Mykonos hotels, area by area, with what each one actually gives you
Forty two hotels across the six areas people actually book, with what they have, who they suit and what August costs. The island is ten kilometres across, so the area matters more than the distance.
On Mykonos the area decides the bill and the evening. A room in the Chora means you walk home; the same money on the east coast buys more space and a taxi at both ends of every night. Here is what is worth booking in each of the six areas, and the arbitration underneath it.
For the evening
Mykonos Town and Megali Ammos
€200 to €500 in August
The only base where the end of the evening is a walk. Read the address carefully: the town covers both the pedestrian old quarter and the hillside above it, and the second means a climb home. Megali Ammos is the town beach at the southern foot of the Chora, close enough to walk in daylight, on a road with no pavement after dark.
Belvedere Hotel
Luxury
The best-placed luxury hotel in town: the windmills, Little Venice and the nightlife are all reachable on pedestrian lanes without crossing a road.
Pool and gardens · Organic spa · Walk to everything
See pricesSemeli Hotel
Luxury
Three minutes from the restaurants and bars but set far enough back to work as a proper resort, which is a rare combination in the Chora.
Two pools · Spa · Family suites · Strong dining
See pricesMykonos Theoxenia
Luxury
A protected 1960s modernist building right beside the windmills, refurbished without losing its architecture, under five minutes from Little Venice.
Pool · Beside the windmills · Seafront
See pricesCavo Tagoo
Luxury
The famous infinity pool and the most photographed private-pool suites on the island, on the rise between the two ports.
Infinity pool · Private-pool suites · Shuttle to town
See pricesDeos
Luxury
In the hills directly above town, quiet and removed, with a private pool or jacuzzi in every room and a golf cart to spare you the climb back.
Private pool per room · Indoor saltwater pool · Guests 12+
See pricesBill & Coo Suites and Lounge
Luxury
Above Megali Ammos with the sunset and an infinity pool, and the kitchen is a reason to stay rather than an afterthought. Take a taxi back after dark, the road has no pavement.
Infinity pool · Spa · Fine dining · Walk to town
See pricesVencia Boutique Hotel
Mid-range
Family-run since 1985, with an infinity pool looking over the town, the windmills and the sunset. The payoff for the uphill walk home.
Infinity pool · Above town · Breakfast included
See pricesBluetopia Suites
Mid-range
Four rooms inside the pedestrian centre, the best of them with balconies almost over the water. No pool and no grounds, and that is the trade.
Inside Little Venice · Four suites · No pool
See pricesAndronikos Hotel
Mid-range
Adults-only, out at Drafaki on the edge of town, and priced below what the facilities suggest because it is not in the lanes.
Adults only · Pool · Spa · Quieter
See pricesCarbonaki Hotel
Value
A family-run town hotel that has held its place on every budget list for years, in the lanes rather than on the ring road.
In the old town · Family run · Small pool
See prices
For families
Ornos
€250 to €600 in August
Seven minutes from the Chora on a shallow sheltered bay, with a real village behind it and supermarkets rather than beach clubs. The southern buses interchange here instead of sending you back into town, so a week without a car works. It costs a little more than the town for the same category of room, which surprises people.
Santa Marina
Luxury
A private sandy beach on the protected bay, two infinity pools and villas on a quiet hillside. If there are young children and the budget allows, this is the strongest answer on the island.
Private beach · Two infinity pools · Spa · Villas
See pricesMykonos Blanc
Luxury
Directly on the beach, surrounded by restaurants, close to both the town bus and the water taxi. One of the few properties here with a lift and accessible rooms.
On the beach · Pool · Spa · Lift and accessible rooms
See pricesMyconian O
Luxury
Adults-only, on its own section of the beach, with ground-floor rooms carrying private pools and a cave pool in the spa.
Adults only · Infinity pool · Private beach section
See pricesKivotos
Luxury
Small, romantic and set right on the bay with a cabana out over the water. The beach is pebbles rather than sand. People arrive planning to explore and do not leave.
