Mykonos Travel Guide

Little Venice is among the Aegean's most romantic corners — colourful fisherman's houses built right at the waterline, wooden balconies leaning over the waves, once where fishers unloaded catch and now bars and restaurants. At dusk the sun sinks into the sea and pink-violet afterglow reddens white walls, the island's finest sunset spot. With surf and music, it is the gentle overture to Mykonos nightlife and a regular on postcards and proposal shots.

The Windmills of Mykonos line the hillock on the western edge of Mykonos Town — seven white cylindrical towers facing the sea, the island's signature silhouette. Built by the Venetians in the 16th century with thick walls and thatched caps, they ground grain on the ceaseless Aegean wind into the early 20th century. The best-preserved now serve as landmarks — one is a small folk museum — and directly below, the painted balconies of Little Venice stand on the waves. At dusk the low sun turns the whitewash honey-gold, drawing the island's biggest sunset crowd. The Aegean breeze blows force 5 most days: hold onto your hat. Five minutes on foot from town, and free to visit.

Delos is a sacred, glorious ancient Greek sacred-island ruin in the Aegean—in Greek myth the birthplace of the sun god, once the religious and commercial center of the Aegean, now a grand archaeological site, hailed as the museum island of the Aegean. Delos sits in the Aegean near Mykonos, quickly reachable by boat from Mykonos. This small island held an extremely sacred and important place in the ancient Greek world—by Greek myth it is the birthplace of the sun god Apollo and the moon goddess Artemis, thus regarded as one of the most sacred islands of the Aegean, an important religious sanctuary and pilgrimage center of ancient Greece; meanwhile, by its central Aegean position, it was also a very prosperous commercial port and center in antiquity. After glorious ages, Delos is now a grand, important archaeological site (uninhabited, the whole island is ruins), listed as a World Heritage Site. Stepping onto this sacred island is like entering an open-air ancient museum: the island is scattered with many ancient Greek remains—the temple complex of Apollo, the famous Terrace of the Lions (a row of archaic marble lion statues guarding the Sacred Lake, solemn and majestic), the ancient theater, the stadium, and the once-prosperous marketplace and houses (some retaining fine mosaic floors), grand in scale and rich in remains, vividly showing the glory of ancient Greek civilization. Climbing the island's highest point overlooks the whole ruin island and the surrounding Aegean. Visiting Mykonos, taking a boat to the sacred Delos and recalling the glory of ancient Greek civilization is a historically rich sight.

Paradise Beach sits on the southern coast of Mykonos, one of the Aegean's most fabled shores. Its long sweep of golden sand and clear turquoise water once made it synonymous with nude sunbathing and all-night parties, and today it remains legendary for beach clubs like Tropicana, watersports and sunset raves. The mood is free and euphoric — sunbathe and paddle by day, then watch the sand turn into an open-air dancefloor after dark. It is the purest expression of Mykonos's hedonistic spirit.