After an absence of some years it must be time for an update!!!
Our apologies for not keeping things up to date, but we have been travelling ourselves a good deal over the last few years, and doing a bit of blogging on other subjects at the same time!
We are pleased to say that Crete, Greece, has been getting its fair share of gay tourism over the last few years, indeed perhaps more than our fair share!
So first let's start with the gay bar side of things..... Roze Maandag in Port Hersonissos has changed ownership and its name and is still a popular place for visitors and residents alike. The new name is Y.O.L.O (as in You Only Live Once), and they have a little web site here.... https://yolo-bar.business.site/
In Heraklion La Brasserie still caters for the LGBT population for those staying in the city, unless you really want to do some driving late at night, or take a taxi back in the early hours. Saturday is ''Rainbow Party Night'' starting at 10pm, with a variety of entertainments as published on their Facebook Page here https://www.facebook.com/labrasserie/, or you can visit their web site here https://labrasserie.gr/
If you are at the western end of Crete, then check out Ababa Bar in Xania, they have a Facebook Page here https://www.facebook.com/ababa.bar/.
The beaches noted in an earlier blog still remain as popular as ever....
And finally hotels.... There is no dedicated LGBT accommodation on the island but many places are gay friendly.... To be honest nobody is really interested in what you do in the bedroom and many LGBTQ visitors stay in the smaller family run apartment blocks which abound on the island, and these are still some of the best places to stay. Of course you can stay in the huge ''5 *'' all inclusive resort and spa hotels with six pools, 3 saunas, 8 restaurants, (probably only one of which serves Greek food), and has hundreds of other guests, but they do tend to be a bit impersonal, so you will be more anonymous than anything else. But after travelling around in the last few years we still prefer the smaller places to stay, but then we do nearly all of our travelling as independent travelers!
But we can make a couple of recommendations...... Near Hersonissos, at Anisarras, there is Home Hotel owned and run by two British gay guys where you are sure to be welcome, you can find the web site at http://www.home-hotel.gr/, and if you are heading to the western end of Crete, Greece there is the Mythologia Hotel at Georgioupoulis, they have a Faceboook Page at https://www.facebook.com/mythologia.hotell
This post will probably have another update within the next few weeks as the hotels start to re-open for the summer season!
Showing posts with label cruising. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cruising. Show all posts
Monday, 10 February 2020
Monday, 30 September 2013
The Gay Crete Blog Takes a Look At........Beaches!
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| Balos Lagoon |
Here at the
Gay Crete Blog I have never specifically looked at beaches so I decided it was
time I did. No holiday in the sun is complete without a couple of days spent on
the beach, and Crete, Greece, offers the beach bum, (or babe), many
opportunities for visiting some world class beaches including some where
clothing is optional! So here I take at
look at some of the best known including Vai, Balos Lagoon, Matala, Kommos, and
probably the best known nudist beach on Crete, at Hersonissos
As you would
be expect from Greece’s largest island (and the fifth largest in the
Mediterranean), Crete has a long coastline and in many places the mountains
plunge dramatically down into the sea but in between there are some remarkable
beaches raging from large stones to fine sand of varying colours. Perhaps the
actual size of the island sometimes acts as a barrier to visiting some of the
best beaches, but the savvy independent LGBT traveller will soon realise that
Crete is an ideal island for a ‘multi – centre’ holiday and will spend a few
days at each end of the island which can save some hours of driving either by
car or on the bus!
Many of our
older readers may perhaps remember the adverts for Bounty Bars many years ago,
and some may recall that these were filmed on Crete, at Vai on the eastern end
of the island. Vai not only has a fine beach but is also home to a forest of
native palm trees (an endangered species by the way), behind the beach. As you
would expect some of the beach is given over to sunbeds and umbrellas that you
can rent for the day, and part of it you can sit on as you please. As is common
with the more popular beaches there are good facilities available at resaonable
prices including quite a good restaurant where you can look down on to the
beach and palm trees.
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| Vai Beach |
There is also a watersports area with the normal jet skis and ‘octopus’ if that is what you want!
Next door to Vai, for those that don’t mind a bit of walking, there is an undeveloped beach frequently used as a ‘clothing optional’ beach.
