Three Walks to Velanio Naturist Beach on Skopelos.

Velanio Beach on Skopelos is at Stafilos where there are also two non-naturist beaches - the walks go via Stavros Monastery, Mili, Aga. Marina, Aloupi, Polemistra Church and the heliport.

These following walks all end up at the Skopelos naturist beach at Velanio and/or one of the the other Skopelos beaches at Stafilos. At Velanio Beach you can strip off and enjoy a nice peaceful naturist swim and sunbathe if you wish although the stripping off bit is not compulsory. Incidentally there is a regular-ish bus service which you can use to get back to Skopelos Town from these Stafilos beaches if you feel dis-inclined to take the walk back after all that tiring sunbathing.

Skopelos Town to the Stafilos beaches (1) This walk is just a nice way of going to the Skopelos beaches at Staflilos rather than just going there on the bus - the walk across the island takes about an hour or so. The walking distance is about 5 kms and basically follows the old road which at time of writing remains just a track - it's easy walking along what is one of the few flatish parts of Skopelos.

Start the walk from the harbour in Skopelos Town, and facing the sea go right along the road and look out for a concrete road signposted to Mili (this is by some tall bamboos). Follow this road up, ignore the first junction and keep going until you come to a house right in front of you where the road goes straight on or goes right - turn right here. Follow the lane down - passing the ruins of Monastery Kotronaki (aka M. Prodromou) on your left - until you come to another junction - go right here along the dirt road. Take the next track left (past a house) and continue on a narrow path (passing a wood yard and it's huge logs) which bears right to join a wide main track.

***Turn left up this white and hot and dusty track and continue up for about 7 or 8 minutes - when it forks keep right and follow it until you reach a T-Junction. Go right here and after aroun follow id 50 metres turn left along another dirt track. From here just keep going - passing two small churches (the one with the beautiful flowers is well worth looking round and we were fortunate to be shown inside it by an elderly lady) - ignore any joining tracks - until you reach the main tarmac road which is also the Stafilos beach bus stop. There is a taverna opposite and some stone walls to sit on, and rather a lot of pesky wasps at times. To continue to the beach turn left and then shortly left again down the steepish beach road - just before the steps down to the first beach is a spring with some very welcome cold water. The steps lead to the first of the Stafilos beaches, walk across the beach and take steps up and over the low headland to reach the second beach - Velanios part A.
Go along this beach and through some large rocks (marked in red paint naturist) and you reach Velanios beach part B - this is a really nice beach with few umbrellas etc. and scenic rocks and cliffs. it's well worth remembering that if you want to get the bus back to Skopelos Town the walk from this beach to the bus stop is steeply uphill and takes about 20 minutes - and is quite hard going. We often also walked back from the beach to Skopelos Town rather than get sardined on the bus, and you can shorten the way back a little. Rejoin the original inbound track by the bus stop and follow the track back - ignore the first lefthand track but at the next track junction go right, then after about 50 metres go left and follow this main track down to the main road, then go right for a shortish (1km) wander back into the town.

Skopelos Town to the Stafilos beaches (2) This is quite similar to the above Stafilos beach (1) but involves going higher up into the hills with some nice paths on the way. Start the walk from the harbour in Skopelos Town, and facing the sea go right along the road and look out for a concrete road signposted Mili (by some tall bamboos). Follow this road up, ignore the first junction and keep going until you come to a house in front of you where the road goes straight on or goes right - go straight on here. Continue past the Chapel and when the path forks take the righthand path and soon come to the small church of Profitis Ilias - a small path starts on the left hand side of the chuch - this when we walked it was heavily overgrown with plenty of brambles but this is only for a about 50 metres and then you come to a stone wall, turn right by the wall and very quickly the path bends to the left and here there is a very small path on the right - take this as it winds uphill - again this path is quite overgrown and in places fairly steep.

Eventually the path is cut by a newly bulldozed track - in effect the path does continue straight on up but when we walked this the way was blocked by wire fencing and we had to go left and fiddle about to regain the original path above this track. Keep going on uphill on the path eventually to arrive at the church Ag. Marina. Having had a look at the church follow the (now) track past some springs and continue gently upwards to reach a track junction - take the right fork and at last you are going downhill. Ignore any actual lefthand turns (but note your track does take a very sharp right hand direction at one point) and keep going until you reach a short overgrown track on your right.

This track leads to the now visible Monastery Stavros (currently abandoned) and is a pleasant cool spot with some nice tree-shaded walls to sit on for a while. Return to the track/road and turn right and continue down - ignore a newly cut track coming in from the right and also ignore a second track also on the right (unless you want to just walk back to Skopelos Town via Mili). About 100 metres further along turn left - (if you go straight on here you come to the main Skopelos Town - Stafilos road) - and continue on a narrow path (passing a wood yard and it's huge logs) which bears right to join a wide main track.
 ***Turn left and the rest of the walk is as per above Stafilos (1) walk-notes.

Skopelos Town to the Stafilos beaches (3) The walk starts off from the ring road and rather than describe the way through the alleys etc in the Town we are describing it's route from the Hotel Denise. A few metres past the hotel and still going up the ringroad spot a concrete road on the opposite side of the road, take this and continue past the cemetry and then down to a junction by the church of Aloupi. There is a spring here but when we were there it looked quite scruffy and there were loads of wasps around so beware.

The walk continues along a concrete track to the left of the church, and winds very very steeply up to the top ridge - stay on the main path and ignore any incoming sidetracks. It comes out on a road [N39°07'09" E023°42'55"], turn left and stay on this road - passing the church of Ag Paraskevi - until the tarmac road veers right, where you take the dirt track on the left. Continue along this dirt track - ignoring any side inbound sidetracks - and after around a kilometre you come to a clearing with a smallholding and also Polemistra church on your right. Continue on the main track still ignoring any inbound sidetracks until you arrive at the main road which you cross to re-pick up your track opposite.

Keep going on this track you eventually arrive at a goat station, pass round this heading towards the heliport and keep going until the track forks, take the righthand fork and shortly afterwards right again then continue until you come to the Agnontas-Stafilos main road. Turn left and head down along the coast into Stafilos (see walk 1).

You may be interested in our Skopelos Holidays topic and Skopelos Holiday Walks or perhaps take a look at our items about holidays on Skopelos's near neighbours of Skiathos and Alonissos.

GPS fixes to calibrate a map - using wgs84
Skopelos Lighthouse - N39°12'28" E023°35'36"
Agnontas - Limnonari Beach road junction N39°05'04" E023°42'24"
Aerial Masts - Mt. Palouki N39°06'20" E023°45'34"
Glisteri Beach (road end) N39°08'35" E023°43'03"
agh Ioannis N39°10'30" E023°39'05"
Skopelos's Highest point - Firemen's Hut on Delfi N39°08'42" E023°40'12"