trying to set up an itinerary for my honeymoon in June. I think we're set on Katikies in Santorini, but now I'm distraught between The Belvedere Hotel or Mykonos Blu. Can anyone help with preference, compare rooms, location, which is closer to beaches, nightlife, restaurants, which has better atmosphere? We are a young couple looking for relaxation along with activity at night. Thanks for ANY advice!

Hi JGNYC

I cannot compare as I have never been a guest but I know both hotels and hope it helps.

The Belvedere is in Rochari district of Mykonos town. It is on a hillside with great views and to walk into the centre of town it would take about 8 minutes.

The front of the hotel looks down over Rochari which is a quiet area, trees and a little theatre closeby. The back of the hotel faces a very busy road which has a lot of traffic at all times. It is noisy.

The hotel has now built a large wall on the road-side and I think it may stop some noise but not completely. I think too there is also secure entry into the hotel area from main road.

There is a very good restaurant attached to the hotel.

The hotel is on a steep hill so someone with walking difficulty might have problem.

Grecotel Mykonos Blu is about 5 kilometres from the town centre and it is above Psarou beach. Buses are running close to the hotel until late evening into town.

The area the hotel is very nice and quietand there is a beach down from the hotel.

Locally, Mykonos Blu is highly regarded but again I cannot compare with Belvedere to its services as I have not been a guest.

I think you have to balance distance from 'Blu and how close Belvedere is to town centre.

I hope this helps you.

Thanos

Agree with the other poster. With the Belvedere you'd have a short walk into the town centre (I didn't find the hill that steep at all) and likely a view out over the town to the water. We stayed right next door at the Rochari and like the convenience to the chops and resturants.
The Mykonos Blu looked gorgeous when we went to the beach. Psarou beach is IMO one of the nicest on the island. But it is some distance from town - which is fine too. It depends on what you want to do with your time. You can take the bus or a taxi into town at night and lay on the beach during the day, or you can take a bus to the beach during the day and walk to evening activities.

Yikes - that's "shops" and "restaurants". No chopping activity that I could see!

JGNYC- I talked about this some in my reply to your questions about my trip report, but I'll repeat here. We loved Mykonos Blu and the hotel facilities were lovely, but we would probably stay at the Belvedere next time. We found the trek to and from town very inconvenient, since taxis were so hard to come by. This is probably a more prevalent problem at night, which was exactly when we were trying to get to and from dinner in town. Also, although the buses would have been fine during the day, late at night we tend to take cabs for convenience. It probably would have been easier to get cabs during the daytime to the beach where Mykonos Blu is located- Psarou- which is definitely the best beach we saw. I think for us it would have been better to be convenient to town, but it really depends on whether you will want to stay put at a resort (in which case Mykonos Blu is your best bet) or do lots of strolling in town.

One more thing: note that Mykonos Blu (like most of the resorts on Mykonos) is pretty much self-contained. There is Psarou beach and the N'Ammos beach club about 5 minutes walk down the beach, but otherwise nothing other than hotel facilities. The Belvedere is close enough to all the nightlife and restaurants to walk (so not as self-contained), but not close enough to walk to the beach. I hope that helps.

What taggie said.

Although Belvedere has a very nice restaurant it is also within a few minutes of many good restaurants and tavernas catering to all tastes.

the hill became a struggle for me a few times taggie, but only when it was very hot or I'd just had my ouzo transfusion