Recap of 2018: Mykonos Photo Guide

To round off my recap of 2018, this post is all about our October trip to Mykonos. This was just a 4 day trip but I feel like we did a pretty good job of fitting everything in! In this post I will be focusing on tips and locations for taking beautiful photos on such a good-looking island.

Logistics

Views of Mykonos Town with Boni Windmill

· I found some pretty good deals to entice us to Greece… flights were £90pp and our hotel was lovely, close to Mykonos town but only £52 a night!

· This combined with airport parking meant that our upfront costs were well under £200pp for a 3 night trip

· I would definitely recommend staying near Mykonos Town (also known as Chora). We stayed at Mykonos Beach Hotel (which was really lovely) in nearby Megali Ammos. As the name suggests, this is by the beach!

Mykonos Town

You know those classic pictures of Mykonos/any Greek island… the ones with white cobbled streets, blue buildings and pink bougainvillea flowers? Mykonos Town is where you will find all of that and more. The perhaps hard to swallow truth is that by day, all of the many shops will be open (generally detracting from the beauty) and the streets will be absolutely teeming with tourists as eager as you. Even though we went in the shoulder season of October, this still rings true so don’t underestimate the popularity of Mykonos! One thing you can do to have the streets to yourself for some beautiful tourist-free pictures is to get up early! Much to my boyfriend’s delight, we got up at dawn twice out of our 3 days to experience the calmness of Mykonos Town with plenty of time to take pictures before shops open and the rest of the tourists come out to play.

Within Mykonos Town, check out Little Venice, Panagia Paraportiani Church, Boni’s Windmill and the Kato Mili Windmills (left to right/top to bottom in photos below). Mykonos Town is small enough that you can cover all of these in a couple of hours if you really want to. For the iconic street pictures, some wandering around and getting to know the town is all you need. You can find lots of your own corners of this town even on a tight schedule.

Beaches

For me, the other thing in Mykonos I was really keen to see was some of its beautiful beaches. It’s also a great excuse to rent a quad bike (as we did!). This was pretty cheap; if I remember correctly it was 30 euros for 24 hours and didn’t require any type of deposit with helmets free. You’ll be able to book through most hotels. We got our quad bike late morning and set out for a day of beaches!

Waters of Agios Stefanos

View from Armenistis Lighthouse

First we headed to Armenistis Lighthouse via Agios Stefanos Beach. Armenistis Lighthouse is at the North West (shout out Kim & Kanye) tip of the island so we simply rode up the coast from Mykonos Town, nicely taking us past the seriously stunning beach of Agios Stefanos. The water here was really something else, especially from our viewpoint slightly above. We didn’t stop for long since we were headed to the Lighthouse, which had pretty amazing views! From here (going to start sounding like a broken record), the water also looked an unreal shade of blue.

Next up we headed east to Agios Sostis Beach (pictured above), where we spent the majority of the day. Here there is a really cool restaurant, serving salads and grill items, called Kiki’s Taverna. Even in October, queues quickly form but rest assured… queue members have access to free boxed wine (and superb views!). On the actual beach, I braved the October waters which were actually very pleasant… and I wasn’t the only one!

Stairs to the sea at Psarou Beach

After this we headed to the south coast, to Kalo Livadi, Elia and Psarou Beaches. When we arrived at Kalo Livadi it didn’t look particularly special so in the interest of time we didn’t stop and went straight on to Elia Beach. If I’m not mistaken, this is the longest beach in Mykonos and we relaxed for a while at the beach bar. Finally we checked out Psarou Beach, the sun almost setting. In the summer this is the destination of the popular Nammos Bar but it was completely deserted in October. I had a little walk to a viewpoint of the east side of beach but one of the hills further blocking the setting sun didn’t make for great lighting!

Elia Beach

All in all, the most picturesque beaches for me were Agios Stefanos, Agios Sostis and also Panormos Beach (next to Agios Sostis, so we drove past and snapped a photo).

Our 4 days in Mykonos were lovely and the only other thing I would do (with more time and a bigger budget!) is go on a boat trip for the day to uninhabited Rhenia Island. I’m super happy with the photos I managed to get by making sure to get up early and finding areas of the island less explored by most. I hope you think they’re nice too! Do let me know down in the comments if you have any thoughts or questions.