Mykonos Holidays

Ornos is only a shoulder width away from the island capital, Mykonos Town, but it has developed in to a large, self-contained family resort in its own right. Its coarse sandy beach loops around a wide bay, which is sheltered from the island’s strong northern summer winds. Looking back, the view takes in a big range of shops, restaurants, and smart hotels. And behind them, the sugar lump-like houses on the surrounding low hills are watched over by 16^th-century windmills – all part and parcel of the Mykonos landscape.

• Erato Hotel

Plati Yialos is on Mykonos’ southern coast and is perhaps best-known for its long curl of golden sand. It sets the bar high, but the supporting cast rises to the challenge. A bumper crop of smart hotels and tavernas are built right up to the shoreline and give the place a real cosmopolitan vibe. Behind the front, meanwhile, cube-like houses sprinkle the countryside like French Fancies, with the low spine of the surrounding hills at their back door.

• Mykonian Ambassador Relais & Chateaux

Glance at a map of Mykonos, and you’ll find Tourlos in the north-west, around two kilometres north of the chic capital, Mykonos Town. It’s a hot contender for one of the island’s prettiest towns, with a smattering of sugar-white buildings and a golden, sandy beach.

• Rhenia Hotel

Agios Ioannis was used as the setting for Shirley Valentine – the 1989 box office smash which earned actress Pauline Collins an Oscar nod. The beach reaped the most fame, featuring in the movie’s most iconic scene. Today, the seafront Sunset Taverna seen in the film has been replaced by an ultra-modern spot called Hippie Fish, but you can’t miss the ‘as seen in Shirley Valentine’ sign outside the restaurant.

• De Light Hotel

Mykonos Town is a jumble of white houses, scrubbed and polished and accessorised with blue doors and flower-filled balconies. The whole place is a warren of narrow lanes and endless nooks and crannies hiding a little church here, a tiny boutique there. It climbs from the port up the gentle inclines of a hillside, watched over by the island’s 16th-century windmills.

• Hotel Mykonos View
• Mykonos Theoxenia
• Boheme
• Myconian Kyma
• Hotel Semeli
• Mykonian Korali

Kalo Livadi is less town, more farming community. It’s set in a valley spotted with cube-like homesteads, around 10 kilometres south-east of the island capital, Mykonos Town. The long ribbon of sand here is what’s put the place on the map. Like moths to a flame, it’s drawn a small band of hotels and bungalow-type apartments that spill down the hillside with the bay in their line of sight.

• Pietra e Mare
• Mykonos Bliss
• Hotel Archipelagos