The archipelago

From Naxos to the Small Cyclades

Naxos is the port you reach the Small Cyclades from. The crossing is simple; its calendar is not, and nobody sees it coming at the moment of booking.

The Skopelitis

Koufonisia, Iraklia and Schinoussa are reached from Naxos on the Skopelitis, a small ferry that serves them almost daily. It is this boat that makes Naxos a base rather than a stop.

The mid-October trap

From mid-October, those sailings thin out sharply. Getting there is not the problem. Getting back is. A daily connection that becomes every-other-day turns a two-night side trip into three nights you did not choose — and the accommodation is already booked.

This matters more if you are island-hopping

A missed connection does not just cost a day on Naxos; it pushes every island after it. If there is a non-refundable long-haul flight at the end of the chain, that is what pays for it. Check the sailings for your exact dates before booking anything on the far side.

Places in the Small Cyclades

7 places, checked and dated 2026-08-11. Each one opens in Google Maps from the map of 45 places.

What this page does not tell you

We do not publish Skopelitis timetables: they change mid-season, and a page showing them would become wrong without warning. The harbour of Ano Koufonisi has no coordinate on our map — it cannot be found in OpenStreetMap, and we would rather admit that than place it by guesswork.

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