Mykonos... a little slice of Paradise

At 1 am, while we all slept cozy and snug in our little cabin, the Crown Princess quietly dropped anchor at Mykonos, Greece.  This was one of the ports of call I was looking forward too as I had not been before, but always want to go based on pictures like this.

Mykonos is a small Island and easily explored on your own, you do not need join a tour or hire a guide of any kind to find plenty of beauty and fun in Mykonos!

Most cruise ships dock and then will have motor coaches waiting to take passengers in to town.  It's not far and you could walk it, but there is no reason to and the road is quite busy with traffic.  You just jump on the bus and 5 minutes later you are at the edge of town.  ATP & I had decide that we wanted to explore the beach in the morning and the town in the afternoon.  The original game plan was to catch a taxi or a bus to

We had packed snacks from the breakfast buffet, had our towels, swimsuits & cover-ups with us.  As we walked from the bus towards town, there was a group of 4 or 5 women in front of us and they were obviously traveling together, friends who knew each other well.  One of them was talking about how they were all going to go get ATV's and ride around the Island.  I thought that sounded like a pretty great idea and then I saw a sign for car rentals, but I did not see any cars out front, just ATV's.   With a little coaxing, I convinced ATP that this would be the way to get to Paradise Beach!  

We went in and did the paperwork and got our ATV.  They only put a small amount of gas in the tank and give you directions to the nearest gas station.  First priority, GET GAS!  I was driving and ATP was hanging on for dear life!  I am directionally challenged, so of course I missed the gas station.  However, we were fine and found another one, no problem.  We also saw at least 10 places that rent ATV's, so you do not need to do as we did, which is to go to the very first place we saw.  

So now we have transportation, it's off to the beach!

We get to Paradise Beach, which has nice facilities.  Paradise beach is famous as a party beach.  The  beach is a nice. flat beach with perfect access to the water for swimming, a little snorkeling maybe, and just laying around and soak up the sites, sounds & sun.  There are several bars that are popular along this stretch of beach, water sports facilities and a diving center are also available.  There is an organized camp ground behind the beach.  There are lockers so you can lock up your extra gear, there are clean restrooms and plenty of places to get food.  We heard stories about how wild it gets at night with the Cavo Paradiso Beach Club which is a large night club that is also a restaurant and beach bar.  It is located on the hill behind the beach.  We were there only for a couple of hours in the middle of the day, so I can not verify for you if it is true that at night Paradise Beach turns in to a giant outdoor night club with music, people partying and dancing on the beach until dawn.   

We enjoyed our time on the beach, ate snacks, enjoyed the sun and swam.  Then it was off for our own tour of the island.

We drove all around the Island, getting lost but heck!  Its an Island, we could not get too lost!

One area we really wanted to see of course was the famous Windmills.

These are located on the other side of town from where we came in from the ship.  It's called Little Venice.  It is a beautiful area, but all of Mykonos is beautiful really.  It was great fun to ride around on our ATV getting lost and seeing the whole island!  

We parked the ATV at the edge of the Windmills, took our pictures and then headed in to town on foot.  In this area the buildings are built right on the ocean's edge with their balconies hanging over the water.  During the 16th Century when pirating was common, it is believed this area was used for loading and unloading of stolen goods.

As we walked the narrow sidewalks of Little Venice, shopping and enjoying the charming section of the Island, we started to feel a little hungry.  We thought we would see if we could find some authentic Greek Gyros.  We came across this place and decided to give it a try.

It was a good call as we had some AMAZING Gyros and salad.  

It was a throughly enjoyable late lunch after which we did a little shopping then had to head back to the other side of town to drop off our ATV and get back to the ship by 6 pm.  It would have been great if the ship had stayed in port overnight, as we would have loved to see the town in the evening, maybe sitting in a tavern that had a view to the sunset.  But that is the trade off you make when you take a cruise.  Rarely does the ship stay over night in a port, so you may not get to spend as much time as you want in a favored port, but you cover a lot of ground in a short period of time. I hope to some day go back to the Greek Islands and stay for a few days so I can really explore.

DO THIS:  Get an ATV and explore the Island on your own!

EAT THIS:  find a little hole in the wall place and get some real greek food!

DO NOT MISS:  Paradise Beach.  (they don't call it Paradise for nothing ya know :-)

Until tomorrow,

Safe travels