Mykonos

Yes if ruins are why you cruise the Med, no if you came for the windmills and a long lunch. Delos is the mythological birthplace of Apollo and Artemis and one of the most extensive archaeological sites in Greece — UNESCO World Heritage, an entire ancient city in mid-excavation. The catch: 30-minute ferry from Mykonos Old Port (€25 return), €20 site entry, no shade, and the last boat back is firmly scheduled — miss it and you are stranded on an uninhabited island. Boats run Tuesday through Sunday with morning departures at 9:00, 10:00, and 11:30; Monday has reduced service (single 10:00 departure). Budget 4–5 hours door to door.

More than you think. Paradise and Super Paradise sunbeds run €40–80 per pair in shoulder season and €80–150 in July and August. Psarou and Nammos territory is its own bracket — €200+ for a front-row sunbed before you have ordered a single drink. A bottle of water at a beach-club bar is €8–10. The free public stretches still exist at the edges of every beach, but the lounger-and-umbrella setup you see in photos is paid territory. Get there by local bus from Fabrika station (€2.30) or a taxi from the Old Port (€20–40 depending on which beach).

Greece sits at U.S. State Department Travel Advisory Level 1 — the lowest, normal precautions. Mykonos specifically is statistically one of the safest places you will visit on a Mediterranean cruise; violent crime is rare. The two real concerns are petty theft in crowded Chora lanes (standard tourist rules: bag in front, phone out of back pocket) and drink-spiking incidents at nightclubs, which the British consulate flagged in summer 2025. Cruise passengers off the ship for a day rarely overlap with that scene — it kicks off after midnight at clubs you would not be at.

Greece is on the euro. Cards work everywhere a cruise passenger spends money — Chora restaurants, beach clubs, the Delos ferry kiosk, the SeaBus, taxis (in theory). Carry €30–50 in small notes for taverna tips, the occasional cash-only crepe stand in Little Venice, and the taxi driver whose card reader has mysteriously stopped working. ATMs are everywhere in town; use bank-branded ones (Alpha, Eurobank, Piraeus Bank, National Bank of Greece) and decline the dynamic-currency-conversion offer.

The four landmarks worth your camera: the row of 16th-century windmills on the hill above town (Kato Mili — five remaining, free, sunset-popular), Little Venice (a 200-meter strip of houses with balconies hanging directly over the sea, best at golden hour), Paraportiani Church (a whitewashed cubist pile-up of five chapels, also free), and the maze of lanes between them designed in the 16th century specifically to disorient pirates and which still works on tourists. Two hours covers all of it at a slow pace. Boutiques and tavernas fill the rest.