Diagram by Greece Trips. Free to reuse with credit - CC BY 4.0.
That split shows in everything from the roads to where people live, and it means a visit here is not the same shape as one to Skiathos.
Chora
The main village climbs a rock in the north-east, under a Byzantine and Venetian castle and a monastery, and it looks far more Cycladic than Sporadic: white cubes, narrow lanes, flat roofs. Cars stop at the bottom.
At the top is the castle; on a terrace below is a bronze statue of Rupert Brooke, the English poet who died on a hospital ship off Skyros in the First World War and is buried in an olive grove in the south of the island.
What Skyros is known for
- Carved furniture and ceramics. Skyrian houses traditionally held densely carved wooden furniture and plates on the walls, and the tradition is still worked. Several houses in Chora are effectively small museums of it.
- The Skyrian pony, a small native horse breed found here and almost nowhere else, kept on the southern mountain and at conservation farms.
- Carnival, which is genuinely unusual: masked figures in goat hides and bells, a pre-Christian survival, in the weeks before Lent.
The two halves
North: pines, the beaches of Magazia and Molos below Chora, Atsitsa on the west coast, and the airport.
South: Mount Kochylas, a military-restricted area in part, a rough road, Brooke’s grave at Tris Boukes, and the ponies. It is the emptiest ground in the Sporades.
Getting there and how long
The ferry runs from Kymi on Evia, which is itself a drive from Athens, and that awkwardness is why the island stays quiet. There is also a small airport with domestic flights.
Three or four nights. Skyros is not a hopping stop; the ferry connections make it a destination you commit to.
Last checked August 2026. Ferry and flight schedules change - see our editorial policy.
Common questions
How do you get to Skyros?
By ferry from Kymi on Evia, which is a drive from Athens, or by domestic flight to the island’s small airport. It is not on a convenient hopping route.
What is the Skyrian pony?
A small native horse breed found on Skyros and almost nowhere else, kept on the southern mountain and at conservation farms on the island.
What is Skyros known for besides the ponies?
Its carved wooden furniture and ceramics, its hilltop chora under a castle, and an unusual pre-Lenten carnival with masked figures in goat hides and bells.
Why is there a British poet’s grave on Skyros?
Rupert Brooke died on a hospital ship off the island in the First World War and is buried in an olive grove in the south, at Tris Boukes.
Is Skyros like the other Sporades?
Only in part. The north is wooded like Skiathos and Skopelos; the south is bare mountain, and the chora looks Cycladic rather than Sporadic.