Summer holiday in Kefalonia

Ollie and I had a wonderful week's holiday on the Greek island of Kefalonia back in the second week of August. It was our first holiday together and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Kefalonia is one of the Ionian islands and is much greener than many of the other groups of islands, so with the beautiful sea and mountains it made for a very pretty destination. We stayed at Cavos Inn in Assos on the north west part of the island. We liked it a lot and it was a great base with it's own lovely beach and good restaurants we rotated between, all a few minutes walk from our accommodation. We were lucky that we had inadvertently chosen one of the most charming villages we visited.

After a long travel day on Saturday including the flight and a two hour bus ride north from the airport we didn't arrive until about 6pm. We checked into our room, and wandered in to town to get our bearings, and had a first beer and dinner (I went for the sea bass immediately).

The hotel terrace

A first glimpse of Assos

Assos

Assos

The main street in Assos

The little town square overlooking the water

Ollie & I in Assos

On Sunday we decided to spend the day in Assos. We started with breakfast on the terrace of the hotel and had a quick meeting with the tour operator who told us a bit about the island and some destinations. Then we headed straight to the sun lounges. We spent all day swimming in the water, reading and relaxing. We had a break for lunch at one of the restaurants in town on a small terrace with tables under olive trees overlooking the water. Lunch was lovely - dolmados, greek salad, bread and wine. We left the beach around 7pm, even though you could still feel the heat from the sun, for cocktail hour, which became our routine each day. For dinner, we went to another restaurant, back from the beach but definitely the best in town. I had delicious grilled lamb chops. It was a fantastic first day.

Each day followed a similar pattern but generally a different beach...

The view from the hotel terrace (one of about 50 taken!)

Assos, overlooking the bay and the fort on the hill

Lunch time!

The first of many greek salads

Salad and the jug of white wine

Cocktail hour... melon daquiris!

On the terrace

On Monday we drove in our hire car to Fiskardo after breakfast. This is the Monte Carlo (or Noosa) of the island. The harbour is bigger and is lined with cafes and restaurants, and much bigger and prettier boats. We wandered around in the morning and stopped for ice coffee. We had a disappointing meal for lunch which was a shame (I hate wasting an opportunity to eat something delicious) but we did watch a boat come in to the harbour and moor right in front of us which was interesting to watch and a bit of fun.  After lunch we headed to a lovely beach called Emblissi and spent the afternoon sunbathing and swimming there. We watched the sunset from a restaurant between Fiskardo and Assos over some wine and then had part two of cocktail hour on the little balcony of our room overlooking the ocean, before dinner at the restaurant with the olive trees again. I had sea bream which was so yummy (and much better than the first night).

Good morning Greece

Mountain goats by the road

ice coffee in Fiskardo

Fiskardo

We climbed on a roof to see the view

Fiskardo

The ubiquitous greek cat

Emblissi beach

Emblissi Beach

Wine and tzatziki

Cocktail hour and the sunset

After a sleep-in on Tuesday, we decided to explore another area called Antipata. We stopped in a nearby cafe called Picnic on the way for yoghurt with fruit and honey and ice coffee (the breakfast in the hotel was simple and nice, but the yoghurt here was pretty special). At Antipata we spent the afternoon at St Jerusalim beach. Before the sun started to set, we jumped back in the car and went to the neighbouring beach of Alaties to enjoy the view. We walked out onto the rocks and watched the sea from there with a local beer (called Fix - the one I liked the most) for a while. It was getting late so we went straight to dinner at a tavern in Antipata. It was disappointingly anglicised so we didn't enjoy it as much.

Just another view from the road

yoghurt and ice coffee at Picnic

St Jerusalim beach

Sunset

Light rain fell on Wednesday morning so we decided to stay in Assos rather than go anywhere else. We camped out at Seaside cafe, right on the beach, and played scrabble (Ollie won) and ate lunch. The sun broke through for the afternoon so we moved to the sun lounges for the afternoon. We had Aperol spritz for cocktail hour in take away cups on our lounges. We decided to head back to Antipata and try a different restaurant for dinner and that was a lovely surprise. The tables were all set outside in a garden, and the food was a little bit more contemporary than the usual simple Greek style. Very good.

