ride the ferry, since fares are low: Naxos to Koufonisia starts at about €7 one way and Naxos to Schinoussa at about €6. The timetable is the problem.

The Express Skopelitis, run by Small Cyclades Lines, is the islanders’ own boat. It calls at Iraklia, Schinoussa and Koufonisia, and its schedule is built around people living on the islands rather than day-trippers from Naxos. It runs to a split timetable: a high-season schedule from early July to mid-September, a shoulder-season one for spring and autumn, and a thinner winter one published separately, so check it directly before planning an off-season trip.

In high season it leaves Naxos in the early afternoon on three days a week and reaches Koufonisi about two and a half hours later, calling at Iraklia and Schinoussa on the way. Its morning run heads the other way, from Koufonisia back towards Naxos. You cannot go there and back in a day on it.

For island-hoppers it works well: the afternoon boat links the three islands in one run, which makes a slow week across Iraklia, Schinoussa and Koufonisia easy to stitch together.

The faster boats cover Naxos to Koufonisia in far less time, Seajets in about 35 to 40 minutes and Blue Star in about an hour, and on some days their times line up for a long day on Koufonisi. Many days they do not. They are also the boats most likely to be full in August.

The honest use of the public ferry is to stay over. One or two nights on Koufonisi lets you have the beaches to yourself after the tour boats leave in the late afternoon, and the island is at its best in the evening. Iraklia and Schinoussa are quieter still. For a single day, an organised trip is the simpler and often the only realistic option.

Check Naxos to Koufonisia ferry times and fares on Ferryscanner

Once you land on Koufonisia

Most cruise boats give you between two and four hours on Ano Koufonisi, with the Wednesday Kerras boat at the long end. That is enough for a swim and lunch, as long as you do not spend half of it deciding where to go.

• Under two hours: walk east along the coast from the village to Finikas, the nearest of the good beaches, about fifteen minutes on foot. Swim, then eat in the village near the harbour.
• Three to four hours: keep walking along the coastal path past Fanos and Italida. Pori, the best beach on the island, is about an hour’s walk from the village and you will want time there, so leave lunch for the end.
• Water taxis: Mavros G. Boat Tours runs shuttles from Ano Koufonisi across to Panagia on Kato Koufonisi and around to the south-coast beaches. It saves the walk to Pori and back, which in midday heat matters.

The island has very little shade outside the village. Bring a hat, more water than you think you need, and some cash: card machines are common now in the village, less so at beach canteens and on the water taxis. Bikes can be rented near the harbour, but on a short stop, walking or the boat taxi is quicker than the paperwork. Note the boat’s departure time when you land and be back at the quay fifteen minutes early. Nobody waits for stragglers.

Stay on the west-coast beaches if you plan more than one boat day

Two bases work for boat days, and they suit different people. Most first-time visitors stay in or right next to Naxos Town (Chora). Many Greeks do something else: they stay on the west-coast beaches at Agios Prokopios and Agia Anna, with a long sandy beach outside the door, and drive into Chora for dinner.

Naxos Town and Agios Georgios suit first-timers without a car. You can walk to the harbour for most boat trips and every ferry, the old town and the Portara are on your doorstep, and Agios Georgios gives you a town beach a few minutes from your room. The trade-off is noise in August and a beach that is good rather than great.

Agios Prokopios and Agia Anna suit beach people, couples and anyone renting a car. The sand is better, evenings are calmer, and the Agia Anna departures are on your doorstep. Getting to the Naxos Town boats and ferries takes a short drive or bus ride.

Hotel	Base	Price	Best for
18 Grapes	Naxos Town	€€€	Couples who want boutique comfort and to walk to the harbour
Nissaki Beach Hotel	Agios Georgios beach, Naxos Town	€€€	A beachfront room with the town and port on foot
Hotel Adriana	Agios Georgios beach, Naxos Town	€€	Families and first-timers on a mid-range budget
Kavos Naxos	Agios Prokopios	€€€	Sea views and pools above the best west-coast beaches
Naxian Utopia	Agios Prokopios	€€€	Villas and suites for a slower beach stay with a car

If you will be on the water two or three days out of six, Agios Prokopios is the better choice. You spend the other days on the beach anyway, and the Agia Anna boats are a few minutes away. If this is a short first visit with one boat day and no car, stay in town. For a beach-and-port base in one, Nissaki Beach Hotel on Agios Georgios is the easy pick.

