The Skiathos Bulletin Board

rizey · Joined: 19 Aug 2007 Posts: 29 Location: worthing,UK

Right, first off a big thank you to everyone’s hints and tips, they really helped make our holiday an exceptional one and secondly, advanced apologies for the length of the post! I have a lot of good stuff to write about....

I'll start with our accommodation;

We had booked through Olympic, who were very good, the Yialis studios (Yalis) in Achladies. There is little information about these on the web but from what I found they had good reviews. I wasn’t disappointed!
The studios were fantastic, basic of course being Greece, but they were cleaned every day by a lovely cleaner and contained every thing you needed for a self catering holiday. Our bedroom doors opened out onto the quiet pool area, which boasted the most comfortable sunbeds I’ve been on a nice clean pool and most importantly the pool bar!

The name of the bar itself is the Borsallino bar and is clearly visible from the road just before you reach the Rose Garden restaurant. If any of you are passing then please drop in for a drink because you will undoubtabley meet Nikos, the owner of the bar and studios. Nikos was the star of the holiday and he had us all in stitches every night with his humour. His hospitality is exceptional and I can honestly say it’s the best I’ve encountered on my travels. His bar has a reputation of being one of the friendliest on the island and it was clearly evident when we were there.
For instance his bar did not receive Sky sports and so for the England game he actually went out and purchased a new aerial just so we could watch it. A fantastic guy who simply pours generosity with a really lovely family to boot.

Onto beaches;(ones we visited)

The studios are a 500m walk to Achaldies beach which is a lovely one. Fantastic snorkelling and a handful of good tavernas and of course the benefit of being able to catch the water taxis into town.

I’m pleased to say that we visited a lot of beaches, but by far our personal favourite was Maratha at bus stop 22. An excellent beach reached by a track just opposite the Palace hotel. It has comfy beds if you wish to use them, gently sloping shoreline and an excellent cafe/bar serving all you need for a day on the beach.
Also enjoyed Abelakia, which we found through this forum. It’s a real adventure to get to but well worth it. Try the small fish for lunch if you visit. Other favourites were Vrom, krifi Amos and Mandraki.
We managed to get a boat trip to the blue caves and Lalaria for 10 euros, a good day out and well worth the visit. To be honest they were all beautiful in their own way so it all depends on your personal choice.

Restaurants;

Again a big thank you to everyone’s recommendations... none of the restaurants disappointed. We ate out every evening and had some extremely enjoyable meals. We were very impressed by Hellinkon, 1901, Jailhouse, Asprolithos and the Windmill in town. Out of town we visited Rose Garden, Infinity Blue, Jimmys, Green Park (huge portions) Nectar & Ambrosia and every single one was excellent. Its hard to pick a favourite but I particularly enjoyed Jimmy’s, easily the best moussaka I had all holiday.
The only poor meal we had was at the Steki just up from the cushion bars. For some reason it seemed every taverna in town was full and we were tired of walking around so just headed for the nearest seat. ln all honesty the food was ok but it was just the service that it let it down, mains arriving before you'd finished starters etc.
But as a whole I had some of the best food I’ve ever eaten and as other people have said on this forum its hard to be disappointed in Skiathos.

Being a young couple (25 and 27) we enjoyed the night life the town offered. It was really nice to have a few drinks after dinner at one of the many bars and we even pumped into a lad who used to work at one of our local pubs, now working in the Portabello. Small world.
However, as nice as the town was, we always found ourselves drawn back to the Borsallino where Nikos was on hand to poor an ice cold mythos and that is usually where we stayed until the early hours.
I must quickly mention the ice cream parlour at the bottom of Papadiamantis Street. I think its called Sweet Desires or something similar. Believe me if you have a sweet tooth you will want to visit, different flavoured ice creams every night, an assortment of cakes and the best baclava I tasted. Great place for dessert on the way back up to Acropolis for the bus. (Would you believe I’m a triathlete?? Got some serious training to do after this holiday!!!)

Along with another couple we befriended from the studios we hired a jeep for the day. We were umming are arring about it but it was well worth it, even just for the amount of laughs we had hurtling down some of the tracks! It seriously is the best way to see the island and if your prepared to do a bit off roading you can reach some excellent vantage points and of course beaches with no one else on them. With the help of the jeep we visited the monastery, kastro and a beautiful taverna up in the hills which overlooked the whole of the town. I think we paid 40euros for one day but you can get that down depending on how many days you have it. Definitely a must is watching the planes come in, but remember to duck!!
So better wrap this up really. (told you it was long) Myself and my good lady were in desperate need of a relaxing break as we had been through a particularly difficult few weeks prior to going away and all I can say is that I thank my lucky stars for Skiathos.
It has everything you'd ever need for a memorable holiday and then some. Good beaches, excellent food and above all brilliant people. The last time I was on the island was 8 years ago and we stayed at the Beltsios in Troulos. We popped in one evening to see the owner Tony, I became good mates with him last time we were there. I was a little worried he wouldn’t remember me but as soon as he saw me he came straight over, embraced me, poured me a drink and the rest of the night is a blur! I think that says a lot about the Greek people and I have always believed that if you treat people the way you wish to be treated then you cant go wrong. We had a fantastic time at the Yialis, we made some great new friends both Greek and English (there is already a Yalis reunion planned) and we will definitely be returning..... Roll on next year!

suejet · Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2007 10:07 am Post subject:

Hey Rizey

What a wonderful review which has brought tears to my eyes.

Skiathos does that to you.

Have you booked for next year yet? Wink

_________________
you heard it here first - BOJAN!

rizey · Joined: 19 Aug 2007 Posts: 29 Location: worthing,UK

Hiya... No not yet. We're meeting up with some friends we made this weekend actually to discuss dates for next year. Would you believe it he's ordered in a crate of mythos especially!! Cant wait....

suejet · Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2007 12:23 pm Post subject:

Nice one, enjoy your evening and yammas.
_________________
you heard it here first - BOJAN!

Elle · Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2007 3:23 pm Post subject:

Thank you for this! Sounds like you had a lovely time...
_________________
"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
If you want to be happy, practice compassion."
- HH The Dalai Lama
--
modern folk music
http://www.cdbaby.com/all/kammmac
http://www.myspace.com/paulkammandeleanoremacdonald

Foxy · Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2007 4:48 pm Post subject:

Glad you managed to get it posted in the end, it was a good read. And it wasn't too long at all.

Suejet rambles on much more than that Wink

rizey · Joined: 19 Aug 2007 Posts: 29 Location: worthing,UK

Ha ha... Glad you liked it.

suejet · Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2007 11:34 am Post subject:

Foxy · Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2007 1:21 pm Post subject:

suejet · Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2007 3:09 pm Post subject:

wrong!

pessi like me!
_________________
you heard it here first - BOJAN!

Stelios · Joined: 02 Jun 2008 Posts: 1 Location: Porthcawl, WALES

Kalimera Rizey
I read with excitement your review on Skiathos, the Yalis Studios and Borsallino Pool Bar.
In fact my family and I were there for a couple of weeks in the summer of 2006. I loved the place so much, I promissed Nikos to make him a website! See if you like it: Borsallino dot OpenLate dot co dot uk
I found this bulletin board when I was searching for Borsallino links on the web, so I joined this Board tonight and placed a link of your review on my Borsallino web site. See borsallino dot openlate dot co dot uk/links.htm
It's a small world!
Take care
Yassou
Stelios