The Rough Guide to Ionian Islands, 2nd Edition (Rough Guide Travel Guides)

INTRODUCTION

The Ionian islands comprise a core group of six – Corfu (Kerkyra), Paxi (Paxos), Lefkadha (Lefkas), Ithaki (Ithaca), Kefallonia (Cephallonia) and Zakynthos (Zante) – which trace a ragged line down the west coast of Greece*. None is more than 30km from the mainland, yet this has been far enough to exclude the Ionians from many of the key events in Greek history, most notably occupation by the Ottoman Turks. However, their position at the south of the Adriatic instead put them at the mercy of northerly invaders, primarily the Venetians and, later, the British, whose cultures fused with those of the islands. The Venetians, who first arrived in the archipelago in the late fourteenth century, imported language, art, music, law and architecture; the British turned up in the eighteenth century and unpacked local government, education, civil engineering, cricket and ginger beer. To a lesser or greater degree, all these things can still be found in the islands, and the Italians and British remain the region’s main summer invaders.

* Kythira, isolated at the foot of the Peloponnese along with its satellite Andikythira, is officially part of the Ionian group, completing the seven islands of the Heptanese. We haven’t covered them in this Guide, as they bear few similarities to the core group of islands, share no transport connections with them and would not be visited on the same trip.

As the big narrative happened elsewhere, the Ionian has no major archeological sites – though Olympia, just two hours’ drive from Patra on the Peloponnese mainland, is accessible from the southern islands. However, there are some spectacular medieval fortresses, and museums on the larger islands trace the archipelago’s cultures back to the Paleolithic era. Ithaki is still the favourite for the disputed site of Odysseus’ Homeric home and has some scattered remains as proof, with neighbouring islands laying claim to particular settings and events from the Odyssey.

But the major feature that distinguishes the Ionians from the mainland and the central swarm of Greek islands in the Aegean is climatic: a reliable rainfall pattern has allowed centuries of fairly stable agriculture and has nurtured olive trees, vineyards, rich fruit and vegetable crops, and even wheat and cereal farming on some islands. The Ionian islands display similar geographical characteristics, too: all are mountainous (even tiny Paxi has a small mountain of sorts), with their east coasts tending to be gentle dip slopes above flat, sometimes reclaimed, farm land. The west coasts are often rocky, with cliffs up to 200 metres high. This geology conspires against tourism, placing most of the best beaches on the less accessible west coasts, and the worst on the handy east coasts – where lazy developers have tended to concentrate their attentions. With the exception of Corfu’s southwest and north coasts, the south coast of Kefallonia, southern Zakynthos and pockets of western Lefkadha, most beaches are pebbly, usually shelving into sand.

Island-hopping through the Ionian is not as tricky as some people imagine and, with a month on your hands, you could easily get a taster of all six major islands, though you would be unlikely to see any of them in depth. There is certainly not the abundance of ferry and hydrofoil lines weaving through the group that the Aegean is blessed with, but most of the islands are connected to their nearest neighbour or two at some point. The only really broken link in the chain, with the exception of a very infrequent service between Corfu and Kefallonia, is that the northern duo, Corfu and Paxi, have no direct boats to the southern quartet, forcing you to travel via the mainland, though that in itself can be a pleasurable experience and allows you to glimpse a different side of Greece. Full details of all the possible inter-island connections are given throughout the Guide.

For those with less time to play, Corfu and Zakynthos are the easiest of the islands to visit: both have busy international airports, and a developed structure of package and independent tourism. Over the years, however, they have acquired a not entirely undeserved reputation as sleazepits, the blame for which can be laid at the door of unscrupulous Greek and British tourism operators. The tackier resorts on Corfu tend to be on its east coast – Ipsos and Kavos are given over to booze, bonking and bungee-jumping, although an earlier slump in tourism has had the effect of once-notorious Benitses reinventing itself as more of a family venue. On Zakynthos, Laganas is set on one of the island’s finest beaches, but has reached levels of excess to rival anything on Corfu. However, such large-scale tourist developments take up only a small proportion of either island, and most locals and visitors remain quite undisturbed by such overblown commerce and razzmatazz.

Kefallonia’s relatively new airport has yet to attract the volume of traffic of either Corfu or Zakynthos, but the island boasts some of the best unspoilt beaches and wildest mountainscapes in the Ionian. It remains a reasonably well-kept secret: chic resorts like Fiskardho are very busy throughout the season, but others, such as Ayia Efimia, never seem to fill. Its northerly neighbour Lefkadha has two notable pockets of development – Nydhri and the windsurfers’ paradise, Vassiliki – but the rest of the heavily indented coastline and the handsome, mountainous interior are largely untouched by tourism. It goes without saying that the further you travel from an airport, or an island with an airport, the more you’ll distance yourself from the crowds. Many landing at Corfu head at great speed for Paxi, those at Kefallonia for Ithaki. The former, barely 12km long and covered in olive trees, supports just three busy fishing village resorts, two of them tiny; small and mountainous, the latter is the most unspoilt of the core islands.

