There are two reasons to head to Mykonos: to see the beautiful town with its hill top windmills and to enjoy the beach life. The beach life in Mykonos takes two forms: chilled and laidback or party central. It’s pretty important to know which one you’re after and where you’re going to find it.
Beach life in Mykonos is also a little different to the UK, instead of lugging all the gear across the beach to your own patch of sand they provide the ‘stuff’ and you pay. As a Brit this is a pretty strange concept so I’ve rounded up the best beaches that do have some towel space, what price the sun loungers are and what the atmosphere is like. Hopefully this will help you know exactly what beaches to visit on your trip.
The Best Beaches in Mykonos
Ornos
Ornos is located a few Kms from Mykonos Town and is a beach that offers something for everyone. They have a variety of places that offer sun loungers and different tempos of music but they also have plenty of towel space for those who’d rather not pay for their piece of sand. Unfortunately, like all the beaches I’m about to mention they have no public toilets so you’ll either have to buy something from one of the restaurants or take a dip in the sea…
Platis Gialos
This was the closest beach to our amazing accommodation and one that seemed to be continually packed. It had the smallest towel space of all the beaches I’m mentioning and this is probably because the beach is one of the most popular resort beaches. That being said, it is a beautiful beach and has the most amazing clear water as well as not being too deep too quickly. If you wander along the coast from the far end you’ll also find a cute little hidden beach but you’ll have to get here early for a spot. This beach also has plenty of restaurants, sun loungers at a not too crazy price (€20 for 2 sun loungers and an umbrella) and a variety of music playing at different spots.
Paraga
I think this was possibly my favourite beach. I just loved the vibe here. It was more chilled than Platis Gialos but still had a lot to offer in choice and plenty of towel space. We also found that the hostel on the top corner offered sun loungers for free as along as you spent €10 on their food and drink which we thought was a great deal. Their food was also amazing by the way. You have two options for enjoying the water here too, first you could walk in off the beach, second you could jump in off the pontoon at the hostel end, I’d go for the second as it was pretty cold.
Paraga was a very 50% chilled out family place and 50% let’s get the party started. It was the right kinda percent for us. We did however find that some of the sun loungers we in the region of €40 so maybe not the beach for you if you want waterfront loungers!
Paradise
Paradise shouldn’t be confused with Super Paradise as this is the smaller baby beach despite feeling like the more lively when we visited. This beach is home to a couple of beach clubs which were blasting music and advertising happy hours with huge bottles of champagne. It was definitely a party kind of beach. That being said the beach was beautiful and there was plenty of towel space away from the more lively central part of the beach. The sun loungers were also a reasonable price at €6/7 per a lounger.
Super Paradise
This is probably the most famous beach in Mykonos and has a little bit of a rep for itself. It is definitely a beach for the young who want to tan in the day and drink the night away. There seemed to be one main bar which was pumping music and had a rowdy stag group even in the early afternoon. This beach also has a huge water sport station where you can hire jet skis or go tubing on the back of a boat. The one great thing about this beach though is the vast amount of towel space they have, just don’t stay too late or you’ll find yourself in the middle of a rather large party.
If you drive yourself just be warned the hill to and from is rather steep.
Elia
We stumbled on this beach by pure accident during our ATV exploration and really liked it. It is the furtherest away from the town which explains why it was the quietest of all the beaches, so definitely one to hunt out if you want a quiet atmosphere. The beach itself was huge with plenty of sun loungers and towel space. There were one or two spots for food and drink but on the whole it seemed like a very chilled place to be with most people being residents of the hotels surrounding the beach. If you want to get here without an ATV then there is a bus that runs here from the main town centre.
Although beautiful it is best to avoid the beaches on the north as these are extremely windy and have very little shelter as you can see from the photo below.
Want to know more about Mykonos? Check out a guide I wrote for Vix Meldrew.
Have you been to Mykonos? Which beach was your favourite?
SAVE FOR LATER
