Paxos
Overview
Paxos has no airport, three small harbours, and an interior of olive trees roughly five hundred years old. Local myth has Poseidon breaking a piece of Corfu off with his trident to make a private retreat for himself and Amphitrite. The standard arrival is the ferry from Corfu, an hour and a quarter to Gaios, the diminutive capital. The Venetians planted the olives, and the trees are still working, gnarled and dense across an island only ten kilometres long.
Three settlements hold most of the inhabited life. Gaios, on the eastern coast, sits on a near-enclosed natural channel between the main island and a smaller offshore islet of the same shape. Loggos, ten minutes north, is a horseshoe of houses around a single jetty. Lakka, at the northern end, has the gentler swimming, the curve of a sheltered bay, and most of the better small hotels. Most visitors stay in Lakka and treat the other two as lunch destinations.
The west coast is the dramatic one and is best seen from the water. The Erimitis cliffs above the Tripitos arch, the sea caves at Ortholithos, and the smaller cove called Achai are reachable only by boat. Hire a small one in Gaios for the day and run the western coast from south to north. A mid-morning start is critical: the afternoon swell shuts the caves down by three, and you will be turned back at the bigger ones.
Antipaxos, twenty minutes south by water taxi, is the second island most guests should visit even on a short stay. Its beaches at Vrika and Voutoumi have a kind of pale sand and shallow water that does not appear elsewhere in the Ionian. There is one taverna behind each beach, and you should arrive an hour earlier than you think for a table.
House Notes
Arrival
Kerkyra Lines runs the Flying Dolphin hydrofoil — the vessel is named Paxos Island — from Corfu Town to Gaios in 55 minutes. Guests arriving by private helicopter land at Corfu and transfer by arranged private boat; the island has no helipad of its own, and no airport nearer than Corfu.
The address
Torri e Merli, on the olive-grove fringe of Lakka — a 17th-century Venetian fortified manor restored as a five-star hotel, one of the few of its kind still intact on the island. The name itself reads as turrets and crenellations. Private villa rental through Paxos Retreats is the alternative for those preferring a stand-alone estate with a pool.
The kitchen, Loggos
Vassilis, on the Loggos harbour front, has been in the Andreadakis family since 1957 — it began as a snack counter for workers at the olive and soap factories and evolved into a proper restaurant in the 1970s. Konstantinos Andreadakis runs it now; order the lobster kritaroto, orzo slow-cooked with the catch. Tables on the stone terrace; book ahead in season.
Erimitis, on foot
The Boikatika loop traces 2 kilometres of stone-floored donkey track through untended olive groves to the cliff edge above Erimitis bay — soaring limestone above a turquoise sea. Allow one hour and walk before nine; the path is fully exposed from midday. The only natural spring on the island surfaces just above the beach, seeping through a rock face enclosed in stone.
The Anemogiannis factory
On the Loggos waterfront stands the Anemogiannis factory, built in the late 19th century by the brothers Stefanos and Ioannis Anemogiannis on land bought in 1874. It began as an olive press and grew into an oil mill, refinery, and soap works; the 24-metre brick chimney still marks the harbour. A preserved monument of industrial architecture, it stands as the record of how the island once turned its five-century olive groves to oil.
Ypapanti, by arrangement
The only Byzantine-style church on Paxos, built in 1601 by brothers Adam and Vasilis San Ippolito in the hamlet of Grammatikeika between Lakka and Magazia. The double dome and marble altar-front are the architectural markers; the 1772 Venetian bell tower stands beside it. Open Wednesday 18:00–19:00; private visits at other times arranged through the Planos office in Lakka.
The castle, by boat
The Castle of Agios Nikolaos stands on a low islet 40 metres off the Gaios waterfront — a small boat from the harbour is the crossing. Construction began in 1423 under Venetian baron Adam II San Ippolito and was completed by 1510; most of the walls, the gunpowder store, the watchtower, and the original cannons remain. The islet also holds two small chapels.
Erimitis at table
Erimitis Bar Restaurant, above the west coast cliffs at Magazia, opens daily at 18:00 and takes reservations by phone — book two days ahead and provide card details to hold the table. Every table faces the Ionian sunset across the Erimitis cliffs. The kitchen works with Paxiot produce; bring a layer for the clifftop breeze after dark.
Captain Nikos
Nikos began hiring out boats from Loggos in 1982, when he was still fishing. His son Panayiotis runs the operation now: RIBs and larger deluxe vessels, delivered to Lakka, Monodendri, Gaios, or Mongonisi by arrangement. A private day trip to Parga or Corfu is available with a named skipper. The fleet is based in Loggos; book in advance through July and August.
The window
Late May through mid-July, and the first three weeks of September. August on Paxos belongs to the flotilla circuit — Gaios fills with sailing schools from the Ionian bases, moorings are taken by mid-afternoon, and the harbours trade their quieter register for a nightly crowd. The island reverts in September; the sea stays warm and the tavernas stay open.
Anchorage Notes
Gaios
Gaios, the island’s capital and main port, lies behind the wooded islet of Agios Nikolaos, which closes the channel and hides the harbour until the last turn. The ferries, the Corfu hydrofoil and the sea taxis all come in here, and a yacht lies in the green channel between the town and the islet. It is the busiest water on Paxos, and still small.
Lakka
Lakka holds the northern tip, a fishing village on a natural, almost circular bay closed by two headlands — one of the most popular anchorages in the Ionian, busy through the season with yachts, windsurfers and swimmers. A yacht lies in the round green bowl of the bay, the village and its tavernas ringing the water at the head.
Loggos
Loggos, on the northeast coast, is the smallest of the island’s ports — a tiny fishing harbour with a handful of shops and bars around it and shingle beaches close by. A yacht lies close in against the little quay, the village a few steps deep behind it. It is the quietest of the three Paxos harbours, and the most intimate.
Antipaxos
Antipaxos lies three kilometres south, a small vineyard island of some twenty souls with a single harbour, Agrapidia, and the beaches that draw the day boats — Vrika’s white sand, Voutoumi’s pebbles over sand so pale the water turns to glass above it. The sea taxi runs from Gaios in a quarter of an hour; a yacht lies off the beaches for the clearest water in the Ionian.