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Paxos Island is located 7 miles south of Corfu Island and 8 miles west of the coast of Epirus. It’s a small green island (of 19 square km) of unique natural beauty. It has 34 villages and 2,500 inhabitants. Their main activity relates to tourism, olive cultivation and fishing. It is nowadays the ideal holiday destination for visitors coming from all over the world, as it combines magnificent beaches and amazing geological storage with a green landscape, as well as picturesque traditional villages and remarkable tourist infrastructures.
The island’s capital and main port is called Gaios, a charming traditional village; old houses built around a beautiful bay that is embellished by the small island of Agios Nikolaos compose a gorgeous landscape. On this small island you may see the ruins of a Venetian fortress, two small churches: Agios Nikolaos and Agios Ioannis and a lovely windmill. On Saint Mary’s day, 15th of August, you may also visit the Monastery of Panagia on the island bearing the same name as well as a charming lighthouse. Gaios with its cosmopolitan character is quite developed; it has some very nice restaurants, cafes, bars and many shops. The church of Agii Apostoli is located on the village’s square, while a typical traditional edifice dating from 1906 houses the Museum of Paxos Island, exhibiting fascinating archeological and historical but also contemporary objects. On this picturesque port you can see fishing boats, yachts, sailing boats, boats that can take you on an island tour as well as passenger liners and even a seaplane. |
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Lakka |
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| Lakka is the second biggest village (with approx 400 inhabitants), it is located on the northern part of the island; traditional houses on a small port surrounding a sandy bay protected from the southern winds with deep crystal waters composes the scenery. In this traditional village you can see nice houses and small paths surrounded by charming cafes, bars and taverns. There are many beautiful beaches around Lakka, such as Harami, Kanoni, Plani, Arkoudaki, Orkos and Lakkos but also a nice lighthouse from where you can enjoy a wonderful sunset. |
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Loggos |
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Loggos is a small picturesque village of 200 inhabitants, in the eastern part of the island, 5 km away from Gaios. The scenery offers beautiful houses, taverns, small bars and a peaceful atmosphere, especially during the evenings. Visiting the church of Zoodohou Pigi with its very old wall paintings, the ancient oil mill, the soap handcraft shop of Anemogiannis are worth the trip, you may also relax on the wonderful beach of Leverhiou, or Marmari, Kipo, Kipiadi, Glyfada or Monodendri.
Ozias is the oldest village of the island (250 people live there) and definitely worth the excursion.
Beside the traditional villages, the island of Paxos offers to the visitor an astonishing green landscape planted with olive trees, pine trees and poplars, beautiful small size beaches on charming bays (eastern coasts) such as Giannias, Soulanena (the Hotel’s beach), Balos, Agia Marina, Moggonisi, Kloni Gouli, Kamini, Kamini, Kaki Lagada, Alati, Kipiadi, Marmaria, Levrehio, Glyfada, Monodendri, Orkos, Kanoni, Harami, Ahai, Avlaki and Galazio.
Paxos Island gives the visitor an exceptional opportunity to take a pleasant boat tour (daily excursions are organized but one can also rent a boat or a speedboat) as it offers an exceptional landscape with geological storage, amazing cliffs and rocks such as Erimitis, Tripitos, Orolithos, as well as sea caves such as Graves in the west coast, isolated beaches with blue crystal waters such as Ahai. Moreover, the island is surrounded by other smaller islands such as Agios Nikolaos, Panagia, Moggonisi, Kaltsonisi and other rocks such as Marmaro, Katergo and Orolitho.
One of the most appreciated excursion is the one to the smaller island of Antipaxos , only 2 miles south of Paxos Island (there are daily excursions with boats leaving from the small port of Agrapidia or you can choose to rent your own boat from Gaios port), as it offers gorgeous golden sandy beaches of crystal blue waters (on the eastern coast) such as Voutoumi, Vrika (where a restaurant is located) and Mesovrika as well as impressive geological storage, specially on the southern and eastern part of the island such as Helidonograva and Daskalia. The island has some tiny villages (with approx 50 houses), among them Ano and Kato Horio, although no more than 20 people live there.
Antipaxos Island is richly planted with vines which produce many varieties of wines of excellent quality (Troukaniaris, Korakas, Korinthi, Petrokorintho and Fidia). |
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