Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Named after the tiny cove it sits above, this taverna with a
huge sunken terrace is famous for its delicious spaghetti
with mussels. There is a separate chill-out beach bar on the
premises too.
May-Sept daily 10am-midnight.
Captain Corelli's
Ayía Efimía
T
26740 61955.
Predictably renamed after the film crew and cast who
spent hours unwinding here, this café-restaurant is
nonetheless a good spot right on the harbour for a
refreshing drink or light snack.
April-Oct daily 8am-2am.
Moustakis
Ayía Efimía
T
26740 61030,
W
moustakishotel.com.
Around 100m along the main
road inland, the resort's only bona fide hotel has old-
fashioned
yet c
omfortable rooms, all with small balconies.
April-Oct.
€50
To Steki
Ayía Efimía
T
26740 61025.
A wide range of
island specialities such as meat pie and standard Greek
dishes from pork chops to beef in red sauce, all under €10 at
this mid-harbour taverna.
May-Sept daily noon-1am.
Northern Kefaloniá
Northern Kefaloniá offers some splendid beaches, an architecturally attractive village in
Fiskárdho
, and some amazing coastal scenery. Indeed, the northern half of the road
between Argostóli and Fiskárdho, starting at the point where a side road peels off to the
long sandy beach of
Ayía Kyriakí
, is the most spectacular ride in the Ionian archipelago.
11
Mýrtos beach and around
Four kilometres by paved road below the main north-south artery, stunningly
photogenic
Mýrtos
is regarded by many as the most dramatic beach in the Ionian
islands - a splendid strip of pure-white sand and pebbles. Sadly, it has no natural shade
for most of the day and gets mighty crowded in high season, with just a couple of
seasonal snack-shacks for refreshment.
Back at the crossroads, the small settlement of
Dhivaráta
has the nearest amenities
to Mýrtos.
Ássos
Six kilometres beyond Dhivaráta is the turning for the atmospheric village of
ÁSSOS
,
clinging to a small isthmus between the island and a huge hill crowned by a ruined
fort. It can get a little claustrophobic, but there's nowhere else quite like it in the
Ionians. Ássos has a small pebble beach, and three tavernas on a plane-shaded village
square backed by mansions, mostly now restored after being ruined in the 1953 quake.
Fiskárdho
Boats from Itháki and Lefkádha dock on the far side of the small bay; island buses terminate in the car park up at the back of the village
FISKÁRDHO
, on the northernmost tip of the island, sits on a bed of limestone that
buffered it against the worst of the quakes. Two
lighthouses
, Venetian and Victorian,
guard the bay, and the ruins on the headland are believed to be from a twelfth-century
chapel begun by Norman invader Robert Guiscard, who gave the place its name. The
nineteenth-century harbour frontage is intact, and is nowadays occupied by smart
restaurants and chic boutiques. There is an
Environmental and Nautical Museum
(summer Mon-Fri 10am-6pm, Sun 10am-2pm; donation;
T
26740 41182), housed
in a renovated Neoclassical mansion on the hill behind the village. The volunteers who
curate it conduct valuable ecological research and can also arrange
scuba diving
.
Around Fiskárdho
There are two good pebble beaches close to Fiskárdho -
Émblisi
1km back out of
town and
Fókis
just to the south - and a nature trail on the northern headland. It is
worth making the effort to explore the coastal region west of
Mánganos
:
Alatiés
has a
tiny beach tucked in between folds of impressive white volcanic rock, but the real
gem is the small bay of
Ayía Ierousalím
, whose gravel-and-sand beach remains quiet
even in August.
