Paxos Holidays and Paxos Beach Guides.

The Island of Paxos is a little Ionian gem - a really relaxing holiday destination and extremely picturesque, especially the towns of Gaios, Lakka and Loggos.

The small holiday island of Paxos is located about 10 miles south of Corfu and can only be reached by sea, i.e. not a runway in sight, with the transit from Corfu town taking around 90 minutes by hydrofoil. There are quite a few small beaches on Paxos but most are pebbly and also some can take a little effort to get to (unless you hire a boat) - in reality if you want a beach holiday then perhaps Paxos is not the best island in Greece for this. However perhaps don't go on holiday to Paxos just for the beaches and idyllic surroundings around Gaios Town and Harbour etc - also think about going out into the lovely countryside and hills which are great for sightseeing or walking/hiking. Of course as Paxos is a Greek island it's no surprise that Paxos also has good food and wine on offer, lot's of peace and quiet (except apparently during July and August when it's not very peaceful in Gaios) and of course very friendly people. Please take a look at our Paxos Lakka Walks and Photos topic and/or our Paxos-Gaios Walks where there are suggested walks on the island plus quite a few more of our pictures from around Paxos.

Paxos - Lakka is located at the top (north) of the island and at the end of the bus route. A small fishing village, it's set in a nearly circular bay with several bars and tavernas and it's own ducks too. As with Gaios the port has working fishing boats but mainly seems to cater for private yachts and flotillas. There is a taxi rank by where the bus stops but not often a taxi actually present - if you need one just go into a taverna and ask them to ring. There are two beaches (pebbles) which are located at the left-hand side of the village (I believe the very far end is sometimes used by naturists), but if you care to walk up and over the hill there are several other more isolated beaches (info on getting to these is on our walks page).

Paxos - Loggos. On the east coast -- around halfway between Gaios and Lakka - is the interesting fishing village of Loggos.. Loggos is set in a tight horse-shoe shaped bay and is looked down on by many olive groves and other types of trees including cypress which makes the whole aspect really good.. It is a great idea to take at least one bus ride from Gaios to Lakka - not only do you get nice views of the island on the way - but you can enjoy the bit where the bus manoeuvres through Loggos. The bus has to squeeze between the various taverna chairs and the edge of the harbour and there is not a lot of room - the customers in the tavernas do tend to move when the bus appears.

This is also where you can find the bus driver (only one bus does this trip and it's usually the same driver) who is at his most happy state particularly if someone dares to park anyway near where he wants to take his bus.

Paxos - Gaios is the capital city of Paxos, well..., anyway its a very small place full of alleys and old buildings and so on - full of interest and character. If you like cats you will be in your element - cats are not exactly rare on Greek Islands and most tavernas have their in-house moggies waiting around for the odd piece of meat or fish; Gaios though has got cats everywhere. Just near our apartment were two female cats with half a dozen kittens and we always brought them back something from the taverna each evening - as did many people. There are quite a few Tavernas and we never found one which we disliked, and also found the prices generally were reasonable (except for ice cream which seemed overpriced to us). Gaios is a working town - with two harbours- the photos are of the main harbour which is located in the heart of the town - and Gaois's harbour is quite busy with fishing boats of all sizes. In late spring and into the summer flotillas often arrive since Paxos is very much on the yachting circuit - sometimes they just moor up for a few hours but the harbour can be quite packed out since this port is a very popular for overnight mooring too. During the day it is also busy with day-trip boats going to Anti-Paxos, to the beach at Moggonissi and of course the Round-the-Island trips - also you can hire small dinghies to take out and explore the coast-line. We did not have time to do this but note that it is not (we understand) recommended that you try to use them round the island unless you are very experienced since the other coast is quite dangerous with bad currents - too much for these small boats. The town is quite quiet most of the time and extremely quiet in the evenings, however we were there in September 2002 and locals told us that in July and August it's a different story; Italy is not far away and a lot of Italian lads apparently arrive and go stupid on the mopeds etc. Also during these months a lot of day trippers come in from Corfu.

Gaios's harbour is actually quite large, for instance if from the main square you follow the harbour left you walk for ages alongside moored fishing boats and then yachts and more yachts. This "harbour inlet" eventually leads you to the second harbour - which is mainly used by the hydrofoils and Greek Island ferries as well as supply boats. A very pleasant walk is to follow as above the inlet round to this ferry port and take the "ring road" UP above the inlet and back round into Gaios. You get some smashing views so the presence of your camera is essential. You end up crossing the town's sterna and arrive then at the bus depot where you may see one of the Island's 2 or 3 buses.

There are only a couple of taxis operating on the island and these can be found on the front -- if there are none around just go into a taverna and ask them to ring up for one.

These are a selection of Paxos photographs which we thought were quite good but did not have anywhere to
place them on our Paxos walks pages:-

You may also be interested in looking at our Paxos Lakka Walks topic and our Paxos-Gaios Walks topic.

We lugged the GPS around everywhere on Paxos and when we returned to the UK we had around 100 readings plus 100 miles or so worth of walking tracking. The following are a few good GPS readings to enable map calibration (Ian B's map is great on this)
Plani Lighthouse N39,14'01"  E20,07'50"
Campanile N39,13'06" E20,08'38"
Shrine Geramonachos N39,12'08" E20,10'55"
Ag. Marina ruins (Porto Ozias) N39,10'48" E20,12'16"
Trypitos Arch N39'10'38" E20,11'09"
Aerial masts (near Megali Vigla) N39,12'08" E20,09'57" (highest point on Paxos)
Venetian Villa N39,13'14" E20,08'05"
Agrila (Avlaki Creek) N39,11'23" E20,10'05"

Useful Books/maps/links:
Friends of the Ionian An essential site to visit for all things Paxos (and pages/info on other Ionian Islands.)
Sunflower Landscapes - Paxos We found this was really useful with instructions etc
Walking the Greek Islands Haralds site gives tons of info on many Greek islands including Paxos of course.
Paxos Greece Travel Guide from Greek Island Postcards