Glossa, the second town. At the northern end, higher and quieter, above the port of Loutraki.
Diagram by Greece Trips. Free to reuse with credit - CC BY 4.0.
It is the counterweight to the harbour town: same island, much less traffic, and a different view of the same water.
Why a second town is worth a page
Because Skopelos has a crowding problem in exactly one place, and Glossa is the answer to it.
The chapel of Agios Ioannis sto Kastri stands on top of a rock stack on the north-east coast, reached by a flight of steps cut into the rock. It was the wedding chapel in the Mamma Mia film, and it is now the single most visited spot on Skopelos.
Our own guide says two things worth saying plainly: the climb is a genuine staircase up a rock and there is nothing at the top but a small chapel and a view; and the island was a serious destination before the film. Agios Ioannis sto Kastri covers it properly.
Glossa is the part of the island that behaves as though none of that happened.
The town everyone else stays in
The main town is a tiered amphitheatre of houses around the harbour, stacked steeply with slate roofs, whitewashed walls and an improbable number of churches: the usual figure quoted is around 120 in the town alone.
Take that as the figure everybody quotes rather than a count anybody has published. We carry the number with that hedge attached, because it is the honest form of it.
Above the town is the ruined kastro, below it a working waterfront, and the lanes between are stepped and largely car-free. Walking up through them is the thing to do here if you only do one thing.
Glossa offers the same materials - height, slate, whitewash, steps - with the volume turned down.
What we do not print
No taverna, room or bus timetable for Glossa. No walking time down to Loutraki, and no gradient for it: our source says Glossa sits above the port and nothing more precise, and a hillside town above a harbour is not somewhere to publish a stroll estimate from a desk.
Nothing here is certified safe, accessible or suitable (CONTENT-18). “Stepped and largely car-free” describes a street plan; whether it suits you is yours to judge on arrival.
Common questions
What is Glossa? Skopelos’s second town, at the northern end, higher and quieter than the harbour town, above the port of Loutraki.
Is it worth staying there? Our guide frames it as the counterweight: the same island with much less traffic. That is the trade, stated as a trade.
Is it near the Mamma Mia chapel? Agios Ioannis sto Kastri is on the north-east coast. It is the island’s most visited spot, and the reason some people prefer to sleep at the other kind of place.
Next
Our Skopelos guide has the ferries and the timing, things to do in Skopelos covers the towns and the chapel, and Agios Ioannis sto Kastri covers the rock stack.