Islands Visiting, Paros or Naxos?

Our family of 6 will be in Greece in April 2023, and we chose Naxos. We listened to the "Rick Steves Audio Europe™ Travel App" (downloaded on our phones) https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/audio/audio-europe , selected "Greece", and then listened to his section/interview on "Greek Islands". Rick was interviewing 2 of his Greece guides and asking what their favorite islands were, along with taking calls from listeners. It was only about 20 minutes long, and it was fantastic and really helped us think more clearly about which island to choose. Hope this helps!
Tracey

You won't be able to know if you prefer Naxos to Paros or vice versa until you have visited both islands for at least a full week on each of them.

Naxos fans will tell you to go to Naxos, and Paros fans to go to Paros. In this forum you will probably have more recommendations for Naxos since the vast majority of members only know Naxos. But objectively both sides will be right. There is no "better" island.

Knowing the two islands, there are places that I hate in Paros and Naxos and others that I love. The problem is also that the more time you spend on one, the more you prefer it to the other.

For these two islands the bus service is fairly well developed but renting a car is recommended if you are staying there for more than 3 days and you really want to discover them without being dependent on buses, their schedules and their destinations.

Renting a Quad bike (ATV) is possible on both islands but take into account the possibility of bringing luggage. Also note that these are vehicles that can be dangerous if you are not used to driving them. (many accidents on the islands with unexpetimented drivers)

You haven't specified how many days you have and when you travel, but from a travel logistics perspective know that Milos is on a different ferry route (Western Cyclades) than Naxos and Paros, and the cross connections are less frequent, so to go from Milos to Paros / Naxos, take a good look at the ferry timetables.

Naxos or Paros to Santorini won't be a problem.

I agree with JoLui in that one island is not necessarily better than the other and it is really difficult to suggest where you should go. We chose Naxos for 4 nights and we loved it. But that doesn't mean we wouldn't love Paros. I have seen pictures of Paros, and it looks just as beautiful and just as interesting. I think that one advantage to Paros is that you could also visit Antiparos, a much smaller island that is very quiet and laidback. It's about a 7-minute ferry ride from Paros.

In Naxos, our highlight was renting a car for a day and driving around the island to visit mountain villages and fishing villages. We visited the Temple of Demeter and the mountain villages of Chalki and Apeiranthos, and the fishing villages of Moutsouna, (where we had one of the best fresh fish lunches of our trip) and Apollonas.

We loved Paros, stayed there four or five nights, then went to Naxos for a night. Both are wonderful islands to visit and stay.

From Naxos or from Paros, in case you want to visit "the other side" without going through the big ferries, note that from March 2023 Kerras Cruises will provide a boat connection between Naxos (port of Agia Anna) and Paros (port of Piso Livadi) on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

Departure from Naxos Agia Anna: 09:00 and 18:30
Departure from Paros Piso Livadi: 09:30 and 19:00

The advantage (or disadvantage) is that you don't go through the big ports of Naxos Town or Parikia.

Single trip ticket price: €15

Kerras Cruises is a tour company, its shipping routes are not listed in ferries booking services.
This subsidized link is initially put into service for medical trips between Paros and Naxos but is open to everyone.