The Summer Issue

Mykonos in August is really three islands wearing one name, and the holiday you get depends entirely on which one you book. There is the town — Chora — a bright maze of whitewashed lanes, bougainvillea and windmills that shifts from shopping to dinner to very late nights as the evening wears on. There are the glossy, organised beach clubs of the south coast, Psarou and Paradise and the rest, which are an event and a bill. And there is a quiet, windswept north that the crowds barely touch.

Choosing among them is the whole game. Base in Chora and you are in the thick of it, steps from dinner and the noise but further from a good swim. Base at a southern beach and you walk out onto the sand but drive in for the town. Trying to have both from a single hotel usually means long stretches in a taxi on a hot island; better to decide what you came for and stay near it.

It is peak season, which means heat, high prices and the meltemi — the dry north wind that can blow for days and rearrange your beach plans. It is still worth it, and for a reason beyond the parties: a short boat ride away lies Delos, the sacred, uninhabited island that was once among the most important places in the ancient Greek world and is now one of the great archaeological sites in the Mediterranean. Go early — the boats stop by the early afternoon, and there is no shade at noon.

Vivienne Hartwell, Editor-in-Chief