the island's best-known beach – where deep green trees provide the backdrop for a dramatic golden sweep – to Megali Ammos.

And if much of the island's sand is buried beneath rows of sunbeds, it doesn't take a great deal of effort to find a windier, sparser and less manicured slice of island life.

A half-hour walk north through the woods from Koukounaries takes you to the laid-back Mandraki and Elias beaches, while further east is expansive Megalos Aselinos.

Here, in the evening, goat bells clang and families play badminton in the setting sun. 

Perhaps the best beaches are the smallest: at picture-perfect Agistros,Mikros Aselinos, and Krifi Ammos (or "hidden sand").

At remoteKechria, in what the Skiathian writer Papadiamantis called a "beautiful, melancholic valley", a Greek flag flies above the craggy beach as people wade into the sea, or stop in the shade of the beach taverna for a cold Mythos beer.

Visibility for snorkelling and scuba diving is especially good around the islets. Take a boat to the beach at Tsougria, or view it from afar over an iced coffee at Bourtzi, an islet linked to Skiathos Town by a bridge, and which – rumour has it – the Beatles once tried to buy.

Even some main island beaches – such as pebbled Lalaria, with its rock arch – are accessible only by boat.