12 Facts About Mykonos Greece That Surprise First-Time Visitors

1 · The most photographed church is five churches

You will photograph it before anybody tells you what it is. Panagia Paraportiani looks like one white building that melted, and it is five separate churches joined together: four at ground level, dedicated to Saint Eustathios, Saint Sozon, the Saints Anargyroi and Saint Anastasia, carrying a fifth built on top of them. Construction began in 1425 and was not finished until the seventeenth century, which is why nothing about the shape looks planned. Walk round the back and you can see where each one joins.

2 · Its name means "Our Lady of the Side Gate"

Paraportiani is not a saint. The word describes where the church's entrance once stood: at the paraporti, the side gate of the old Kastro wall. The wall has gone and the name has outlived it by four centuries.

3 · There were about twenty-eight windmills, not five

The row you will photograph is Kato Mili, and it has ten mills in it. Across the island there were roughly twenty-eight, so what you are looking at is a third of an industry rather than a monument. Most were Venetian work from the sixteenth century onward, and building carried on into the early twentieth. If you walk up in the evening you will have company; at eight in the morning you will not.

4 · The wind that made the island famous also made it rich

Mykonos is nicknamed the island of the winds, and you will find out why on your first afternoon: the meltemi blows force five to seven through July and August. That wind ground grain for ships crossing the Aegean, which is why a bare, waterless rock had a milling industry at all. It is also why your boat trip may sail the south coast instead of the route you booked — the weather page has the numbers and what to do about them.

5 · Nobody has been allowed to sleep on Delos for a very long time

The island an hour west has no hotel, no village and no overnight visitors, so whatever time your boat leaves is the time you leave. It is an archaeological site with a boat service, and the last sailing is the last sailing. In antiquity the rule was stricter still: births and deaths were both banned there to keep the island ritually pure.

6 · Delos is closed for four months of the year

The site and museum run 08:00 to 20:00 from 1 April to 31 October, 08:00 to 16:00 through November, and then close from 1 December, with visits arranged only on written request. The licensed boats stop on 30 November for the same reason. Almost no guide to Mykonos mentions it. See the Delos page.

7 · There is no midday boat to Delos on a Monday

The 11:30 sailing and its 15:00 return run Tuesday to Sunday only, so if your free day is a Monday you have the 10:00 or the 17:00 and nothing between them. It is a small scheduling fact that reshapes a whole day, and you would rather have it now than at the ticket window.

8 · The swimming happens on the other island

Wherever you book, your swim will be at Rhenia rather than Delos, because Delos is a protected archaeological site and swimming off it is not permitted. Rhenia is uninhabited, has no road and no jetty, and its bays sit out of the north wind — which is the practical reason as well as the legal one. It is also the better water, so you lose nothing.

9 · The island has two ports and your ship picks one

The New Port at Tourlos takes cruise ships and ferries; the Old Port sits at the edge of town and is where the Delos boats leave. They are 2.5 km apart. Which one a cruise ship uses is decided close to the day, which is why two shore excursions here publish a meeting point for each. The map page sorts it out.

10 · The town charges nothing at all

You can spend a whole day here and pay for nothing but lunch. There is no admission to Mykonos Town, the windmills, Little Venice, Panagia Paraportiani or any public beach. The only tickets you will be asked for are €2 for the monastery at Ano Mera, €2 for the Sea Bus crossing between the ports, and €20 for Delos.

11 · The monastery at Ano Mera was founded by two monks from Paros

Panagia Tourliani was founded in 1542 by two monks from Panagia Ekatontapyliani on Paros, and dedicated to the Assumption. It sits inside a walled courtyard with a carved marble bell tower over the gate, in a village that still functions as a village.

12 · The sea is warmest in August, not July

Water lags air by about two months, so if you are choosing a month for the swimming you want August rather than July. October still holds 21.5 °C, warmer than June, and February rather than January is the coldest at 15.5 °C. The window you actually have is June to October.

Where these came from

Dates for the churches, the windmills and the monastery are the published record; the Delos hours, ticket and closed season come from the Greek Ministry of Culture; the timetable is the licensed operator's own; the climate figures are long-term station averages. Key highlights sets out each landmark in turn, and visitor information covers the practical half.

Every trip named here is compared on price, hours and what the fare covers at Mykonos Greece Tours.

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Tours that show you these

Mykonos Greece Sail Cruise to Delos and Rhenia

Ninety minutes ashore on Delos and two and a half hours swimming at Rhenia, on the same six-hour sail.

From $147 per person

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Food Tour in Mykonos Walking and Tasting Experience

Three hours walking the Chora past Paraportiani, Tria Pigadia and the windmills, with a working bakery included.

From $164 per person

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Small-Group Half-Day Tour in Mykonos

The windmills, Little Venice and the 1542 monastery at Ano Mera in one small-group afternoon.

From $129 per person

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Half of what makes Mykonos interesting is not on the postcard. If any of these made you want to see it properly, the tours here refund in full up to 24 hours before they start.