The Sporades
Four islands off the coast of Pelion, forested to the shore, with a national marine park and beaches shaded by umbrella pines — a rarity in Greece.
The character of the place
Skiathos has the beaches, Koukounaries above all, and the busiest airport. Skopelos is greener and quieter, with a harbour town of slate roofs stacked up a hillside and a hundred and twenty churches.
Alonnisos sits inside the National Marine Park of the Northern Sporades, the largest protected sea area in Europe and home to a Mediterranean monk seal population. The diving and the boat days here are genuinely different from anywhere else in the country.
Skyros is separate in every sense — larger, drier, further east, with a Byzantine monastery, its own pony breed, and a carnival in February that predates Christianity.
Worth the day
The marine park by boat
Uninhabited islets, a Byzantine monastery on Kyra Panagia, and a real chance of monk seals.
Walking Skopelos
Old mule paths between monasteries and plum orchards, in pine shade.
Skyros carnival
Goat-bell dancers and masked figures in late February — one of the oldest surviving rites in Europe.
Where to base yourself
Skopelos Town
Slate and whitewash rising from the harbour; a working town rather than a resort.
Patitiri or Old Alonnisos
The port, or the restored hilltop village above it, with the marine park on the doorstep.
What to skip
August on Skiathos, when the airport and the beaches both run at capacity.
Pairs well with
- Pelion & Magnesia
The ferries leave from Volos — mountain and forest, then the islands they look out at.