As with some other beaches on Crete, Vai’s remoteness from the main tourism centres means that it does not get unduly crowded, from Heraklion you can look forward to a three to four hour drive to get there!
A little
closer to the centre of the island, and on the south coast, is Matala Beach,
probably best known as ‘home’ to the hippy population when we still had
hippies, and where Joni Mitchell wrote a song.
Matala
still lives on this reputation and some of the hippies seem to still be there.
The actual beach at Matala is not much to write home about being dark coarse
sand, but nearby is Kommos Beach which is a fine long stretch of finer sand
starting at one end with a taverna on the beach and heading into the distance
for some kilometres.
Kommos also
boasts an archaeological site which was the port to the Minoan palace at Festos
(well worth a visit on the way down as it has stunning views of the Messara
Plain, one of the big agricultural regions on Crete, and also Mt. Psiloritis).
Kommos also has a clothing optional area which is some distance along from the
main car park and kantina. On windy days, when the sand tends to blows around a
bit, many sunbathers retreat into the ‘dunes’ behind the beach where there is
more shelter and also more shade if you want to get out of the sun for a while
.
On the
other side of Matala is Red Beach which is well known as a nudist beach but you
need either a 4WD or a good set of walking legs to get there, although you can
get there by boat too.
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| Matala |
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| Kommos |
Along the
north coast there are also a number of smaller beaches often not visible from
the roads above and the only indication you will have of these are cars parked
apparently in the middle of nowhere. These are often worth a visit as they
remain uncrowded because you have to clamber down to them.
Those who
decide to stay in the west of Crete will find two beaches that have at various
times been voted amongst the top 10 beaches in Europe/The World, and quite
deservedly so.
On the
north west tip of the island is Balos, publicity material for Crete nearly always
feature a picture of Balos which is surrounded by mountains and features
shallow waters of varying colours ranging from deepest blue through turquoise
and green to white in the shallow parts. Sheltered from the wind and tides,
Balos offers safe swimming for those less able in the water too.
Access to
Balos is not easy as the nearest car park is some way from the beach, and while
the walk down is not bad, it is a bit of a climb back up the hill, although
part way up you will usually find a man with a donkey. Having said that one of
the best ways to get there is by cruising on the ferry from Kissamos/Kastelli
which also gives you a couple of hours stopover at Gramvoussa Island where the
main attraction is the fortress on the top rather than the beach. The ferry
delivers you the water’s edge at Balos and you then walk through shallow water
to the main part of the beach. Facilities here are good too as there are two
tavernas that do not take advantage of you with ridiculous prices as happens in
some parts of the world.
If you are
not staying at the western end of Crete then you can look forward to a four
hour drive from Heraklion to get to Balos which is why I recommend you do this
trip on an organised coach tour. It does mean you have to get up early as the
coach leaves Malia/Hersonissos at around 5.30am and gets back about 9pm. But of
course you can always sleep on the coach, or you can take in the scenery as you
drive along the north coast. At least you will be getting to see some other
parts of the island!
Further
south from Balos is Elafonisi which in many ways is similar. One day I hope to
find time to get there too!
As an
aside, most people seem to agree that the best way to see these beaches is by
staying at the western end of the island, it not only saves a lot of travelling
but you can get to the beach early when it is not so crowded by the day
trippers (such as me), arriving by coach and ferry.
Also on the
north coast between Rethymno and Xania are the beaches of Kalives and
Georgiopoulis both of these having clothing optional area and both are ‘do-able’
from Herakliion/Hersonissos on a day trip.
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| Sarandari (Hersonissos) |
Exactly why
Sarandari beach should be so well known is something of a mystery really, it is
only a small beach, although it is mainly coarse sand with a few rocks here and
there (if you want to show off you go out to the big rock and lay there naked
where everyone can see you, even the people walking along the top of the
cliff!), but the water is clear as it is in so many other places around Crete.
Perhaps its main attraction is that it is not quite that easy to get to,
involving either a climb down the cliff face or a walk across the rocks from
the beach next door. Others will tell you that because of its size it is a very
friendly beach where you can get to meet new (and old) friends.
Or you can
get there by boat and if you are cruising on one of the day trip boats that
leave from Port Hersonissos during the day or evening, then you can swim here
as, more often than not, they stop just off shore for a while.
