Psarou Beach

Psarou is a cove on the south-west coast of Mykonos, a few minutes by road from the airport and about twenty from the town. It is small — a couple of hundred metres of sand between rocky arms — and almost entirely organised.

It became the island's status beach in a specific way. Nammos opened here in 2003 as a restaurant and beach club, and its reputation drew the yachts, which anchor off the bay through the summer and tender in. The result is a beach whose social hierarchy is legible from the sand: front rows, back rows, and the boats. Mykonos has other beaches with clubs, but this is the one where the arrangement is most complete.

The bay itself is genuinely good. It faces south-west and is sheltered from the meltemi, the north wind that makes much of the Cyclades unusable on a bad day, so the water stays calm when other beaches are chopped. The sand is fine and golden, the entry gradual, and the water clear. There is a small strip of free public beach at one end, as Greek law requires. The bay is deep enough for large boats to lie close in, which is the other half of the arrangement: the anchorage is part of the beach's social geography, and on an August afternoon the view seaward is of hulls rather than horizon.

Development is total in relation to the beach's size: sunbed rows the length of the sand, a restaurant, a boutique, and a road with valet parking behind. Reservation is effectively mandatory in July and August, and prices are among the highest in the Mediterranean.

One club sets the price, the music and the timetable for this bay, and in August a lounger costs what a hotel room costs elsewhere in Greece. The water is genuinely excellent and the free strip is real and small. Anyone who wants Mykonos without that should be on the north coast, where the meltemi keeps the clubs away.