The island of the winds · Delos and Rhenia by boat · barbecue lunch on board · from about $99
Mykonos is the Cyclades island the travel guides pair with nightlife, and the harbour for Delos. Here is who it suits, who should pick another island, what Delos costs on your own, and the Delos and Rhenia cruise rated 4.6 from 1,744 reviews.
The Experience
The swim at Rhenia, the lunch, the wine and the ruins of Delos. The Delos site ticket is not in the price.
Not suitable for: People with mobility impairments · Not Included: Transportation to and from the boat, Snorkeling gear, Entrance to the site of Delos
Four steps, from the kiosk at the Old Port to free time among the ruins.
Meet at the kiosk next to the bus station at Mykonos Old Port. Getting there is up to you, since transport to the boat is not included, and neither is snorkelling gear. Bring a passport or ID card (a copy is accepted). The listing says the cruise is not suitable for people with mobility impairments.
The boat crosses to Rhenia, the island beside Delos, and anchors a few metres off a beach, where you swim and can walk on the shore.
The crew cooks lunch on the boat: chicken and pork skewers, salad, rice, tzatziki and bread. Wine, juice and water are served throughout the cruise.
After lunch the boat takes you to Delos, where you explore the site on your own, including the houses of Dionysus and Cleopatra, before returning to Mykonos. The €20 site ticket (€10 reduced) is not included, and swimming is not allowed on Delos. Cancellation is free up to 24 hours before.
Photo Gallery
Book Your Experience
Select your preferred date and time. The listing's terms: Cancel up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund.
The featured cruise, a guided morning on Delos and a catamaran that only sails past it, compared from each operator's listing. On your own, the Delos site ticket (€20) and the return boat (€25) are sold separately.
| Feature | FEATURED DAY Delos and Rhenia Cruise (Aegean Ventures Mykonos) | Guided Delos Morning (Delos Travel) | Rhenia Catamaran (Dolphin Navigation) |
|---|---|---|---|
| What You Pay | From about $99 per person; the €20 Delos site ticket is extra | From about $89 per person, with the boat and the €20 Delos ticket included | From about $131 per person |
| Rating | 4.6 / 5 from 1,744 reviews | 4.6 / 5 from 1,499 reviews | 4.7 / 5 from 651 reviews |
| Pickup or Meeting Point | The kiosk next to the bus station at Mykonos Old Port; no transport to the boat | The Delos Tours ticket office, leaving from the Old Port; one-way hotel pickup on the option that includes it | In front of Mathios Tavern, 8:40 a.m. for the morning cruise or 3:10 p.m. for the sunset one; hotel pickup on the option that includes it |
| On Delos | Free time on the site on your own | A 1.5-hour guided tour with a wireless headset | No landing: Delos is seen from the boat |
| Swimming | A swim off a beach on Rhenia; snorkelling gear not included | None: swimming is not allowed on Delos | Two hours at Rhenia, weather permitting, with snorkelling gear and a paddleboard |
| Food and Drink | A barbecue lunch cooked on board (chicken and pork skewers, salad, rice, tzatziki, bread), with wine, juice and water | Not included | A meal with seafood pasta, meat or vegetarian options, homemade rosé wine and seasonal fruit |
| Weather and Cancellation | Free cancellation up to 24 hours before | Runs with at least 8 people; free cancellation up to 24 hours before | In strong wind the route usually moves to the south coast of Mykonos; free cancellation up to 24 hours before |
| Good to Know | Bring a passport or ID card (a copy is accepted); not suitable for people with mobility impairments | Bring a passport or ID card; not suitable for wheelchair users; a lost headset costs €150 | Give everyone's full name and ID or passport number when booking (port rules); towels not included; not suitable for people with mobility impairments |
| Best For | Delos and a swim in one day, at your own pace on the site | Understanding the ruins, with the boat and the ticket handled | A long swim and lunch, with Delos as a view |
| Check Availability | See the Guided Morning | See the Catamaran |
Five More Mykonos Tours
A guided morning on Delos with the ticket included, a catamaran to Rhenia, an organic winery, a half-day island tour and a sunset party boat. Prices move over time.
DELOS TICKET INCLUDEDA guided morning trip to Delos from Mykonos Old Port: the 30-minute boat each way and the site and museum ticket are included, with a 1.5-hour guided walk from the House of Dionysus to the Temple of Apollo.
TWO HOURS AT RHENIAA catamaran cruise, morning or sunset, from Mathios Tavern by Mykonos New Port or from your hotel by option: past Delos for photos from the deck, then a long swim stop in a cove on Rhenia with lunch and wine.