Certainly
part of its popularity is due to ease of access from Heraklion , and the fact
that Port Hersonissos is one of the most cosmopolitan tourist resorts on the
Crete, and also has a gay bar and two gay hotels!
Whatever
its main attractions are, so popular has this beach become that you will hear some
people call it the ‘gay beach’. It isn’t of course, well not totally, but on
any given day you will more almost certainly find more gay men here, both
visitors and locals, than anyone else. And it is one of the few beaches on
Crete where going naked is more often the norm.
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| Add caption |
So there you have it, just a brief look at some of the beaches on Crete. Yes, there are some that haven’t even got a mention, but I can leave those to another day, and there are still more that are being ‘discovered’ every year, while others are no longer as popular as they used to be.
Just a final word, isn’t there always one? There are few ‘official’ nudist beaches neither on Crete, nor Greece generally (and the same goes for a lot of other countries too!), although ‘topless’ for the girls seems generally accepted and so does clothing optional for everyone. You will find that sometimes families will appear on the beach and ask you to ‘cover up’. Be polite and do so, you are a visitor to Greece so you are governed by the laws of Greece!
Enjoy our beautiful Cretan beaches, and our clear turquoise waters, but don’t forget your sunscreen!
Wednesday, 1 August 2012
The Gay Crete Blog Visits.........Mykonos! (And Inevitably Makes Some Comparisons WIth Crete)
"You are so lucky you live in Greece, you must go to Mykonos all the time"
Well, of course, I don't.
Like most Greek islands, including Crete, Mykonos is basically 'closed' during the winter which is the only time that I have when I can go anywhere. which rather shoots down one gay travel web site that announces it as 'an all year round' destination. Yes there are people living on Mykonos, about 10,000 of them. Although on Crete we have a permanent population of well over 500,000 so it is a bit more lively.
Anyway when the chance arose to spend four days on Mykonos in July, and all I had to do was pay for a ferry ticket, then of course I took it. Who wouldn't?
And after all it is well over 30 years since I was last there, although I have to admit that I don't remember a lot of about the trip and any photographs I had long since disappeared, and my travelling companion at the time has since passed away.
Arriving by ferry (cruising is such a civilised way of getting around the Greek islands), I was struck by how brown and barren the island seems to be, Crete is lush tropical paradise by comparison. And although the whole island is not 'built up' there certainly are a lot more buildings than there were way back in the 70's. The windmills are still there as you come into the port. Well nearly all of them are as one of them is in the process of being rebuilt. I seem to remember that there were more windmills, but maybe not. Even from the quayside you can see that Mykonos Town has grown but they have managed to preserve the character to some extent by using the traditional architectural style. Square and blocky with rounded corners, presumably this is to offer less resistance to the incessant wind that blew the whole time I was there. A common feature of the climate in July and August I was told.
Mykonos is a small island, about 30 square miles (imagine a rectangle 5 miles by 6 miles, and a walking pace of 4 miles per hour....), and with a landscape dotted with buildings this doesn't leave a lot of space for visitors who really want to 'get away from it all'. So you can compare this to Crete which has an area of around 3000 square miles......
So Mykonos is a gay island....
Hmmmmm, well you can ignore the couple of gay travel web sites that tell you that Mykonos welcomes millions of gay tourists each year. Actual tourist figures for Mykonos seem a bit sketchy, but the generally accepted figure is around a million in total. I did wonder about the logistics of this, as getting about 40,000 people on and off the island every week does seem a bit of a challenge, although there are figures on Wikipedia that say there are 40,000 available beds on the island. I didn't check the airport schedules at the time (will do that next year!), but I am inclined to think that included in that figure are all the passengers on cruise ships that stopover, many of these do not actually get off the ship of course, and from watching the tenders on the Sunday morning before my departure most of the people that did get off, got straight on to the ferries going to Delos.
I think you can ignore the web sites that tell you that it is normal to see gay men walking hand in hand too. Being something of a people watcher, I can spend two hours with one cup of coffee, (it's normal in Greece), and I didn't see any.
So how many gay visitors are going to Mykonos?
Well as we don't have bar codes or chips implanted behind our ears that get scanned as we enter or leave a place, that is an impossible question to answer.
