Culture
Take the boat to Delos
Spend a morning on the sacred island: the Terrace of the Lions, the theatre, the House of Dionysus and the climb up Mount Kynthos.
From the old port, Chora
Mykonos · Things to do
Things to do in Mykonos
Beaches, trails, festivals, food and wine: the experiences that make this island its own.
Experiences
Our favourite things to do
Ideas for every kind of day, from a lazy swim to a full-day hike.
Food & wine
Sunset in Little Venice
Get a table on a terrace over the waves an hour before sunset and watch the sun go down behind the windmills. Expensive, crowded, unmissable.
Little Venice, Chora
Festival
Dance until sunrise at Cavo Paradiso
The island's open-air superclub on the cliff, open since 1993: doors at 23:00, headliners around 01:45, last dance at 07:00. Over 18s only.
Above Paradise beach
Beach
The afternoon party at Paradise
Dance on the sand from late afternoon at the beach club that has been partying since 1969.
Paradise beach
Festival
A Sunset Ritual at Scorpios
Join the long evening sessions of music on the rocky point of Paraga as the sun goes down into the sea.
Paraga
Beach
Hop along the coast by beach boat
Ride the little caiques east to Paraga, Paradise, Super Paradise, Agrari and Elia and swim at whichever bay suits your mood.
From Platis Gialos or Ornos
Culture
Get lost in Chora
Walk the lanes early, from Paraportiani through the Kastro to Matoyianni and the three wells of Tria Pigadia, and look for the pelicans on the waterfront.
Chora
Culture
The monastery of Tourliani
See the gilded Florentine iconostasis of 1775, then eat on the village square. On 23 August the monastery holds its great feast.
Ano Mera
Food & wine
Wine and kopanisti at an organic farm
Taste the Asimomytis family's organic wines with meze in the old vineyard of the Maou monastery.
Mykonos Vioma, near Ano Mera
Nature
Sunset at the lighthouse
Drive out to the lighthouse of 1891 for a free sunset over the strait to Tinos.
Cape Armenistis
Only on Mykonos
What makes Mykonos different
What makes Mykonos different from every other Greek island, beyond the price of a cocktail.
An island where no one could be born or die
Next door, Delos was so sacred that after Athens purified it in 426 BC, no one was allowed to give birth or to be buried there. The old graves were dug up and moved to Rhenia, and the finds from that purification pit, including one of the earliest pictures of the Trojan Horse, are now in the museum in Chora.
A pelican for a mascot
In 1958 a fisherman found a wounded great white pelican and brought it to Mykonos. Petros became the island's mascot for nearly three decades; when a car killed him in 1985 he was stuffed on the municipality's orders. Today three pelicans patrol the waterfront, and one of them is called Petros.
Petrified giants
Myth says the great battle between the gods and the Giants was fought here, and that Heracles killed them on the island: the huge granite boulders strewn all over Mykonos are said to be their petrified bodies.
Five churches in one
Panagia Paraportiani, 'Our Lady of the Side Gate', grew by the old castle gate from 1425 into the 17th century: four chapels at ground level and a fifth on top, all melted together under centuries of whitewash into one of the most photographed buildings in Greece.
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