Mykonos

The gay scene in Mykonos is very well known and has plenty of venues aimed at an LGBT crowd. The real concentration is in Mykonos Town, the Chora, and along its Little Venice waterfront, where the historic bars and restaurants line up facing the sunset. The density per head is exceptional: an island of 10,704 residents sustains a nightlife offer built for the pan-European market.

The effective season runs from May to September, peaking in July and August. Outside those months many venues close or cut hours, because the island hibernates. The natural complement to the town's nightlife is the gay beaches of the south, Super Paradise, Elia and Paranga, with beach bars that work as the daytime shift of the same scene.

Mykonos does not run on a conventional Pride, since Athens Pride is held in the capital and in June, but on a very dense LGBT summer calendar. August's XLSIOR is the anchor event of the international circuit, with DJs from around the world and parties in clubs and on beaches. Mykonos Pride complements it with a more local march. And the season from May to September is lived as a continuous festival across bars, beaches and beach bars.

For XLSIOR and for August in general you need to book three to six months ahead. Hotel and beach club prices can multiply two- or fourfold against low season. If what you want is a classic political Pride, the option is Athens in June. If what you want is the international circuit, it is Mykonos in August.

Mykonos has no administrative gay neighbourhood, because the whole island is the gay zone. The night concentration is in Mykonos Town, the Chora, the white pedestrianised old town on the west coast, with Little Venice as its waterfront. The daytime axis is the gay beaches of the south: Super Paradise, the most famous and the party one, Elia, the longest, and Paranga and Agrari, the quiet alternatives. A typical day moves people from the beach by day to the Chora at sunset.

Distances are short. From the Kato Mili windmills, in the Chora, to Super Paradise is about six kilometres by road, fifteen to twenty minutes by car, taxi or boat. To Elia it is about ten kilometres and twenty to twenty-five minutes. And the Chora is not a dense city in the manner of Athens or Madrid: it can be covered end to end in a quarter of an hour.

Mykonos is a destination rather than an organisational centre: the professional Greek LGBT infrastructure, with the associations, the legal advice, the psychological care and the sexual health services with PrEP, lives in Athens. On the island, the real network is the LGBT businesses themselves, between exclusive or openly gay-friendly hotels, bars and beach clubs, which act as informal information and community hubs through the season.

On health, the island has a health centre and a basic local hospital. For anything complex, whether surgery, a major emergency, PrEP, post-exposure prophylaxis or trans care, the reference is Athens, 35 minutes away by plane or about six hours by ferry and bus. The European health insurance card works for EU residents and the emergency number is 112. The water is drinkable, and summer crowds raise the risk of sexually transmitted infections, so pharmacies sell rapid test kits.