ORGANIC WINERYA guided walk with the owner through the olive grove and vineyards of an organic winery a short drive from Mykonos Town, then a tasting of its wines with local products and live traditional music.
HALF-DAY ISLAND TOURA half-day guided tour by air-conditioned vehicle from the cruise terminal gate at Mykonos New Port: Kalafatis beach, Ano Mera village, then a walk in Mykonos Town past the windmills and Little Venice.
SUNSET PARTY BOATA sunset party cruise on a traditional wooden boat from Mykonos Old Port: a swim stop at Agios Stefanos beach, then sunset at anchor off Little Venice, with music on board and one drink included.
Choosing Mykonos
Mykonos in the official figures, Delos and what it costs, who the island suits and who it doesn't, what 2025 and 2026 changed, the ferries and flights, how long to stay, and the tours.
Mykonos is the island the travel guides send you to for the nights, and the harbour for Delos, the archaeological site 30 minutes away by boat. Both make the case for it, and both come with costs worth knowing before you book.
GNTO, the Greek National Tourism Organisation, calls Mykonos the “island of the winds”. Chora, the main town, is built on paved lanes; at Little Venice houses with wooden balconies stand right on the sea, and the windmills of Kato Mili stand next to it. GNTO counts the beaches “among the most beautiful in the Aegean Sea” and is plain about the rest: beach bars, clubs and luxury shopping, on an island “synonymous with cosmopolitanism and luxurious holidays”. About 10,704 people lived there at the 2021 census.
There are two harbours. Ferries and the big cruise ships use the New Port at Tourlos; the Old Port in Chora handles small boats, cruise tenders and the boats to Delos, and a SeaBus links the two.
GNTO describes Delos as a UNESCO World Heritage site and the mythical birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. The Cyclades take their name from the circle they form around it, and today it is used only as an archaeological site. Rhenia, which GNTO spells Rineia, is its neighbour, and it is where the boats stop to swim.
On your own, a visit takes two separate tickets. The site costs €20 (€10 reduced). The boat is separate: Delos Tours runs it from the Old Port, 30 minutes each way, at €25 return (€12 for children aged 6 to 12, free under 5), from 1 April to 30 November 2026, every day of the week, with times that depend on the weather. The site has no weekly closing day listed for 2026 and closes at 18:30 in the first half of October and 18:00 in the second.
That makes €45 a head for the crossing and the site, before a guide. Swimming is not allowed anywhere on Delos’s coast. The guided morning tour on this page includes the boat and the ticket; the featured cruise is the boat, with lunch and a swim, but the €20 ticket is extra.
All five guides in our check name Mykonos for nightlife: Lonely Planet for “starry nights and dance parties”, Condé Nast Traveler for “decadent parties and five-star hotels”, Rick Steves for “pulsating nightlife”, CN Traveller under nightlife, and GNTO through its beach bars and clubs. Lonely Planet also notes that most first-timers to the Cyclades home in on Santorini and Mykonos.
So Mykonos suits a trip built around evenings out, beach bars and Delos, with plenty of ferries from Piraeus and Rafina. Lonely Planet’s own suggestions for a quieter alternative are Paros, Naxos or Delos itself.
Pick Naxos with children: Lonely Planet points families there because kids can swim safely in its shallow water. Pick Paros for what GNTO calls “expansive sandy beaches” and a mix of “cosmopolitan ambience” and Cycladic tradition; Naxos or Paros compares those two.
Pick Santorini if the view is the point rather than the night, and read Santorini or Mykonos before you split a week between them. For quieter islands, start with the quieter islands guide.
Mykonos took more cruise passengers in 2025 than any other Greek island, second only to the mainland port of Piraeus: 1,222,748 from 762 calls, just ahead of Santorini. Since 21 July 2025 each of them pays the cruise passenger fee on landing, at the same rates as Santorini: €20 from June to September, €12 in April, May and October and €4 from November to March, whatever their age. Arrivals by ferry or plane do not pay it.
The airport, run by Fraport Greece, handled 1,581,742 passengers in 2025 and was up 6.6 percent from January to August 2026. This winter it shuts one day a week. From 19 November 2026 to 18 March 2027 the runway is closed every Thursday for reconstruction, except on 23, 24 and 31 December and 6 and 7 January, so plan winter flights around Thursdays.
Hotels and rentals also charge the climate resilience fee per room per night: €2 to €15 by star rating from April to October, €8 for short-term rentals.
GNTO gives the flight from Athens as 45 minutes. By sea the operators quote their own times: SeaJets’ 2026 guide gives Piraeus–Mykonos as 2 h 40, from €80; Golden Star takes 2 h 30 from Rafina; Blue Star’s overnight ferry takes 4 h 40 via Syros. Fast Ferries runs Rafina–Andros–Tinos–Mykonos all year, one or two sailings a day in October and up to three a day from late May to September.
