Cyclades · History meets contemporary glamour
Mykonos
Mykonos is the most famous face of the Cyclades, and still capable of surprising you. We plan it around slow mornings, good tables and the quiet corners, and we often pair it with Milos and Santorini on a single sailing route.
Mykonos has been one of the most photographed places on earth for half a century, and it earns the attention. It is also an island that rewards knowing where to stand: which alley, which table, which hour. That is the Mykonos we host.
In the shadow of Delos
The island’s story is written next door. Delos, the sacred islet a short sail away, is where Leto was believed to have given birth to Apollo and Artemis, and the history of Mykonos has always run alongside it. The island takes its name from Mykonos, son of the king of Delos. Mythology adds a rougher chapter: when Hercules fought the Giants, he hurled the fallen into the sea, where they turned to stone and became the great rocks of the island.
From the archaeologists to Jackie O
Mykonos entered modern travel in the 1920s, when archaeologists used it as a base for the ruins on Delos. Fame arrived in the 1960s, when Jackie Kennedy Onassis visited with her second husband, the shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, and the island became shorthand for glamour. It still draws some of the world’s most photographed people every summer. Our work is to take you past that surface, back to the origins of the island.
Explore Mykonos
Hidden corners of Little Venice
Little Venice is one of the most photographed neighbourhoods in Europe, and it is easy to see why. Centuries-old whitewashed houses with painted balconies stand quite literally on the edge of the sea. The famous frontage draws the crowd; the enchanting backstreets behind it keep their hidden alleys for the people who look.
The windmills of Kato Mili
Windmills worked on most Cycladic islands from the 16th until the late 19th century, grinding wheat and barley on the area’s constant wind. Mykonos is said to have had 28. Sixteen remain, seven of them standing in a row at Kato Mili, the emblem of the island’s working past. They have even had a turn on film, in The Bourne Identity.
Petros the Pelican
In 1958 a fisherman found a wounded pelican off the coast and nursed it back to health. The bird stayed, took the name Petros, and ran the waterfront for nearly three decades until his death in 1985. The island missed him enough to bring in three successors, so a Petros still patrols Mykonos today. Your best chance of an audience is the square near Nikos’ Taverna.
Mykonos with a group
Mykonos also works harder than its reputation suggests. We have run corporate programs here, including a retreat for a group of fifteen, using the island’s short distances, strong venues and direct flights. If that is the shape of your trip, start with our corporate and incentive travel page.
Pairing Mykonos
On a private journey, we usually give Mykonos two or three unhurried days, then sail on: Milos for the coves, Santorini for the caldera, on one route under sail.
Known first-hand
Our best picks on Mykonos
- Best Bar Rhapsody
The famous windmill view without the Little Venice crowds, and cocktails worth the seat. The room is hosted and owned by Elina, who is philoxenia, Greek hospitality, in person.
- Best Local Specialty Gioras Bakery
Kremidopita, the Mykonian onion pie, if you lean savoury; amygdalota, the almond cookie, if you lean sweet. An 18th-century wood-fired bakery in town, the oldest in the Cyclades, kept by the same family, the Vamvakourides, for more than two centuries.
- Best Wine Vinos Wine Bar
Mykonos is not a wine island, and it has exactly one real wine bar. Luckily it is a brilliant one: a stellar list of fine, hard-to-find bottles in Chora, and Nikos, the owner, knows his stuff.
- Best Beach Panormos & Agios Sostis
On the windy island, the beach depends on where the wind is blowing. In the north we pick Panormos and Agios Sostis, one of the last untouched beaches on Mykonos, with lunch at Kiki's Tavern. In the south, Psarou and Ornos.
- Best Daytrip Delos
A short crossing to the open-air sanctuary where Apollo and Artemis were said to be born. Temples, sculptures and sacrificial altars of the ancient world's most sacred isle, beside the ruins of the Cycladic port that followed it.
- Best Hidden Spot Rarity Gallery & Cine Manto
When the streets of Chora fill up, duck into Rarity Gallery, a wonderfully strange collection of contemporary art, then finish at Cine Manto, the open-air cinema in the heart of town, with a film under the stars.
Its own international airport, plus fast ferries from Athens. June and September carry the season lightly.
Design
Design your experience
Tell us the occasion, the season and who is coming. One of our Epicureans will come back with a first sketch of Mykonos, and will tell you if another island suits your dates better.