LOVE ISLAND
SUN, SEA AND BEACH PARTIES IN GREECE – WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT FOR A HONEYMOON? NEWLYWED LOTTE JEFFS EXPLORES MYKONOS
How sunny, fashionable Mykonos became the destination of choice for same-sex newlyweds
THE PARTY AT JACKIE O’S BEACH Club sneaks up on you. One minute you’re sipping low-alcohol beer on a sun lounger in between refreshing dips in the cool Aegean Sea, pretending to read while checking out the Adonislike boys in Speedos. The next, you’re knee-deep in cocktails and dancing on a table as a drag queen swishes her sequinned cape in your face. The music starts building at 6pm, when the boys – and it is mostly boys at this iconic Mykonos gay beach – start towelling off and slipping into their vest tops for post-sunset high-jinks. We had the good sense to have a dinner of fresh fish and salad in Jackie O’s chic terraced restaurant as the party continued around us. Later, we were ready to rejoin the scene and be swept up in its frenetic energy, which surged towards the Old Town, where the after party at Jackie O’s late-night sister bar beats on till the early hours (jackieomykonos.com).
The Greek island, one of the Cyclades to the east of Athens, is known for having a more laid-back, hedonistic vibe than Ibiza – so not the obvious choice for a honeymoon. There was no walking hand-in-hand on a deserted beach, but there was great food, cool nightlife, luxury hotels, guaranteed sunshine and a colourful history of welcoming LGBTQ people from around the world. Once Jackie Onassis and Elizabeth Taylor, the pied pipers of homosexual men in the Sixties and Seventies, added Mykonos to their summer circuits, the rainbow flag found its stake in the ground for good.
I’m lucky enough to have never experienced homophobia – at home or abroad. I go through life with the expectation that I will be treated equally, and thankfully I have been. I would never let my sexuality stop me from travelling to a country I wanted to explore – it just so happens that Russia, the Middle East and West Africa aren’t high on my personal bucket list. But I have gay friends whose wanderlust has taken them to these places, and while they are careful not to kiss their partner in public, for example, they’ve felt welcomed by locals. I also have other gay friends who wouldn’t travel to destinations for political reasons. I respect everyone’s right to choose where they want to go and why. When it came to our honeymoon, however, we wanted to go somewhere our marriage wouldn’t just be accepted, but celebrated. And Mykonos was that place.
There’s often a slight fear when checking in to a hotel with my wife that we will be given twin beds. So I always make a point of confirming this is not the case on arrival, to avoid the awkwardness of having to phone down to reception to ask
to change rooms. When I was younger, I found this mortifyingly embarrassing. I’d gone through the ordeal of coming out to friends and family at 16, and these kinds of interactions meant having to come out all over again to someone I didn’t even know. As a confident, thirty-something woman, I now don’t give a flying fig what any receptionist thinks. In Jerusalem a few years ago, we were given a double room, but when we came back from dinner, a rickety camp bed had been erected in the corner of the room. I promptly demanded it was removed.
We were welcomed as newlyweds everywhere we went in Mykonos. The Myconian Kyma is a Design Hotel, so it has that familiar minimalist feel, with well-placed coffee-table tomes and modern art in the lobby. We had a room with a small plunge pool, which was the perfect way to cool off after a hot night in the Old Town, just a short walk away. I’ve never seen such stunning sunsets, and we discovered the island’s most romantic spot to watch the sky turn golden at Baos (baos mykonos.com), a cocktail bar in
Little Venice, the area of the Old Town where the pavement juts right up against the shore. We drank gin and tonics in glasses as big as goldfish bowls, then stumbled up the steps of a crumbling amphitheatre to find Thioni restaurant at the Semeli Hotel (semelihotel.gr), where you can dine on Saganaki shrimp and Aegean octopus and take in the view over the jumble of white rooftops.
I loved the mix of traditional tavernas and high-end restaurants. We might eat lunch at Kiki’s Tavern, a seafood place with no electricity above Agios Sostis beach, and have dinner at Nobu (noburestau rants.com), which is more Kardashian than Myconian, but fabulous nevertheless.