But we can use a little modern technology to roughly gauge the percentage out of the total gay visitors to Greece and to Mykonos. Two of the most popular 'social networking' sites, Gaydar, and Gayromeo, have sections where you can post your travel plans. Yes I know not everyone uses these so we can only use them as a guide.
For the week that I was on Mykonos, (the last week in July 2012), on Gaydar there were more guys visiting Crete than Mykonos, and on Gayromeo there were only two more visiting Mykonos than Crete. Overall more guys were visiting the rest of Greece (on both web sites) than there were visiting Mykonos.
What was also very clear that while many were staying on Crete (or indeed other islands), most travellers to Mykonos were only staying 2 or 3 days, a fact that borne out by our island hopping guests at Villa Ralfa, many of whom were spending 7 or 10 days on Crete, followed by a couple of days on Santorini, and then 2 or 3 nights on Mykonos.
Several times I logged on to Grindr while I was on Mykonos too, that gave the interesting result that there were fewer guys on the 'front page' on Mykonos than there normally are on Crete. The only difference there is that on Crete they are in a 20km radius and on Mykonos they were in a 5km radius.
So there are a load of gay bars on Mykonos...
Actually apparently not. During my three night stay, at the risk of developing chronic alcoholic poisoning, I tried to visit as many as possible at different times, and all of them were mixed, but don't let that put you off. The guys were mainly in the majority!
(Checking web sites, if you can find them, I don't think that any of them actually say they are 'gay bars'. Obviously in Mykonos they are even more conservative than we are on Crete, at least our two gay bars say they are exactly that)
And here I can best quote a straight American couple who I met at Babylon, who told me that they frequent gay bars because they are usually the liveliest and best places to go and they were surprised by "how restrained the gay scene is on Mykonos". And they had been there a week.
And the bars themselves?
Top bar has to be The Piano Bar, cosy, friendly, and with excellent music. So nice to get a decent cabaret with a REAL singer and pianist these days instead of blaring pop music. Both of the guys behind the bar were from Crete, which must tell you something!
Next has to be Babylon, which is actually the first bar I went to on arrival night. Jackie O's is right next door so when you are outside in the throng, you are really in both of them at the same time! The great thing about both of these is the big outside space on the quayside.
Preference is for Babylon because the guys made me really welcome and found the time to talk to me which is always nice when you are a lone traveller. They seated me next to the door on the fence with Jackie O's which is a great place to sit as you can look down on everyone else. The next night I went there they came and got me from the crowd and planted me in the same place, even though the beer I had came from Jackie O's. The music is loud in both places but as they seem to share the same play list you never get the cacophony that is common if you have two lots of music at once.
Porta Bar is fascinating when you eventually find it. Not many people there when I tried it, but with two levels and two entrances it could make life interesting if not a little confusing, while I was there a man came in from the town hall collecting money, first in the bottom entrance and then at the top. I think he was just a bit disturbed that he wasn't going to collect two lots of money! Excellent barman too, insisted that for a slightly upset stomach the cure was obviously 7 * Metaxa, taken neat and sipped slowly.
Kastro Bar was one of my early evening visits so there were only a couple of people in there, but nice surroundings and, of course, the nice little alleyway at the side leading down to the sea........
Some of the bars have drag shows. If you are really unfortunate you will get to see one. I say unfortunate because if they are all like the one I saw then you are in for the worst drag show ever.
Sunset seems to be a popular time for bars too. I couldn't really see why because to be honest the sunset was the same three nights in a row, and not very interesting at that. I suspect that this is just a ruse to part you from your hard earned cash early in the evening. Or maybe I have just seen too many sunsets?
A word of warning/advice here too. Taxis are about as common as hens' teeth on Mykonos. If you are out for a good night in the bars of Mykonos Town and you are staying further than walking distance be prepared for a loooong wait for a cab. Up to two hours is nothing. Part of this is due to the taxi drivers 'selecting' people from the queue, that are all going in the same direction and that he can conveniently drop off in turn. Having said that they don't cheat you and fares are reasonable, but looking at it another way he has just put four people that don't know each other in a cab and charged them €10 each, which would get you from Heraklion Airport to Hersonissos which is about 25km, and you cannot actually go that far on Mykonos!
