Sporades in Greece

The Sporades Islands have a quite different atmosphere from the Cyclades: instead of bare rugged hills topped with dazzling cubistic villages, the Sporades are fertile and heavily wooded, with pine-forested mountains sloping down to some of the best beaches in the Aegean, and the local architecture is more characteristic of Northern Greece, with less whitewashing and more stone roofs. They consists of 24 islands, four of which are permanently inhabited. Skiathos is the best known and easiest to get to; accordingly it is the most crowded, with throngs of visitors arriving all summer. Skopelos, while just as attractive, is less touristed apart from July and August, while Alonnisos is much quieter.