Holidays in Skopelos

The island of reefs, a magnificent craggy coastline hiding secluded bays and narrow inlets, each with a sheltered beach fringed by pine forests and olive groves. Apart from the island’s eponymous capital, a bustling harbour with a maze of narrow streets, old churches and a Venetian fortress, Skopelos remains remarkably undeveloped.

Where the pine forests yield to the olive groves and where the olives give way, the orchards begin! Skopelos boasts a rich variety of fruit trees with plums being a specialty of the island. Legend has it that even Aristotle himself praised the aphrodisiac qualities of Peparethos wine, named after the island in antiquity, though he left unrecorded whether he personally tested its effects!

The bustling capital Skopelos Town boasts charming white-washed houses adorned with colourful shutters and bright bougainvillea cascading over garden walls. The town's intricate layout features narrow streets winding around a picturesque harbour, where shops and eateries lining the pretty harbour front. Skopelos is famed for its abundance of ancient churches and the local legend suggesting that there are enough scattered across the island to visit one for each day of the year.

A short drive away from the town, rural Skopelos unveils itself in scattered hamlets of stone houses with distinct silver-grey slated roofs nestled amidst woods and orchards that rival any in Greece. The unbroken expanse of pine forests and olive groves along much of the west coast is a defining feature of the island. The enchanting journey to Glossa, the other main village on the northwest tip of Skopelos, winds through this forest.

The island of Skopelos is known for its cuisine, with local touches and fresh, seasonal ingredients. The island's signature dish is Skopelitiki tyropita, a golden, spiral-shaped filo pastry cheese pie stuffed with local goat's cheese. Fresh seafood is very popular, with grilled octopus, squid and a variety of fish. Traditional stews, such as arnaki frikase (lamb with artichokes) and xoirino me Damaschina (pork with plums), reflect the island's agricultural heritage. Skopelos also produces excellent olive oil and local honey, used in desserts such as amygdalota, almond biscuits served with local wine or ouzo.