Sunny Skiathos is rich in stunning shores

This doesn’t look like the Greece I know. It looks more like Tuscany-on-Sea!

Skiathos Town, only minutes from the island’s airport, is all tall old whitewashed houses with red-tiled roofs and Italian-style bell-towers.

There are still plenty of fishing boats in the harbour, but they’re almost outnumbered by sleek sailing boats, motor-cruisers and mega-yachts. Looks like not everybody in Greece is broke. Some of these guys must be down to their last billion.

Skiathos is one of the prettiest of the Greek islands. It’s the most popular in the Sporades group, and it’s very easy to see why.

It has pretty much everything you could ask for, from a lively main town to hills covered with lush pine woods, which makes a change from the barren slopes of many Aegean isles.

And the beaches are to die for. Just outside town (a five-minute walk from the harbour) Megali Ammos is a long stretch of sand, pebbles and crystal clear water. This is where the locals go for an evening or weekend dip, and it’s lined with fast-food joints, music bars and tavernas.

On any other Greek island, I’d look no further than Megali Ammos for a spot to lay out my beach towel, but on Skiathos it’s just a curtain-raiser. There are even finer beaches all along the south coast of the island, and wherever you’re staying they’re easy to get to.

There are buses every 15 minutes from 8am to 11pm every day in summer, picking up and dropping off at numbered bus stops every kilometre or so along the coast road.

And at bus stop 26 the end of the line I discovered one of the very best beaches in the Aegean.

Koukounaries is a perfect crescent of powdery yellow sand. You have to pay through the nose for an umbrella and a sunbed (the going rate is €8 a day for two), but at least the money goes towards keeping the beach clean it’s absolutely spotless.

It’s also lined with caf-bars and ice-cream kiosks, so keeping cool under the scorching summer sun isn’t a problem.

For mums with tots, a wooden boardwalk stretches all along the beach, making it buggy friendly. The water shelves gently, so it’s ideal for smaller kids, and there are lifeguards on duty in summer.

For teens (or indeed mums and dads) in search of an adrenaline rush, there are watersports aplenty, from banana-boat and doughnut rides to parascending.

On shore, the Skiathos Riding Centre is just a five-minute walk from the beach and has friendly donkeys for kids as well as pretty Arab steeds for older riders.

Koukounaries must be the most family-friendly beach in Greece, but at the end of the rough track that carries on westward over the headland there are sights from which you may wish to avert your eyes and spare your blushes.

Little Banana beach is “textile-free”, as they say in Germany. It’s favoured by people of a certain age in search of an all-over tan. Spare my blushes . . .

The island’s party scene is at Vromolimnos, midway along the south coast. This is the liveliest beach on the island, with bungee jumping and loads of watersports during the day and loud music bars which pump up the volume after dark. Back in Skiathos Town, you’ll find cool and funky clubs, music bars and cafs along the waterfront at Nea Paralia, next to the yacht marina, where there are also some excellent restaurants.

Odos Polytechniou is lined with cheap and cheerful sports bars where you can catch up on sports on the big screen and enjoy “happy hour” that can last from 8pm to 10 or even 11pm.

But steer clear of the cheapest cocktails they’re made from local spirits known as “bomba” (do I need to translate that?). There’s a headache in every mouthful.

When you feel the need to explore, take a trip to old Kastro. This hilltop village was home to more than 1,000 people in bygone times, when islanders lived well away from the coast for fear of Turkish pirates.

In the 1830s, after Greece gained its independence folk moved to the new island capital at Skaithos Town, and Kastro became a ghost town. It’s worth the trip just for the view.

For another view, hop aboard for a boat trip around the island. Excursion boats leave the Old Port in Skiathos Town every morning at 10am and chug along the busy south coast, then round to the sea-caves and beaches on the north coast, stopping for a picnic, swimming and snorkelling along the way.

And to go even further afield, hop on a high-speed hydrofoil to Skiathos’s nearest neighbour, Skopelos, where you’ll find a pretty harbour waterfront crammed with cafs and restaurant tables.

A few years back, the cast of Mamma Mia! stayed here while filming on the nearby mainland, and plenty of bars and restaurants still proudly display photos of Piers Brosnan, Colin Firth and Meryl Streep.

Something there for everyone, then. And you could say the same about the whole Skiathos experience.

Thomas Cook (thomascook.com, tel: 0844 459 0777 or book through your travel agent) offers seven nights’ self-catering at the Myrtia Summer Village in Koukounaries in summer 2014 from £269 per person, including flights from Manchester.