Notes on Mykonos, Greece

Mykonos is a fascinating place. I suspect I’m not really the target visitor for Mykonos as it is now (I’m not a designer brand shopper or a clubber), but the maze of whitewashed streets, interesting buildings and bougainvillea blooms are beautiful.

We were in Mykonos at the end of September 2022 as part of a 3 week trip, so all my notes are based around my experiences at that time. Please do check any dates/opening times/locations etc. if you’re planning your own trip – things change! Links are to websites if I can find useful ones, or Google Maps locations if not, so you can see where they are. Please also note this post contains some affiliate links, indicated with a ‘*’ – if you click them and decide to buy something I may receive a small cut of the payment, but it won’t cost you more. Thank you!

Instax of Mykonos, Greece, showing windmills on the horizon, with grey sky above and buildings, beach and sea in the foreground. A queue of people can be seen to the right, leading up to the windmills. The Instax print is on a grey background.

You can read my notes on what we got up to below, but if you are short on time here are my top recommendations on what to do in Mykonos, plus you can take a look at my more general notes on travelling in Greece: Athens, the Peloponnese and a few islands, too:

Travel:

Ferryhopper: Pre-book a ferry from Piraeus to Mykonos (get the metro there if you’re coming from central Athens). We got the app so we could check in online in advance (48 – 2 hours before departure)

We were coming from Nafplio, so we used KTEL Argolida to buy tickets for the bus, which leaves from Nafplio bus station and arrives at KTEL Bus Terminal A, Kifisou. We used the BEAT app to get a taxi to Piraeus but you can check Citymapper for public transport connections.

Do/see/visit:

Use Rick Steves’ ‘Greece: Athens & the Peloponnese*’: for planning, self-guided walks and useful information.

Rarity Gallery: a varied selection of work (way beyond my budget, but great to look at)

Drink:

MANTO garden Cafè: lovely coffees in a garden oasis of calm away from the crowds.

Eat:

Bakery: can’t seem to find the real name but we enjoyed the doughnuts and koulouri in this lovely bakery.

Taverna Marco Polo: cute outdoor seating area for simple, tasty food at reasonable prices.

Stay:

Hotel Lefteris*: really lovely contemporary chic hotel in a great location near the Old Port. There’s a great communal roof terrace with a clothes rack for anyone wanting to dry wet clothes or laundry.

Boats at the entrance to Mykonos Old Town Harbour, Greece, with white buildings on the hillside behind.

Travelling to Mykonos

We travelled to Mykonos from Nafplio via Athens, as detailed above. From Athens you catch a ferry from Piraeus to Mykonos, which takes about 5 hours.

We had a bit of a wait at the port so we visited Lidl to buy things to make sandwiches and made use of a surprisingly very clean loo at that end of the port (near gate E3 – I can’t link precisely to it but it’s within the port, roughly in line with this bus stop outside.

We headed in to the ship at 15:00 and it was already pretty full, an hour before departure, so it’s worth getting there early if you want to secure a good seat. We took airline seats near a window, got some drinks from the café and settled in.

5 hours wasn’t so bad, we read, went for a wander on the sun deck and later shared a spinach and a cheese and ham pie. The seats were a little tired but they were comfy enough.

Eventually we were all standing in the bottom of the boat, watching doors open as we swung round into port, then spilling out into the night. The sea bus was well signposted and we joined the cheery looking festoon light lit vessel that took us from the New to the Old Port at Mykonos.

It was super busy on the harbour but we located our hotel, Hotel Lefteris*, fairly easily and let ourselves in as instructed. It was a very stylish, sleek room made to look like it was cut into the white walls of the island, with a dark grey wet room and a fantastic roof terrace everyone was welcome to use.

We dumped our bags and headed out to buy water – what a bizarre experience! The winding little alleys are all super brightly lit and people are everywhere browsing designer stores, drinking, or sitting outside Sephora judging people’s outfits.

Photograph through a window out to the deck on the ferry to Mykonos. The sea, white railings and the blue floor of the deck can be seen, with blue and cloudy sky above, through the window which appears to be all bubbly inside.

How we spent a full day in Mykonos

Old Town walk, windmills, peaceful coffee, art, baked goods, balcony views

We got up reasonably early and had a breakfast of Melba toast-like things with honey with Dulce Gusto coffee that were provided in the room, then headed out to explore. As we only had one day here we decided to stick to the Old Town, and started with trusty Rick Steves’* walk round the main sights of the little churches, marble fish prep table, ‘marshmallow’ churches and the windmills. Everything is very beautiful so we walked carefully around all the portraits being taken, crowds trying to get selfies under the bougainvillea and people just randomly stopping or changing direction, doing much the same ourselves (though minus a glam team, which we did see at least once).

The tour took us past Cine Manto Mykonos, which is not only an amazing looking outdoor cinema, but also a lovely garden café, so we went back there for a very quiet coffee and sit down, very tranquil away from the more crowded streets.

We went into Rarity Gallery, a very swanky gallery with immaculate, dramatically black-gowned gallery attendants who told us more about the work, which was really varied and stunning. It’s the kind of place I used to be scared to go into, but since working in a gallery myself I know that the people working there largely like people to come in to see the work on display, even if they can’t even begin to think of buying anything – art is made to be experienced!

