During the summer months, Mykonos becomes the busiest island to visit in Greece. It attracts a lot of groups and party-goers, and lots of big DJs visit the island to perform at the beach and night clubs.

Mykonos was actually a secondary destination for us. We knew we wanted to visit Santorini, but the hotel we booked there was not available for the beginning of the week we would be travelling to Greece. So we decided we should look into other islands to see where we can go before heading to Santorini. Mykonos seemed like a popular and fun place to check out, so we booked our stay there. We thought it would be interesting to see and compare how different the two islands would be as well.

Mykonos is definitely a party island and you can tell as soon as you arrive. The average age on the island of visitors must be in the 20s, and you can see them all on rented mopeds and ATVs buzzing around the island. The busiest part of the island is Mykonos town. This is where a lot of the nightclubs and restaurants are, and most of the town consists of a ton of narrow walking-only streets. The beach bars are busy as well but they are scattered around on the coastline of the island.

We stayed near Elia Beach at the Myconian Utopia Resort which is part of the Myconian Villa Collection hotels on the hillside. It is a beautiful, modern, luxurious hotel. We were told that the Utopia hotel is their smallest and most “boutique” feel out of their existing set of hotels, which I always prefer. The only drawback of the hotel is that it was not close to Mykonos town, and was about a 20-30 minute drive away. If you are planning on visiting the town from this hotel it is important to know that taxis are almost impossible to get in Mykonos – the island has only about 30 taxis total! So every hotel (including Utopia) provides a complimentary shuttle from their property to Mykonos town. You can also organize private car transfers in advance for about 50 Euros each way wherever you want to go.

Beach Bars and Restaurants

These are the restaurants and bars we visited that I recommend:

• Cavo Tagoo “Kiku”, located right near Mykonos town, is a high end trendy boutique hotel and Kiku is it’s main restaurant. It has a Japanese theme and had amazing food. Try to get a table that they put up near the infinity pool (watch your step especially if you are wearing heels!) during sunset.
• Scorpios Beach Bar is halfway between Elia Beach and Mykonos town, on the water. It is a trendy large-scale beach bar that is open all day and evening. They get special DJs in sometimes and it becomes a big party at night. Definitely worth checking out!
• Nammos by the Sea Beach Bar is also halfway between Elia Beach and Mykonos town at Psarou Beach, and is one of the most famous spots in Mykonos. It is a beach with lounge chairs but also a restaurant with two areas. A covered area with tables mostly for groups and bottle service during the day, and there is another area with tables on the sand, also catering to groups but less crazy! Service can be slow due to how busy they are but it is also worth going at least once to see how it is.
• Hakkasan’s newest restaurant “Ling Ling” in Mykonos Town, located right in the heart of Mykonos town. You need to walk pretty far in the paths of the town and it is kind of hard to find. We had to keep asking shopkeepers/locals which way to turn in the narrow streets to find it, and even when we got there we almost missed it! It is a two level restaurant, has great food, great for groups, and turns into a nightclub later into the night (we left before that started so I can’t comment on that part).
• The restaurant at Myconian Utopia “Pavilion” was also very good. They had amazing fresh fish and the service was top notch. It might be too far out of the way if you are not staying in the immediate area of Elia Beach though.

Also should note that the restaurants for dinner got busiest around 11pm or so. Apparently this is normal for this island and everyone eats dinner very late. Having dinner around 8pm is considered very early! If you are not sure, ask the restaurant when making a reservation, depending on how busy you want it to be!

Overall, Mykonos was really great to see. The ideal way to see the island would be with a group (of friends, couples, family, etc) and it seems every place is catered to these kind of groups. If you go as a couple as we did, which is still fun to do, it may be worth staying out away from Mykonos town (as we did, near Elia Beach) at a resort that is still trendy, but quieter and more romantic. 🙂

Check out my other posts on Santorini and the Katikies hotel in Santorini!