Greece: the Ionian Islands of Lefkada, Kefalonia, Ithaca and Zakynthos

1. Day 1: Arrive at Preveza, cross to Lefkada

   Aktion National Airport (Preveza) to Lefkada town

   • Drive about 24 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Lefkada
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Aktion National Airport (PVK), on the shore of the Ambracian Gulf near Preveza. Plan to land by mid-afternoon; the latest arrival for the welcome dinner is confirmed with your final itinerary. A driver meets you at arrivals for the twenty-minute drive south, past the lagoon and over the causeway and floating swing bridge that join Lefkada to the mainland. Lefkada is the one Ionian island you can drive onto. Our hotel is in Lefkada town, where the low houses have wooden upper floors and pastel tin cladding, built that way after earthquakes, and the pedestrian lanes run off the main square towards the marina. Settle in and swim if there is time. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on ferries, beaches and how the week is paced, and we walk together to a welcome dinner of grilled fish and island dishes near the water.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Aktion National Airport (PVK)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Evening walk through Lefkada town
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

   

2. Day 2: Porto Katsiki and the west-coast cliffs

   Lefkada town to Karya, then Athani, Porto Katsiki and Cape Lefkatas, and back

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Lefkada
   Day 2 details

   We leave after an early breakfast and drive down the west side of the island to Porto Katsiki, aiming to arrive while the small car park still has space and the cove is in the morning shade of its white cliffs. Stairs cut into the rock lead down to the pebbles and water of a colour that looks unreal. Swim, or watch from the top. From there it is a short drive to Cape Lefkatas at the southern tip, where a lighthouse stands on high white cliffs near the scant remains of a temple of Apollo; tradition says the poet Sappho leapt from here. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Athani, a hill village with views down the coast. On the way back we climb inland to Karya, a mountain village of plane trees and stone houses known for its embroidery, for a coffee in the square. The evening is free in Lefkada town.

   Included

   • Porto Katsiki beach in the morning
   • Cape Lefkatas lighthouse and the site of the temple of Apollo
   • Sit-down lunch in Athani
   • Karya village and its square

   Easier option: Stay at the top of the cliff at Porto Katsiki, where there are viewpoints and a cafe, instead of taking the stairs down.

   More active option: A late swim at Kathisma beach on the way home, then sunset from its north end.

   Free time: Evening free in Lefkada town

   Activity: About 80 to 100 steep stone steps down to Porto Katsiki and back up; the beach is pebbles, so bring water shoes.

   

3. Day 3: Nydri, the ferry to Fiskardo, Assos and Myrtos

   Lefkada town to Nydri and Vasiliki, ferry to Fiskardo, then Assos, Myrtos and Argostoli

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Argostoli
   Day 3 details

   We check out after breakfast and drive down the east coast to Nydri, looking across the water to Skorpios, the private island once owned by Aristotle Onassis. A walk of about 2 km on a shaded path takes us up the Dimosari gorge to its waterfall, which runs strongest early in the season. Then on to Vasiliki for a sit-down lunch by the harbour, and the early-afternoon ferry to Fiskardo, about an hour across to Kefalonia. Fiskardo was one of the few villages on the island to survive the 1953 earthquake, and its Venetian-era houses still ring the harbour. We drive down the west coast to Assos, a small harbour village on a narrow neck of land below a ruined Venetian castle, for a coffee and a walk along the water. The last stop is the viewpoint over Myrtos beach as the sun goes down, then it is forty minutes to Argostoli, our base for three nights.

   Included

   • Walk to the Dimosari waterfall above Nydri
   • Sit-down lunch in Vasiliki
   • Ferry from Vasiliki (Lefkada) to Fiskardo (Kefalonia)
   • Fiskardo harbour
   • A stop in Assos village
   • Myrtos beach from the clifftop viewpoint at sunset

   Easier option: Skip the waterfall walk and wait at a harbour cafe in Nydri, then meet the group after.

   More active option: In Assos, walk part of the way up the castle path for the view back over the village, about 30 to 40 minutes return, while others stay by the water.

   Activity: A full travel day. The full Assos castle climb, about 4 km return, is not on the plan; a private departure can add it. Ferry times change by season and are confirmed with your final itinerary.

   

4. Day 4: Melissani cave lake and the Robola vineyards

   Argostoli to Sami and Melissani, then the Omala valley, and back

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Argostoli
   Day 4 details

   A slow start, then we drive across the island to Sami, on the east coast, timing our arrival at Melissani for late morning. Part of the cave roof collapsed long ago, and near midday the sun drops straight through the hole and lights the water a vivid blue. A boatman rows us across the lake and into the inner chamber. After a free hour in Sami for a swim or a coffee on the harbour front, we cross back over the shoulder of Mount Ainos, whose upper slopes are a national park of Kefalonian fir, to the Omala valley. Robola, a dry white wine with its own protected designation, is grown here on high limestone soils, and we taste it at a winery with someone who makes it. On the way back we stop at the monastery of Agios Gerasimos, the island's patron saint. In the evening, watch for loggerhead turtles that often surface by the fishing boats on Argostoli's harbour front.

   Included

   • Melissani cave lake by rowing boat
   • Free time in Sami
   • Robola wine tasting at a winery in the Omala valley
   • The monastery of Agios Gerasimos

   More active option: A short walk on the fir forest trail near the summit road of Mount Ainos, the highest point in the Ionian Islands at about 1,628 m, in place of the free hour in Sami.

   Free time: Free hour in Sami; evening free in Argostoli

   Activity: Lunch today is your choice in Sami. Melissani opening months and hours are confirmed with your final itinerary.

