South Aegean
Mykonos Windmills (Kato Mili)
How to visit the Kato Mili windmills above Little Venice: when to go, why the sunset shot is harder than it looks, and whether it's worth the walk.
Where
Mykonos Town, Greece
Opening hours
The Kato Mili windmills are an open-air public spot with no gates or hours — visit any time, day or night. The one you can go inside, Bonis windmill (the Agricultural/Folklore Museum), opens seasonally roughly June–October, usually a morning session around 10:30–13:30 and an afternoon session around 17:00–20:00, closed Mondays; confirm on mykonosfolkloremuseum.gr as the museum has had stretches of closure.
Tickets
Free to walk up to and photograph the windmills. The Bonis windmill museum charges a small cash-only entrance of around €2 (about £1.70) when open.
Time needed
15–20 minutes at the windmills themselves; budget an hour or so if you pair it with Little Venice and the lanes around it.
In short
Visiting Mykonos Windmills (Kato Mili)
The row of seven 16th-century windmills at Kato Mili is free and open-air — you walk up the low rise above Little Venice, photograph the whitewashed mills against the sea, and leave. The catch most visitors miss: at sunset the sun sits low and off to the side of the row, so the glowing-white-mills shot people picture actually works better an hour or two earlier. Come mid-to-late afternoon for the mills lit from the front, then walk two minutes down into Little Venice for the actual sunset over the water.
How to visit without chasing the wrong shot
The seven windmills at Kato Mili sit on a low rise at the southern edge of Mykonos Town, between the Alefkandra and Neochori lanes and right above Little Venice. They’re a free, open-air landmark — no gate, no ticket, no closing time — so the only real decision is when you turn up. It’s a 10–15 minute walk from the old port or a few minutes uphill from the harbour front, and parking nearby is limited and fills fast, so walk if you can.
Here’s the thing nobody tells you: at sunset the sun sits low and off to the side of the row, not behind your shoulder lighting the mills. Arrive expecting the classic glowing-white-windmills-against-an-orange-sky photo at golden hour and you’re more likely to get a flat silhouette. For the mills lit from the front, come mid-to-late afternoon, an hour or two before the sun drops; for the actual sunset, walk two minutes down into Little Venice and shoot the sun over the water with the mills off to one side. Both are good — they’re just two different visits, half an hour apart.
What’s inside, and is it worth it?
Most of the windmills are sealed shells you only see from outside. The exception is the Bonis windmill, a restored mill that houses the small Agricultural and Folklore Museum, with old milling gear and farm tools. It opens seasonally (roughly June–October), usually a morning slot around 10:30–13:30 and an afternoon slot around 17:00–20:00, closed Mondays, and charges roughly €2 in cash — but it’s had stretches of closure, so don’t bank on it. The windmills themselves are the draw; the museum is a five-minute curiosity if it happens to be open.
Treat this as a short, free stop, not a separate outing. You’ll spend 15–20 minutes here, and the real value is the cluster — windmills, Little Venice and the old-town lanes are all within a few minutes of each other, so do them as one evening loop. Go early in the day or in the shoulder season (May–June, September–October) if you want the row without a crowd of phones in front of it.
Planning the rest of your trip? See the Mykonos Town city guide.
