Skyros, Sporades
Agios Nikolaos Church in Skyros 2022.jpg · Incredibleusername · CC BY 4.0

Sporades

Skyros: the Sporades island that looks like the Cyclades

The odd one out in the Sporades, with the landscape and architecture of a Cycladic island and no ferry link to its own neighbours.

Without doubt, Skyros is the odd man out in the Sporades. Set adrift from Skiathos, Skopelos & Alonissos (transport links with these islands are non existent) much of its landscape and architecture is more in keeping with the Cyclades than its nearest neighbours.

Hilltop Skyros Town is strikingly attractive. An apt description may be “a severely sloping Mykonos Town as it was maybe 30 years ago”. A maze of narrow alleyways leads not to a harbour but to a main thoroughfare at best 20 feet wide that in places would test the hardiest mountain goat. Great tavernas are mixed in with the usual mini-markets and other small shops. More steps lead to the hilltop church where one can experience wonderful views over the rooftops of Skyros Town and beyond.

Skyros is blessed with magnificent beaches. A 15 minute walk down the hill from Skyros Town and you are on the fine sands of Magazia where the pace of life is even slower than Skyros Town. A few tavernas and shops for basic provisions are the extent of development here and the beach never seems to get crowded!

The island divides sharply in two. The north is green and wooded, with pine running down towards the coast and most of the farmland; the south is bare rock, largely roadless, and given over to goats and to the small horses the island is known for. The road that crosses between them is the whole of the transport network, and the airport sits at the northern end.

Skyros also keeps a carnival that has nothing to do with tourism. In the weeks before Lent, men dress as the Old Man in a goat-hair cloak hung with dozens of sheep bells, and the noise of it carries across the town for days. It is one of the older surviving festivals in Greece and it happens whether or not anyone has come to watch.

Skyros: the practical questions

How do you get to Skyros?
Not from the other Sporades: transport links with Skiathos, Skopelos and Alonissos are effectively non-existent. Skyros is reached by ferry from Kymi on Evia, or by the small domestic flights into its own airport, and that isolation is the single most important fact about planning a trip here.

What is Skyros Town like?
Strikingly attractive and steep. A maze of narrow alleyways leads not down to a harbour but to a main thoroughfare at its widest twenty feet across, with good tavernas mixed in among mini-markets and small shops. More steps climb to the hilltop church and the views over the rooftops.

Where is the beach?
Magazia, a fifteen-minute walk downhill from the town, where the sand is fine and the pace slower still. A few tavernas and shops for basics are the extent of it, and the beach never really fills up.

Why does it look like the Cyclades?
Much of the landscape and the architecture has more in common with the Cyclades than with the wooded Sporades to the north-west, which is part of what makes the island feel adrift from its own group.

How long is worth staying?
Longer than the connections encourage. Because getting here takes a deliberate effort and leaving takes another, Skyros suits a single-island week rather than a stop on a route.