Our first taste of Greece: Mykonos

September 3, 2025

We arrived in Mykonos early today and were awoken by a ton of shaking. Not sure what the shaking was because we weren’t actually docked, (this is a tender port for us – which means they shuttle us back and forth to shore by smaller boats) but it was really windy. I guess Mykonos is notorious for being windy, but without the wind the heat would be unbearable. Honestly, it feels a bit like a hair dryer because it’s hot!

One of my favorite types of cuisines is Mediterranean, so we had booked a walking food tour while we were in Mykonos with Celebrity. It didn’t start until lunchtime so we took it easy in the morning and got ready at a leisurely pace.

We got there a little early, and walked around waiting for our guide to show up. Once Claudio did, we immediately knew that we were in good hands. We could tell that he carried himself with professionalism, was incredibly knowledgeable, and that he was well known with others in the industry.

And honestly, without him we would have gotten lost within the labyrinth that is the Mykonos maze. The maze was set up intentionally to confuse pirates that may have tried to invade to loot the town in the past. Now it just confuses tourists (including us) and makes for a fun adventure when you’re trying to find a shop that you spotted a cute sun dress in the window at earlier!

We had five different stops that included a variety of traditional Greek food and drink. The first stop was a bakery that had a Tiropitakia (cheese pie), which was something that the average Greek would grab when they were “on the go.”

Claudio also wanted to make sure he mixed in cultural stops too – so we stopped to see some windmills and “Little Venice.” It was a really picturesque area!

From there we had kebabs – some people in the group opted for gyros, which were the size of your head. Once we left that restaurant we reentered the maze. As we wove through the streets, we saw the interesting mix of high end stores (Louis Vuitton) with Mykonos branded mugs and keychains shops. And there were so many cats everywhere! Claudio taught us that cats are loved on the island because they help keep both the rodent and viper population under control, plus they’re cute!

The next couple of stops were a little quicker – the next was a sweet. It was called the “Ypovrichio.” The submarine – a rich white chewy sweet that is served on a spoon dipped in a long glass of crystal cold water. So that’s exactly what we did, we all stood outside a candy shop with our glass of water with these!

My 10-year old self would have killed for one of these. But it was a little too sweet for me now, but it was so fun to try!

From there, it was a quick walk over to our next stop where we had a shot of Ouzo and an appetizer plate with traditional Greek items that were all super tasty. The Ouzo was definitely an acquired taste – has a very strong licorice flavor (not my favorite). But, when in “Rome” in this case, Mykonos… bottoms up!

We rounded out the day at The Milky Way, our final stop for Greece’s spin at Turkish Delight and a sample of Mastiha (another one of their liqueurs). The restaurant was hopping so the server actually brought the glasses and the loukoumi out to us on the beach. Both were actually very good, and the liqueur was far tastier than the ouzo we had at the previous place.

After we finished those, we parted ways from Claudio and the rest of the group and made our way into the maze and started shopping. It was fun to drop into different shops, and window shop. But we didn’t leave with too many different things.

We made our way back to the ship with plenty of time because we wanted to make sure we didn’t get lost and left behind in the maze. (Although it might not have been the worst place to get stuck!)

Our tender ride back to the ship

Up Next:
Ephesus, Turkey

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