The satellite islands, such as the Dhiapondia islets off northwest Corfu, Meganissi off Lefkadha, and even Andi paxi south of Paxi, are becoming more accessible to adventurous travellers each year. Committed loners and misanthropes might also consider the areas around Korissíon lagoon or Mount Pandokrator on Corfu; the hills around Karya or the little-visited southwest coast, especially Athani, on Lefkadha; the quieter parts of Kefallonia, such as the Lixouri peninsula or Assos; or the northeast of Zakynthos. If you want to live as the Greeks live away from the tourism racket, try the island capitals: Corfu Town has transformed itself in recent years, Lefkadha Town has a lively buzz to it, and Argostoli retains a spacious charm despite being razed by the 1953 earthquake. The other seismic victim, Zakynthos Town, also has a certain class and lovely setting, despite busy traffic detracting from its charm at times. The latter two are particularly authentic, and secondary! towns like Lefkimi on Corfu or Lixouri on Kefalonia are even less influenced by tourism. Of course, some mountain villages still see hardly any outsiders at all.

It s worth noting that nobody ever came to the Ionian islands looking for cordon bleu food or Scandinavian plumbing, but that applies to just about the whole of the country. In all but the smartest accommodation, bathrooms are haphazard, though rarely insanitary. And while there are excellent tavernas on many islands, most, over the decades, have been content to reach a happy medium with their foreign customers. They generally serve meals lukewarm, following the Greek nostrum that hot food is bad for the system, and on the smaller islands certain vegetables can be difficult to obtain (you could launch a career as a comedian on Paxi by asking for lettuce). Yet these shortcomings have actually entered the mythology of the thousands who return regardless to the islands year after year. One of the reasons they return beyond some of the finest swimming and watersports in the Mediterranean, the landscape, sunshine and balmy nights out under the Milky Way is the welcome that all ! but the largest resorts still manage to extend. Despite the pressure of tourism, the islanders remain a disarmingly friendly people, and reserved Britons are often embarrassed by their astonishing kindness. The traditional quality of filoxenia, kindness to strangers, survives, and can take the form of anything from an orange offered from someone s garden to a meal, a lift or a room for the night. And after decades of handling tourists who insist on speaking their own tongue, islanders are genuinely charmed by attempts to speak their language, even if it s just a yia sou or kali mera.

WHEN TO GO If you can, it s best to avoid the islands in late July and most of August, when holidaying Greeks and Italians descend en masse, accommodation is scarce, and temperatures and prices soar. June and early September are just as good for those concerned about fine weather (in fact, the 1990s have seen a number of fairly unstable high summers, with rainy Augusts followed by stunning Septembers and Octobers). In June, the sea is usually warm enough for swimming; in September it can be as warm as a bath.

May, September and October are the times for bargain flights and packages, and, though you may risk short spells of inclement weather, are probably the best times to visit. In May many spring flowers are still in bloom, and villages and villagers are fresh from the winter. In late September and early October you can be blessed with fine weather, warm seas and almost no other visitors. However, bargain package deals in these low-season periods should be carefully scrutinized: some remote resorts (noted in the Guide) close early, often stranding those without the wherewithal to hire transport.

Early May and late October mark the beginning and end of charter flights to the islands, although there s a mini winter season around Christmas and New Year. Outside these times you have to fly via Athens, but, with the exception of Paxi, every island capital has hotels open year-round, and most local accommodation companies can rustle up some suitable accommodation. When the rafts of knick-knacks are packed away until next season, even the most developed resorts resume their prelapsarian charm, and major towns in particular, Corfu Town are to be seen at their best. The only bars or tavernas will be those the Greeks themselves use, which is usually the best recommendation at any time of the year. The winter months, November especially, see spectacular storms in the Ionian, yet it is possible to get sunburnt on Christmas Day. Off-season travel is also the only way to catch the two biggest festivals of the year: pre-Lenten carnival, a Venetian tradition maintained with parades, parties and mischief; and Orthodox Easter, which is celebrated for a full week and can be an extremely moving experience.

Prevailing northwesterly winds affect all the Ionian islands, commonly rising in the afternoon, occasionally developing into the maestro the Ionian equivalent of the Aegean meltemi which can blow for three days or more. These winds make the Ionians ideal for yachting holidays and watersports, but can make beaches at exposed resorts hellish. The climate figures given below are averages for Corfu if any generalizations about Ionian weather can be made in advance, they can be made only about the region as a whole. The archipelago has any number of micro-climates: Lefkadha s valleys are like little lost Shangri-Las of meteorology, and Paxi gets only a fraction of the storms that gang up on nearby Corfu s Mount Pandokrator.