Stay on Antiparos or Paros for a couple of nights?

You won't encounter cruise ship crowds on Paros. Those big ships don't stop there. Antiparos is a lovely small island. There is one village with shops, hotels and restaurants. Several beach areas are within easy walking distance, and others can be reached by rental car or motor scooter. You can bring a scooter with you from the small secondary port of Pounta on Paros or you can rent one there.

There are no cruise ship crowds in any of the Cyclades islands except Mykonos and Santorini. Even on those it is confined to Fira town and Oia on Santorini, and Mykonos town on Mykonos and the site on Delos. Elsewhere on those islands no cruise ship passengers.

I first stayed on Paros/Antiparos about 30 years ago and have been back many times since.
Carrying on from your other post about the Small Cyclades, Antiparos is a lot busier than Koufonisi. The Main St on Antiparos in the evening is very much busier and animated than on Koufonisi.

If you are only going to stay one day(2 ni) on either Antiparos or Paros then you are not going to see much. For that length of time quite irrelevant whether they are too small and boring.

If you don't want to spend so much time on ferries then why keep moving islands for just 2 nights, or indeed using excursion boats.

If you have not been to those islands at all then comparing them is very academic and relative. It really is a try and see scenario.

You have already got a very wrong impression about cruise ship stops.

There are no cruise ships passing through Paros , so don't worry about that. Antiparos is a very cute small island but after a day or two on it u have covered most things to do since it only has one main village , its a cool island for a one day trip but if u plan to stay for like 5 days or so i think Paros would suit you better , just remember that since its july although there won't be massive cruise ship crowds there is a good number of people on the island. Also Paros actually has lots of things to do and lots of villages to see so i think overall Paros would be a better choice

Thank you for the input! Ouzo we are staying five nights each on Crete and Naxos, and three on Santorini (would stay longer but so expensive) so the last two days are just "dessert" - exactly agree no point to constantly roaming between islands. Otherwise would need 10 years jk. Very reassuring to know no cruise ship passengers, even if can't avoid congestion of peak season. Was looking at staying on Antiparos vs just doing an excursion from Paros since much less expensive.

May I suggest another island? You can take the ferry to koufonisia. There are little islands behind Naxos with fantastic beaches! You think you are in the Caribbean. Also there are no cars there. You can google it and see if there is a place you would like to go!

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