In This Guide
- 1.Pano Myli and the monastery that earns its silence
- 2.Skip the waterfront tavernas in Ornos — eat here instead
- 3.Louza, and why you should bring some home
- 4.The threshing floors after dark
- 5.What to do with a morning (and what to skip)
- 6.Where to sleep if you're serious about staying
- 7.The contrarian case for Ano Mera over Mykonos Town
- 8.Getting there, getting back, and the last bus problem
The bus from Mykonos Town takes about twenty minutes and drops you at a square so still you can hear the priest's cat yawning from across the plateia. Ano Mera in June is what the rest of the island pretends to be — actually quiet, actually slow, actually interested in feeding you rather than photographing you. I came here last June after three nights on the south coast beaches left me sunburned and irritable, and the first thing I did was sit at a plastic chair under a mulberry tree and eat a plate of louza so good I cancelled my ferry to Paros.
Most visitors treat Ano Mera as a half-day detour: monastery, lunch, gone. That's a mistake. The village has its own gravitational field in early summer, when the threshing floors on the outskirts get swept clean for outdoor suppers and the monastery courtyard fills with swallows instead of tour groups. Stay through the evening.
1. Pano Myli and the monastery that earns its silence
The Monastery of Panagia Tourliani sits at the top of the main square, and I know what you're thinking — another whitewashed church with a rope across the door and a guard who shushes you. But Tourliani is different in June, before July's cruise-ship overflow reaches even here. You can walk into the courtyard at 9 a.m. and stand alone with the carved marble fountain and the Florentine-school icons behind the altar screen, and nobody will try to sell you a magnet.
The monastery was founded in 1542 and rebuilt in 1767, and the interior woodwork is worth fifteen minutes of genuine attention — the iconostasis is intricate enough that you'll keep finding new panels if you slow down. The small ecclesiastical museum to the right of the nave has vestments and manuscripts, and costs nothing to enter.
Open roughly 9:00–13:00 and again 15:30–19:00, though the afternoon reopening can drift by half an hour depending on the monk's mood. Dress code enforced: shoulders and knees covered.
Pro tip:Bring a scarf in your bag. The monastery keeps a few loaners near the entrance, but they're rough polyester and it's 30°C in June. Your own cotton scarf is a mercy.
2. Skip the waterfront tavernas in Ornos — eat here instead
I'll say it plainly: the food in Ano Mera is better than anything along the southern beaches, and it costs less. The tavernas on the plateia serve versions of the same Mykonian staples — louza, kopanisti, marathopita — but they do it with a casualness that suggests they're cooking for themselves and you just happen to be there.
To Steki tou Proedrou, on the square itself, does a kopanisti salad with barley rusk and raw onion that I'd order three days in a row (and did). Their grilled octopus is firm without being rubbery, served on a plain white plate with lemon and nothing else. A meal for two with house wine runs about €35–45, which on Mykonos in June is practically an act of charity.
The place most guides send you to is Vangelis, also on the square. It's fine. Reliable moussaka, decent barrel wine. But it's become the default tourist lunch stop for organized day trips, so between 12:30 and 14:00 the tables fill with groups who arrived by minibus and will leave in forty-five minutes. If you do go, eat early or eat late.
Pro tip:Ask for the marathopita (fennel pie) at To Steki if they have it — it's not always on the menu, and they sometimes make it only on Thursdays and Saturdays.
3. Louza, and why you should bring some home
Louza is wind-cured pork loin seasoned with pepper and sometimes a whisper of clove, and on Mykonos it's sliced thin enough to read through. Every taverna in Ano Mera serves it as a meze, but the version you want to pack in your suitcase comes from the small grocery on the east side of the square — no sign in English, just a faded Coca-Cola awning and a glass-front fridge. They sell vacuum-sealed louza by weight, roughly €28–32 per kilo, and the woman behind the counter will wrap it tight for travel if you ask.
It keeps for weeks sealed, longer in a fridge. I brought a piece back to Madrid once and it survived two days in my carry-on without complaint.
4. The threshing floors after dark
Here is the thing nobody tells you about Ano Mera in June. On certain evenings — not every night, and not on a published schedule — families and sometimes a local cultural association set up long tables on the old alonia, the circular stone threshing floors scattered on the hillsides around the village. They cook over wood, pour local wine from unlabelled bottles, and someone inevitably brings a laouto.
These are not restaurant events. They're not ticketed. You find out about them by being in the square that afternoon and talking to someone, or by hearing music drifting uphill after 21:00. If you're staying in Ano Mera or nearby, walk toward the sound.
