Don’t get me wrong, I love Mykonos. But if the gay go-to of Greece has a negative, it is that is just so…well, “Mykonos.” Not only has it long since been discovered by the outside, it is done, it is manicured, it is pre-packaged, and it is a great place to see price gouging in action. So when I heard about Skiáthos, I was intrigued.
Now, the irony is that any gay boy worth his manscaping should know Skiáthos— it was seared into the homosphere as the setting for “Mamma Mia!” But when it comes to sun-kissed Aegean islands, Skiáthostends to get pushed to the side for the PR-horders of Santorini, Rhodos and, yes, Mykonos.
Which, funnily enough, plays in the favor of Skiáthos, which is still largely true to itself and its Greek-ness. Here’s basic trivia: it is just off the mainland, in a grouping of Aegean called the Sporades. Like much of the Aegean isles, Skiáthosand its main city share the same name, and despite being fairly petite, this pine-covered island is well known throughout the Aegean for beach after beach after beach (60 in all). It even has a natural arch carved out by the wave action.
It is also probably the gay-friendliest island in Greece nobody knows about. It even has a “Gay Cultural Festival”— one part Pride, one part something-I’ll-tell-you-about-when-you-are-older — in summer, which seamlessly fits into the frenetic beach parties that make Skiáthos famous. No small affair, a Skiáthos beach party is like a Las Vegas pool party, with hundreds or even thousands of people attending in skimpy waredrobe and varying degrees of inebriation. They go on all year.
De Facto bar is the gay hub of Skiáthos Town, and Krassa Bay, aka Banana Beach, is all about pressing the flesh, whatever the genitalia. Site of some of the biggest round-the-clock beach parties in the Aegean, Big Banana Beach is also where you can find the Banana Beach Bar, pretty much where all the hotties on the island go, if only to pre-game and wander over to Little Banana Beach, which is nude. Moving right along…
Of course Skiáthos is not just a non-stop orgy only — people do have to come up for air at one point. Enjoy your refractory period at Boúrtzi, a small peninsula, where hide the ruins of a Venetian fortress built 1207; today it is one of the most romantic spots on the island. On the north of the isle is Kastro, for a time the main settlement as it was harder for pirates to raid.
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