Of course you can always use the solution tried and tested by two guys from Manchester......Catch the last bus into the Town, go for something to eat, spend all night drinking and dancing and catch the first bus back to your hotel in the morning!
Mykonos is expensive....
Yes. But not always.
You will read on some web sites that it is expensive because it has to import everything from the mainland.
This is nonsense.
You can expect to pay €6 or more for a small bottle of beer in a bar, €8 or more for a long drink (spirit and mixer), and cocktails START at €10....My personal favourite at a sunset bar was €12 for a Campari and soda.
Crete is further from the mainland than Mykonos and yet a small beer is €2.50, maybe €3, a long drink is usually €6 and cocktails about the same.
Something similar applies to food. A gyros, our indigenous fast food, is about the same price on Mykonos as on Crete, but then you can find places on Mykonos where a Greek salad will cost you €10.50, whereas on Crete a Greek salad will set you back €4.50/5.00.
But you can find places on Mykonos where a Greek salad and a beer can be had for the same price as Crete, and right on the waterfront in Mykonos Town too!
Hotels too can be expensive, although they are rarely full it seems. I tried making last minute bookings while I was there at several and all had rooms available, provided you could spare €150 per night or more. On the other hand there is 'hostel' accommodation at €18 a night (share a room with five other people you have never met, sounds like fun), and this was all fully booked. Crete on the other hand has a wide selection of accommodation from around €25 a night.
Some of this price difference can be put down to the cost of real estate of course. Mykonos is, after all, only a small island so rents and real estate generally will tend to be of higher value, but when you can find such price differences within 100 metres of each other you do tend to wonder!
And so to the beach!
Or not in this case.......Saturday was to have been my 'beach day'...Just to have a look as it were because I don't really do the beach. I have enough lines and wrinkles already, but when in Rome etc.
Unfortunately something I had eaten, and I know what it was, had made going too far from a lavatory a bit of a no-no. I did get as far as Paradise beach, (which is not known as a gay beach), because I could do it easily on the bus, and was quite frankly not impressed. Row upon row of sunbeds (with a large sign saying 'Don't blame us for the price of the sunbed, the money is for the Government'), and umbrellas. And at the back of the beach a row of bars with nearly identical menus and all charging the same prices. At 10.30am on a Saturday, there were not a lot of people there. I would hate to think what it was like if it was crowded.
But this gave me time to have a good wander around the maze that is Mykonos Town, there are loads of cafes where I can make a dash to if I needed the lavatory!
Photogenic is the best word here, indeed I have seen photgraphs of Mykonos posted on web sites belonging to other islands, and if you want to shop then you have plenty of opportunity.
Having worked in a gift shop on Crete I have a bit of experience of some of the things you are likely to come across so I was not particularly impressed when one shop owner told me that a piece of ceramic work was 'local' when it fact it is made by an artist on Crete, or the shop that was selling work by an artist from Naxos who actually works in Athens but saying that was local too.
There are the usual number of shops selling jewellery too, and while you are not getting ripped off as far as the standard of the metal goes, it does get a bit wearing being told that it is made in Greece when you can buy exactly the same designs in Peru and Chile. The prices are fair enough and you can usually get some discount!
So what else is there to do on Mykonos?
Apart from the three B's, not a lot else. There are a couple of museums and some interesting churches and one of the sole saving graces of Mykonos for those who are interested is the birthpace of Apollo on a completely different island, Delos.
This archaeological site is huge, it rivals the Acropolis in interest, and the Palace of Knossos on Crete for size. The true archaeological buff would need to catch the first ferry in the morning and the last one back to even begin to get a good look at it, and although parts of it are slightly 'unkempt' it has not suffered from too much reconstruction, the museum is nicely laid out and the cafe next door, even though it has a captive audience, does not overcharge.
Sadly I suspect that many would rather spend their money on three rather overpriced beers than pay the ferry fare and entrance fee to go to Delos.
So the magic question...Should you go to Mykonos?
It's a small island with a big personality, (a bit like Santorini), and its reputation as a gay destination has been around for 40 years or so.
A lot of things have changed in that time.
