Why Lefkada
There are Ionian islands that make the visitor work for the pleasure of arriving — ferry crossings of several hours, flight connections, the logistics of getting to an island that is genuinely separated from the mainland by a meaningful body of water. And then there is Lefkada, the only Ionian island connected to the mainland of Greece by a road bridge — a narrow floating bridge across the shallow lagoon that separates the island from the Akarnanian coast, its crossing taking barely five minutes and providing the entirely paradoxical experience of driving onto an island that looks, from every point on its extraordinary coastline, as though it could not possibly be connected to anything by a road. Because Lefkada, for all its accessibility, is one of the most dramatically and most completely beautiful of the Ionian islands — its western coast a series of sheer white limestone cliffs descending to some of the most extraordinary beaches in the Mediterranean, its interior a landscape of mountain villages and olive groves of great natural beauty, and its sailing waters the finest and most sheltered in the northern Ionian, the island and the surrounding channels constituting the most popular and most completely equipped sailing destination in the entire Greek world.
The island’s western coast is the source of its international reputation and its most completely overwhelming natural feature — a series of sheer white limestone cliffs of up to 300 metres descending vertically to beaches of such extraordinary natural beauty that they consistently rank among the finest in the world. Egremni, Porto Katsiki, Kathisma, Agios Nikitas — beaches of powder-white sand and brilliant turquoise water enclosed by the white cliffs in a natural composition of such complete and such overwhelming beauty that the experience of descending to them for the first time is one of those moments of natural revelation, of sudden and total encounter with the finest that the natural world can produce, that no amount of photographic preparation can adequately anticipate. Porto Katsiki is, by the consistent judgement of those who have seen the finest beaches of the Mediterranean, among the most beautiful beaches in the world — a small arc of brilliant white pebble and powder sand enclosed by soaring white cliffs of limestone, its turquoise water of extraordinary clarity, and its overall natural composition of such complete and such overwhelming magnificence that it constitutes, for the visitor who descends the steps to it for the first time, a genuine and permanent revelation.
The sailing waters of Lefkada — the Lefkada Channel between the island and the mainland, the open waters south toward Ithaca and Kefalonia, and the protected anchorages of the eastern coast and the offshore islands of Meganisi, Kalamos, and Kastos — are the most popular and the most completely equipped sailing destination in Greece, hosting the largest concentration of charter yachts in the Mediterranean and providing, in the Lefkada Marina at Nydri, the finest and most completely equipped sailing base in the Ionian. The combination of the sheltered Lefkada Channel for light-weather sailing and training, the open Ionian to the south for more adventurous passages, and the extraordinary variety of anchorages in the islands and inlets of the surrounding sea creates a sailing ground of exceptional completeness and exceptional variety.
What to Do and What to See
Lefkada Town
The capital of Lefkada — Lefkada Town, at the northern tip of the island immediately south of the bridge — is a pleasant, relaxed town of considerable individual character, its architecture shaped by the earthquake history of the Ionian islands into a distinctive style of timber-framed upper storeys and metal-sheeted facades that are unique to the northern Ionian and that give the town a visual distinctiveness entirely its own. The main shopping street — Mela Street — is animated and pleasant, and the town’s cafés and restaurants along the canal and the lagoon front provide excellent viewing of the lagoon’s extraordinary birdlife and the constant movement of the charter yachts passing through the Lefkada Channel.
Porto Katsiki and the Western Beaches
The western beaches of Lefkada — Porto Katsiki, Egremni, Kathisma, Agios Nikitas — are the island’s supreme natural attraction and among the finest beaches in the Mediterranean. Porto Katsiki, at the southwestern tip of the island, is the most famous and the most overwhelmingly beautiful — a small, enclosed beach of brilliant white pebble and clear turquoise water beneath soaring white limestone cliffs, accessible by a long flight of steps from the car park above and justifying every step of the descent. Egremni, north of Porto Katsiki, is larger, wilder, and accessible only by boat following an earthquake that destroyed the path in 2015 — its greater remoteness ensuring a quality of natural solitude that makes it, for those who arrive by sea, an experience of extraordinary natural completeness.
Nydri and the Surrounding Islands
On the eastern coast of Lefkada, the resort of Nydri is the island’s sailing and water sports hub — a busy harbour town of considerable activity whose primary attraction is its extraordinary setting in a sheltered bay surrounded by the wooded offshore islands of Meganisi, Sparti, Madouri, and Skorpios. The view from the Nydri waterfront — the wooded islands ranged across the calm water of the bay in a composition of green hills and blue sea of great natural beauty — is one of the finest in the northern Ionian. The islands surrounding Nydri are the finest day-sailing and day-excursion destinations in the area: Meganisi, with its extraordinary caves and its beautiful villages of Vathi and Spartochori; Scorpios, the legendary private island of Aristotle Onassis; Madouri, the island of the poet Aristotelis Valaoritis.
The Mountain Villages — Karya and Englouvi
In the interior of Lefkada, the mountain villages of Karya and Englouvi preserve traditional Ionian village culture of great authenticity and great beauty — their stone houses and Byzantine churches and the quality of their artisanal traditions, including the extraordinary embroidery tradition of Karya that is unique to the northern Ionian, composing a picture of traditional Greek island culture of great depth and great warmth. Englouvi, at 800 metres the highest village on the island, produces the finest lentils in Greece — a Protected Designation of Origin product of great quality whose simple preparation in the village tavernas provides some of the most completely satisfying and most genuinely characteristic food available on any Ionian island.
Why Choose Lefkada
Lefkada is the island for every category of visitor — for those who arrive by car across the bridge with the ease of a mainland drive and find themselves on one of the most beautiful islands in the Mediterranean; for the sailing visitor who wants the finest charter base and the finest sailing waters in the Ionian; for beach lovers who want Porto Katsiki and Egremni, two of the finest beaches in the world; for walkers who want the mountain villages and the olive-grove interior; and for those who simply want an Ionian island of great natural beauty and great variety of experience available without the logistical effort that the other Ionian islands require.
