Our 1st three days in one of our new favorite Greek islands – Lefkada!

Oh Greece, how do I explain my affection for thee? We first went to Greece in the summer of 2017, shortly after we were engaged. While I’m sure we were on an “engagement-moon high,” we quickly fell in love with this gorgeous country and its amazing beaches, delicious foods and friendly people. When we were planning this trip we figured out my sister was going to be in Greece right about when we were leaving Brazil, and it was the perfect excuse to return to one of our favorite places, the Greek islands!

Last year we focused on the Cyclades, a group of Greek islands south of the mainland, and I was sad we couldn’t fit in Lefkada. Lefkada is an Ionian island, located west of Greece’s mainland and a bit south of Corfu. Lefkada is rumored to have the bluest waters of all the Greek islands (spoiler alert: the rumor is true!), which is saying a lot given the baseline is high! A bonus is that this 15km by 35km island is connected to the mainland by a tiny strip of land, so it was drivable from Athens. Score!

So, we planned to spend six nights in Lefkada after Brazil and before Italy, and my sister Pooja (who I call Poops) and her friend Liz joined us for four nights. It was so much fun. Like so much fun. We had a blast having new companions on our trip, exploring the beautiful sights and playing cards and backgammon all night. I originally was going to do just one post on Lefkada, but as I was writing I realized it would be the length of a novel chapter. And, the pictures are just too pretty to cut down to a few. So, this will be the first of three posts on our time in Lefkada, yay for getting write lots about Greek islands!

Lefkada – Day 1 – Arrival to apartment near Agios Nikitas

We arrived in Athens at about 7am and rented a car to drive out to Lefkada (about 5 hours away). Poops and Liz were scheduled to arrive at 12pm and then meet us at the apartment after their drive. The drive itself was a good reminder to how awesome Greece is. I mean, look at this rest stop (and they were all like this) – does it feel like you are on the side of a highway or in a hip Brooklyn coffee shop?

After an easy highway drive (with lots of tolls though – we had no Euros and were lucky they all took credit card!), we crossed over onto Lefkada and started the windy and hilly drive to our apartment. As soon as we saw the shoreline and ocean we knew why this is considered to be one of the best Greek islands!

We stayed on the northwest part of the island, about five minutes away from a small town called Agios Nikitas. And luckily, when we arrived at our apartment at Liogerma villas, we were instantly in love with it! Two floors, each with a bedroom and bathroom, a big kitchen and common area, a deck with an outdoor dining table, a barbeque and a gorgeous pool with a gorgeous view. (Our apartment was the top two floors of the house in the picture on the right below). We relaxed by and in the pool for the afternoon, and when Poops and Liz arrived we swam some more, ordered dinner and tried to watch The Bachelorette. About 15 minutes in Poops and I were conked out on the couch. Ah, travel days.

Lefkada – Day 2 – Porto Katsiki

After a good, long night of rest, we woke up on day 2 ready to hit the famous Lefkada beaches and see if they really were the best of what the Greek islands have to offer! I had done a lot of reading on Lefkada before arriving (surprising to no one) and so once I got my hands on a map I had marked up notes and thoughts.

We decided to head to Porto Katsiki. It is considered to be one of the top beaches on the island, and it’s stunning cliffside beach is actually the one that is often used in advertisements for Lefkada. Porto Katsiki is located on the southwest tip of the island and it took us about 50 minutes to drive there, on windy and often narrow roads. After we parked and walked to the stairs to go down to the beach (only ~75, half as many as at Praia da Pipa in Brazil!), we got our first glimpse of the beach. And wow was just about the only thing running through our heads. I mean look at this beauty! (and I’m talking about the beach, not me and Poops, har-har-har).

We walked down the steps, put our stuff in the shade (it was a pebble beach) and jumped right into the beautiful blue water. We just were so excited to get into those waters and explore! The water had a slight chill, but it felt good, and it was crystal clear.

We started on the right side of the beach, where there are more rocks, and Damian and I actually climbed up one to do some jumping off. The climb up was sharp on the feet, but the jump was super fun! Then we all swam all the way to the other side of the beach, where there is the huge cliff wall right against the beach itself. It’s amazing how clear the water is – it feels like you are right near the ground and that you can touch it, but often times it was actually at least 15+ feet deep!

After, we swam/crab-walked back to our towels and were starving. There are no facilities on this beach (you have to climb up the steps to get to them), but there is a restaurant called Bilvi that delivers on the beach! We ordered some gyros, gobbled them up, and then promptly ordered another set. What is extra nice, is that unlike Brazil, the sun doesn’t set until 8:45pm in Greece at this time of year. So, we were able to swim some more, relax, head back to Agios Nikitas, do some grocery shopping and be back in our apartment all before it was dark. Our first beach was a great start and had already made Lefkada one of our new favorite Greek islands!

