Travel to Parga, Greece: A nice Ionian Sea town

View of Parga from Venetian Castle of Parga

Parga is a charming seaside town located in the Epirus region of western Greece.

In antiquity the area was inhabited by the Greek tribe of the Thesprotians. 

Parga was founded in the 14th century by the Venetians. The Venetians ruled Parga for over 400 years, until it was ceded to the Ottoman Turks in 1797. In 1819, Parga was sold to the British, who ruled it for a short time before returning it to the Ottoman Turks in 1832.

Parga was liberated from the Ottoman Turks in 1912, during the First Balkan War. It became part of Greece in 1913.

If you are flying to Greece, the easiest way to get to Parga is probably landing in Crete. If you are driving from the side of Thessaloniki you will enjoy a really good highway. If you are driving at night in September that really good highway will be almost empty. You don't get to see a lot but you get there not tired.

Your Navigation could think that you did not see enough and you do want to take a shorter route. Don't ignore your navigation and tell it that you are fine with the route you picked. If you ignore it you could end up on an interesting shortcut :)

And the shortcut will look like the image above, interesting change after more than 11 hours of highways. And that would not be a problem if you are not in a hurry and if the good chunk of the road didn't look like the image below :)

Back to Parga stuff. There are 3 beaches (Kryoneri, Valtos and Piso Kryoneri) in the "walking" distance in Parga. Walking is in quotations because it depends on where are you staying in Parga. As if you are staying in the beginning of Valtos it could take you an hour to get to Piso Kryoneri.

Kryoneri beach is located in the old part of Parga in the town. It is a medium size beach but it is located in the town so i am guessing it is pretty overcrowded in the season peak. There were decent amount of people there in the late September. It is a small pebbles beach.

Kryoneri beach

From the Kryoneri beach you can "walk" to the small Panagia island. Walking depends on how tall are you and how lucky are you in guessing the right path in the water :) I did witness a guy carrying a bag over his head that almost ended tragically as he was drifting from the path and at moments only thing that was above the water were his hands and the bag he was not willing to get wet :) Luckily it finished with the dry bag and him not drowning in the effort :)

Panagia island, Parga

Valtos is the biggest beach in Parga. It is located in the north side out of the old town. The beach is a mix of sand starting on north side of it and slowly changing to small pebbles as you go in the Parga old town direction. 

If your idea of vacation is to go for a swim and just enjoy the sun on the sunbeds, Valtos is the best option for you. Also if you enjoy a quiet place. There are some restaurants to get a meal, but the night life ends in 10-11 PM. At least in September.

It is funny that only photos i have of the Valtos beach are night photos, and one taken from with my phone of a plant growing in the middle of all the pebbles.

Valtos beach

Valtos beach life

I never got to Piso Kryoneri beach as i was stationed on the beginning of Valtos beach and i didn't want to walk for an hour to get to it on my last day staying in Parga. From what i seen it is a nice small beach surrounded with rocks. Could be interesting for snorkeling as Valtos and Koryneri are not really (if i didn't miss something).

Now after reading this you would think that the best idea is to find a place to stay somewhere in the middle. It is a good idea if you are a mountain goat or you like stairs. Kidding, but looking at the photos it should be obvious that there is a big hill splitting the town. Well for me it was not :)

I saw a man carrying a travel suitcase up those stairs and just looking at him i had to take a break.

At the top of the hill Venetian Castle of Parga is located. You can see that at some point there was an effort to renovate it and keep it in good condition but the idea was abandoned at some point. There was a restaurant there but it was closed few years ago. 

The Venetian Castle of Parga is worth visiting for the views you will get from there. It is not in the great condition but i would not say it is not safe (but there are signs all around that remind you that you are there on your responsibility :) ). As you will notice, a lot of photos that i took in Parga were taken from here.

There are a lot of sailboats stopping at Valtos beach. Especially at night. It looks like a crowded parking lot :) 

And it is a bit interesting at night as all you see with naked eye are the lights slowly moving and floating in the air.

Overall Parga is a nice place to spend few days in while visiting Greece, and even a whole vacation if you just want to enjoy a nice, clean, beautiful water on some of the beautiful beaches.  

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