Mykonos, our last stop in the Greek islands, is not exactly known as a “day” destination. This is an island that roars to life when the sun goes down… which is exactly when our ship would be pulling away towards Turkey.

Mykonos Cruise Tour

Since Mykonos isn’t exactly known as a cultural destination either, we decided to use this as our “sun and fun” time. As I mentioned before, we had $500 each in shipboard credit to use, so we booked a Silversea’s tour called “Sailing Around Mykonos.” Despite our previously learned lesson, we were pretty psyched for this.

Mykonos Cruise Tour

Our first stop on the tour was to dock outside Super Paradise beach to swim. I wondered why we weren’t going to the actual beach when I remembered that Super Paradise is mostly a nude beach, a fact confirmed the pair of binoculars my mom had stashed in her beach bag.

Paradise Beach Mykonos

Next we made our way to regular (non super, apparently) Paradise Beach, where we were allowed to step foot on the actual sand. I always pictured Mykonos in a similar way to how I pictured Ibiza… dripping with beautiful, painfully cool people. We didn’t see many of those. However, it was about 11am so I’m guessing they were still in bed from the previous night’s beautiful people escapades.

Paradise Beach Mykonos
To be honest… we were underwhelmed by the tour. In fact, so many people were so underwhelmed that we were given a 25% refund. Mykonos had beautiful beaches, but I would have preferred to take a bus to one and plop down on it rather than cram into a pretty small boat with lots of people and be rushed around. In comparison to the amazing Santorini sunset cruise (which we booked ourselves), it was ho-hum.

Mykonos Town
After hopping back to the cruise ship to take advantage of free (well, it feels free when you paid for it months ago!) lunch, we returned to the island to explore Mykonos town.

Mykonos Town

Mykonos Town, while still maintaining a more charm than, say, Heraklion in Crete, was a bit grimier than Santorini. Still, we enjoyed meandering around and popping into the little gelato shops and trendy boutiques (and spying on our cruise ship!)

Mykonos Town

Some of you may know that I studied art while I lived in New York. So don’t be embarrassed if I’m blowing you away with some fancy terms here with this comparison: Santorini was very “round.” Curving Streets, arching roofs, etc. Mykonos was very “square.” Right angles, boxy buildings. Okay, I think that’s enough technical architecture speak.

Mykonos Town

Despite Mykonos being a nocturnal island, we were able to find ways to wile away the sunny afternoon. First we headed to Little Venice, named for its location hanging over the water. I’ve never been to Venice, so I can’t really comment on that part. But it was certainly little.

Little Venice, Mykonos

Next up was finding the famous Mykonos windmills, echoing back to the days when wind power processed the island’s grain. Today they are simply a beautiful backdrop for photos, and a reminder of what island life used to be.

Mykonos Windmills

Mykonos Windmills

Mykonos Windmills

Moving further, we even found another outdoor movie theatre! We loved the one in Athens so much, if we were staying longer in Mykonos we would have definitely caught a film.

Mykonos Outdoor Movie Theatre

There was one Mykonos landmark I had left on my list: The pelican. Gracing endless postcards and guidebook pages, the pelican is as much a symbol of Mykonos as the beautiful windmills or the crooked streets of Little Venice. Just as I was about to give up hope, we spotted one snoozing away under a bush. He was so still we almost thought he was fake! We stood around for a bit hoping he would wake up and I could get some Nat-Geo worthy wildlife shots, but alas, we had to settle for this. Evidence, at least.

Mykonos Pelican

On our way back to the ship we popped into the Folklore Museum, one of three small museums in Mykonos Town. I compared it to a glorified antique store, but my Mom got pretty into it. It’s free, so you can’t lose by popping in.

Mykonos Museum

Mykonos wasn’t the most beautiful or the most exciting port to stop in. But that doesn’t stop me from wanting to come back. Next time, however, I think I’ll stay the night.

Mykonos Town

To see all my photos from Mykonos on Flickr, click here.

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7 Comments...
  • All I have to say is: take me to Greece NOW!!!

  • Kathryn
    September 23 2011

    A “bit grimier?” You are too kind. I guess my tolerance for garbage and the smell of urine in the streets is lower than yours…It’s a good thing they haven’t figure out how to do blog scratch and sniff!

    • Alex
      September 23 2011

      That was only in one alley really! You were just spoiled by Santorini 🙂

  • NicoDavila
    September 23 2011

    This comment is not about the article. This comment is about the blog. Congratulations! I like it. You are optimizing and give some stylish at the same time.

    Good work.

    • Alex
      September 23 2011

      Thanks for your kind words!

  • Charmian
    March 20 2013

    No offence but not staying the night at Mykonos is like going to Paris and not seeing the Eiffel Tower… I did enjoy your writing in this entry, but you HAVE to go back to Mykonos sometime to check out their world famous nightlife scene. 🙂

    • Alex
      March 21 2013

      Believe me, I’m dying to! I see a summer traipsing the Greek islands in my future…

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