Small private beach · On the bay · Private yacht
See pricesKove
Luxury
Two pools, a rooftop jacuzzi and the strongest kitchen of the Ornos group, with Cretan cooking and a serious wine list.
Two pools · Rooftop jacuzzi · Spa · Notable restaurant
See pricesMykonos Cactus
Mid-range
The sensible Ornos option, near the beach and the bus without the resort bill attached.
Pool · Near the beach · Near the bus
See prices
For a conventional beach week
Platis Gialos and Psarou
€200 to €500, Psarou from €500
The busiest bus line on the island serves Platis Gialos, and the beach boat to the southern coves leaves from the far end of it. Psarou is ten minutes on foot over the headland, has no bus at all, and is the most expensive sand in Greece. Staying at Platis Gialos and walking to Psarou is the move most people miss.
Mykonos Blu
Luxury
On Psarou itself, with a two-level infinity pool and a shaded cave pool. Sheltered from the wind, and Platis Gialos and its restaurants are a walk the other way.
On Psarou · Two-level infinity pool · Private pools
See pricesBranco Mykonos
Luxury
Beachfront on the widest part of Platis Gialos, sea views from every room, and a short walk to both the town bus and the water taxi.
Beachfront · Pool and beach spa · Sea view rooms
See pricesPetasos Beach Resort & Spa
Luxury
A small private beach of its own, with Platis Gialos at the door and Psarou five minutes away. The bus into town stops outside.
Private beach · Saltwater pool · Spa · Bus at the door
See pricesNissaki Boutique Hotel
Mid-range
Four saltwater pools and a five-minute walk to both beaches. The family answer here, without the isolation of a self-contained resort.
Four pools · Spa · Villas sleeping six · Walk to two beaches
See pricesMyconian Ambassador
Luxury
Long-established, and the upper rooms hold some of the best sea views on Mykonos. The hillside is steep, so not the choice if stairs are a problem.
Pool · Thalassotherapy spa · Steep site
See pricesPalladium Hotel
Mid-range
The best value in this bracket, and the reason is the hill: both beaches are five minutes downhill and the climb back is real. The bus stops outside.
Pool · Large family rooms · Five minutes to two beaches
See prices
For the sunset, or for the boat
Agios Ioannis, Agios Stefanos and Tourlos
€130 to €900 depending which
Two different propositions under one heading. Agios Ioannis faces west across the water to Delos and sells the sunset, which is what the cliff hotels charge for. Agios Stefanos and Tourlos sit north of town beside the ferry port, cost a fraction as much, and are where to sleep if the plan is a boat at seven in the morning.
Katikies Mykonos
Luxury
Adults-only above Agios Ioannis, two infinity pools, and the view runs straight out to Delos. The honeymoon answer away from the noise.
Adults only · Two infinity pools · Spa · Views to Delos
See pricesMykonos Grand Hotel & Resort
Luxury
The family option on this coast, with a large pool and a private serviced beach, though the shoreline has stony patches. Frequent buses into town.
Private beach · Large pool · Spa · Villas sleeping 11
See pricesBill & Coo Coast Suites
Luxury
Fifteen suites and a private beach club on the sand, adults-only, with access to the spa and restaurants of its sister property above Megali Ammos.
Adults only · Private beach club · Seafront pool
See pricesAnax Resort and Spa
Luxury
Two infinity pools and a small private beach in front, sandy for the sunbeds and rocky for the swim. Sandy Agios Ioannis is a short walk.
Two infinity pools · Small private beach · Spa
See pricesRocabella Mykonos
Luxury
Above Agios Stefanos with an infinity pool and a genuine culinary programme, wine tastings and cooking classes included. Outside town but still close to it.
Infinity pool · Spa · Plunge pool suites
See pricesMykonos Princess
Mid-range
Near Agios Stefanos beach, and the maisonettes have full kitchens and living rooms, which is the practical family arrangement on this side.
