The largest and most fertile of the Cyclades, Naxos is immediately different to its barren and weather-beaten neighbours.
Its green and mountainous highland scenery is generous, this is an island of prosperity and abundance with endless potato fields, grazing cows, and fruit and olive groves framed by the pyramid of Mount Zas, the highest point in the archipelago.
Inhabited for 6,000 years, the island is full of history and monuments with classical temples, medieval monasteries, Byzantine churches and Venetian fortresses and towns that vary from a Cretan mountain bastion to the seaside capital with its elegant Venetian influence.
However, the interior is not much troubled by visitors in Summer who cling to lively Naxos Town and the developed beaches to the south west.
The coastline south of Naxos Town is a beach strip without equal in the Aegean with kilometer after kilometer of excellent sandy beaches fronted by Tiffany green seas as clear as their diamonds.
Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan: The world’s oldest hotel (video)
