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Beyond the Champagne-soaked beach clubs, this Greek isle is full of peaceful surprises.

It’s midnight, and a waxing moon floods golden light over Little Venice, a section of Mykonos’ Old Town named for its water’s-edge houses with brightly painted wooden balconies that jut out over the Aegean. I’m sitting on the terrace of one of my favorite bars, Caprice, sipping ouzo on the rocks, close enough to the sea to feel the occasional splash on my legs and taste salt on my lips.

The Cycladic island has pulled me back again and again since the summer of 1993, when Snap!’s “Rhythm Is a Dancer” was topping the charts and I was backpacking around Greece. Skipping off the Blue Star ferry back then, I immediately fell in love with the soft-focus days on the beach and never-ending nights at the clubs. No wonder Brigitte Bardot and Jackie Onassis holidayed here in the 1960s, I thought. The island’s reputation as a nonstop party – where strolling home barefoot at sunrise after a night of dancing is de rigueur – has only grown over the years.

This return to Mykonos, though, is less hedonistic, more healing. After a difficult year, I’m in search of some kind of life-affirming moment, hoping that the qualities that first enthralled me will provide the tonic needed to lift my spirits. I know there’s a quieter side to this party island, one that many of the cruise-ship day-trippers never get a chance to see. It’s there, maybe, that I’ll get what I’m looking for.