Lefkada – Day 3 – Agiofili

We started off this day with a different mission. We actually wanted to visit Egremni beach, which is rumored to be the most turquoise beach in Lefkada and is also located on the southwest tip of the island, a little north of Porto Katsiki. We didn’t make it to Egremni, but it definitely wasn’t for lack of trying.

First, we learned the road to Egremni was unpassable, because, as the locals said, it had “fallen down”. We definitely didn’t want to press our luck driving, so we then decided to try to get a boat. We drove to Vasiliki, a small port town on the southeast as well, but they had no boats going to Egremni. If we wanted, the next day or the day after we could get a cruise from Nydri (on the east side of the island) that stopped at Porto Katsiki, Egremni and Agiofili. We decided against that since we were planning to see two of these on our own and the boat ride from Nydri to Egremni is 1.5 hours. And finally, private boats aren’t allowed to run from Vasiliki to Egremni, and so it was basically all a no-go. But, silver lining, how cute is Vasiliki?

Luckily, Lefkada has no shortage of beautiful beaches to choose from, so we decided to head to Agiofili instead. Agiofili is a small beach located on the south of the island. When we asked a tour guide if we could drive there she said “Does your car sit low to the ground? No? Can it make it over bumpy roads? Yes? Then you should be fine”. Well, was that a little over-sold.

We drove from Vasiliki to the road/dirt path that took us to Agiofili and encountered a bunch of cars parked on the side. We though, hmm, maybe they couldn’t make it, but our car can! Note to self for all future travel: when cars are parked on the side of the road they didn’t continue driving for a reason. We kept going and soon encountered some pretty heinous potholes, ones that could easily compete with the ones we saw in Brazil. We tried to power through, but our little car just didn’t have the oomph it needed (especially, as we learned later, with the air conditioning on).

Soon, we were wheel-deep in a pothole and, well, stuck. The next five minutes were some of the funniest on the trip. Poops and Liz got out of the car to try to guide us in terms of backing up, paths that might work through/over, etc and we were in the car trying to shut down everything that was using any power (air conditioning, radio, etc.). Once we had the final path decided we told Poops and Liz to move back and gunned it up the hill. The funniest part was that, while we were in no danger of hitting her, Poops panicked and sprinted away from our car. But, she was so nervous that we were going to catch her (which there was no risk of) that she ran off into the deep thicket of bushes. I literally laugh out loud every time I picture it.

Anyway, we made it up the hill, found a little parking spot and started the walk to Agiofili. You have to walk down a private street (which may be open in high season, as there is a parking lot there) and then down a hill and down steps (which I didn’t count). It was hot, and I hate steps, so I was cranky about it, but that all faded away after I laid my eyes on this beauty of a beach.

We settled down on the right side of the beach in the shade and hopped right into the ocean. After our long adventure getting to Agiofili we were ready for those Greek islands cool blue waters again! I just love the beautiful scenery that the rocks and the clear water make together.

We spent a couple hours on this beach and then decided to have some non-beach fun (I know, I felt strange about it too). We drove back to Vasiliki and ate at Yiannis, a delicious gyro place right on the water. Then we shopped around town for a while, I bought a new dress, Poops bought a new backpack and Liz bought some gifts and souvenirs. We had decided to grill on our barbeque that night, so we bought some veggies and meats, and then drove back to our villa. (By the way, the guidebooks hate on Vasiliki, which I thought was unwarranted! It was super cute and even though it felt a little tourist-y, it still felt very Greek. We really enjoyed our time there, so don’t let the hater-ade deter you.)

It was nice to get back a little early. We played cards, drank and swam in the pool for a while and then prepped the food and got the grill going. And, there’s just nothing like eating simple, delicious grilled goodies after a day in the sun and the water! We ate well, finished off some more champagne and called it a night. Poops and Liz were already having a blast in their first visit to the beach-y Greek islands and we were so glad to still have more Lefkada beach fun ahead of us. Next up will be our self-created swimming tour of the private beaches in northwest Lefkada!

If you want to read more about our time in Lefkada:

• Part 1: Days 1-3 in Porto Katsiki, Agiofili and Vasiliki – you are here!
• Part 2: Day 4 doing our own swimming tour of private beaches – click here
• Part 3: Days 5-6 with a return to Porto Katsiki and exploring Lefkada town – click here