at the end of last summer i was lucky enough to travel to mykonos! We were torn between here and santorini but went for Mykonos following an extensive review of hotels via. tripadvisor (yes i probably go a tad overboard with my holiday research... but in my defence we don't go on many holidays and so i want to make sure those we do go on are perfect!)
we ended up selecting the rocabella hotel which had acheived 5* tripadvisor reviews... meaning we were pretty sure it was going to be worth the money (and oh my goodness it was!)... also the hotel provide a free transfer into mykonos town every hour which meant we never had to worry about taxis to dinner!
random tip (sorry if this seems obvious but a number of couples we spoke too out there didn't think to do this and so i thought it was worth mentioning) - we managed to book a super early flight out on the way over, and a late evening flight back meaning we effectively had a whole additional day for free! bearing in mind the hotel we stayed at was around £170 per night for that time of year (late september / early october), meaning we could only actually stretch our budget to a 6 night stay - this was a huge plus for us :)
things to do:
- windmills
- lighthouse - we were advised by the hotel reception staff to travel up to the lighthouse to watch the sunset, which we did on our final night of the trip, and it was incredible - i would whole-heartedly recommend doing this! it was made even more special for us i guess by the fact that we only just made it there in time... due to laying out on one of the many beaches for a little longer than planned! not only that but our quad bike (which we thought was a bargain as was half the price of one we had rented earlier in the week - see below!) couldn't carry us both up the steep hills leading to the lighthouse (and we are average sized people i promise!). this meant one of us (which of course ended up being me) had to get off the bike and run alongside for about 1/3rd of the total journey!
- town - there is an abundance of restaurants / cute little coffee shops throughout mykonos town, and the cobbled streets are unlike anything i have seen before meaning you are never more than two steps away from a perfect ootd backdrop :)
- beaches - as the island is known for being a tad windy (especially at the time of year we went) our hotel reception recommended the best days to go to certain beaches (depending on level and direction of wind) and we generally followed this to the letter :)
- vineyard - this was a tripadvisor recommendation and completely lived up to the hype... plus the food was some of the best we had all week (it felt most authentic also!)
- rent quad bikes - we had been given this advice from a couple who had travelled to mykonos the year before and we were so glad we listened! we ended up renting quads for three full days and i think this was the perfect amount, and meant we were able to get right across the island to some of the more remote beaches. the first bike we rented was organised through the hotel and was £40ish for 24 hours. this seemed quite expensive but it turned out there was a reason for this! this quad (quad 1) had a much bigger engine, a fuel gage and a speedometer... which it turns out do not come as standard in mykonos! quad 2 on the other hand was £40ish for 48 hours, although you definitely get what you pay for! quad 2 was very rickety throughout the time we had it (48 hours), plus on the second day, in the middle of nowhere(!) it broke down completely :( luckily we were able to get hold of the rental company and they came out with a spark plug (which seemed to do the trick) although of course this meant a lot of waiting around.
places to eat:
we seemed to stick to word-of-mouth recommendations / tripadvisor top 30(ish) restaurants as there were so many to choose from (around 180 across the whole island) plus, eating out was incredibly expensive irrespective of where you chose to go so we thought we may as well treat ourselves to the best of the best :)
- caesar's - really really nice setting, food and staff... we went there once for lunch and again for dinner :)
- the taste diaries - oreo waffles... need i say more?
- kiki's tavern - huge portions of meat cooked over an outside coal stove... plus there is complimentary rose on tap whilst you queue (there is ALWAYS a queue)
where to stay:
of course i can only speak about the rocabella, but in my opinion, 'why would anyone want to stay anywhere else?!'
on our first day alan (the hotel manager) sat us down (with glasses of champagne!) to give a brief introduction on the island, the hotel, his favourite places to eat etc. we were then showed to our room and asked to select bedtime scents (i know right!)...
the breakfast at the hotel is award winning and you can completely see why! i keep having random cravings for the pancakes and homemade raspberry jam still :)
