‘You could eat out for pennies’: How once-rustic Mykonos lost its charm
In the early 1990s, I went backpacking through Greece – at the time, the residents used to call visitors like me “saligari” (snails), because we carried our homes on our backs. I’d planned to spend two months visiting a dozen islands, but I ended up spending most of my time on Mykonos.
I arrived in Mykonos’s Old Port after a seven-hour journey from Piraeus in a cranky old ferry, my hair stinking of diesel fumes and my jeans crusted with filth. I was accosted by the usual screaming mob of room touts trying to outdo each other: “We got hot water!” one shouted proudly. “Chickens!” screamed another. “Eggs for breakfast!”
Cashing some traveller’s cheques with an agent in the town of Chora, I got a fistful of drachmas in return. Feeling rich, I bought leather sandals and a fisherman’s cap, before hopping into the car of the first tout in the queue. I buzzed off to the usual concrete apartment block, where rooms the size of your average modern hotel bathroom had rock-hard beds, naked light bulbs hanging from fissured ceilings and the terrifying tangle of bare wires lurking near the sink.
Despite the rustic accommodation that was still mainly the norm, 30 years ago “the Island of the Winds” was already the most cosmopolitan island in Greece – and one of the Mediterranean’s leading gay resorts. Although the well heeled flocked to Mykonos Theoxenia – the island’s first five-star hotel – this Cyclades bolthole was still a hippy hangout, with nudists strutting their stuff along Psarou’s golden sands and backpackers sleeping out on Paradise Beach.
We would spend lazy days by the sea, eat for pennies in fish tavernas and at night dance under the stars at Cavo Paradiso Club, or Pierros’ bar. Owned by local fisherman Andreas Koutsoukos, Pierros, dubbed “the Greek version of New York’s Studio 54”, was famed for its drag shows, which attracted countless celebrities, including Jean Paul Gaultier, who I spotted several times in the crowd.
Mykonos initially shot to fame because of Delos next door. Hailed as the most important religious and commercial centre of the ancient world, the site began to attract artists and jetsetters. “There was no accommodation on Delos, so visitors came here,” remembers Manolis Zervakis, whose father owned a bar on the island in the 1950s.
By the 1960s a string of glitterati, including Jackie Onassis, Grace Kelly and Brigitte Bardot, visited Mykonos each summer to mingle with fishermen in traditional kafenions or live it up during tsipouro and champagne-fueled fiestas on the beach.
Mykonos has changed a lot in three decades. Some of the change is for the better: with a flurry of new luxury properties over the past 10 years, ranging from the glitzy new Nammos on Psarou beach to Greece’s first Soho House, overlooking Paraga’s golden sands – accommodation is definitely a lot better than it was back when I first visited. The island’s culinary scene has also been given a boost, by Matsuhisa Nobu and other celebrity chefs who have set up shop here.
However, with more than two million visitors a year, Mykonos is also battling with overtourism, prompting a negative backlash from visitors who complain about exorbitant prices, overcrowding and undue pressure to leave tips. Author Chrysiida Dimoulidou, who has a house on the island, confided that the destination has changed so much since she bought her home here in the late 1990s that she’s thinking of selling. “It’s no longer the Mykonos I loved – they are building everywhere and it’s losing all its charm,” she told me.
The statistics certainly seem to confirm Mykonos’s dwindling popularity with tourists. According to airport managers Fraport Greece, in 2023 there was a decline of 5.9 per cent in passenger traffic from abroad, compared with 2022, and the decline seems likely to continue this year. In a recent Facebook post, DJ John Walker, who’s been visiting Mykonos for the past 25 years, said: “My only issue now is that they seem to cater more for two or three-night stays, [and people] who have loads of money to spend, and [they’ve] pushed out the people who’ve been going for years – we are no longer a priority.”
With the Greek government finally promising to regulate construction on the island and address the problems of overcrowding created by cruise ships, local business owners see better times ahead. “The future of Mykonos lies in striking a balance between its vibrant luxury offerings and the need for responsible tourism that honours the island’s natural beauty and cultural heritage,” said Christofer Vonglis, the general manager of Nammos Hotel.
“We envision Mykonos as a place where tradition and modernity coexist, catering to travellers who come to the island for its glamour, while showcasing authentic Greek hospitality and the true local experience.”
It’s a view that’s shared by Eric Mourkakos, the owner of Cali Mykonos: “While Mykonos is famous for its vibrant nightlife, the island will include more cultural, experiential and slow travel in future.”
