August is a question of hours rather than of days. Everything the island offers is running this month, and almost none of it is available at the time anyone would naturally want it: the beach in the early afternoon is a furnace with a queue, the town at nine in the evening is a slow-moving crowd, and the archaeological crossing leaves at the start of the day because by midday the site has no shade in it. Plan the clock and August works. Plan an itinerary and it does not.
The day, hour by hour
| Time | What works | What does not |
|---|---|---|
| Early morning | An empty Chora, the crossing to Delos, a swim before the sunbeds go out | Anything that has not opened yet |
| Late morning | Beach arrival, while there is still a choice of position | Turning up anywhere expecting space |
| Early afternoon | Shade, water, a long lunch, a cool room | Walking, ruins, driving to a new beach |
| Late afternoon | The sheltered side calms; the light starts working | The exposed north, if it is blowing |
| Evening | Dinner, the lanes, the waterfront | Arriving somewhere good without a booking |
| Late night | The island's actual reputation, at full volume | An early start the next day |
Heat and wind are separate problems
Heat here is the ordinary Mediterranean sort, and the shade discipline that works anywhere else works here too. Wind is the local complication, and the summer meltemi blows hard and persistently through July and August. A northerly blowing hard turns the exposed beaches into a poor idea and leaves the sheltered southern bays calm — which is precisely where everybody else will also be. So the month rewards flexibility about which beach rather than commitment to one, and it rewards a base you are content to stay at on the days the forecast makes a drive pointless.
Book it or lose it
There is no slack in this month. Tables, transfers, sunbeds and boats all go to people who arranged them earlier, and the middle of August is harder again: the mid-August public holiday sends Greek families to the islands in numbers, so the island takes a domestic crowd on top of the international one.
Boat days make the case clearly. A shared departure such as the Mykonos Sail Cruise to Delos and Rhenia Islands fills well ahead at this time of year, and the Private Mykonos Catamaran Day Cruise with Meals & Water Toys takes a whole vessel out of circulation for a day, so its calendar closes earlier still. As for the Half-Day Delos Tour from Mykonos, put it first thing in the morning — the site is excavated and open to the sky, and those four hours go far better before the heat arrives than after it.
The room does more work in August
In a month spent avoiding the middle of the day, where you sleep is also where you shelter, so water and shade on site stop being a flourish and start being functional. Myconian Avaton, a Member of Design Hotels has a saltwater infinity pool over the bay, an indoor pool, a spa and a private beach area below the terraces, which adds up to several ways of sitting out the hottest part of the afternoon without getting into a car. Hermes Mykonos Hotel takes the other approach: a pool above the rooftops on the edge of town, so the evening is a walk rather than a taxi ride. La Veranda of Mykonos Traditional Guesthouse is adults-only and inside the Chora, which suits couples intending to be out late and not to be woken early.
Who August is for, and who it is not
It is for anyone whose dates are fixed by school terms or a workplace shutdown, and for anyone who actively wants this island at full volume — that version of the place is real, and August is when it exists. It is not for a first-time visitor with flexible dates, for whom June or September are the months this island is pointed at. Nor is it for anyone who dislikes crowds, heat or forward planning. The season page sets that comparison out properly.
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