Shopping in Mykonos

The best way to fill some time is shopping. Whether you visit New York, Vienna, London or Mykonos, the best part of enjoying the culture is checking out the stores and especially the discounts. If you happen to come to Mykonos in August you’ll be pleasantly surprised to realize that you can go back home with quite a big new wardrobe for the fraction of the price you’d pay otherwise. As the discounts season draws to an end you can even find merchandise discounted up to 70%!

Opening hours

Contrary to what you probably know from big capitals where the stores close their doors at 5 or 6 pm, in Mykonos you’ll find the stores open until late at night (around 10 pm) and even until morning (1 or 2 am) during July and August. This means you don’t have to sacrifice beach time. Plus, the “afternoon siesta” is pretty much not heard of in Mykonos so don’t worry about finding the stores closed in the afternoon either.

What can I buy here?

In general, Mykonos can be pretty expensive especially if you are heading to the glamorous malls and shopping centers.

You can find everything you want in Mykonos, from designer clothes and jewelry, to artisans’ art and everything in between. If you are a “serious shopper” – and what woman isn’t? – you can plan to change your entire wardrobe during the discounts season.

There are both big shopping centers to check out and small family owned shops. Diesel, Dolce & Gabbana, Lacoste or Nike are well represented here. You’d be surprised to find that items which seem to cost a fortune in regular season can be discounted between 30 and 70% during the sales period. The shops are lined up in the center of the city but you’ll also find them in Little Venice.

You can leave home with just few items to last for a day or two and do the rest of the shopping here. Clothes, shoes, underwear, jewelry…and of course, a bracelet made of sea shells.

If you like jewelry you should get one based on the ancient Greek design. Ilias LALAoUNIS located right in Mykonos Town sells jewelry based on ancient designs. It’s a unique and elegant place to check out.

Money and credit cards

If you come from the Euro zone you are lucky because you don’t need to worry about exchanging money. If you come from USA or other country which has a strong currency you can safely use your credit card or debit card to pay in the shops where cards are accepted (which is in most upscale shops). You can safely use an ATM to get cash as well.

If you come from a country which doesn’t have such a strong currency (i.e Romania, Bulgaria) make sure to exchange the money before you leave home (you’d be surprised by the difference in exchange rates once you get to Greece). You can use your card to get money from the ATMs as well but you can never be sure what exchange rate will be used (what I can assure you is that the exchange rate in your home country won’t be used!).

In very touristy places ATMs often run out of money over the weekend and it takes days until they are refilled. So make sure to have enough cash. A combination of cards, cash and traveler’s checks is a good idea to use.

Generally speaking, Visa and MasterCard are accepted pretty much everywhere in Greece.

>>more information on Shopping in Greece