Other destinations are available especially as most gay travellers are a bit more discerning these days and are not always just going for a week long orgy (if that is what you want then go to Santiago de Chile, and the drag shows are better than Mykonos. Well slightly).
In general it does not appear to me to be quite as gay as the publicity, much of it derived from outside Greece and some of it hopelessly out of date by the way, would have us believe. But big business is in play here and many of those web sites you see promoting it are getting a commission on the hotel rooms they sell.
If you are gay and are cruising the Greek islands, and it is on your 'Bucket List', then splurge for a few nights and do it!
Would I go again?
Are you paying?
Not unless I had a good reason, such as an old and dear friend holding his 60th birthday party there, or maybe a wedding, or christening, or funeral.
Living on Crete I have got used to the wide open spaces, and let's face it, on Crete I can go away for a weekend without leaving the island........
Well, of course, I don't.
Like most Greek islands, including Crete, Mykonos is basically 'closed' during the winter which is the only time that I have when I can go anywhere. which rather shoots down one gay travel web site that announces it as 'an all year round' destination. Yes there are people living on Mykonos, about 10,000 of them. Although on Crete we have a permanent population of well over 500,000 so it is a bit more lively.
Anyway when the chance arose to spend four days on Mykonos in July, and all I had to do was pay for a ferry ticket, then of course I took it. Who wouldn't?
And after all it is well over 30 years since I was last there, although I have to admit that I don't remember a lot of about the trip and any photographs I had long since disappeared, and my travelling companion at the time has since passed away.
Arriving by ferry (cruising is such a civilised way of getting around the Greek islands), I was struck by how brown and barren the island seems to be, Crete is lush tropical paradise by comparison. And although the whole island is not 'built up' there certainly are a lot more buildings than there were way back in the 70's. The windmills are still there as you come into the port. Well nearly all of them are as one of them is in the process of being rebuilt. I seem to remember that there were more windmills, but maybe not. Even from the quayside you can see that Mykonos Town has grown but they have managed to preserve the character to some extent by using the traditional architectural style. Square and blocky with rounded corners, presumably this is to offer less resistance to the incessant wind that blew the whole time I was there. A common feature of the climate in July and August I was told.
Mykonos is a small island, about 30 square miles (imagine a rectangle 5 miles by 6 miles, and a walking pace of 4 miles per hour....), and with a landscape dotted with buildings this doesn't leave a lot of space for visitors who really want to 'get away from it all'. So you can compare this to Crete which has an area of around 3000 square miles......
So Mykonos is a gay island....
Hmmmmm, well you can ignore the couple of gay travel web sites that tell you that Mykonos welcomes millions of gay tourists each year. Actual tourist figures for Mykonos seem a bit sketchy, but the generally accepted figure is around a million in total. I did wonder about the logistics of this, as getting about 40,000 people on and off the island every week does seem a bit of a challenge, although there are figures on Wikipedia that say there are 40,000 available beds on the island. I didn't check the airport schedules at the time (will do that next year!), but I am inclined to think that included in that figure are all the passengers on cruise ships that stopover, many of these do not actually get off the ship of course, and from watching the tenders on the Sunday morning before my departure most of the people that did get off, got straight on to the ferries going to Delos.
I think you can ignore the web sites that tell you that it is normal to see gay men walking hand in hand too. Being something of a people watcher, I can spend two hours with one cup of coffee, (it's normal in Greece), and I didn't see any.
So how many gay visitors are going to Mykonos?
Well as we don't have bar codes or chips implanted behind our ears that get scanned as we enter or leave a place, that is an impossible question to answer.
But we can use a little modern technology to roughly gauge the percentage out of the total gay visitors to Greece and to Mykonos. Two of the most popular 'social networking' sites, Gaydar, and Gayromeo, have sections where you can post your travel plans. Yes I know not everyone uses these so we can only use them as a guide.
For the week that I was on Mykonos, (the last week in July 2012), on Gaydar there were more guys visiting Crete than Mykonos, and on Gayromeo there were only two more visiting Mykonos than Crete. Overall more guys were visiting the rest of Greece (on both web sites) than there were visiting Mykonos.
What was also very clear that while many were staying on Crete (or indeed other islands), most travellers to Mykonos were only staying 2 or 3 days, a fact that borne out by our island hopping guests at Villa Ralfa, many of whom were spending 7 or 10 days on Crete, followed by a couple of days on Santorini, and then 2 or 3 nights on Mykonos.
