Athens to Mykonos: Airports, the Metro Ride to Athens International and the Island at the End

The question usually comes up over a map of the Aegean, when a trip that began among the marble and traffic of Athens starts to tilt toward the Cyclades and the island of the winds. Mykonos sits in the heart of that island group, and the trip to it starts at an airport on the edge of Attica. The pieces that can be pinned down are the way out of Athens, the two airports and the island you are heading for.

How do you get from Athens to Mykonos?

You get from Athens to Mykonos by leaving the mainland for an island in the Cyclades, and the first leg is getting to the right departure point in Athens. For anyone flying, that point is Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos, the official name of the airport that serves the capital. It stands in Spata, in Attica, and has been operating since 28 March 2001.

The airport lies about 12 miles east of central Athens as the crow flies, but the road covers 19 miles because of the hills that sit in between. That gap matters when you plan the morning of departure, because the distance on a map understates the road. Mykonos, on the other end, is a Greek island lying between Tinos, Syros, Paros and Naxos, which gives you a sense of the neighborhood you are crossing toward.

From central Athens to the airport by metro

The Athens Metro reaches the airport, and it is the way into Spata that can be described with real detail. The system runs from early morning until just after midnight, and on Friday and Saturday nights lines 2 and 3 stay open later. The stretch of line 3 between the airport and Douk. Plakentias has its own rhythm, since trains there run less often than on the rest of the network.

If you are arriving at a station with a suitcase in hand, it helps to know that the first train and the last train are fixed points in the day. A flight that leaves very early or very late in the night is a flight you will want to plan the airport trip around. The times in the table are the ones to measure your own departure against.

At the Mykonos end

Mykonos Airport is run by Fraport Greece, which has operated it since 11 April 2017. It has a single asphalt runway of 6,244 feet. The town of Mykonos, known as Chora and the largest settlement on the island, lies on the west coast, and the transfer between the town and the airport takes about 10 minutes.

That short gap between runway and town means that on arrival you are very quickly among the streets of Chora, in an island whose land area is only 33.0 square miles. The highest point on the island rises to 1,119 feet, so the landscape you land in is low and open, which fits its nickname as the island of the winds.

Which options are there?

Which options are there?

Flying from the Athens airport

Athens International Airport is the arrival point for many long-haul flights, and U.S. travelers will recognize several of the carriers. American Airlines operates seasonal nonstop flights there from Charlotte, Chicago-O’Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, New York-JFK and Philadelphia. United Airlines operates seasonal nonstop flights from Chicago-O’Hare, Newark and Washington-Dulles.

Canadian carriers also use the airport. Air Canada and Air Transat each operate seasonal nonstop flights to Montréal-Trudeau and Toronto-Pearson. All of these are seasonal, which is the word to keep in mind when you set the month of your own trip against the schedule. Once you have landed, the airport is where the Mykonos journey truly begins.

Flights out of Mykonos

Mykonos Airport has a pattern of its own, and it leans toward Europe. EasyJet operates seasonal flights from the island to Geneva, London-Gatwick, Manchester, Milan-Malpensa, Naples and Nice. Neos flies seasonally to Bologna, Milan-Malpensa, Rome-Fiumicino and Verona. Ryanair adds seasonal flights to Bologna, Budapest, Naples, Paphos and Vienna.

Aegean Airlines serves no nonstop destinations in the U.S. or Canada from Mykonos. For an American traveler this shapes the picture of the island’s airport: it is a place that connects to cities across Europe, not directly across the Atlantic, which is why Athens is the gateway at the start.

By car on the mainland

U.S. visitors who plan to drive in Greece must carry a valid U.S. driver’s license, and insurance companies may require an international driver’s permit. The U.S. Embassy in Greece does not issue them, so the permit has to be obtained in the United States, from the American Automobile Association or the American Automobile Touring Alliance.

That is a task for home, weeks before the flight, not something to solve at a rental counter in Athens. It matters most if your plans include roads on the mainland before you leave for the islands.

What should you know before you travel from Athens to Mykonos?

Before you go, know the shape of the island you are heading to, the way the Athens city transport behaves around the airport, and the character of the place that waits at the end of the trip. Each of these is a small fact that changes how the day feels.

Using the city transport in Athens

On Athens buses, passengers cannot use the front door to get on or off, so you enter and leave by the other doors. It is a small habit of the city that catches people carrying bags who walk toward the driver out of instinct. The metro is the calmer way to go with luggage toward the airport, and its late hours on Friday and Saturday nights, on lines 2 and 3, give a little room for a night out before a morning departure.

The airport branch of line 3 has trains every 30 minutes, which is a slower beat than the rest of the network. That is worth keeping in mind when you count backward from a flight, since missing one train means a longer wait for the next.

What Mykonos is like on arrival

Mykonos is one of the most famous Greek islands, known for cosmopolitanism and luxurious holidays. At the 2021 census it had 10,704 inhabitants, most of whom lived in the town of Mykonos on the west coast. That is a small year-round population for an island with such a name, and it explains why Chora feels like the heart of everything.

The nickname island of the winds tells you to expect an open, breezy landscape. The island sits among its neighbors Tinos, Syros, Paros and Naxos, so a map of the Cyclades shows it as one stone in a close cluster. It is a good moment to decide what you want from the island before you leave Athens, because the town and the airport are so near each other that your first evening can start almost on landing.

Choosing your airport day

Athens International Airport is in Spata, with a road that winds through hills, so give the departure day its own thought instead of treating it as an afterthought. A morning that begins with the metro, a transfer to the airport branch and a flight is a sequence of several small steps, each with its own timetable.

Pair the two ends of the trip in your mind, and the middle becomes a simple matter of the flight itself.

Good to know before you go

Mykonos is known as the island of the winds, and on a harbor front or a ridge you feel why. The airport and the town sit close together, which keeps the last stretch of the journey simple, and the Athens Metro carries you to the other airport on a schedule you can plan around.