Still deciding between the two big islands? The Paros or Naxos guide for a first Greece trip sets them side by side.

Getting to Naxos and to the boat

Naxos is one of the best-connected islands in the Cyclades. Ferries run from Piraeus and Rafina, with the fast boats taking roughly three and a half to four hours and the conventional Blue Star boats closer to five or six. There are also short flights from Athens to the small Naxos airport just south of Chora.

Ferry routes, the slow-versus-fast question and which Athens port to use are all covered in the Athens to Greek Islands by ferry guide. In August, book the Naxos sailing a few weeks ahead, especially on a Friday or Sunday. Compare Athens to Naxos ferries on Ferryscanner

When you land, the port is a short walk from Chora, and taxis queue at the quay and the airport, although the line can be long when a big ferry docks. If you are staying out on Agios Prokopios or Agia Anna with luggage, a prebooked car saves the wait. Book a Welcome Pickups transfer from Naxos port or airport

On tour day, most operators that leave from Agia Anna or Naxos Town either run a pick-up or sit close enough to walk. The local KTEL bus also links Chora with Agios Prokopios and Agia Anna through the summer, which works if your boat leaves mid-morning. Timetables are on the Naxos bus company’s site.

The real choice here is not which boat. It is whether you see the Small Cyclades in one day or give them a night. My rule is simple. With five days or fewer on Naxos, take one full-day boat trip early in the week and keep a spare day in case the wind cancels it. With a week or more, skip the day trip and take the ferry to Koufonisi for a night, because the island changes completely once the tour boats leave at five. Koufonisi is the one I would pick every time, and I would stay over: you can walk everywhere, the boat taxis get you to every beach, the food is great and the whole place is relaxed in a way a day trip never shows you. The one warning is that it is small, so July and August are packed. June and September are the months to go.

The short version

Choose by who you are travelling with and what you want from the day.

• First visit, mid-range budget: the Rina Cave and Koufonisia cruise from Agia Anna. Sea cave, Koufonisi and a barbecue in one well-run day.
• Couples who hate crowds: a shared sailing yacht, around €160 a head with lunch.
• Tightest budget: a cruise boat from Naxos Town, from roughly €55 to €70.
• Families with young children: a private RIB for four and a half hours, or a big stable cruise boat if anyone gets seasick.
• Group of eight to ten: a private sailing charter, which costs about the same per person as a shared one.
• Want the islands without the crowds: skip the day trip, take the ferry and sleep a night on Koufonisi.

For most people the first option is the right one, and it fills up first in July and August. See dates for the Rina Cave and Koufonisia cruise

Questions I get asked most

Are Naxos boat tours to the Small Cyclades suitable for young children?

Yes, on the right boat. Big cruise boats are stable, have shade and toilets, and the swim stops at Koufonisi have shallow sandy water. Nine hours is long for toddlers, so a private half-day RIB trip often works better for families with small children.

Can I do a day trip from Naxos to Koufonisia on the public ferry?

Rarely. The Express Skopelitis, the local boat, leaves Naxos in the afternoon and returns from Koufonisia in the morning, so a same-day return is not possible on it. Faster Seajets and Blue Star boats take 35 minutes to an hour and sometimes line up for a day trip, but not every day. For one day, an organised tour is the realistic option. The ferry is best for staying a night or two.

What happens if my boat trip is cancelled because of the wind?

When the meltemi blows hard, captains change routes or cancel, usually the evening before or early that morning. Operators normally offer another date or a full refund. Book your boat early in your stay so you have a spare day to use the new date.

When do Small Cyclades boat tours from Naxos run?

Most run from late spring to early October, with the most departures in July and August. June and September usually bring calmer seas and fewer people. From November to April organised trips largely stop and the islands are reached only by ferry.

Is it better to visit the Small Cyclades from Naxos or Paros?

Naxos is closer, so less of the day goes on the crossing. From Paros, a speedboat makes more sense than a slow cruise boat.

Do I need to bring anything on a Naxos boat tour?

Bring a hat, high-factor sunscreen, a towel, swimwear, water and some cash for drinks or a water taxi on Koufonisi. Snorkel masks are provided on many sailing trips but not on every cruise boat, so pack your own if snorkelling matters to you.