Several times I logged on to Grindr while I was on Mykonos too, that gave the interesting result that there were fewer guys on the 'front page' on Mykonos than there normally are on Crete. The only difference there is that on Crete they are in a 20km radius and on Mykonos they were in a 5km radius.
So there are a load of gay bars on Mykonos...
Actually apparently not. During my three night stay, at the risk of developing chronic alcoholic poisoning, I tried to visit as many as possible at different times, and all of them were mixed, but don't let that put you off. The guys were mainly in the majority!
(Checking web sites, if you can find them, I don't think that any of them actually say they are 'gay bars'. Obviously in Mykonos they are even more conservative than we are on Crete, at least our two gay bars say they are exactly that)
And here I can best quote a straight American couple who I met at Babylon, who told me that they frequent gay bars because they are usually the liveliest and best places to go and they were surprised by "how restrained the gay scene is on Mykonos". And they had been there a week.
And the bars themselves?
Top bar has to be The Piano Bar, cosy, friendly, and with excellent music. So nice to get a decent cabaret with a REAL singer and pianist these days instead of blaring pop music. Both of the guys behind the bar were from Crete, which must tell you something!
Next has to be Babylon, which is actually the first bar I went to on arrival night. Jackie O's is right next door so when you are outside in the throng, you are really in both of them at the same time! The great thing about both of these is the big outside space on the quayside.
Preference is for Babylon because the guys made me really welcome and found the time to talk to me which is always nice when you are a lone traveller. They seated me next to the door on the fence with Jackie O's which is a great place to sit as you can look down on everyone else. The next night I went there they came and got me from the crowd and planted me in the same place, even though the beer I had came from Jackie O's. The music is loud in both places but as they seem to share the same play list you never get the cacophony that is common if you have two lots of music at once.
Porta Bar is fascinating when you eventually find it. Not many people there when I tried it, but with two levels and two entrances it could make life interesting if not a little confusing, while I was there a man came in from the town hall collecting money, first in the bottom entrance and then at the top. I think he was just a bit disturbed that he wasn't going to collect two lots of money! Excellent barman too, insisted that for a slightly upset stomach the cure was obviously 7 * Metaxa, taken neat and sipped slowly.
Kastro Bar was one of my early evening visits so there were only a couple of people in there, but nice surroundings and, of course, the nice little alleyway at the side leading down to the sea........
Some of the bars have drag shows. If you are really unfortunate you will get to see one. I say unfortunate because if they are all like the one I saw then you are in for the worst drag show ever.
Sunset seems to be a popular time for bars too. I couldn't really see why because to be honest the sunset was the same three nights in a row, and not very interesting at that. I suspect that this is just a ruse to part you from your hard earned cash early in the evening. Or maybe I have just seen too many sunsets?
A word of warning/advice here too. Taxis are about as common as hens' teeth on Mykonos. If you are out for a good night in the bars of Mykonos Town and you are staying further than walking distance be prepared for a loooong wait for a cab. Up to two hours is nothing. Part of this is due to the taxi drivers 'selecting' people from the queue, that are all going in the same direction and that he can conveniently drop off in turn. Having said that they don't cheat you and fares are reasonable, but looking at it another way he has just put four people that don't know each other in a cab and charged them €10 each, which would get you from Heraklion Airport to Hersonissos which is about 25km, and you cannot actually go that far on Mykonos!
Of course you can always use the solution tried and tested by two guys from Manchester......Catch the last bus into the Town, go for something to eat, spend all night drinking and dancing and catch the first bus back to your hotel in the morning!
Mykonos is expensive....
Yes. But not always.
You will read on some web sites that it is expensive because it has to import everything from the mainland.
This is nonsense.
You can expect to pay €6 or more for a small bottle of beer in a bar, €8 or more for a long drink (spirit and mixer), and cocktails START at €10....My personal favourite at a sunset bar was €12 for a Campari and soda.
Crete is further from the mainland than Mykonos and yet a small beer is €2.50, maybe €3, a long drink is usually €6 and cocktails about the same.
