Bourtzi Hotel

The Bourtzi hotel is located in the old part of Skiathos town off Papdiamantis Street. The 5 minute walk to the harbour is lined with shops and bars yet there is no noise affecting the hotel. The hotel is clean and the friendly Greek owners made us very welcome. We travelled as a family of 3 with a 5 year old child and our only negative comment would be that the room is rather small when the third bed is added. Rooms have air conditioning and fridge and were cleaned daily with towels and bedding changed several times a week.
Skiathos town has some good shopping especially for gold and leather as well as plentiful bars and tavernas, which were all good standard and very reasonable prices. restaurants along the harbour were surprisingly no more expensive than those in the side streets. Skiathos is a busy port and as well as the hydrofoils and enormous jet ferries there are many small boats offering boat trips to neighbouring islands. our 5 year old loved to go to harbour and watch the ferries unloading as it was quite amazing watching the huge lorries manoeuvring onboard.
about a 10 minute stroll up a cobbled hill and down the other side is the beach of megaliamos with fine sand and shallow water, perfect for young children but watch out for the waves about 15 minutes after the ferry crosses the horizon!!
we did several boat trips to Skopelos and alonyssos (where we saw dolphins playing around the boat!) and also a smaller boat trip to Arco and around Skiathos.
recommended restaurants were Nicos on papdiamantis street for their gyros, which was fantastic and only, cost about £1. Polycratis at the top of papdiamantis street which was more formal and slightly more expensive than other restaurants but the food was superb and well worth a visit. We also ate at several of the harbour side restaurants and watched the boats while we ate. We received a friendly welcome and excellent food everywhere we went.
The kosmar rep visited twice daily and was lovely, very friendly and helpful.