   

5. Day 5: A day on Ithaca

   Argostoli to Sami, ferry to Pisaetos on Ithaca, then Vathy, Stavros and Kioni, and back

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Argostoli
   Day 5 details

   Ithaca is the island Homer named as the home of Odysseus, and it is small, green and quiet compared with its neighbours. We drive to Sami after breakfast for the short ferry across the strait to Pisaetos, then over the hills to Vathy, the capital, whose houses ring one of the deepest natural harbours in the Mediterranean. Your guide tells the story of the Odyssey where it is set: the bay where Odysseus is said to have landed, and the hills of the north where archaeologists have argued over the site of his palace. We stop in Stavros, then wind down to Kioni, a small harbour of stone houses and old windmills, for a long sit-down lunch by the water and time to swim. In the late afternoon we catch the ferry back to Kefalonia and drive to Argostoli for a free evening.

   Included

   • Ferry from Sami to Pisaetos (Ithaca) and back
   • Vathy, the island's harbour capital
   • Stavros and the north of the island, with the Odyssey sites
   • Sit-down lunch in Kioni
   • Time to swim at Kioni

   Easier option: Stay in Vathy for the afternoon at a harbour cafe while the group goes north, and meet them at the ferry.

   Free time: Evening free in Argostoli

   Activity: Ithaca's roads are narrow and winding; the driving is spread through the day. The last ferry back is confirmed with your final itinerary.

6. Day 6: Ferry to Zakynthos, the Blue Caves and Navagio

   Argostoli to Pessada, ferry to Agios Nikolaos (Zakynthos), then the Blue Caves, Navagio and Zakynthos town

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Zakynthos
   Day 6 details

   We leave Argostoli after an early breakfast for the short drive to Pessada and the morning ferry south to Agios Nikolaos, on the northern tip of Zakynthos, about an hour and three quarters across. From the little harbour, small boats run along the cliffs of Cape Skinari to the Blue Caves, where the light reflected off the sea bed turns the water inside the arches bright blue. After a sit-down lunch near the harbour we drive along the high west coast towards Navagio, the cove where the wreck of a smuggling ship lies on white pebbles below cliffs of about 200 metres. The beach itself is closed to landing and its waters to swimming, so we see it only from above: where the clifftop platform is open we stop there, and where it is closed your guide takes us to the nearest safe viewpoint. Then it is about an hour across the island to Zakynthos town for two nights, with the evening free on its arcaded streets.

   Included

   • Ferry from Pessada (Kefalonia) to Agios Nikolaos (Zakynthos)
   • Boat trip to the Blue Caves at Cape Skinari
   • Sit-down lunch in the north of the island
   • The Navagio viewpoint, where open

   Easier option: Skip the Blue Caves boat and wait at the harbour, where you can swim off the rocks.

   Free time: Evening free in Zakynthos town

   Activity: The ferry takes about 1 h 45 and runs on a summer timetable, so we take the morning sailing. The Blue Caves boats do not run in rough seas; if they are cancelled we drive to the Skinari lighthouse above the caves instead, with no retry later in the trip. Navagio beach is closed to visitors; the viewpoint's status is confirmed before you travel.

   

7. Day 7: The turtles of the Bay of Laganas

   Zakynthos town to the Bay of Laganas and Keri, and back

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Zakynthos
   Day 7 details

   The beaches of the Bay of Laganas are among the most important nesting sites for loggerhead sea turtles in the Mediterranean, and they are protected by the National Marine Park of Zakynthos. We go early, before the heat, to a nesting beach to meet volunteers from a sea turtle conservation group, who explain how the nests are found and marked, why the beaches close at night and how to swim near a turtle without disturbing it. Depending on the month you may see marked nests or, from late summer, the tracks of hatchlings. We do not join boat trips that chase turtles. Late morning we drive up to the cliffs at Keri, where the lighthouse looks out over sea stacks and arches, then back to town for a free afternoon. In the evening we climb to Bochali hill above the town for the view, and sit down to a farewell dinner together.

   Included

   • Morning session with a sea turtle conservation group on the Bay of Laganas
   • The cliffs and lighthouse at Keri
   • View from Bochali hill
   • Farewell dinner

   More active option: Stay on at the beach after the session for a swim, following the marine park rules, and rejoin at Keri.

   Free time: Afternoon free in Zakynthos town

   Activity: Nesting beaches close from dusk to early morning. What you see depends on the month: nests from about June, hatchlings from late July into October.

8. Day 8: Fly out of Zakynthos

   Zakynthos town to Zakynthos International Airport (ZTH)

   • Drive about 12 min
   • Breakfast
   Day 8 details

   The morning is free for a last swim, a walk along the harbour front to Solomos Square, named after the national poet Dionysios Solomos, who was born on the island, or a coffee under the arcades. Zakynthos International Airport is only about 5 km from town, so your guide sees you to the airport in time for your flight with little time in the van. The airport has seasonal international flights in summer and connections to Athens; we suggest booking a flight from late morning onwards so the day does not start in the dark. If your flight leaves late in the day, we hold your luggage at the hotel and you can spend the afternoon in town or on a nearby beach. If you would like more time in Greece, ask us about adding nights on Zakynthos before you fly home, which we can arrange with the same hotel.

   Included

   • Drop-off at Zakynthos International Airport (ZTH)

   Free time: Morning free in Zakynthos town

   Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 11 am.

Wildlife and weather: July and August are hot and busy, so we visit the beaches and caves early and rest at midday; late May, June and September are calmer and the sea is warm from June. Loggerhead turtles nest on the Bay of Laganas from about June to August and hatchlings emerge into October; nesting beaches close at night.

• Lefkada2 nights
• Argostoli3 nights
• Zakynthos2 nights