Paros: How this lesser-known Greek island became a go-to for luxury travellers in the know

ykonos really is just so Instagrammable,” enthused a national newspaper recently, proceeding to weave a narrative of the sought-after high life that can be expected – and neatly filtered – on one of Greece’s most popular islands. Indeed, there was a point after the final lockdown, where you couldn’t take a leisurely scroll through any social media platform without seeing the Aegean Sea-backed beach clubs and windmill-dotted hillsides that the island has become synonymous with. And herein lies the reason London’s most well-heeled residents are beginning to loosen their love affair with the island – together with nearby mecca of the masses, Santorini – in favour of a neighbouring isle that has yet to make it onto the social stock market: Paros.

For travellers at the top end, seeing their once opulent yet under-the-radar Grecian haunts plastered across Instagram grids is about as enticing as lounging on a sun bed in the middle of Heathrow. And the good news? Paros is ready for these affluent callers, with its quieter charms just a 45-minute ferry away and an ever-increasing ritzy roster of converts (including fashion designer Margherita Missoni and Italian actor Monica Bellucci) who are keen to keep the isle firmly ‘off-grid’. Though the crystalline, honey-hued beaches and bougainvillaea-dotted towns and fishing villages are no less picturesque than its bigger Cyclades siblings, residents, hoteliers and visitors will…