Europe’s three carry more social weight per week than anywhere else on the continent, and not one of them earns it the same way. Saint-Tropez restricts access physically, Ibiza restricts it administratively, and Mykonos has simply written the hierarchy into tax law.
The useful thing about looking at these three together is how little they have in common beyond a coastline and a fortnight in August. Saint-Tropez is hard to reach — a peninsula 100 km from Nice with an airfield that will not take a jet. Ibiza is easy to reach and hard to stay in properly, because Spain’s licensing crackdown removed close to half the island’s short-term rental supply during 2025. Mykonos is easy to reach and now charges you €20 to step off a cruise ship, which is the first time any of these places has put a number on the question of how you arrived.
They also fail in different ways. Saint-Tropez fails in traffic, Ibiza fails in a cancelled unlicensed villa, Mykonos fails in August crowds on beaches that were the reason you came. The shoulder season fixes two of the three.
One measured obstacle each.
Figures checked 23 August 2026
Every number and date on this page was verified against a live source on that date, and each one is cited on the destination’s own page. Taxes, seasons and access rules change — confirm anything you are booking against.
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