Skiathos Town & the east

Skiathos Town is built on two low hills either side of the Bourtzi, a pine-covered spit with the remains of a Venetian fort on it, and it has the rare quality of being a real town rather than a resort with a church. The old port side is tavernas and fishing boats; the new port is where the ferries from Volos come in; and the lanes between them hold the bar street, which in August is as loud as anywhere in the Sporades.

The island's literary claim is here too: Alexandros Papadiamantis, one of the founders of modern Greek prose, was born in the small house that is now his museum. Up the hill behind town, the Evangelistria monastery is where the modern Greek flag is said to have first been raised.

From the quay, caiques run around the north coast to Lalaria — a cliff-backed beach of white pebbles with a natural rock arch, reachable only by sea — and on to Kastro, the abandoned fortified capital on a crag. Those boats depend on the wind, so take the first good day rather than the last.

The airport is at the edge of town. Skiathos is known for aircraft passing extremely low over the road at the runway threshold; it is a spectacle, and it is also noise if you book on that side.