If you have not yet been to Greece this blog post may not be the best one for you even though it may give you a better idea of what islands are worth visiting and which ones you should probably skip. This was our third time back there, first was back in 2016 scouting & planning our wedding, second in 2017 when we got married and third being in 2022 post covid. Yes, I know I shouldn't be mentioning covid but it's financially affected islands and countries like Greece the most in my opinion, mainly because they depend on tourism. Greece is very different from other countries you may visit, while many others are great to visit all year round, Greece is only a tourist destination during the months of summer. For this reason I believe it is extremely overpriced nowadays. Want a good comparison? A drink (like a marg) used to be $9-15, which was still overpriced for the islands well now we paid as much as $50 per margarita in Mykonos while lunches averaged $100-$300 for four people and dinners as high as $1200 for four people. However, this does not apply to all islands in Greece -- Mykonos & Santorini the most. If you're interested in more about our experience compared to the first two - keep reading.
Let's start from the beginning -- the first two times we only went to Santorini and visited another island called Zakynthos. Third being Mykonos and Milos. If you have not red up on the previous blog posts, here is a little recap of what to expect in those islands:
Santorini: Hands down one of my favorite islands of Greece, it is the most beautiful & the most touristy. Compared to the other islands it is also the only island that offers everything in the little Downtown area without it being extremely spread out to where you may need a car. If you are able to get a spot to stay at there, you're set unless you want to go explore other parts of the island (there is not much there) or if you want to go on a boat excursion. Food there is delicious, hotels are beautiful and everything is still reasonably priced even though it is one of the most visited islands of Greece. If you've never been I highly recommend visiting this island over any others. On the way there make sure to spend a night or two in Athens (main island where 99% of flights land before you transfer over to any little island you may be going to).
Zakynthos: If you spend a good amount online browsing through picture perfect travel places you have come across a shipwreck surrounded by beautiful cliffs and turquoise waters, well that is in this beautiful island! Sadly... there is not much else there to see. If you have some extra time to spare and want to see a more local island, connect with locals, see real Greece then this island is for you! We stayed there for 2 nights and it was more than enough. We saw the shipwreck beach from the cliff by hiking up there and took a boat tour around the island to see everything else. Don't expect restaurants to be fancy or look for a bar etc. this is as I mentioned an island that's not run down by tourism, so you may be enjoying lots of delicious traditional food & drinks!
Milos: Another one of Instagram famous islands for the landmarks it offers, Sarakiniko beach is "moon like beach" that I am sure you have seen on social media multiple times! I have been looking forward to visiting this island at some point in life for years now and finally made our way there, expectations were super high & that was my biggest mistake. Sarakiniko beach and Tsigrado beaches looked nothing like what I have expected or seen online. One beach (Tsigrado) was absolutely horrifying to get down to, I am talking two extremely steep ladders to get down to while holding on the cliffs surrounding you and getting back up having to use a rope that will hopefully hold your weigh so you can get out of there. The fact that it is one of the most touristy spots of the island and is that unsafe is mind blowing to me lol. Did I get down there? heck yes, but would I recommend it? NO WAY, nothing is worth risking your life for, especially when it's for a photo. Do yourself a favor and take a drone up there if you want to see it. We would have done it ourselves too but sadly it was too windy during our short stay there and we were not able to....so we had to climb down since we were never coming back to Milos again. Sarakiniko beach which as I have mentioned is the alien-like beach was the biggest shock to both of us -- we expected something special and when we got there we weren't even sure we were at he right place lol because it looked like Joshua Tree national park with white rocks instead of tan lol. The photos above of me wearing a white dress are taken at Sarakiniko beach, see them? now go google the beach to see everyone else's photoshopped images... mind blowing, right? For the first time I have fallen into IG trap expecting something to look so special in person..and yet it looked nothing like it. Anyway, enough about that since there were so many other parts of the island we heard nothing of that were so much more beautiful and less touristy.
Some of the spots you may want to visit while in Milos:
- Adamas port area. Great area to walk around during the day, grab gyros at "Gyros of Milos", desert at the spot across the sreet from the gyros spot -- you can't miss it! Sadly I didn't write down the name and I am not able to find it online as it's a local spot. Ice cream and pastries were so good there, we went three times in one day! Port area is also great to walk around in, check out local shops and grab a drink.
- Plaka town. A picture perfect little area that reminded me a lot of Santorini with wayyyyy less tourists. Lots of shops, restaurants and spots offering a great sunset views. Make sure you come here an hour before sunset to secure a good spot!
- Klima fisherman village. We were shocked that this spot wasn't the most touristy area of the island as it is so unique! It's surrounded by very colorful tiny houses (if you'd like you can rent one to stay at via airbnb), little beach area to hang out at and just connect with a local area of the island. Zack Kalter has recently stayed there and I have to link his post since he captured it beautifully (sadly we weren't able to take our drone up due to winds.. Take a look at his post HERE to get a better idea of what to expect. Hands down this was our favorite spot we saw in the island but unfortunately we were so exhausted from running around the entire island to see all the other spots we simply had no energy to shoot any sort of content here. The only video I got was THIS.
- Tsigrado beach. The most dangerous beach spot I've talked about earlier. Here is a quick reel I did of it, so you know the risks it comes with in case you want to head down there: click HERE.
- Sarakiniko beach. The moon-like beach which looked nothing like what it did online. HERE is a reel I did of it to give you a more realistic look on what it looks like. P.s. it is over crowded at all times of the day for a reason I will never understand. However, it does have a swimming area so make sure to bring a swimsuit!
P.s. there is a bus that goes pretty frequently offering a quick way around the island or you can rent a car with a driver, that way you don't have to drive and get lost as the island is pretty big and finding your way around isn't easy. Driver with a car was $100 for 2 people for 4 hours, we covered all the spots I mentioned above within those 4 hours spending abour 40-50 mins per location.
I had to save the best for last which was the overrated, overpriced & tourist packed - Mykonos. This island was never on my bucket list and that was for a good reason - I will never understand wasting your vacation time to go travel across the globe to party on some island that literally offers nothing else. The island was filled with nothing but clubs, restaurants, traffic and overpriced menus for drinks and food. As I have mentioned earlier on the blog post dinners were averaging $700-$1200 for four people (2 drinks per person avg) and lunches in a few hundreds.
Here are some spots we visited:
- Principote beach. Overrated on social media channels as a dayclub. It reminded us of a beach in Cancun that would be on an all inclusive resort, however Principote is $80 per beach chair + food/drinks. For four of us is was $800 for a few hours there hanging out at a beach.
- Soho Roc house. Can never go wrong with just spending an afternoon at Soho house, they always have the best drinks, great food for good prices. However, it is members only.
- OPIA. Restaurant that offers a good view of town and port area of Mykonos. This is a spot where drinks were $50 per drink.
- Lio restaurant & lounge. It offers a burlesque dinner show, it is $250 per person which goes towards the food and drinks! Super reasonable and it's an absolute must when you go to Mykonos. Hands down my favorite part of the entire stay in Mykonos was this spot. P.s. the show lasts 4 hours or so.
- Scorpios. Another overrated spot of Mykonos. Food was ok, I believe we paid around $700 for four of us, which only included 4 drinks so I'll let you be the judge of if it's worth it or not lol. This spot is huge and cool to check out but again it's just a party spot so unless that is what you're looking for that's great because there is nothing else to see there.
- Nammos village. A cute area to walk around in of nothing but luxurious stores and cool sculptures. It sort of reminded me of Design District that is located in Miami.
I hope these comparisons from my experience will help you decide on which islands are overrated and which ones are underrated.
xx, Sky Naite
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