Sea view pool · Family maisonettes with kitchens · Breakfast included
See pricesOmeon Mykonos
Mid-range
Adults-only and all-suite, five minutes from the beach, three kilometres from town. Most suites carry a private pool or outdoor jacuzzi.
Adults only · Infinity pool · Private pools in most suites
See pricesMykonos Riviera
Luxury
Beside the new port at Tourlos, with hourly transport into town and port transfers. The setting is not charming and the logistics are unbeatable.
Heated infinity pool · Spa · Hourly transport to town · Port transfers
See prices
For the club, and for the budget
Paradise and Super Paradise
€120 to €300 in August
The cheapest beds on Mykonos, and the loudest. Both beaches grew out of campsites and the inheritance still shows in the rates. The practical argument beyond price is the night bus, because the south coast keeps a late service through the peak weeks and the rest of the island does not. If the club is not the point, visit for an afternoon and sleep elsewhere.
Tropicana Hotel, Suites & Villas
Mid-range
Adults-only above Paradise, with serious soundproofing and a wide spread of prices in the same building: suites with private pools upstairs, plain rooms below.
Adults only · Four pools · Spa · Wide price range
See pricesVotsalaki Boutique Resort
Mid-range
On the Paradise slope, smaller and calmer than the name of the beach suggests, and within walking distance of all of it.
Pool · Walk to the beach clubs
See pricesLYO Boutique Hotel
Mid-range
Above Super Paradise, the second and steeper of the two bays. Private pools in part of the inventory.
Pool · Private pool rooms · Above Super Paradise
See pricesMykonos Flow
Value
The straightforward Super Paradise option, close to the sand without the club rate attached.
Pool · Near Super Paradise
See prices
For sand and quiet
Elia, Kalo Livadi, Kalafatis and Ano Mera
€120 to €900 depending which
Over the middle and down the other side, where Mykonos stops behaving like Mykonos. Elia is the longest beach on the island, Kalo Livadi is flat and open, Kalafatis sits in the meltemi with the windsurfing. All of it needs a car, and a spontaneous dinner in town is a fifty minute round trip somebody has to stay sober for. Ano Mera is inland with no sea at all.
Panoptis Escape
Luxury
Twenty one villas above Elia, each with a kitchen and a private pool or jacuzzi, run with hotel service. Transfers, a dedicated stretch of the beach and scheduled cars into town are included.
Private pools · Kitchens · Airport and port transfers · Beach area
See pricesMyconian Villa Collection
Luxury
The full five-star resort answer for larger families, with villas up to six bedrooms and a shuttle down to Elia where the beds are free.
Private pools · Saltwater infinity pool · Spa · Beach shuttle
See pricesCali Mykonos
Luxury
Its own private beach at Kalafatis and a 130 metre infinity pool, with round-the-clock transport to town and Ano Mera. Still worth a hire car.
Private beach · 130 m infinity pool · 24h transport · Private boats
See pricesMileo
Luxury
A hillside above Kalo Livadi where every unit has a private heated pool, a jacuzzi or a sharing pool. Built for beach days followed by quiet evenings on site.
Private pool per unit · Main pool · Spa with indoor pool
See pricesNomad
Luxury
Adults-only and styled after a monastery, five hundred metres back from Kalo Livadi, with a courtyard pool and an outdoor fireplace.
Adults only · Courtyard pool · Private jacuzzi or pool per suite
See pricesSalty Houses
Mid-range
Seven apartments with kitchens and sea-view patios, steps from Kalo Livadi, with the beach clubs and the town bus five minutes away. The best-value bed on this coast.
Kitchens · Pool · Steps from the beach · Bus nearby
See pricesGreco Philia
Mid-range
The mid-range option on Elia itself, which is otherwise an expensive stretch of coast with no middle.
