Principote

Principote holds the sand at Panormos, a fine grained bay on the north coast of Mykonos, and it wears its ambitions in plain sight: handmade umbrellas, oversized loungers, massage therapists working beachside and a kitchen that will carry sushi to your bed. The club calls itself a refuge where untamed Aegean nature meets unpretentious luxury, and for once the brochure language points at something true, because this is the side of the island the party circuit mostly forgets.

That geography is the reason we steer couples here first. On our Mykonos club directory the south coast names bring the noise and the spectacle, while Principote trades on distance. What you are paying for, beyond the linen and the service, is the gap between you and everyone shouting over a DJ at Paradise.

Take the 10:30 slot. For the first stretch of the morning the bay is soft light and slow service in the best sense, coffee and a swim, the umbrellas still half empty, and it is as close to privacy as organised Mykonos gets. From about one o’clock the club becomes what it is famous for: a long, glamorous lunch that fills every table, builds in volume, and turns the lounger rows into a runway. Neither hour is wrong, but they are different clubs, and couples who came for each other rather than the crowd should treat the afternoon as the price of the morning.

The food carries real weight in guest accounts, fresh seafood above all, and the beach menu means you never have to leave the bed to eat well. Add the massage service working the rows and the club’s own promise of a lively sea bottom for snorkelling off the bay, and a full day fills itself without a single taxi.

Where Principote stumbles is transparency. Recent reviewers describe being quoted different prices for beds a few metres apart, one side of an aisle at 100 euros and the other at 150, with no explanation offered, and peak weeks bring the crowding complaints every marquee Mykonos club collects. At these numbers you are entitled to ask exactly what the bed costs before you lie on it, so do, politely, at the moment of confirmation.

Panormos itself is a wide arc of pale sand with a rawer, more open feel than the manicured south coast, and the free public stretch carries on beyond the club’s last umbrella, so a walk along the waterline costs nothing. Our full Panormos beach guide covers the swimming, the parking, the afternoon meltemi and the open stretch away from the club rows.

Principote is roughly a fifteen minute drive north of Mykonos Town by hire car or taxi, and when you reserve you can add Principote’s own transfer for an extra fee, which settles the parking question before it exists. Booking is a request rather than an instant confirmation: you pick your date, arrival slot and party size on the club’s site, then wait for the answer. Independent Mykonos guides advise sending that request two to four weeks ahead of any July or August weekend, and the same caution applies to the 19:00 restaurant seating, the closest thing this daytime club has to an evening.

Rather have it handled? Leave your date and party size below and we will send the request to Principote for you, then reply with which rows are open, what the beds cost on your date and any minimum the club quotes. The enquiry itself costs nothing.