From the neighbours, SeaJets lists Mykonos–Paros at 35 to 50 minutes, and Golden Star at 1 h 15.
In summer, allow for the wind. The Greek weather service describes the meltemi as blowing from early May to mid-October, most often in July and August, and often reaching gale force in the Aegean. Ferries are cancelled or rescheduled on bad days, the Delos boat schedule is “subject to change depending on weather conditions”, and SeaJets advises a buffer day before a flight in July and August.
No official body recommends a length of stay. Three full days covers the island at an easy pace: one for Delos, one for Chora, Little Venice and a beach, one for a boat or a winery. Delos alone can fill just a morning on the guided tour, 30 minutes each way and an hour and a half on the site. In summer, keep a day loose for the wind.
The featured day is Aegean Ventures Mykonos’ cruise to Delos and Rhenia, from $99 when we checked and rated 4.6 from 1,744 reviews. It leaves from the kiosk next to the bus station at the Old Port, and getting there is up to you. The boat anchors off a beach on Rhenia for a swim, the crew cooks a barbecue lunch on board with wine, juice and water, and after lunch you go ashore on Delos to explore the site on your own, including the houses of Dionysus and Cleopatra.
The €20 site ticket and snorkelling gear are not included. Bring a passport or ID card, and note that the listing marks the cruise unsuitable for people with mobility impairments. Cancellation is free up to 24 hours before.
If you want Delos and a swim in the same day without arranging the boat yourself, this is the one to book.
See dates for the Delos cruise →
If you would rather understand the ruins than wander them, Delos Travel’s guided morning (from $89, 4.6 from 1,499 reviews) includes the boat, the €20 entrance and a 1.5-hour guided tour. It leaves from the Old Port, with check-in at the Delos Tours ticket office, and needs at least eight people to run. Dolphin Navigation’s catamaran (from $131, 4.7 from 651) passes Delos without landing and spends two hours at Rhenia for swimming, snorkelling and paddleboarding, weather permitting, with lunch and homemade rosé. It meets in front of Mathios Tavern, and in strong wind it usually switches to the south coast of Mykonos.
On land, Tour in Mykonian Land’s winery visit (from $77, 4.9 from 550) walks the olive grove and the vineyard with the owner before a tasting of organic wines and local food, with live traditional music; you make your own way to the winery. iTravel Mykonos’ half-day highlights tour (from $78, 4.8 from 385) starts at the cruise-terminal gate of the New Port and covers Kalafatis beach, Ano Mera and its monastery of Panagia Tourliani, then a walk past the windmills, Little Venice and Paraportiani church. It involves about an hour of walking on uneven ground with steps.
The company behind the featured cruise also runs a sunset party boat from the Old Port (from $43, 4.7 from 1,024), with a swim at Agios Stefanos and the sunset off Little Venice. Its calendar had no dates left in 2026 when we checked; the next was 1 May 2027.
Guest Reviews
"trip over already nice even though we had to make it back to port with a crushed timeliness. Even though the wind was brutal (30+mph), and the ocean swells were 5-10 feet, our captain navigated the water very well. The area we snorkeled in was calm, protected from the waves, and had plenty to see overall. And we enjoyed the site of Delos for a little less than 2 hours, before making our way back to the meeting point."
"The cruise was absolutely wonderful. The meal served during the cruise was very good, and the stops along the way were really enjoyable and well chosen. The host was extremely kind, friendly and sociable, great lady and the crew was lovely and welcoming. I highly recommend this experience!"
"Our crew did an excellent job of navigating the ship to where it was supposed to go without a hitch. Our hostess did a nice job making everyone feel welcome. The food was traditional greek and very good. The sites, swimming, music and dancing all made for a fun and memorable experience! Would recommend this trip for anyone who wants to see a different side of Mykonos and its surrounding islands!"
"Weather was very cold and wavy - despite this the guides and trip were excellent! Still was able to swim . Lunch was yummy. One more hour in Delos would have been nice but was able to explore majority of the site."
"Great experience, very friendly staff. Food was nice. Would deffo recommend to anyone. Word of warning for people who struggle with sea sickness that the waves are strong at times."
"Great day trip around Santorini. Handy pick up and drop off from multiple locations. Great guide and drivers."
"It was amazing; the 16-year-old girls weren't keen at first, but once the dancing started on the boat, they joined right in. My 20-year-old son enjoyed jumping off the boat into the beautiful sea. The tour woman guide was wonderful and fun, making the cruise even more enjoyable; the food was amazing, and the rosé wine mixed with lemon soda made for an excellent drink. Parking at the LOT in the harbor was free, so I rate the whole experience top-notch."
