Alonnisos is the quietest of the Sporades and the least like its neighbours. It is fourteen kilometres long, covered in pine and oak, and it has one small port and no airport. It never developed the way Skiathos did.
Until 1838 the island was called Liadromia. Then it was renamed after an ancient Alonnisos, which later research placed somewhere else entirely.
Its old capital on the hill was abandoned after an earthquake in 1965, and outsiders slowly brought it back to life. The new capital is a working fishing harbour, named after the wine presses that once stood there.
The sea around the island is a national marine park. It holds the last significant population of monk seals in Europe, and a classical shipwreck that became the first underwater museum in Greece.
What travellers posted
Been here? A photo and two lines are enough.
History & Culture
In 1985 a local fisherman, Dimitris Mavrikis, found a mound of amphorae on the seabed off the uninhabited islet of Peristera.
It turned out to be one of the largest merchant ships of the classical world: about thirty metres long, sunk around 425 BC, carrying some three thousand jars of wine from Mende in Chalkidiki and from Peparethos, which is modern Skopelos.
The find changed what archaeologists believed. Ships that size were thought to be a Roman invention. The Peristera wreck showed they were already sailing the Aegean two centuries earlier. Some archaeologists began calling it the Parthenon of shipwrecks.
In August 2020 it opened to recreational divers as the Alonissos Underwater Museum, the first of its kind in Greece. The cargo still lies in the layers in which it was loaded, showing the shape of a hull that rotted away long ago. An information centre in Patitiri offers a virtual tour for people who do not dive.
The Alonissos Museum, above the harbour, covers the rest of the island's past: piracy, shipwrecks, and the trades people lived on before tourism.
Villages & Inland
Chora, the old capital, stands at two hundred metres on a ridge above the west coast. It was built there centuries ago because it could not be seen from the sea.
The earthquake of 1965 damaged it so badly that everyone left and rebuilt at the harbour below. For ten years the village stood empty.
From the 1970s onwards people bought and restored the houses, many of them foreigners, and the village came back as something different from what it had been. Today it has car-free cobbled lanes, galleries and cafés, among Byzantine chapels and pieces of the old castle wall. It is the best place on the island for sunset, and the walk up from Patitiri through the pine trees takes about half an hour.
Patitiri is named after the wine presses that once worked here.
Steni Vala, on the northeast coast, is a natural inlet with a few tavernas and moorings. It is the closest thing the island has to a second harbour.
Nature & Outdoors
The National Marine Park of Alonnisos and the Northern Sporades was established in 1992. It was the first marine protected area in Greece and is still one of the largest in Europe, covering some 2,200 square kilometres of sea and a scattering of uninhabited islands.
It exists mainly for the Mediterranean monk seal, one of the rarest marine mammals in the world. Seeing one is a matter of luck, not something you can plan. MOm, the society that studies and protects them, has its centre on the Patitiri waterfront.
Each islet is different. Kyra Panagia has a monastery that belongs to Mount Athos. Gioura has a wild goat found nowhere else, and a cave connected with the story of the Cyclops. Psathoura is volcanic and low. Piperi is closed to everyone except researchers.
On land, a marked network of footpaths crosses the island, through pine forest and old terraces, down to coves you cannot reach any other way.
Beaches
The beaches on Alonnisos are pebble rather than sand, and the water is exceptionally clear.
Chrisi Milia comes closest to an exception: fine gravel, shallow water, shade from the pine trees. It is the usual choice with children.
Leftos Gialos and Agios Dimitrios are the two best known. Both are long and both have a taverna. Agios Dimitrios lies in a curve of white pebbles, facing across to Peristera.
Kokkinokastro takes its name from the red cliffs and from the remains of an ancient settlement above it.
Megalos Mourtias, below Chora, is the one to walk down to and take a taxi back from.
Much of the east coast and the southern tip can only be reached by boat. The daily caiques from Patitiri exist for exactly that.
Activities
Diving is the island's main activity, and the Peristera wreck is the reason.
It lies between twenty-one and twenty-eight metres deep, which is too deep for entry-level certification. You book the dive through the licensed centres in Patitiri, and the number of divers is limited. Elsewhere in the park, diving is restricted or completely forbidden. That is why the sites that are open are still in such good condition.
Boat trips leave the harbour every day for the marine park islets and for beaches with no road. This is the standard way to spend a day here. Sea kayaks are available for the sheltered southern coast.
Walking the marked paths is the other main activity. The routes link Chora with the west-coast beaches and cross the spine of the island northwards. They are shaded for much of their length, which is unusual in the Aegean.
Food & Drink
The island eats from its boats.
Kakavia, the fishermen's soup made from whatever was too small or too odd to sell, is the dish to look for. Astakomakaronada — spiny lobster with pasta — is the one people travel for, especially at Steni Vala and Votsi.
Beyond fish, expect thyme honey, figs preserved as spoon sweets, and cheese and greens from the island's own smallholdings. The spirit here is tsipouro rather than raki, because this is Thessaly's part of the Aegean.
Patitiri and Steni Vala have most of the tavernas. Chora has the views, and the prices that go with them.
Where to Stay
Prices shown per night for a sample 3-night stay. Rates and availability vary by season — select your dates for live pricing.
Practical information
Getting there
Alonnisos has no airport. The usual route is a flight to Skiathos, which takes under an hour from Athens, and then a ferry, about ninety minutes. From the mainland, boats run from Volos, around three hours, and Agios Konstantinos, around four, with seasonal services from Thessaloniki. Everything arrives at Patitiri. There are frequent connections in summer and far fewer in winter.
Getting around
A bus runs between Patitiri and Chora through the day and costs a couple of euros. Scooters and small cars can be rented in Patitiri. Caiques leave the harbour each morning for the beaches and islets that have no road. The island is small enough that many visitors never rent anything at all.
When to go
May to early October. Alonnisos stays much quieter in July and August than Skiathos or Skopelos, and that is a large part of its appeal. June and September bring warm sea and almost empty paths. Diving on the wreck runs only during the summer season, and it is worth booking before you arrive.
Good to know
Access to parts of the marine park is restricted, and Piperi is closed completely. Boat operators know where the limits are and stay inside them. Nobody can arrange or promise a monk seal sighting. Chora is car-free, so the last part of the way is on foot. Many beaches have no facilities at all, and the ones that do have a single taverna and nothing else.
Alonissos— been there?Tell others what you saw.
A photo and two lines are enough.