Bill & Coo (bill-coo-hotel. com) is a boutique hotel just a stone’s throw from the Myconian Kyma. We didn’t stay there (its 22 suites get booked up way in advance), but had an incredible couples’ massage, and dinner in the restaurant, which serves inventive takes on traditional cuisine; think cod fricassée, sweetbread tempura and spherified olives – a Heston Blumenthal-like concoction that explodes with a rich, salty taste of the island.
On the south coast, the Myconian Villa Collection is a chic resort where it’s easy to dip in and out of a social life. Our room had a quiet, sea-facing balcony, but we spent most of our time by the pool or at Elia Beach (a few minutes’ shuttle ride away). As with most places in Mykonos, the decor is white and blue and lets the incredible surrounding landscape do the talking. This hotel is away from the busy Old Town and crazy party beaches such as Paradise and Super Paradise, so it’s a calm place to return to after a day of exploring.
Mykonos Blu, about 30 minutes’ drive west, was our favourite. Spending a couple of nights in different hotels is a good way to explore all the island’s beaches, but if we go back, we’d probably spend all week there. It’s on Psarou, one of the nicest beaches, and is that perfect combination of cool and cosy. As a honeymoon treat we stayed in the Deep Blu Villa, where the master bedroom suite had a terrace with an outdoor Jacuzzi, and a bright living room with floor-to-ceiling windows opening out onto a private pool. After the frantic months of wedding planning and a week preparing the venue for the big day, we were ready for some quiet time, just the two of us.
But we were still on such a high after the wedding, so it was fun staying so close to the action. Nammos (nammos.gr) is another legendary party beach and it’s a five-minute walk (or swim) from the Blu. We had an
excellent lunch here, sitting at a table on the sand, shaded by a bamboo canopy, eating platters of colourful salads, hummus and feta. I jumped into the sea before dessert. Like Jackie O’s, the party builds throughout the day. After lunch, people start dancing, drinking Veuve Clicquot from plastic flutes.
Jackie O’s was my favourite beach party; probably because my wife Jenny and I were the stars of the show. The drag-queen performer found out we were just married and called us up on stage. We received a standing ovation from our fellow revellers and were congratulated all night. The great thing about being gay is that you can find a community most places you go – and where there’s a gay bar, cheesy music and fun times are guaranteed.
The island’s most A-list beach party is Scorpios (scorpiosmykonos.com). It’s an amazing space – a kind of retro yet futuristic oasis, with fire pits and gorgeous alcoves to hide in. The beautiful staff swished around in toga-like robes wearing ear pieces, while a live band played Café del Mar-style jazz as the sun set.
We didn’t waste a single sunset in Mykonos, but by far the most amazing experience was being taken on a private boat by Greece’s only female captain (syachting.com) – a 25-year-old who was friends with the harbour master, so could sail to the places other boats couldn’t reach. With the island’s famous windmills behind me, I jumped off the boat and swam in the deliciously warm path of the sun as it dropped behind the horizon. Back on the boat, there was a bottle of sparkling wine waiting for us.
It’s rather easy to get used to such luxuries. In fact being on honeymoon felt like being a celebrity, with special treatment waiting for us at every turn. By some twist of fate, we ended up spending two nights in Mykonos’s most expensive villa (and the Blue Villas collection’s premium property). Opulence was a place beyond all our wildest dreams, where Leonardo DiCaprio has ‘entertained’ friends in the past and Beyoncé, Jay Z and their family stayed when they were last in Greece.
We were slotted in between the kind of guests who travel with a private chef – but as we didn’t, we had no food except some dry white bread the cleaner shared with us and a bottle of wine. It was surreal. There were nine bedrooms, a giant infinity pool with a swim-up bar (out of service for us, sadly), and a maze of balconies and terraces with sea views. A music room was kitted out with instruments and, bizarrely, two massage beds and a Jacuzzi. There was a gym, too, plus a big kitchen and living room, an outside dining area and a hammock hanging over the pool. It’s a villa that has seen many a wild party, you can tell. And while we were lucky to see how a celebrity such as Beyoncé must holiday, with just the two of us clattering around, it was a rather strange 48 hours.
But Mykonos is like that. You end up having all kinds of adventures. The island has an energy that sweeps you into its arms and takes you on a fabulous journey, and there was nowhere better to have spent our first two weeks as wife and wife.
British Airways has return flights from London Heathrow to Mykonos from £200; ba.com