Culture
Climb to the Mamma Mia! chapel
Climb the steps cut into the rock to the white chapel of the film's wedding, then swim in the coves below.
Agios Ioannis sto Kastri, near Glossa
Skopelos · Things to do
Things to do in Skopelos
Beaches, trails, festivals, food and wine: the experiences that make this island its own.
Experiences
Our favourite things to do
Ideas for every kind of day, from a lazy swim to a full-day hike.
Beach
Swim the coves of the west coast
Follow the coast road through the pines and stop at a different cove every day: white pebbles at Milia, sand at Kastani, turquoise water at Hovolo.
Panormos, Milia, Kastani and Hovolo
Hike
Walk to the monasteries
Take the old stone paths up the mountain to Evangelistria, Metamorfosi and Prodromos, with the town below you.
Palouki, across the bay from town
Culture
Climb the lanes to the Kastro
Wander up through the white lanes and steps of the Chora, past dozens of churches, to the Venetian castle at the top.
Skopelos town
Nature
Look for monk seals
Sail into the National Marine Park of Alonissos and the Northern Sporades, one of the last homes of the Mediterranean monk seal, with swims at empty coves and often dolphins.
Day boats from Skopelos town
Food & wine
Eat the spiral cheese pie
Watch the pastry being rolled thin, wrapped round goat's cheese, twisted into a spiral and fried, then eat it hot.
Skopelos town and every taverna
Food & wine
Taste the plums
Try pork with plums in the tavernas, buy dried prunes and plum sweets, and look for the orchards in the valleys.
All over the island
Festival
The feast of Saint Riginos
The island's own public holiday for its patron saint, the bishop martyred in 362, with church services and a feast day for the whole island.
Skopelos town, 25 February
Only on Skopelos
What makes Skopelos different
What makes Skopelos different from every other Greek island.
The wedding chapel of Mamma Mia!
In September 2007 the film crew came to Skopelos, and the wedding procession of Mamma Mia! was shot at Agios Ioannis sto Kastri, a white chapel on a rock above the sea, with about a hundred steps cut into the stone. Kastani beach, on the west coast, was the film's main location.
Pine forest to the sea
Close to four-fifths of Skopelos is covered in forest, most of it Aleppo pine, which comes right down to the beaches. The islanders once used the timber to build their ships. The air smells of resin, and the pine honey is the island's best.
Plums and a spiral pie
Plums grow all over the island and are dried into prunes, cooked with pork and made into sweets. The Skopelos cheese pie is not baked but fried: a thin sheet of pastry rolled around goat's cheese, twisted into a spiral about 15 cm across.
A church for every day of the year
Skopelos has more than 360 churches and chapels, most of them built by families and opened only on their saint's day, from the 11th-century basilica in the Kastro to whitewashed chapels in the fields.
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