Mykonos | The Five - Star Party island HD
Top international DJs fly in on private jets every day to host all-night club parties. Music starts blasting out across the sand at the bigger beaches from 3pm. Rental Jeeps and quad bikes clog the hilly roads, and you have absolutely no chance of hiring anything open-topped unless you have thought to book months ahead. And in the warren of whitewashed lanes of Mykonos Town, in boutiques such as Soho-Soho and the ridiculously photogenic Louis Vuitton on a little square shaded by an ancient olive tree, it’s easier to find skimpy, glittery club- and beach-wear or a Chanel lipstick than the usual Greek island offerings of olive oil or locally made soap. But that’s just in July and August.
More than anywhere else on the planet, including Ibiza, Mustique and St Barts, Mykonos has a reputation for being the world’s five-star party island. In high season, the reputation is deserved. That’s when parties at Nammos, at Psarou – the first of the famous beach clubs to open, in 2005 – at Scorpios at Paraga, Principote at Panormos, Cavo Paradiso, SantAnna and Nemo pulsate until 7am. When the island’s taxi drivers work around the clock, ferrying clubbers out at midnight and back to their hotels at dawn, and restaurants are often still serving breakfast at 5pm.
Outside those high-season months, however, it’s a different story. At the start and end of the holiday season, when the population has yet to swell from the 10,000 who live here year-round to the 180,000 who pack in during July and August, Mykonos reveals itself to be mostly a calm, quiet little island. If you want a peaceful week of sightseeing and sunshine, great hotels and good food, June or late September or October are delightful times to go.
At 10 kilometres by 15km, Mykonos is one of the smallest of the Aegean Islands. Scenically, it’s hardly the most beautiful, with stony fields, hillsides sparsely scattered with fig and olive trees, and a constant salty breeze ensuring little grows in its thin soil, although the local council’s policy that buildings are painted a dazzling white, and no more than two storeys high, gives the island an architecturally harmonious appeal.
Yet Mykonos possesses three great blessings. Firstly, whereas most Greek island’s beaches are pebbly, about 25 sandy beaches fringe its jagged coastline. Secondly, it has a hard-working, pragmatic population who happily endorse the municipality’s strict planning laws, which also ban advertising hoardings, permit neon signs only at petrol stations and pharmacies, and generally ensure the island looks Instagram-ready at all times and in all places. Thirdly, its tiny neighbouring island, Delos, is the site of some of the most important and romantic ancient ruins in Greece.
In July and August, the best hotels and restaurants, which rival anything St Tropez has to offer, reliably pull in celebrity guests – including Bella Hadid, Kendall Jenner, Usain Bolt and Lewis Hamilton last summer. So the appeal of a spring or (better, because the water is warmer) late-summer stay is that rates are considerably lower than in high season.
It’s easy to get a waterfront table at Bill & Coo. You don’t have to queue to get a seat for the 20-minute ferry crossing to Delos. Plus, daytime temperatures hover around a delicious 25°C or so, much lower than in August.