Pool · Near Elia beach
See pricesKoukoumi Vegan Hotel
Mid-range
The only fully vegan hotel on the island, inland at Ano Mera around a courtyard pool. A different holiday from coastal Mykonos, and it needs a car.
Fully vegan · Courtyard pool · Spa and gym · Inland
See prices
Every area on the island, side by side
The island is small enough to cross by car in twenty five minutes, which fools people into thinking the base does not matter. What matters is not distance but the two things that do not scale with it: what a room costs in that particular bay, and whether anything runs back to it late.
| Area | To the Chora | August, a night | The beach | What it feels like | Bus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mykonos Chora | You are in it | €200 to €500 | Megali Ammos, a town beach | The old town, the restaurants, the bars, and no cars in the lanes | Both stations |
| Ornos | 7 min | €250 to €600 | In front of the hotels, calm and shallow | A real village on a sheltered bay, and the family answer on this island | Yes, and it is an interchange |
| Agios Ioannis | 12 min | €350 to €900 | Small, west-facing, below the hotels | Cliff hotels looking across to Delos, and the sunset they charge for | Yes, thin |
| Platis Gialos | 10 min | €200 to €500 | Long, organised, sunbeds end to end | The most conventional resort strip on Mykonos, and where the beach boat starts | Yes, the busiest line |
| Psarou | 12 min | €500 upwards | Small, and the most expensive sand in Greece | One cove, the yachts parked off it, and almost nothing that is not a hotel | No bus at all |
| Paraga and Paradise | 15 min | €120 to €300 | Beach clubs first, beaches second | Campsite inheritance turned party coast, loud from lunchtime to sunrise | Yes, and it runs latest |
| Agios Stefanos | 10 min | €130 to €280 | Small and sheltered, past the new port | Ordinary, useful, and the place to sleep before an early ferry | Yes, from the Old Port station |
| Elia and Kalo Livadi | 25 min | €300 to €900 | The longest sand on the island | The far side, over the middle and down. Quiet, and priced as a retreat | Yes, summer only, change at Ano Mera |
| Kalafatis | 25 min | €150 to €350 | Wide, and straight into the meltemi | The windsurfing bay, low-rise, and the one east-coast base that is not a splurge | Yes, summer only, change at Ano Mera |
| Ano Mera | 15 min | €120 to €250 | None. It is inland | The island's other village, a monastery, a square with tavernas, and no sea | Yes, the eastern interchange |
The bands are orders of magnitude for a double room in August, not quoted rates, and they are what a mid-range room in each area tends to cost rather than the cheapest or the best. Every one of them falls by roughly a third in June and again in late September, which is a larger move than changing area. Drive times are for a car outside the August traffic and match those on our map of the island.
Which area suits the trip you are actually taking
Every area on Mykonos photographs identically. White cubes, dry hillside, blue water. The pictures will not separate them, so start from what you are coming to do.
What is this trip actually for?
To walk home rather than find a taxi
Stay at Mykonos Chora
Everything you are coming for is inside eight hundred metres of old town, and the lanes are closed to cars anyway. Staying in the Chora is the one arrangement on Mykonos where the end of the evening is a walk instead of a negotiation. The beach clubs of the south coast are the other half of the night, but they run boats and shuttles back into town rather than the reverse.
- The beach
- Megali Ammos, at the foot of town, and it is a town beach
- Getting home
- You walk. This is the whole argument for the Chora
Getting home, which is the part nobody costs in
This is the variable that decides a Mykonos booking, and it appears on none of the pages currently ranking for the question. The island has an unusually good bus network for its size and an unusually small taxi fleet, somewhere around thirty licensed cars for the whole season. When the last bus on your line goes, the fallback most people are picturing does not exist in the quantity they are picturing it. What is left is a queue at the rank in town, or a private transfer booked in advance at a price that makes the cheap room on the east coast look different.
