The 小島 of low lights leaves a warm glow

Think of Greek islands and 見通しs of perfect whitewashed villages and 砂漠d bays dance into the consciousness.

In reality, a Greek island holiday usually 伴う／関わるs 株ing your towel on some heaving beach, listening to the thrash and roar of jet skis, and finding 半導体素子s are the only 選択 for lunch at the 地元の taverna.

Skopelos, in the Sporades 群島, is a throwback - a 思い出の品 of how Greek islands used to be.

Here, you'll find no 無分別な of neon (it's banned); just pretty, whitewashed towns 粘着するing like limpets to cliffs, and 360 churches and chapels serving a 全住民 of only 6,000.

The hydrofoil from busy Skiathos takes just 40 minutes to zip across the Aegean like a dragonfly before belly-flopping, exhausted, at Skopelos's harbour 塀で囲む.

Along the waterfront a necklace of tavernas and mulberry trees 持つ／拘留する 手渡すs and behind them labyrinthine alleys hide bijou 蓄える／店s selling jewellery and arts and （手先の）技術s instead of the usual tourist tat.

The town climbs the hillside like wisteria up a 塀で囲む, a 炎 of white 塀で囲むs and blue shutters stretching from the 明らかに bottomless blue ocean to the infinite blue vat of sky.

We approached the 郊外住宅 Pelago, with its terracotta 塀で囲むs topped by red and grey reptilian roof tiles, 経由で a 法外な ascent out of town. Ten minutes later we were toasting our holiday on the 幅の広い 郊外住宅 terrace with a glass of 冷気／寒がらせるd Kritikos ワイン.

As another glass was filled, we moved 負かす／撃墜する to the 腎臓-形態／調整d pool that slumbered beside the olive grove. For what seemed like days, we 星／主役にするd out across the bay, transfixed by the beauty of the setting.

As night thickened, unlike on Skiathos, there was no 叫び声をあげるing neon; in Skopelos the only twnkling lights come from the 星／主役にするs, and the only 禁止（する）d playing is the cicadas. Like many holidaymakers, I （機の）カム to Skopelos looking for the same sort of Greek islands I remembered from my visits 25 years ago. But these days I want a little more 慰安 than a student sleeping 捕らえる、獲得する on a beach.

Fortunately, 郊外住宅 specialist company CV Travel, which until this year had 制限するd its Greek 操作／手術 to Corfu and Paxos, has finally thrown its 逮捕する wider, 申し込む／申し出ing a string of comfortable homes, such as the Pelago, on this jewel of an island.During the day, we broke the 郊外住宅's seductive （一定の）期間 and went off 調査するing a succession of bays and lunching at waterfront tavernas before 崩壊（する）ing 支援する on the beach.

The finest of these accessible by car are Limnonari, Milia, Agnontas, Panormos and Adrina on the south-west coast.But the best way of 調査するing the island is undoubtedly by boat. Skopelos is a switchback of 厚い pine forest, its rollercoaster hills 妨げるing the 肉親，親類d of 早い over- 開発 experienced by its 隣人ing island.

Its untamed wildness also means there are enough 孤立するd bays for every adventurous tourist to have one to themself. Instead of rubbing shoulders with strangers on a more impersonal public 巡航する, our party of five 借り切る／憲章d its own 私的な caique, a 伝統的な Greek boat. This worked out at around £40 each for ten blissful hours.

Our pine sloop was called the Santa Maria and 船長／主将d by a young couple, Georgos and Aggeliki, who joined us in the sea at every 適切な時期, once they'd 錨，総合司会者d us in yet another idyllic bay.

On one occasion, 飛び込み off the boat and 粉々にするing the jewel-like waters, we swam into the narrowest of inlets 側面に位置するd by cliffs 住むd by flickering swallows. Inside a secret bay, we discovered a large 洞穴 on the shore blackened by the smoke of （軍の）野営地，陣営 解雇する／砲火／射撃s. I couldn't help wondering if the 伝説の 著作権侵害者 Barbarossa had pulled in here when he 略奪するd and 虐殺（する）d the islanders on one of his bloodthirsty romps in the 16th century.

Not far away, we sailed into Cape Adrina, 指名するd after another 著作権侵害者 - this time 女性（の） - who'd reputedly 溺死するd herself in the b ay when her 乗組員 failed to return from a 使節団.

The island is 膝- 深い in such legends. One （人命などを）奪う，主張するs that in the past Skopelitans were so 豊富な they used ワイン instead of water to mix with 固く結び付ける when building their homes.

The islanders are still pretty 繁栄する by the look of their homes, but most now make their living from 正規の／正選手 tourists, who find Skopelos a rich 地雷 of holiday memories.

We did manage occasionally to drag ourselves away from the coast during our week, visiting a plum farm, a boatmaker, a potter and a cluster of 修道院s and chapels. We also …に出席するd two of the 正規の／正選手 guided walks run by Heather Parsons, who 貿易（する）d her 郊外の English home for Skopelos 15 years ago and has never looked 支援する.

With Heather 主要な the way and her small mongrel Georgi scampering after her, we made our way, serenaded by song birds, from a small chapel (Panayitsa tou Pirgoi) lost high in a pine forest.

For two hours we descended an old mule 跡をつける through clouds of バタフライs, passing 激しく揺する rose, wild garlic and panatella-thin cypress trees, until we reached the beachside restaurant at Adrina, where we ordered a memorable spaghetti and lobster lunch.

Our second walk with Heather was through the labyrinthine alleys of Skopelos town on a balmy evening に向かって the end of our week on the island. During the walk, Heather chatted easily in the Skopelitan dialect with 年輩の women sitting in spotless alleys embroidering tablecloths. Others called to her from the balconies of their two and three-storey Venetian homes.

We popped into a church, heard more stories of 著作権侵害者s and 負傷させる our way up, on a heady bouquet of jasmine, to the high terrace of the Caf? Thalassa, where we sat looking out over the bay, once again transfixed.

On a Greek island, thankfully, all roads 結局 lead 支援する to the sea.

TRAVEL FACTS

CV Travel features nine 所有物／資産／財産s on the island sleepin g two to seven people.Tel: 0870 606 0013.

Caique 雇う can be arranged through Thalpos (email halpos@otenet.gr). Heather Parsons's walks - email hevskopelos@hotmail.com).

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