Located ten minutes by bus from Mykonos Airport and the Tourlos ferry port, Mykonos Town is the island's whitewashed capital, built as a seaside labyrinth to deter pirate raids and long known for its harbourfront trade. Windmills from the sixteenth century still frame the skyline above Little Venice. Mykonos Town is worth visiting if you want to navigate dense Cycladic alleyways on foot and eat peppered kopanisti cheese beside the sea. Look elsewhere if you want an inexpensive island escape free of evening crowds.
Last updated 19 Oct 2026
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Chora is a pedestrian maze of blue-trimmed alleys, whitewashed sugar-cube houses, and waterfront plazas. Days begin slowly with Greek coffee along the harbour before shifting into backstreet strolling and late-afternoon swims. By evening, life concentrates around the tavernas of Little Venice and Matogianni Street. It suits independent walkers, history enthusiasts, and diners who value authentic island produce amidst lively evening energy.
Spend your morning wandering the quiet lanes of Kastro before visiting the Panagia Paraportiani church. Grab lunch at a backstreet spot for fresh red mullet and louza pork. In the late afternoon, walk five minutes up to the Kato Mili windmills for the sunset, then finish with seafood pasta by the water in Little Venice. Select 1 Day above to see it.
Devote your second morning to the Aegean Maritime Museum and Gioras Wood Bakery for warm rusks. In the afternoon, take a brief local bus ride inland to the quiet village of Ano Mera to tour the sixteenth-century Panagia Tourliani monastery, followed by a slow rustic lunch of roast goat and sharp kopanisti cheese. Choose 2 Days to expand the plan.
A third day allows an unhurried morning boat crossing to ancient Delos to walk the Terrace of the Lions and Doric temples. Return to Mykonos Town by mid-afternoon to explore the Old Port fish market, then enjoy a relaxed dinner of grilled cuttlefish and crisp Assyrtiko wine away from the central thoroughfares.
Taste grilled barbouni, octopus hanging dry along the Old Port harbour, and sea urchin salads drizzled with local olive oil at waterside tavernas.
Walk to the whitewashed Panagia Paraportiani in Kastro, an asymmetrical complex of five merged chapels built from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries.
Visit the Aegean Maritime Museum on Enoplon Dynameon Street to inspect ancient nautical maps, ship models, and an intact nineteenth-century lighthouse.
Stop at Gioras Wood Bakery in Chora, operating since the eighteenth century, for sourdough loaves and paximadia rusks baked in an old stone oven.
Sample spicy kopanisti, a peppery fermented cow and sheep milk cheese cured in terracotta pots, paired with sweet louza cured pork and local wine.
Board the morning ferry from the Old Port for the thirty-minute crossing to Delos, the sacred sanctuary and uninhabited archaeological park.
Climb the low ridge above Alefkandra to inspect the Kato Mili, sixteenth-century stone wheat mills built by the Venetians to harness Aegean gales.
Seek out louza, spice-cured pork loin seasoned with savoury winter thyme and allspice, sliced paper-thin and served across traditional meze bars.
Stroll the flagstone edge of Little Venice where eighteenth-century sea captains built houses with balconies suspended directly over breaking waves.
Settle into unpretentious backstreet spots like Taverna Kounelas for whole sea bream cooked simply over charcoal with lemon and wild greens.
Drink glasses of dry Assyrtiko and Mandilaria at wine bars near Matogianni Street, paired with local barley rusks and green olives.
Examine the Archaeological Museum of Mykonos near the harbour for seventh-century BC pithos burial jars depicting the Trojan Horse in relief.