Summer of 2019, I was fortunate enough to visit both Santorini and Mykonos. Both are beautiful islands even with all the tourists they get during busy season. I went the end of June and the beginning of July and made some stops to some other islands as well. Now if you do not have as much time as me, you may not be able to visit both of these islands so the goal of this post is to help you decide which one you would like to visit.
Santorini:
We stayed at a hotel in Thira and used the bus system that is not far from town to visit the different beaches. In Thira there are many streets to wander to take pictures or to do some shopping. You are able walk down or take a gondola to the old port which is where we had a nice dinner at a restaurant one night. Where to eat while watching the sunset in Thira: Argo – food was amazing here (we went for lunch since all the reservations for sunset were booked), Fanari we had an amazing view while eating dinner.
One afternoon we visited Oia to be able to see the town and watch the sunset. Compared to Thira there are not as many streets and shops to wander around. Make sure you visit the famous old bookstore which we just happened upon while we were wandering. We took a bunch of pictures while here and watched the sunset near the windmills.
With the bus system we visited the Red beach (Akrotiri), Perissa and the White beach. At the red beach there was a water boat that would come by every 20 minutes or so and take people to other beaches. We saw this and said why not! (especially since it was only 10 euros for the whole day) At two of the beaches we visited we were able to rent chairs by just buying a drink or food at the restaurant that hosted the lounge chairs.
MYKONOS
In comparison to Santorini in Mykonos, we only went to the downtown area once since our hotel was farther away. The town is a little smaller but there are still many streets to wander and we had fun taking photos while walking around. There was a great Gyro place we went to named Sakis. We also found a place that made Lokumadres as well. Some main spots to see would be the famous windmills and little Venice. We did take an excursion so that we could snorkel and see more beaches.
A big suggestion I would make would be to rent a car, atv or scooter. It would make getting around this island so much easier. We did not do this and were a little more limited in what we could do and we were limited on our time. Our hotel had an amazing pool so we really enjoyed relaxing there since we knew once we left Mykonos, we would be on the move more visiting other countries. Aside from relaxing at the pool.
Looking back, I spent more time in Santorini so I may be bias in saying that I enjoyed Santorini more. But I think if you are really wanting to go to Mykonos then you should rent something so that you can drive anywhere, you would like. In both places, the location of where you are staying truly matters. I hope this helps you choose between one of the islands if you are not able to see both but overall if you can see both then you should try to go at least one time for the experience and then visit the less touristy islands which I’ll talk about in an upcoming blog!
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