Romantic in Mykonos

Mykonos has a loud reputation, but the evening here is quieter than people assume. Chora is a maze of whitewashed lanes, deliberately tangled long ago against pirates, and one street off the main shopping line an ordinary island quarter begins, with cats and flowers in tin cans. Little Venice is a row of houses whose walls drop straight into the water; the sunset is watched from there, from the windmills above the bay, or from terraces where the tables stand a splash away from the surf.

From the water the island looks different. A cruise along the south coast passes bays that either have no road or a gravel one: the boat anchors for a swim and lunch is served on board. There is a full-day version and a short evening one, and both remove the local problem — beach queues that in July start in the morning.

Then come the neighbours. Delos is the sacred island, Apollo's birthplace in myth and an entire ancient city in fact; boats make the crossing in half an hour and are back by lunchtime. Tinos is calmer and not about parties at all: a pilgrimage church, villages of stonemasons, dovecotes. Add a private transfer from the airport or the port — on an island where taxis are few, that is not a luxury but a way to start the trip without nerves.