Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Skiáthos or film-set scenery of Skópelos.
There's also a substantial air-force
presence around the airport in the
north, and a big naval base in the south;
almost all the accommodation and
tourist facilities cluster around Skýros
Town in the centre of the island.
A position bang in the centre of the
Aegean has guaranteed the island a
busy
history
: it was occupied from
prehistory, with a truly impressive
Bronze Age settlement currently being
excavated, was a vital Athenian
outpost in the Classical era, and an
equally important naval base for the
Byzantines and under Venetian and
Turkish rule, when it was an
important staging post on the
sea-lanes to Constantinople.
Limanáki
SKÝROS
Áyios
Pétros
Palamári
Karefloú
N
Kyrá
Panayiá
Ólymbos
(363m)
Yirísmata
Atsítsa
Mólos
Magaziá
Skýros
(Hóra)
Papá tó Hoúma
Aspoús
10
MERÓI
Ahíli
Linariá
Mt Kóhylas
(788m)
VOUNÓ
Kolymbádha
Trís
Boúkes
Brooke's Grave
Rénes
0
5
Sarakinó
kilometres
Kými (Évvia)
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE
SKÝROS
By plane
Sky Express (
W
skyexpress.gr) operate three
flights a week (2 only Oct-April) from Athens (40min) to
Skýros to Thessaloníki (40min) and back. The airport is
about 10km from town; there's no public transport, so
you'll have to take a taxi or rent a car - a Pegasus car rental
booth opens at flight times (see p.690).
By ferry
Skyros Shipping (
W
sne.gr) sail daily from Kými, on
Évvia (see p.696), to Linariá, Skýros's port. The crossing takes
around 1hr 45min and leaves Kými every evening, returning
from Skýros early in the morning. In July and August there are
additional daytime crossings several times a week (especially
at weekends), and a twice-weekly connection via Kými to
Alónissos and Skópelos. To get to Kými there are direct KTEL
buses from Athens' Liossion bus station, with early afternoon
departures connecting with the ferry, or Skyros Travel
(
T
22220 91600,
W
skyrostravel.com) organizes two transfers
a week direct from Athens airport (Mon & Fri early afternoon,
€58 per person including ferry ticket).
Agents and tickets
Skyros Travel, about 100m above the
platía on the main street in Skýros Town, is the local agent for
both plane and ferry tickets (Mon-Sat 9.15am-1.30pm &
6.45-10pm, Sun 9.45am-1.45pm & 7-10pm; timetables
and other useful info displayed outside); they also have a
ticket office in Linariá that opens an hour before departures.
INFORMATION
Services
The post office and National Bank (with ATM) are
on the platía in Skýros Town, and there's a further ATM
higher up the main street; the most reliable internet café is
Xanthoulis (
W
Mano.com), also on the main street.
Useful website
W
skyros.gr.
Newspapers
English-language newspapers are sold from
a hut opposite the platía in Skýros Town.
CARNIVAL ON SKÝROS
Skýros has a particularly outrageous
apokriátika
(pre-Lenten)
carnival
, featuring its famous
goat
dance
, performed by groups of masked revellers in the streets of Hóra. The leaders of each
troupe are the
yéri
, menacing figures (usually men but sometimes sturdy women) dressed in
goat-pelt capes, weighed down by huge garlands of sheep bells, their faces concealed by
kid-skin masks, and brandishing shepherds' crooks. Accompanying them are their “brides”, men in
drag known as
korélles
(maidens), and
frángi
(maskers in assorted “Western” garb). When two
such groups meet, the
yéri
compete to see who can ring their bells longest and loudest with
arduous body movements, or even get into brawls using their crooks as cudgels.
These rites take place on each of the four weekends before Clean Monday (see p.45), but the
final one is more for the benefit of tourists, both Greek and foreign. The Skyrians are less
exhausted and really let their (goat) hair down for each other during the preceding three
weeks. Most local hotels open for the duration, and you have to book rooms well in advance.
KASTÁNI AND MILIÁ BEACHES (P.686) >
