×Greece Travel Secrets
One Day in Mykonos
A trip by Sandy PapasGreece Travel SecretsOne Day in Mykonos
Mykonos in a day is the Windmills, the Town, Little Venice, a boat to Delos, an afternoon at a famous beach, and sunset cocktails on the waterfront. Plan around the ship-departure time and skip the cruise tours.
Sugar Blue Mykonos
Three quiet Cycladic apartments above Agia Sofia, five minutes from Mykonos Town.
9.8 Alternative places to stay
MykonosDay 1
Delos & Little Venice
il forno di Gerasimo
A traditional Italian bakery in the heart of Mykonos Town, on Agioi Gerasimoi street, where Gerasimo has been pulling pizzas and focaccias out of a wood-fired oven for two decades. The display case is crammed with pastries – sweet and savoury – and the front bench fills with locals stopping in for coffee and a slice. Honest prices, generous portions, the kind of breakfast that holds you until lunch.
Archaeological site of Delos tour
The birthplace of Apollo – a whole island that is an open-air museum, thirty minutes by boat from Mykonos harbor. The Terrace of the Lions still guards the Sacred Lake after twenty-five centuries. Temples, mosaic floors, a theatre quarter, and a small museum that houses what the wind hasn't claimed. Half-day trips depart mornings from the Old Port; buy your site ticket (€20) on arrival. There's no food, no shade, and no mercy from the midday sun – bring water, a hat, and sturdy shoes. Allow three hours on the island; the afternoon return leaves around 15:00. The mosaics in the House of Dionysus alone are worth the crossing.
Aegean Maritime Museum
A small but loved museum on Enoplon Dynameon, dedicated to the merchant marine history of the Aegean – model ships, navigational instruments, maps charting Greek shipping routes back to the 18th century, and a garden full of figureheads and anchor stones. Founded in 1983 by a shipping family, it's a window into how the Greeks moved goods and ideas across the sea for centuries. Cool, shaded, blessedly quiet on a hot afternoon.
Mykonos Town
This is one of the most beautiful towns in Cyclades, one that has maintained its beautiful, unaffected and austere Aegean style intact. Narrow cobblestone-laid streets, small freshly whitewashed houses with blue windows and small wooden balconies, pots filled with multicoloured and fragrant flowers, churches, museums and streets lined with shops with a bustling trade create a remarkable picture. In the summertime the narrow streets are full of people walking about and visiting the luxurious shops and boutiques or having fun in the famous clubs and restaurants. The harbour is equally picturesque and among the multicoloured fishing boats you get a glimpse of Petros, the famous pelican and the mascot of the island.
Paraportiani Church
Paraportiani is the most well-known and one of the most ancient churches of the island. It was built between the 16th and the 17th century. It consists of a two-storey compound of five churches (four of them are on the basis of the compound, while the fifth one is on top of them, like a dome), that was built at the location where a tower of the island's medieval castle used to stand. The four churches are: Agios Efstathios (at the centre of the compound basis), Agioi Anargyroi, Agios Sozon and Agia Anastasia. The church was named after a small gate (‘paraporti') on the castle wall near it.
Little Venice
An 18th century district, dominated by grand captains' mansions with colourful balconies and stylish windows. With balconies perched over the sea, pictures of the famous Italian city spring to mind. Relax at a waterfront café and admire the view of the quaint windmills standing imposingly on the hillside above, set against a luminous blue backdrop
Mykonos Folklore Museum
Housed in a 16th-century captain's mansion in Kastro just behind Paraportiani, the Folklore Museum is the island as it lived before tourism – embroideries, wedding chests, kitchenware, a recreated 19th-century bedroom and the old wooden printing press from the Mykonos newspaper. Free to enter, donations welcomed. (Check opening status before visiting – the museum has had recent temporary closures.)
Rarity Gallery
On Kalogera street in the heart of Mykonos Town, Rarity is one of the Mediterranean's most ambitious contemporary art galleries – hyperreal sculpture, photography, painting from artists exhibited in New York and Berlin. The building is itself part of the experience: a whitewashed Cycladic shell that the curators have hollowed out into bright, museum-grade rooms. Worth a 45-minute browse even if you're not buying.
Super Paradise beach
Super Paradise is perhaps the most famous beach in Mykonos. Considered one of the most beautiful, Super Paradise Beach is located 6,5km from the Chora and is accessible by bus, boats from Platis Gialos and Ornos, and provides generous parking. Famous for its beach parties, Super Paradise is a must for party animals. Don't be shocked if you see nudists in the far corners.
Caprice of Mykonos
The jet-setters choice haunt from dusk until dawn is the Caprice Bar in the Little Venice district of Mykonos. Caprice Mykonos Bar is perched on the seafront of Little Venice with a stunning view of the Aegean Sunset. A traditional-style setting with some of Greece's finest cocktails and laid-back, sun-soaked mood prevails throughout the day and belies the exciting environment that takes over after sunset. Before your night begins and as the evening wanes, listen to the water lap at the stone in a serene setting as the Mediterranean ocean and sky change colors before your eyes.