Lefkada
Lefkada is the only Ionian island you can drive onto. A floating bridge runs from the mainland at Aktion, past the airport, and you are on the island in five minutes without booking a ferry. That changes who comes here. A lot of Greek visitors arrive by car for a long weekend; the rhythm is closer to a mainland holiday than to the slower pace of Paxos or Ithaca.
The west coast is what most visitors come for. Porto Katsiki, halfway down the western flank, is the postcard beach of the Ionian: a long stretch of white shingle under a sheer chalk cliff, reached by a flight of steps cut into the rock. Egremni, north of it, was badly damaged in the 2015 earthquake, restored, and damaged again in winter storms more recently. Check access before driving down. Boats from Vasiliki and Nidri reach both beaches in calmer weather.
Cape Lefkatas, at the southern end, is where the poet Sappho is said to have leapt to her death in the seventh century BC. The Venetians fortified it, and their castle of Santa Maura at the northern entrance gave the island its medieval name. Inland villages on the slopes of Mount Stavrota carry on as olive-and-sheep country largely untouched by coastal traffic. Englouvi is worth the drive for the lentils.
Vasiliki, on the southern coast, has reliable afternoon thermals from May to September; the conditions are gentle enough that beginners stand up on the second day. Off the eastern shore around Nidri, the small forested islands include Skorpios, bought by Aristotle Onassis in 1963 and the site of his 1968 wedding to Jacqueline Kennedy. It is now in other private hands. You cannot land, but boats from Nidri circle close enough to see the cypresses he had planted.
House Notes
Arrival
Private jets land at Aktion National Airport (PVK), operated by Fraport Greece — 25 minutes across the bridge to Lefkada Town. Ariston and Helistar both service the Athens–Preveza helicopter route. Yacht guests enter D-Marin Lefkas, a short walk from the old town: 620 berths, maximum 45 metres, 3.30 metres draft.
The kitchens
Frini sto Molo on the east pier at 12 Dimitri Golemi Street, Lefkada Town — year-round, fresh pasta with octopus, cuttlefish, cheese rolls with local honey and ouzo. Sapfo at Agios Nikitas sits on the beachfront lane, the only table with the harbour in front and the cliff behind; the fresh fish arrives from the Meganisi boats.
Lefkaditiki Gi
The island's considered winery, founded in 2000 by Dimitris Rombotis at the 8th kilometre of the Nydri–Vasiliki road, above Sivota. Vertzami and Vardea are indigenous to Lefkada alone — found nowhere else in Greece. The dry red Vertzami ages 8 to 12 months in barrel; the Melidonos sweet wine blends Vertzami and Patrino. All wines carry Protected Geographical Indication for Lefkada.
The salami of Lefkada
The Polychronopoulos family have produced air-dried salami in Fysses since 1950, following a recipe of Venetian origin that reached the island during the occupation. The salami is small — 250 to 300 grams, rope-bound — cured with garlic and whole peppercorns and left to ripen without preservatives. One of Greece's earliest regionally branded foods.
The Hearn Center
The Lafcadio Hearn Historical Center on Sikelianou Street, inside the Cultural Centre of the Municipality, opened on 4 July 2014 — the first museum in Europe dedicated to Hearn, born in Lefkada in 1850 and later naturalised in Japan as Koizumi Yakumo. Early editions, rare books, Japanese collectibles, and audiovisual materials contributed by the municipalities of Kumamoto, Matsue, and Shinjuku. Free entry; Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 14:00.
The Faneromeni
The Faneromeni Monastery, three kilometres west of Lefkada Town, is the oldest and largest on the island — the bishop Agatharchos and two fathers laid the first cells here in 332 AD, on a hill that holds the town, the lagoon, and the mainland coast in one view. The central church was raised in 1734 under the Venetians and rebuilt after the 1886 fire; the icon of the Virgin, called Manifested, is the one to ask the monks to see.
The Englouvi lentil
The lentil of Englouvi grows on the mountain plateau above the village, at around 900 metres — the highest cultivation on Lefkada. Small, dark and irregular, genetically distinct from any commercial variety, it is weeded and harvested by hand, without irrigation or chemicals; Theodosios Steriotis is one of the few who still works it. A sample sits in the ICARDA dry-areas seed bank under the code ILL293, and the practice is on Greece’s register of intangible cultural heritage.
Odysseia
Captain Gerasimos has run the Odysseia from Nidri harbour for over 40 years — a replica ancient galeon with a 45-square-metre sail. The daily cruise departs at 09:00, returns at 17:00, and calls at the Cave of Papanikolis on Meganisi (a 60-metre-wide entrance, 120 metres deep, used as a submarine refuge in the Second World War), the 300-year-old church at Spartohori, Klimaki Bay, and Skorpios. Private charter available.
Madouri
The small forested island 700 metres off Nidri has been Valaoritis family land since 1853, when the poet Aristotle Valaoritis moved his household there. The stone villa, built 1859 to 1864, and the Gothic chapel of Agios Ioannis Prodromos stand in the trees above the waterline. No landing without family permission; boats from Nidri pass close. Billy Wilder filmed Fedora on the island in 1978. Nanos Valaoritis, the poet's great-grandchild, holds it now.
The window
Mid-May through late June, and September. The island's car-accessible rhythm draws Greek domestic visitors in July and August; the west-coast beaches are busiest then and the Ionian thermals are at their peak — a westerly that builds through the afternoon, functional for the windsurfers at Vasiliki, harder for the long swims at Porto Katsiki and Kathisma.