Greece
Mykonos
Windmills turning above a labyrinth of whitewashed lanes where the Aegean nightlife never stops.
Five Venetian windmills turn on the hill above Little Venice, their sails catching the meltemi that drives whitecaps across the harbour below. The lanes of the Chora twist and narrow until laundry bridges the gap between buildings, and the sound of the Aegean is never more than a wall away.
Mykonos built its wealth on maritime trade and the grain those hilltop windmills once processed, but the island's modern identity revolves around a nightlife culture that has operated continuously since the 1960s. Little Venice's waterfront houses — balconies extending directly over the sea — date to the 18th century, when captains' homes doubled as warehouses. The labyrinthine street plan of Mykonos Town was reportedly designed to confuse raiding pirates, and it still confuses visitors today. Beyond the harbour, beaches stretch along the southern coast from the organised clubs of Paradise and Super Paradise to quieter coves at Agios Sostis.
Couple
Boutique hotels in converted sea-captain mansions, sunset cocktails at Little Venice with waves breaking beneath your table, and private boat charters to Delos.
Friends
Beach-club days that run from morning swim to sunset DJ set, bar-hopping through the Chora's maze of lanes, and late-night dining at harbour-side tavernas.
- The five 16th-century Venetian windmills on Kato Mili hill were built to mill wheat and still dominate the skyline above Little Venice.
- Little Venice's balconied houses extend directly over the water, with waves breaking beneath the dinner tables.
- The island's labyrinth of lanes was deliberately designed to confuse pirates — even locals navigate by instinct.
- Beach clubs run from sunrise to sunset and bars operate through the night — the island has no closing time.
Kopanisti cheese spread on warm bread — peppery, creamy, and found nowhere else in Greece.
Louza cured pork sliced thin at a harbour taverna while fishing boats unload the morning catch.
Lan Ha Bay
Vietnam
Floating fishing villages anchored between thousands of jungle-capped karst pillars rising from jade water.
Miyako Island
Japan
Coral limestone bridges spanning to tiny islands across water so blue it hurts to look.
Milky Way Lagoon
Palau
A cove of white limestone mud that turns the water to milk and paints your skin.
Jellyfish Lake
Palau
Float weightless among millions of pulsing golden jellyfish in a lake sealed for twelve thousand years.
Milia
Greece
An abandoned Cretan hamlet rebuilt from stone into an off-grid eco-settlement deep in chestnut forest.
Ioannina
Greece
Ali Pasha's lake fortress — silversmith workshops and Ottoman mosques on an island reached by rowboat.
Pelion
Greece
The centaurs' mythic homeland — chestnut forests and stone villages sliding from peak to shore.
Symi
Greece
Neoclassical facades in sherbet colours stacked up a harbour so narrow boats almost touch the walls.