We wandered around some more and picked up some doughnuts from a bakery, which we ate by the Church of Panagia Paraportiani, wandered more, fascinated by the place, getting confused by all the lanes, then bought some sesame koulouri’s and Fanta to have on the terrace at our hotel, making use of the drying rack up there to do some more laundry.

We had to pick up new tickets for tomorrow’s ferry so we went to Sea and Sun Travel in the harbour as instructed and then had another mini wander about before relaxing on the terrace for a bit longer.

Looking up and pink blooms of Bougainvillea with blue shutters behind.
Church of St. Nicholas (Agios Nikolakis), Mykonos Old Town Harbour, Greece, photograph shows just the top of the facade: a white triangular shape with a pale blue dome with a cross on top, with blue sky and clouds above.
Marble table for fishermen in the Old Port, Chora, Mykonos, with boats in the port behind and a small cat underneath.
Church of Panagia Paraportiani against a clue sky with a few clouds
Church of Panagia Paraportiani
Buildings in Little Venice, Chora, Mykonos, with sea in the foreground and cloudy sky above.
Windmills of Mykonos from the side, with a small building with a blue-framed door in front, and cloudy blue sky above.
MANTO garden Cafè with white tables and chairs under a tree with pomegranates growing
MANTO garden Cafè
Cappucino freddo in a tumbler on a white wooden table, with dark coffee at the bottom, frothy milk at the top and a black paper straw in the top.
A glass botle with leafy stalks - the roots can be seen in water within.
Petros the pelican doing a bit of grooming in a shady spot by a wall (it's not a cage, I believe he's free to roam!)
Petros the pelican (it’s not a cage, I believe he’s free to roam!)
Street in Chora, Mykonos with a church with a red roof in the centre, a wall with 'Gucci' written on it and a tree behind to the left and a path to the right.
Pigeon statues on empty lamp frames on the corner of a building in Mykonos, Greece, with part of another building visible to the left and a blue-framed window to the right.
Rarity Gallery, Mykonos, Greece, a white building with artwork slightly visible through the open windows and doors and trees to the left and right.
Street in Chora, Mykonos with a path leading through to an open door and a plant with yellow/orange flowers.
Church of Panagia Paraportiani against a cloudy sky
Photograph of a hand holding a small doughnut in the palm. It's coated in icing sugar and chocolate sauce can be seen poking out the side.
Photograph of the outside of a bakery, with menu A-frame to the left of a red-painted door.
Koulouri on a white paper bag, on a light blue table.
Mykonos Old Town Harbour, Greece, with a small patch of beach by the sea at the front, white buildings includings windmills behind and cloudy sky above.
Photograph of a statue with wires poking from the back and arm, surrounded by whitewashed walls and shutters behind.
View across Mykonos Old Town, with hills and sea in the distance behind the Windmills and white buildings in front.
Part of the view from the roof terrace at our hotel
Close up of pink Bougainvillea flowers trailing on the stone floor.

We had a plan of where to go for dinner but when we went there were already quite a few people sitting waiting for tables. It wasn’t a particularly interesting street to sit on, people didn’t seem to have drinks and we figured it’d be at least an hour’s wait so we had a Google and went to Taverna Marco Polo instead.

It was a cute looking restaurant with festoon lights and checkered tablecloths tables outdoors. We ordered a moussaka and soutzoukakia (meatballs with a cumin sauce) and shared them both with a carafe of the coldest red wine I’ve ever experienced. It was quite a speedy dinner but very pleasant and reasonably priced! They gave us mini magnum-style cookie ice creams as a pudding which was lovely, and we went for a little wander to see the windmills at night, passing the varying party venues, back to our room to pack again.

Marco Poloo Taverna at night, with people sitting at tables outside, a sign saying 'MARCO POLO TAVERNA' on the front and lights in a tree top left.

Leaving Mykonos

It was a fairly early start to catch the boat to Santorini and nice to have a glimpse of the streets deserted. We got the sea bus to the new port and joined the massive crowd for the ferry. It wasn’t too long a trip on a fairly big ferry with nice allocated seating and one of Jos Verstappen’s F1 cars to look at.

Photograph of people waiting for a ferry, with the ferry in the sea on the horizon and a sign to the left saying 'TAXI, BUS' pointing left and one below saying 'SEA BUS' pointing right.

I enjoyed exploring Mykonos but as mentioned at the top, there were moments I was aware I’m not the current target visitor, which is fine! It is a beautiful, fascinating place and it would be interesting to explore a bit more of the island.

Next stop: Santorini

Notes on Travel is a blog by photographer Jayne Lloyd, noting the things I found useful to know when I was visiting Ancient Olympia in September 2022 as part of a 3 week trip around Athens, the Peloponnese and a few islands. I’ve tried to be accurate but please do check for up-to-date information before going as things are always changing! I apologise for any mistakes, please do let me know if you have more recent info.

* This post contains some affiliate links, indicated with a ‘*’ – if you click them and decide to buy something I may receive a small cut of the payment, but it won’t cost you more. Thank you!

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