Greek Island Hiking - Sporades Arc

Skiathos · Greece

Easy10 daysEurope~£1,200 est.

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Overview

The Sporades are Greece for walkers who want their islands green: Skopelos and Alonnisos are draped in Aleppo pine that runs right down to the water, threaded with kalderimia — old cobbled mule tracks — linking monasteries, olive terraces and coves where the only footprints are yours. Alonnisos is the anchor: its hill-top Old Village, half-abandoned after the 1965 earthquake and now beautifully restored, sits above a freshly waymarked trail network, and the island fronts the National Marine Park of Alonnisos — Europe's largest marine protected area and the stronghold of the Mediterranean monk seal, one of the world's rarest mammals. Boat trips into the park pass islets patrolled by Eleonora's falcons. Skopelos adds shady forest walking to the rock-cut Sendoukia tombs and a coastline of chapel-topped rocks; Skyros, a ferry-hop away, has its own pony-dotted interior. Distances are short, so this is a trip of mornings on trails and afternoons swimming. Go in May–June or September–October: spring gives wildflowers, autumn warm seas, and midsummer is too hot for the exposed stretches. Ferries run from Volos and from Skiathos's airport. Ten days of island-hopping with guesthouses runs about £1,200.