There is a second trap in front of that one. There are two bus stations in the Chora, they are eight hundred metres apart at opposite ends of town, and they do not serve the same half of the island. Fabrika, at the southern end near the windmills, runs the south coast, the airport and the east. The Old Port station at the northern end runs the ferry port at Tourlos and the north-east. Waiting at the wrong one is the standard first morning on Mykonos, and our map of the island and its bus network shows which station serves what.
How does the evening end?
The easy case, and almost everywhere works
- Mykonos Chora
- You walk out of the restaurant and you are home.
- Ornos
- Buses are still running and the road is seven minutes. The most forgiving base off the town.
- Platis Gialos, Agios Ioannis
- The south coast lines are still going. Check the last one before you sit down, not after.
- Paraga, Paradise
- Fine. This coast is only starting at eleven.
- Agios Stefanos
- The Old Port station line covers it, and the walk back from Tourlos is short if you miss it.
- Elia, Kalo Livadi, Kalafatis
- The east coast summer services thin out early and change at Ano Mera. Drive, or eat locally.
- Psarou
- No bus has ever gone in. Car, hotel driver, or the walk over from Platis Gialos.
No times and no fares here on purpose. The bus timetable is reissued every season and the night services are the first thing to change, so the useful thing to carry is which coast keeps running rather than a number that will be wrong by the time you travel.
Only two areas remove this problem entirely. The Chora, where you walk. And the party coast at Paraga and Paradise, where the thing you are walking home from is next door and the night service runs through the peak weeks. Everywhere else, decide now who is driving or what the transfer costs, because working it out at two in the morning is how the budget goes.
What a room on Mykonos actually costs
Mykonos and Santorini sit in a band of their own in Greece, and it is not a small gap. In August a mid-range double runs roughly two hundred to five hundred euros a night across most of the island, call it two hundred and twenty to five hundred and fifty dollars, and the small high-end coves start above five hundred and keep going. The cheap end at Paraga, Paradise and Ano Mera lands between a hundred and twenty and three hundred euros, which is an expensive room by the standards of any other island in the Cyclades.
The week moves the bill more than the area does. That same room in June or the second half of September typically costs about a third less, and September has the warmer sea of the two. That is a larger saving than moving from Platis Gialos to Paraga, and it does not cost you the holiday you wanted.
If those numbers have changed your mind about the island rather than about the month, the fix is one ferry away. Naxos prices in a different band entirely for longer beaches and a bigger island, and it is an hour or so from the same port. The rest of the group is set out on our guide to the Cyclades.
Three things to check before you book
Read the pin, not the area name. Mykonos Town covers both the pedestrian lanes and the ring road above them, and Ornos covers both the bay and the stretch behind the main road with no view of it. The map view settles this in ten seconds and the photographs never will.
Check the steps. This is a dry hillside island and a large share of the hotels are terraced into it, which is where the views come from and also where the eighty step climb from the car park comes from. Worth a question to the hotel if anyone in the party would rather not.
And check the arrival against the boat. Every ferry of any size docks at Tourlos, two kilometres north of the Chora, not at the old port in town. The crossing from Athens leaves from two different ports depending on the boat, and the onward hop to Santorini runs from Tourlos as well. A late arrival and a reception desk on the east coast that closes at eleven is a combination that catches somebody every week of the season.
Questions people ask about staying on Mykonos
What is the best part of Mykonos to stay in?
Mykonos Chora if you are here for the restaurants and the nights, because it is the only base where the end of the evening is a walk rather than a taxi. Ornos if there are children, since it is the one sheltered family beach seven minutes from town and the southern buses interchange there. Platis Gialos for a conventional beach week with a bus line that runs often. Elia, Kalo Livadi or Kalafatis on the east coast if you want sand and quiet and you have a car. Paraga and Paradise if the budget is doing the deciding, or if the club is the point. There is no area that does all of it, and the one that suits you depends far more on how late you intend to be out than on the hotel.
What is the nicest hotel in Mykonos?