Ollie pleased with his Scrabble win

Aperol Spritz!

Dinner in Antipata at To Pefko

Thursday was road trip day. We had an amazing drive crossing the mountains south east to Antisamos beach where a lot of the Captain Corelli's Mandolin movie was filmed. We got to see farms, mountain goats, and more of the rural Greek life from the winding roads - with some pretty scary cliff drops and sharp bends along the way. Antisamos is a nice beach (awarded a blue flag), with lovely turquoise water enclosed by tree covered mountains, but unfortunately it was so popular that it was full at 11am and the only spare sun lounges were back off the beach on some grass in front of the beach clubs. It was a bit too commercial for us, and so after a very quick dip, we got back in the car and drove to one of the island's, and Greece's most famous beaches, Myrtos. Just before we descended the mountain down to the beach, we stopped at a great tavern for lunch. The tzatziki and mixed grill were delicious.

Myrtos is stunning. It's at the bottom of a long, steep road that we walked 20 mins down after we precariously parked the car (and of course then had to walk back up to afterwards!). The water is clear turquoise even though its deep (possibly the nicest water I have ever swum in), the pebbles are white, and the beach is long. There were lots of people there too, but there was just the one beach tavern and so it somehow felt a bit less commercial. It was a baking hot day so I was in and out of the water, and after an hour or so Ollie nabbed some sun lounges for us when they came free. We stayed for several leisurely hours and headed back to Assos around 7pm. We drank our aperol spritz's down on the beach, and went back to our favourite restaurant again. I had the sea bream here and it was so so so delicious. Just what I had been dreaming of eating before holiday, and am dreaming about now that we are back.

A view of Assos on the peninsula

Antisamos from the road

Mixed grill at Alexandros tavern

Myrtos Beach

The Sea Bream and a very happy customer

Our last full day was Friday. We borrowed a beach umbrella and some mats from the hotel and drove to Dafnoudi beach, my favourite beach spot of the holiday. There are no sun lounges here, and not even a little beach hut so it's BYO everything. You have to walk down through a forest to get to the water which is really nice, because nearly all the other beaches have the car park right next to the beach, so it is a lot more au naturale. Dafnoudi beach had the best combination of beautiful water, and a beautiful setting among the trees and rocks. Having already had breakfast at Picnic (the cafe with the good yoghurt) we nipped back for lunch. We had run out of cash and so the owner let us eat there and pay him back later that day after we'd been to the ATM which was very trusting of him. It meant we could make the most of the afternoon at the beach and then pop into Fiskardo to the ATM for more cash afterwards. Cocktail hour was down by the beach in Assos again, and our very last dinner was at our favourite restaurant...again. This time I had the Sea Bass - very similar but I think slightly tastier than the Sea Bream which I didn't think was even possible!

Back again for more yoghurt

Dafnoudi beach

Serious sun bathing

Dafnoudi beach

Last cocktail hour

More aperol spritz action in Assos

Last night's dinner.. more fresh fish, dolmados, lettuce salad and rose 

To make the most of the few hours left before our day of travel back to London, we got up at 7am to walk to up to the Venetian fort at the top of the hill we had been admiring from down below on the beach. It was a gorgeous walk in the morning light and not too hot. The view from up there over the town and the ocean was worth being up so early. After the walk back down we had a quick dip in the ocean again. Then we raced back to our room to pack up and check out by 10:30am. We had until 11:45 before the bus was picking us up so we spent the hour having an ice coffee at the Seaside cafe.

We didn't want to leave at all, and wished we had a second week, but the holiday didn't feel like it raced by so that was nice. It was such a great time and very relaxing. I loved swimming every day, being in the sunshine, wearing nearly every single item of summer clothing I own, and all the yummy food. Kefalonia is great, I would definitely go back.

The morning light over the bay in Assos

Walking up to the fort