Greece is the home of mythology – so it’s perhaps fitting that Mykonos’s reputation for beauty, sun and salubrious nights has long been little short of legendary. The small Cycladic island has achieved what many destinations have tried and failed to do: it has become, in effect, a brand. That said, a few fallow years of cancelled holidays and grounded flights have helped to bring down the temperature a little.

Mykonos’s voyage in the popular imagination started in the 1960s when shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis stepped ashore with his partners Maria Callas and Jackie Onassis and found a relatively untouched paradise. Grace Kelly and Brigitte Bardot followed in their wake and immortalised the azure waters, whitewashed buildings and pretty Agios Stefanos beach. Before long the island had become a hedonistic hot spot for balmy nights of dancing, drinking and debauchery. Since then, Mykonos’s enterprising residents (and not just a little foreign investment) have brought about the arrival of luxury hotels, restaurants, villas, shops and art galleries to rival anywhere on the mainland – yet in 2022 the place feels a little more grown up than it did in the past.

The step-change can be seen most clearly in hospitality projects that reflect the island’s unique topography and charm, instead of feeling as though they could have been transplanted wholesale from anywhere else in the Mediterranean. There are still places to party, like Scorpios (part of Soho House), but properties such as Kalesma Mykonos to the island’s west signal a shift in tone. The hotel, which features 13 one-bedroom suites, 12 one-bedroom villas and two grand villas, resembles a village from afar and everything from the ingredients used in its restaurant to the materials chosen for its construction are designed to fit in rather than to stand out.

Here is our itinerary for an island trip that takes in old staples, out-of-the-way villages and even cookery courses that give a flavour of Mykonos’s coming of age.