My First Hen Do (Mykonos 2025)

The first of my closest friends to get engaged was one of my university flatmates. We lived together during our first and second years in Bristol and she was actually the first person that I met at uni. Despite the long engagement, her hen do was still the first I’ve ever been to and I had an amazing time. It was four days in Mykonos with the bride-to-be, another close friend from uni, the bride-to-be’s sister, and a close school friend of the bride-to-be. I’d met everyone at least once before and was intrigued to see what a hen do (and Mykonos) would be like.

Day 1 

I arrived in Gatwick Airport and met up with two of the girls, one of whom had printed bridal party t-shirts, so I put mine on and we then met the bride-to-be, who was very surprised. We gave her a matching t-shirt and some sunglasses and then bought a bunch of alcohol for the trip. 

The flight was only 3 hours and 15 minutes, which was much better than I’d anticipated, and as I was knackered, I decided to be antisocial for a bit and sleep during the flight so that I could rally through the evening. The flight was packed and I’ve never seen such a rowdy crowd - one group had a speaker and was playing their own music, another group of girls had curlers in and were doing their makeup, and the girl in front of us was not-so-subtly vaping throughout the flight. I’d never seen anything like it but Mykonos seemed to attract a specific sort of crowd. 

We landed around 8pm, where we were met by a taxi driver holding a sign with our name on it. We’d pre-booked a taxi through our Airbnb and the driver kindly offered to drive us via a supermarket, which was very appreciated. We picked up enough bits for a couple of meals and were surprised to find a bar, DJ, and glitter ball in the middle of the supermarket.

As we arrived to the Airbnb, I was speechless; the house had a gorgeous sea view with a hot tub, it was very spacious and had absolutely everything that we could’ve possibly needed. It also happened to be sunset by the time we got to the Airbnb, so the view was stunning. Whilst the bride-to-be chilled in her room, the rest of us set up various decorations, including balloons, banners with photos of us with the bride-to-be, confetti of the groom-to-be, and personalised cocktails (in personalised cocktail glasses!). It took much longer than expected, but was great bonding time and felt like true ‘girlhood’, with each of us just assigning ourselves a role and cracking on with it. The bride-to-be was shocked by all of the decorations and after a few words and an embrace, we then had dinner. 

Dinner comprised pizza and chips, which we’d purchased in the supermarket as we’d just wanted something very quick and filling, and then we enjoyed some drinks and hen do games throughout the rest of the night. It was a lot of fun and a very wholesome start to the hen. 

Day 2

The next morning, we woke up just before 11am and enjoyed fried eggs on toast with smashed avocado, coffee, and juice for breakfast. Everyone then started getting ready as we planned to explore the old town. Our Airbnb host had provided us with a map and many recommendations, including ‘little Venice’ and the windmills. The old town was only a five-minute walk away from our Airbnb, which was ideal, and despite the gales of wind, we had a wonderful time. The town is absolutely beautiful, with flowers everywhere and gorgeous, colourful buildings. I bought souvenirs for all my loved ones back home and after walking through the majority of the town, we then headed to “Silas” for a gyros lunch (which was delicious), followed by a pistachio gelato from “Kayak”. 

Once we felt that we’d explored the town, we headed back to the Airbnb for the afternoon, where we enjoyed many an Aperol spritz in the hot tub for hours on end. Eventually, it hit 7pm so we started getting ready and enjoying more drinks and snacks, and at 10pm we left the Airbnb, headed for dinner. We headed to a restaurant on the waterfront, Captains, which had been recommended by the Airbnb host, where we ate souvlaki and greek salad, and before we knew it we were being handed shots on the house and drinking wine. Most of the group was fairly tipsy by this point, however I’d started to sober up slightly, so needed to catch up again. 

The owner of the restaurant recommended lots of bars to us, including Cerise, Negrita, and Baos, all of which we visited. We did a bar crawl, celebrating with a bottle of champagne in the first bar, courtesy of the groom-to-be, and from then on free shots all night. One girl in particular was incredible at getting free drinks and in all my years I’ve never seen anything like it; she’d get free drinks from one person, then offer one of those to another random person, who in turn would buy us another round, and she’d keep doing this all night long. 

By the early hours, one of us had passed out and thrown up and another had blacked out. Two of us were at a perfect level and the last person was sober but had run out of battery on their phone, so at 4am we called it a night. It was lots and lots of fun and definitely a night to remember, but one thing we found strange is that the majority of people who found out that one of us was getting married would react negatively, stating “oh no, good luck” or similar, which was a bit of a downer. 

Day 3

We all woke up feeling sensitive and the morning comprised a full debrief of the previous night with all of the girls, which really brought me back to our uni days. We then had fried eggs on toast with avocado for breakfast, before getting ready to leave the Airbnb. Unexpectedly, the Airbnb actually had daily cleaners who’d come to clean the hot tub, take out the bins and make the beds, and their arrival was often our cue to make haste. 

Our plan for the day was initially a private catamaran trip, however as it was very windy, we instead decided to spend the day on the beach. We walked to the bus station, which took about 20 minutes, and then headed to a beach called Super Paradise. After figuring out the sun lounger situation (daylight robbery), we had lunch at a nearby restaurant called Thalas, and although the service was lacking, the food was decent and I finally managed to try a freddo cappuccino, which had been recommended to me by my Greek boyfriend. 

The beach was lovely and relaxing, although the water was unexpectedly freezing, as I had been expecting the Mediterranean and hadn’t clocked that we would be in the Aegean Sea instead. There was a bus back to the old town at 6pm, however we missed this as there wasn’t enough space for all of us, and instead we got the 6:30pm bus back. This meant we’d be late for our dinner reservation, but more worryingly, I started feeling extremely nauseous and was shaking during the journey. I must have been dehydrated as we’d barely drank any water, but luckily as soon as I got off the bus and walked back to the Airbnb, I started to feel better. 

We, once again, all got ready for dinner and walked over to Oniro, a rooftop restaurant with stunning views overlooking the old town. The seafood linguini was to die for, however the portion was massive and there were cats roaming the place, which I didn’t love. The vibe was very mixed within the group as some people wanted to have a quiet night and others wanted another big night out so we settled on a drink at a bar as a happy in-between (and some more gelato). 

Of course, this turned into a couple of drinks instead as we got free shots at a bar called Veranda and then a couple more shots in some of the bars we’d visited the previous night, however the atmosphere was nowhere near as good as the previous night so at around 2am we headed back to the Airbnb to rest before our morning flight.

Day 4

Our last morning in Mykonos mainly consisted of us just tidying up the Airbnb, having one last breakfast together, and getting ourselves ready, before a taxi picked us up at 10am. Our flight was at 12:40pm so we didn’t have much time to do anything else, but it was a chill morning and we were excited to just relax and take it easy. 

Not only was I very impressed with Mykonos, as I’d expected it to be much more rowdy than it actually was, but I enjoyed the entire trip, especially spending time with the bride-to-be’s nearest and dearest (who were all so lovely and genuine) and celebrating one of my closest friends. Although I still have mixed feelings about hen and stag dos generally, this definitely made me feel more positive about them and I am excited to celebrate more of my friends as we grow older together.