Something similar applies to food. A gyros, our indigenous fast food, is about the same price on Mykonos as on Crete, but then you can find places on Mykonos where a Greek salad will cost you €10.50, whereas on Crete a Greek salad will set you back €4.50/5.00.
But you can find places on Mykonos where a Greek salad and a beer can be had for the same price as Crete, and right on the waterfront in Mykonos Town too!
Hotels too can be expensive, although they are rarely full it seems. I tried making last minute bookings while I was there at several and all had rooms available, provided you could spare €150 per night or more. On the other hand there is 'hostel' accommodation at €18 a night (share a room with five other people you have never met, sounds like fun), and this was all fully booked. Crete on the other hand has a wide selection of accommodation from around €25 a night.
Some of this price difference can be put down to the cost of real estate of course. Mykonos is, after all, only a small island so rents and real estate generally will tend to be of higher value, but when you can find such price differences within 100 metres of each other you do tend to wonder!
And so to the beach!
Or not in this case.......Saturday was to have been my 'beach day'...Just to have a look as it were because I don't really do the beach. I have enough lines and wrinkles already, but when in Rome etc.
Unfortunately something I had eaten, and I know what it was, had made going too far from a lavatory a bit of a no-no. I did get as far as Paradise beach, (which is not known as a gay beach), because I could do it easily on the bus, and was quite frankly not impressed. Row upon row of sunbeds (with a large sign saying 'Don't blame us for the price of the sunbed, the money is for the Government'), and umbrellas. And at the back of the beach a row of bars with nearly identical menus and all charging the same prices. At 10.30am on a Saturday, there were not a lot of people there. I would hate to think what it was like if it was crowded.
But this gave me time to have a good wander around the maze that is Mykonos Town, there are loads of cafes where I can make a dash to if I needed the lavatory!
Photogenic is the best word here, indeed I have seen photgraphs of Mykonos posted on web sites belonging to other islands, and if you want to shop then you have plenty of opportunity.
Having worked in a gift shop on Crete I have a bit of experience of some of the things you are likely to come across so I was not particularly impressed when one shop owner told me that a piece of ceramic work was 'local' when it fact it is made by an artist on Crete, or the shop that was selling work by an artist from Naxos who actually works in Athens but saying that was local too.
There are the usual number of shops selling jewellery too, and while you are not getting ripped off as far as the standard of the metal goes, it does get a bit wearing being told that it is made in Greece when you can buy exactly the same designs in Peru and Chile. The prices are fair enough and you can usually get some discount!
So what else is there to do on Mykonos?
Apart from the three B's, not a lot else. There are a couple of museums and some interesting churches and one of the sole saving graces of Mykonos for those who are interested is the birthpace of Apollo on a completely different island, Delos.
This archaeological site is huge, it rivals the Acropolis in interest, and the Palace of Knossos on Crete for size. The true archaeological buff would need to catch the first ferry in the morning and the last one back to even begin to get a good look at it, and although parts of it are slightly 'unkempt' it has not suffered from too much reconstruction, the museum is nicely laid out and the cafe next door, even though it has a captive audience, does not overcharge.
Sadly I suspect that many would rather spend their money on three rather overpriced beers than pay the ferry fare and entrance fee to go to Delos.
So the magic question...Should you go to Mykonos?
It's a small island with a big personality, (a bit like Santorini), and its reputation as a gay destination has been around for 40 years or so.
A lot of things have changed in that time.
Other destinations are available especially as most gay travellers are a bit more discerning these days and are not always just going for a week long orgy (if that is what you want then go to Santiago de Chile, and the drag shows are better than Mykonos. Well slightly).
In general it does not appear to me to be quite as gay as the publicity, much of it derived from outside Greece and some of it hopelessly out of date by the way, would have us believe. But big business is in play here and many of those web sites you see promoting it are getting a commission on the hotel rooms they sell.
If you are gay and are cruising the Greek islands, and it is on your 'Bucket List', then splurge for a few nights and do it!
Would I go again?
Are you paying?
Not unless I had a good reason, such as an old and dear friend holding his 60th birthday party there, or maybe a wedding, or christening, or funeral.
Living on Crete I have got used to the wide open spaces, and let's face it, on Crete I can go away for a weekend without leaving the island........
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