Mykonos

Rising as a sun-bleached granite island at the centre of the Aegean Cyclades archipelago, Mykonos is famous across the world for two contrasting identities: glamorous summer beach clubs along its southern bays, and one of the best-preserved medieval pedestrian harbour towns in the Mediterranean. Inside Mykonos Town (Chora), dazzling whitewashed cubic houses with cobalt-blue, crimson and green wooden shutters curve along deliberately winding alleys designed in the 16th century to baffle pirates and block the fierce Aegean Meltemi wind.

Along the western headland of the town, the timber balconies of Little Venice (Alefkandra) hang directly over the breaking surf beside the landmark row of 16th-century Kato Mili windmills and the sculpted whitewashed domes of Panagia Paraportiani. Just two miles across the strait lies uninhabited UNESCO-listed Delos Island, mythological birthplace of Apollo and Artemis, while inland and along the coast stretch the monastery square of Ano Mera, the golden southern coves of Platys Gialos and Paraga, and the unspoiled northern shores of Agios Sostis and Fokos. Start with our before-you-go briefing and top things to do in Mykonos.

Mykonos International Airport (JMK) sits just four kilometres south-east of Mykonos Town (10 minutes by KTEL bus or taxi to Fabrika square), while inter-island ferries from Athens (Piraeus and Rafina), Tinos, Paros, Naxos and Santorini dock at the New Port at Tourlos, 2.5 kilometres north of town and linked directly to the Old Port and Chora every 30 minutes by the inexpensive Mykonos SeaBus water shuttle. See getting to Mykonos and how island buses and beach boats work.

First-time visitors without a car do best staying either on the edge of pedestrianised Chora (around Fabrika, Lakka or Little Venice) or in the nearby sandy bays of Ornos and Platys Gialos, where buses run into town until late at night and wooden boats launch along the southern beaches. For quiet sunset views toward sacred Delos, look at Agios Ioannis; for peaceful family beach resorts, consider Elia, Kalafatis or Agios Stefanos. Compare all bases in where to stay in Mykonos.

Get lost in the car-free flagstone alleys of Chora and Matogianni Street at sunrise, photograph Panagia Paraportiani and the Kato Mili Windmills above Little Venice, take the morning boat to walk the Terrace of the Lions on Delos, ride a wooden kaiki boat between the southern beaches, swim at uncrowded Agios Sostis, and watch sunset at Armenistis Lighthouse. Full list in things to do in Mykonos.

Beyond international beach-club menus, authentic Mykonian home cooking thrives in traditional inland tavernas around Ano Mera and hidden garden courtyards in Chora: peppery fermented sheep-and-goat cheese (kopanisti), cured pork tenderloin spiced with savory and oregano (louza), savoury onion-and-tyrovolia-cheese pie (kremmydopita), baked honey pie (melopita) and almond rosewater amygdalota sweets. Read more in our Mykonian food and taverna guide.

Named after the mythological hero Mykons, grandson of Apollo, this barren granite island prospered in the 18th and 19th centuries as a merchant shipping and grain-milling power, leaving over 600 family votive chapels scattered across its hills and a proud Cycladic architectural code that mandates annual whitewashing of every stone wall and cobblestone mortar joint.