The food is whatever someone decided to make: goat stewed with tomatoes, potatoes roasted in the coals, thick bread. Last June I ended up at one near a ruined windmill about a ten-minute walk northeast of the square, sat between a retired fisherman and his daughter-in-law, and ate roasted kid with oregano off a shared platter while a dog the size of a sheep slept under the table. Nobody charged me. I left €20 on the table and was told it was too much.
Pro tip:If you hear about one of these suppers, bring a bottle of something — wine, tsipouro — as a contribution. Showing up empty-handed isn't rude exactly, but showing up with a bottle makes you a guest instead of a spectator.
5. What to do with a morning (and what to skip)
Walk east from the square toward Paleokastro and you'll find dry-stone walls, low scrub, and the kind of wind that makes you understand why every tree here leans sideways. In June the wildflowers haven't completely burned off yet — caper bushes blooming white and pink along the path.
Skip the organized "traditional Mykonos village tour" buses that stop in Ano Mera for twenty minutes, herd everyone to the monastery, and leave. You'll see them parked on the road south of the square around midday. They add nothing. If you want context, the monastery's own caretaker will talk to you for free and knows more than any guide on those buses.
A better use of a morning: rent a car (or better, a scooter — around €20/day from shops in Mykonos Town) and drive ten minutes north to Fokos Beach. Undeveloped, no sunbeds, no bar, just coarse sand and transparent water and a few other people who also wanted to be left alone.
6. Where to sleep if you're serious about staying
Most people sleep in Mykonos Town or along the beach strip and day-trip to Ano Mera. I think that's backwards. The village has a handful of rooms and small guesthouses — nothing flashy, no infinity pools — and staying here means you get the evening light on the monastery dome without sharing it with anyone.
Look for rooms around the plateia or on the road toward Kalafatis. Expect to pay €80–130 per night in June for a clean double with air conditioning, roughly half what a comparable room costs in Mykonos Town. Book directly by calling — several of the smaller places don't list on the major platforms.
By 22:00 the only sounds are cicadas and, if you're lucky, distant music from an impromptu supper somewhere up the hill.
Pro tip:If you want something with a bit more structure, look into accommodations along the Kalafatis road — you'll be close enough to Ano Mera's square to walk but also within striking distance of the eastern beaches.
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Expedia →7. The contrarian case for Ano Mera over Mykonos Town
I know the received wisdom: Mykonos Town is the point, Little Venice at sunset is the thing, the windmills are the photo. And sure, all of that is real and worth seeing once. But the consensus that Ano Mera is a "side trip" while Mykonos Town is "the destination" has it exactly backward if you care about food, sleep, and the sound of your own thoughts.
Mykonos Town in June is already loud, already expensive, already angling for your wallet at every corner. A cocktail at a waterfront bar costs €16–18. A mediocre grilled fish dinner for two easily crosses €80. The streets after midnight belong to the clubs and the people who love them, and I am not those people.
Ano Mera doesn't try.
8. Getting there, getting back, and the last bus problem
KTEL buses run between Mykonos Town (Fabrika station) and Ano Mera roughly every 30–60 minutes during June, with the first departure around 8:00 and the last return around 22:00 or 22:30. The fare is €1.80 each way. Check the current schedule at the Fabrika station or on the KTEL Mykonos website the day you go — they adjust times seasonally and the posted schedule online doesn't always match reality.
If you miss the last bus, a taxi back to Mykonos Town runs about €15–18, but finding one in Ano Mera at night requires either calling ahead or asking a taverna owner to call for you. Save the number for Mykonos Radio Taxi: +30 22890 22400.
Or just stay. Sleep in Ano Mera, eat in Ano Mera, wake up in Ano Mera, and take the bus into town only when you need to catch a ferry or buy something you can't find at the little grocery with the Coca-Cola awning.
Pro tip:The Fabrika bus station in Mykonos Town is a five-minute walk south of the old port. Don't confuse it with the stops near the windmills — those serve different routes.
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Expedia →Essential tips
KTEL buses from Fabrika station to Ano Mera cost €1.80 each way. The last return bus is usually around 22:00–22:30 in June, but confirm the day of — schedules shift.
Monastery of Panagia Tourliani enforces a dress code: shoulders and knees covered. Bring your own scarf rather than borrowing theirs.
Save Mykonos Radio Taxi (+30 22890 22400) in your phone before you go. Ano Mera has no taxi rank, and you'll need to call if you miss the last bus.
Carry cash. Several Ano Mera tavernas and the small grocery accept cards reluctantly or not at all, especially for bills under €15.
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