The Sporades are a group of islands in the northern part of the Aegean Sea and comprise of the islands: Skiathos, Skopelos, Alonissos and Skyros. Popular due to the numerous cool and shady pine forests, these islands boast some of the bluest and cleanest seas one will ever come across and experience. Each island has something unique to offer the visitor.
SKIATHOS: Considered to be the best developed touristically of all the Sporades islands, and the hub of the tourist summer season, Skiathos only measures a mere 12km long and 6km wide. It has more than 70 beaches, several bays and a graphic habour where luxury yachts bob gently side by side with the quaint and colourful traditional fishing vessels of the locals. The variety of accommodation and entertainment facilities available on Skiathos are second to none. A convenient way to get acquainted with the island is by motor launch which run at regulare intervals to the popular beaches such as Koukounaries and Lalaria. The island is served daily by Hydrofoil and ferry boats leaving continental Greece from Agios Konstantinos, Volos and Thessaloniki.
SKOPELOS: With its 300 moansteries, this island is mountainous with numerous picturesque bays, golden sands and olive trees covering its slopes. The town of Skopelos is amphitheatrically built at the foot of a mountain, with its cobbled narrow streets and courtyards fillled with flowers, it offers the visitor to this island a rare hospitality that only the Skopelites are known for. Skopelos also boasts a number of ruins one of which is the 9th century chapel of Agios Athanasios (or St. Athanasios) built on the ruins of an ancient temple. There is the "Kastro", a venetian fortress and a vantage point for wonderful views.
ALONISSOS: Alonissos has in recent years become well-known since the sea around this island has been declared a "marine conservation park for the shelter and protection of the Mediterranean seal "monahus monahus". This oblong-shaped island has a hilly landscape but very fertile plains. Less touristically developed than either Skiathos or Skopelos, Alonissos is the ideal holiday spot for those seeking peace and relaxation.
SKIROS: Skyros is the largest island in the Sporades and the southernmost of the group, lying opposite Evia, to which it belongs administratively. Situated 22 sea miles from Kymi, it has won fame for its handicrafts, especially embroideries and furniture. It is also a place whose manners and customs have come down through the centuries virtually unchanged to our own day. This island in the middle of the Aegean, with its bright sunshine and pleasant climate, offers much more than just sand and sea.

EVIA: next to Crete the largest Greek island, extends NW to SE for over 150km almost parallel to the mainland of Greece (Locris, Boeotia, Attica), from which it is separated by a strait virtually landlocked at either end. Midway along the W coast the strait contracts to a narrow channel called the Euripos. Here from the 5C BC a succession of bridges has joined Euboea to Boeotia. The East coast is virtually inaccessible by reason of its abrupt and hostile cliffs; it has one port, at Kymi. The other ports are nearly all on the gentler W coast, chief of these being Chalkida on the Euripos and Karystos, near the South tip of the island. In antiquity the two principal cities were on the W coast: Chalkis, looking towards Boeotia, survives as the modern capital; Eretria, though still the ferry terminal from Attica, is a seaside village with no continuous past.