The Skiathos Bulletin Board

Twinkles · Joined: 26 Aug 2007 Posts: 2 Location: Bramhall, Cheshire

Hello Everyone

I have been reading all the posts on this site for months now and thought it was about time I registered and started to join in. My partner and I have been visiting Skiathos since 2001 and have recently got back from our 7th trip to the island. I just want to thank everybody who has posted information on where to eat as we found this really helpful. Anyway here goes:

Flight:

We flew to skiathos from Manchester on Wednesday 15th August with Thomas Cook. The flight was delayed for about 45 minutes, but we got there only 15 minutes later than schedule. The flight was lovely we passed the time by watching the inflight film Shrek 2, listening to the i pod and drinking wine. Landing is my least favourit part but that was good too and the heat just hit you as soon as you set foot outside the aircraft. Normally the baggage comes off quite quick in skiathos but for some reason it took a good half an hour before the baggage was off loaded and then ours was one the last ones to come out. That's what you get for getting to the airport 3 hours before and your luggage being the first ones on.
I should also say here that we always stay in skiathos for 9 nights. We own our own business and can only miss 1 saturday so we always go on a wednesday and come back on a friday. We always have to buy our tickets seperately so we buy one way tickets to skiathos, and buy one way again from skiathos airport.

Car Hire:

I had already booked the car hire online. I always book thrugh a company called onairportcarhire.com. They are fantastic I've used them at least a dozen times for trips to Italy and Skiathos. Last year they used Europcar but this year it was Hertz. Got a micra with air con for 10 days for £120. It's all very straight forward, once you book you get a voucher in the post 2 weeks before the holiday. A rep will meet you at the airport you give them the voucher and on the day you return the car, you just leave it at the airport with the keyes inside for them to later collect. From our second visit to Skiathos we have always hired a car and I would definately advise to pick up from the airport and save yourselves the taxi fare.

Accomodation:

We have stayed at several different places in the past. Caravos hotel, Maestrali apartments in koukounaries 3 times, Skiathos Palace and Esperos Studios in Troulos (Abseloutly the worst place I have ever stayed at). I booked Maestrali on a last minute about 4 years ago through Thompson and It was really nice and clean but you have to book directly with them now. We have been to Skiathos twice in May and 4 times in July, so this was the first time to visit the Island in August. I decided against Maestrali as it doesn't have air con, you can rent a fan but I decided with the heat waves they've been having this year that wouldn't be enough. No point in blowing hot air from one side to another.

I booked the Astoria hotel in Troulos directly, read lots of good reviews on other web sites and to be honest we weren't let down by it. It was very clean. It was on bed and breakfast basis. Usual ham, cheese, greek yoghurt and honey, boiled eggs, scrambled egg, fruit etc...The hotel has a very clean pool with sun loungers but we didn't use it as we always go to the beach instead. The best money I spent was the 54 euros for the air con for the 10 days. It was freezing cold and we controlled it not the hotel.

Anyway I hope I haven't bored you all to death so far. I'll write the second part tomorrow with info on beaches, Tavernas and flight home. Thank you for reading my post. Very Happy