Getting to Skopelos

Air

The quickest way to get to Skopelos in the summer months is via the neighbouring island of Skiathos whose airport receives flights from a number of UK airports such as Gatwick, Manchester, Glasgow, East Midlands, Birmingham etc. and also from some Italian, Dutch, German and Scandinavian cities.
www.flightline.co.uk is an excellent site for finding flights to Skiathos. The 5 main airlines from the UK in 2011 are:-Thomas Cook, Thomsonfly, Monarch, Tor Air, and Strategic which goes through Olympic Holidays  and prices do drop closer to departure date if they aren’t full. The airport in Skiathos is only a €6 cab ride to the port where you can get a flying dolphin, catamaran or ferry to nearby Skopelos (see “sea” for details). The Flying Dolphins and Catamarans only take 15 minutes to Glossa and 40 minutes to Skopelos Town. The ferry boats are a little slower (and cheaper). Also there is a daily flight Athens/Skiathos in the late afternoon which Olympic Airways run, www.olympicair.com which is remarkably cheap and very quick.

Flights into Athens (www.easyjet.com or www.opodo.com for B.A, Olympic, KLM, Swiss etc), can also be continued by car, Pullman coach or train or internal flight to Skiathos but obviously, being an island, sea travel is also required!
Thessaloniki is also a good airport for travel to Skopelos with all the usual connections and also a ferry which goes straight to Skopelos in the summer months. Easyjet and Ryanair also fly there now as do other airlines such as BA, Olympic, Swiss etc.
There are also flights to Volos from Gatwick, Bari, Berlin, Vienna, Dussledorf, Nuremberg, Hamburg, Milan, Rome, Brussels and others in the summer which connect well to the boats to Skopelos. There is a plan to start a flying boat service from Athens soon and there is also a helicopter landing pad with flights available from Athens or Thessaloniki.

Sea

Boats to Skopelos are Flying Dolphins, Flying Cats or car ferries which come from Volos, Agios Konstantinos and Thessaloniki. Also in the summer months Skyros Ferries come from Kymi on EvviaThe excellent website www.gtp.gr is a great source of information and as timetables change regularly it’s important to check times and also book if you so wish. This site works really well! If you are looking for boats from Agios Konstantinos (St Constantine) you need to select the one coded as AGK as there are several. You have to have a ticket before you board the boat and they are also sold by the travel agencies near all the embarkation points. On your ticket on the dolphins and cats there are allocated seat numbers and if you can’t read them its best to ask the ticket collector as you enter the boat, although if the boat isn’t quite full it’s not a real problem. There are announcements in Greek and English all the time. One of the crew will take your luggage and store it dependent on your destination port-they all speak English.

Land

There are trains which go to the charming station of Volos from Athens or Thessaloniki with usually one change but most people opt for the excellent Pullman coach service from Athens or Thessaloniki to either Agios Konstantinos (from Athens) or Volos (from Thessaloniki).  They both take about 2 1/2 hours and are cheap, reliable and usually on time. They also have allocated seat numbers and are non-smoking. There is also a private company Alykon Travel (0030-21038432020) in Kannigos Sq in central Athens (just off Omonia Sq) who run an early service which connects with the boats to Skopelos and then picks up the returning passengers.

There are taxi services which will take you from both major airports to your port of choice, it’s not prohibitively expensive, and they also can organise taxi sharing schemes.

Easy Routes

With such a choice it can be a bit bewildering so here, in order of shortest journey times, are your favourite ways of getting to Skopelos.

1. Flight direct to Skiathos – transfer to Skopelos by boat.
2. Flight to Athens – transfer by Olympic airways flight to Skiathos boat to Skopelos.
3. Flight to Volos – transfer to Skopelos by boat.
4. Flight to Thessaloniki – transfer by flying cat to Skopelos.
5. Flight to Thessaloniki or Athens taxi to port and boat to Skopelos.
6. Flight to Thessaloniki or Athens Pullman coach to port – boat to Skopelos.(Dolphins and Cats are always quicker than car ferries)

We haven’t mentioned the helicopter route here as it is rather specialised and of course you can easily hire a car and drive to Skopelos (with the help of the ferry). It depends on how much of a rush you are in to get to this beautiful unspoilt island.