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. The lanes of the Chora twist and narrow until laundry bridges the gap between buildings, and the balconies of Little Venice stand with their feet in the sea.
Kato Mili’s mills, the waterfront houses of Little Venice and the churches folded into Chora make the old town rewarding well before the nightlife begins. Boats cross to Delos for one of the Aegean’s great archaeological landscapes. The southern coast offers organised beaches, while Agios Sostis and inland villages reveal a calmer island away from the headline scene.
Couple
Early walks through Chora, a Delos crossing and a sunset table above the water in Little Venice.
Friends
A beach day that can become dinner and music, balanced by a quieter cove or an archaeological morning.
- Kato Mili’s windmills stand above Chora and the waterfront quarter known as Little Venice.
- Chora’s lanes link churches, galleries, shops and small squares behind the harbour.
- Boats cross from Mykonos to the archaeological island of Delos.
- The southern coast ranges from organised beach clubs to quieter coves such as Agios Sostis.
Kopanisti — the peppery Mykonian cheese — on the classic mostra rusk; To Maereio in town does it right.
Louza, cured pork sliced thin at a harbour taverna while the fishing boats unload.
Lan Ha Bay
Vietnam
Floating fish farms anchored between hundreds of jungle-capped karst pillars rising from jade water.
Miyako Island
Japan
Bridges spanning to tiny coral islands across water so blue it hurts to look.
Jellyfish Lake
Palau
A lake where golden jellyfish chase the sun and stop dead at the shadow line.
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 boat.
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.