"It was a wonderful trip. The family running the tour was amazing"
Read all 1,744 verified reviews
See All ReviewsFrom Mykonos Old Port to a swim off Rhenia, a barbecue lunch with wine on board and free time among the ruins of Delos, rated 4.6 by 1,744 guests. The €20 Delos site ticket is extra; cancellation is free up to 24 hours before. Starting from $99 per person.
Check Availability & BookCan't Make These Dates?
More tours on this island. Each listing states its own cancellation terms.
The questions people type before choosing Mykonos and booking a day there, answered in the first sentence. Tour details come from each operator's listing; the rest from Greek ministry, port, airport and GNTO sources.
It depends on the trip: Mykonos for nights out, beach bars and Delos; Santorini for the caldera, the sunset and couples. All five guides in our check name Mykonos for nightlife and Santorini for couples. Both are busy: Mykonos landed 1,222,748 cruise passengers in 2025, just ahead of Santorini's 1,203,052. Santorini or Mykonos sets them side by side.
Three full days covers it: one for Delos, one for Chora and a beach, one for a boat or a winery. Delos can take just a morning on the guided tour, 30 minutes each way by boat and an hour and a half on the site. Add a spare day from May to mid-October, when the meltemi can move boats, and in winter avoid Thursday flights between 19 November 2026 and 18 March 2027.
No month suits everyone; it depends on whether you want Delos, the beaches or a quieter island. The Delos boats run from 1 April to 30 November 2026. The meltemi blows from early May to mid-October, most often in July and August. The cruise passenger fee peaks at €20 from June to September. In winter the runway closes every Thursday from 19 November 2026 to 18 March 2027.
No: swimming is not allowed on the coast of Delos, which is used only as an archaeological site. Boats that combine Delos with a swim use Rhenia, its neighbour. The featured cruise anchors a few metres off a beach on Rhenia before it takes you to Delos, while Dolphin Navigation's catamaran spends two hours at Rhenia and only passes Delos without landing.
On your own, €45 a head: the €20 site ticket and the €25 return boat are sold separately. The site ticket is €10 reduced, and the Delos Tours boat from the Old Port costs €12 for children aged 6 to 12 and nothing for under-5s. Delos Travel's guided morning (from $89) includes both; the featured Delos and Rhenia cruise (from $99) is the boat, with lunch, but not the site ticket.
Yes: no weekly closing day is listed for the 2026 season. The site opens daily, closing at 18:30 from 1 to 15 October and 18:00 from 16 to 31 October, then 08:00–16:00 in November. Delos Tours sails at 10:00 on Mondays, plus an afternoon boat in season, and at 09:00, 10:00 and 11:30 from Tuesday to Sunday. Its times depend on the weather.
Fly in about 45 minutes, or take a ferry of two and a half to under five hours. GNTO gives the flight as 45 minutes. By sea, Golden Star takes 2 h 30 from Rafina, SeaJets' 2026 guide gives Piraeus–Mykonos as 2 h 40 (from €80), Blue Star's overnight ferry takes 4 h 40 via Syros, and Fast Ferries runs Rafina–Andros–Tinos–Mykonos all year. Ferries use the New Port at Tourlos.
Not closed, but the runway shuts every Thursday from 19 November 2026 to 18 March 2027 for reconstruction. Fraport Greece says each closure runs from 00:01 to 23:59, except on 23, 24 and 31 December and 6 and 7 January, and emergency helicopter flights continue. Book winter flights for other days, or come by ferry from Piraeus or Rafina.
Yes: since 21 July 2025 cruise passengers landing on Mykonos pay €20 from June to September, €12 in April, May and October and €4 from November to March. It is charged per passenger and per port, whatever the age, at the same rates as Santorini; other Greek ports charge €5, €3 or €1. Visitors who arrive by ferry or plane do not pay it.
They run when it is safe, and the route can change. The meltemi blows from early May to mid-October, most often in July and August, and often reaches gale force in the Aegean. Dolphin Navigation's catamaran usually switches to the south coast of Mykonos in strong winds, and the Delos boat schedule changes with the weather. Every tour on this page offers free cancellation up to 24 hours before.
From the kiosk next to the bus station at Mykonos Old Port. Transport to the boat is not included, so you make your own way to the Old Port, which a SeaBus links with the New Port at Tourlos. Bring a passport or ID card (a copy is accepted). The listing marks the cruise unsuitable for people with mobility impairments, and snorkelling gear is not provided.
Still have questions? Email us at info@bestgreekislandstovisit.com