There is no single answer, and the useful way to read the question is by what the hotel is for, because the island sells four different things. For a private pool and a view over the town, Cavo Tagoo and Deos above the Chora. For a family on sand, Santa Marina on Ornos bay, which has a private beach and calm shallow water. For a honeymoon away from the noise, Katikies at Agios Ioannis for the sunset, or Kivotos on Ornos bay for the quiet. For the best-placed room in town, Belvedere, which reaches the windmills and Little Venice on pedestrian lanes without crossing a road. Decide which of the four you want before you compare anything, since they are not competing.
Is it better to stay in Ornos or Mykonos Town?
Ornos has the beach and Mykonos Town has the evening, and that sentence settles it for most people. Ornos sits on a sheltered shallow bay two and a half kilometres south of the Chora, with a proper village behind it, supermarkets rather than beach clubs, and buses that interchange there for the rest of the south coast. It is the family answer on this island. The Chora has no beach worth the name, only the town strip at Megali Ammos, but it holds the restaurants, the bars and the lanes you came to walk. The deciding factor is the return trip: from the Chora you walk home, and from Ornos after the buses stop you are waiting at a taxi rank with everyone else.
Is Mykonos Town the same as the Old Town?
Nearly, and the difference matters when you are reading a hotel address. Mykonos Town is the Chora, the whole settlement, about eight hundred metres end to end, with a bus station at each end and the new ferry port two kilometres north of it. The Old Town is the pedestrian maze inside it, the lanes around Matogianni and the Kastro quarter, which are closed to cars. A hotel described as Mykonos Town can be in those lanes, where you will carry your luggage in on foot, or up on the ring road above them, which is a fifteen minute walk downhill and a longer one back. Both are honest descriptions of the same town. Check the pin on a map before you book.
Is it better to stay in Mykonos Town or Paradise Beach?
They are not really competing for the same traveller. Paradise, and Paraga next to it, grew out of campsites and still hold the cheapest beds on the island, and they are built around beach clubs that run from lunchtime into the following morning. If that is the holiday, staying there means you walk home from it and pay a third of the town rate. Mykonos Town is the more expensive and much more varied option, with restaurants rather than clubs, and it is the base that still works when you are not out until dawn. The one practical point in Paradise's favour beyond price is the night bus: the south coast keeps a late service through the peak weeks, and the rest of the island does not.
Is Mykonos very expensive?
Yes, and more so than the rest of Greece by a wide margin. In August a mid-range double room runs somewhere between two hundred and five hundred euros a night across most of the island, roughly two hundred and twenty to five hundred and fifty dollars, and the small high-end coves like Psarou start above five hundred and keep going. The cheap end, around Paraga, Paradise and Ano Mera, sits between a hundred and twenty and three hundred euros, which would be an expensive room almost anywhere else in the Cyclades. What moves the bill most is not the area but the week: the same room in June or late September typically costs about a third less, and the sea is just as warm in September.
Can you stay on Mykonos without a car?
In the Chora, in Ornos and at Platis Gialos, comfortably. Those three are on frequent bus lines, and the old town is closed to cars anyway so a hire car there is a parking problem rather than a convenience. Anywhere on the east coast, at Psarou, or inland at Ano Mera, you will want one. Two things catch people out. There are two bus stations in the Chora, eight hundred metres apart at opposite ends of town, and they serve different halves of the island. And the taxi fleet is tiny for an island this busy, so the fallback you are imagining when the last bus goes is a queue rather than a car.
What is the best month to stay on Mykonos?
June and the second half of September, on every measure that affects a hotel bill. Rooms cost roughly a third less than in August, the restaurants will seat you, the beach clubs are running, and the sea in September is warmer than in June. July and August are the full experience and the full price, with the meltemi blowing hardest in those weeks and the north coast beaches frequently unusable because of it. May is quiet and lovely and some of the south coast has not opened yet. From November to March most of the island shuts, including the majority of the hotels.
