Filming locations in Skopelos

Skopelos is a pine-covered island in the Sporades, ringed by clear coves and quieter than its Cycladic cousins, and it spent a summer pretending to be the fictional Kalokairi. Mamma Mia! filmed its sun-soaked musical here, and two spots in particular have become pilgrimages: a clifftop chapel on the north coast and a pine-backed cove on the west. Following the film is really just an excuse to see the best of a lovely, low-key island.

The headline is the chapel of Agios Ioannis Kastri, perched on a sea stack where the film's clifftop wedding was staged. It is free to visit but earns its drama: the climb is roughly a hundred steep, rock-cut steps up from the little beach below, so wear proper shoes and bring water, and dress modestly if you want to step inside. It sits about forty minutes by car from the main town, on a stretch of coast worth the drive in its own right.

On the other side of the island, Kastani Beach is where several of the film's beach numbers were shot. It is a public pebble cove with a seasonal taverna and sunbeds for hire, the water clear and calm, the road in winding down through pine forest. Mornings are quietest, and a pair of water shoes makes the pebbles painless. Together the chapel and the beach give you both halves of the film, the soaring and the languid.

Skopelos is reached by ferry via neighbouring Skiathos, which gives the trip a pleasantly slow, island-hopping rhythm. A car or scooter is the easiest way to link the north-coast chapel with the west-coast beaches, since the best spots are spread around the shore. Come in late spring or early autumn for warm water without the peak crush, and give the island the unhurried couple of days it quietly asks for.