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Route · 14 days · round-tripYacht charter route · Ionian

Lefkas via Paxos & Ithaka.

A two-week Ionian sailing route from Lefkas through Paxos, Corfu and Ithaka, with quiet island quays, ghost villages and some of Greece's clearest coves.

The route

Day-by-day route

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Parga
Day 1

Lefkas → Parga

The season opens with a 30-mile run up the mainland, gated by the Lefkas swing-bridge and finished under a Venetian castle.

Distance

31 NM

Sailing

~6.2h at 5 kn

At a glance

Route at a glance

Best season

May – mid-October (peak Jun – Sep, calmer winds)

Duration

14 days

Departure

Lefkas

Sailing area

Ionian

Route summary

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Day-by-day journey

Named anchorages, mooring notes and things to do for every leg of the week — the map follows along as you scroll.

Day 1 / 14
Parga
1
Day 1

Lefkas → Parga

Your first day starts at a bridge, not a bay. The Lefkas canal swing-bridge lifts once an hour, and the holding basin on its south side packs in thirty-odd boats by mid-morning in July, so we usually aim for the nine o'clock opening and clear it before the queue builds. Once you're through, the southwesterly thermal fills in along the Epirus coast and pushes you north on a comfortable beam reach. Parga arrives like a stage set: ochre and cream houses spilling down to the water beneath a fourteenth-century Norman-Venetian fort. Valtos beach lies a mile west if the crew wants a swim before dinner. The climb to the ramparts takes about twenty-five minutes and pays off at sunset, when the light drops behind the offshore islet and the whole bay goes gold.

Things to do

Swim the golden crescent of Valtos beach

Climb to the Norman-Venetian castle ramparts

Saganaki prawns on the Bara taverna terrace

Coffee with a view at Krioneri kafenio

Wander the lantern-lit old-town stairs at dusk

Mooring tip

Anchor off in 5-10 m of good-holding sand, or grab one of the few stern-to slots on the town quay. The bay is open to the south and southwest, so if a southerly is forecast, tuck round to Valtos cove a mile west instead.

Sivota
2
Day 2

Parga → Sivota

Two villages in the Ionian answer to the name Sivota, and crews mix them up every week of the season. This is the mainland one, often written Mourtos to keep the peace. The village sits inside a horseshoe of water guarded by a pair of pine-and-cypress islets, Mavro Oros and Mourtemeno, with a narrow gap between them that the tourist boards sell as the Blue Lagoon. The name earns itself here: four metres of clean sand, no weed, water the colour of a swimming pool. Bella Vraka, the sandbar linking the islets, is where the dinghy ends up. Aim for the town quay before five if you want the inner berth with water and power. For dinner, order the bourdeto early at Stavros or Karnayio; the spicy fish stew needs an hour on the stove.

Things to do

Snorkel the Blue Lagoon gap between the islets

Wade out to the Bella Vraka sandbar

Bourdeto fish stew at Karnayio

Pine path above Mega Trafos cove

Mastiha cocktail on the seafront

Mooring tip

Take a stern-to berth on the town quay for a small fee with water and electric, or anchor off Bella Vraka in 5-8 m of sand, sheltered from the north and northwest. It fills fast on summer weekends, so call the Port Police on Channel 9 before you arrive.

Corfu
3
Day 3

Sivota → Corfu

Corfu shadows you the whole way over, and the wind tends to die under its lee, so most of us end up motor-sailing the back half of the crossing. If the clock allows, drop into Agios Stefanos on the Greek shore for a swim; the anchorage runs to five or eight metres of sand below pine-topped cliffs and buys you a quiet hour before the marina traffic. Gouvia is the working charter base, with fuel next door and a taxi rank for the fifteen-minute ride into town. The Old Town is the reason you came ashore. The Liston, a run of arcaded cafes thrown up under French rule in 1807, faces the cricket-green Spianada and does a fair impression of Paris in miniature. Sit down to sofrito, then hunt out kumquat liqueur on Nikiforou Theotoki street.

Things to do

Swim stop in Agios Stefanos cove

Stroll the arcaded Liston cafes

Pastitsada beef stew in a courtyard taverna

Buy kumquat liqueur in the Old Town

Sundowner below the Old Fortress

Mooring tip

Gouvia takes you on lazy lines with full services for a fee; have your charter agent pre-book the berth in season. For dinner ashore only, the NAOK quay opposite the Old Fortress works as a short stay, but don't plan on staying overnight without calling first.

Paxos
4
Day 4

Corfu → Paxos

Most boats barrel straight down to Gaios at the south end of Paxos. I'd point you at Lakka instead, on the northern tip. It's an almost circular bay ringed with tavernas, a swim platform strung out among the moorings, and enough shelter from the south and southwest to sleep soundly. Time the approach to take in the Blue Caves on the headland a mile to the west; from the dinghy the water at the cliff foot glows an unlikely electric blue. The bay holds forty-odd boats on restaurant buoys, so pick one up and let dinner ashore settle the fee, or anchor in four to six metres of sand toward the southern shore. Romanzo on the front and Diogenes a street back are the reliable tables. Ask for ladotyri, the local cheese cured in olive oil.

Things to do

Snorkel the Lakka Blue Caves on approach

Walk the olive groves above the village

Browse the Saturday morning market

Try ladotyri cheese cured in oil

Sundowner at the harbour-side Romanzo

Mooring tip

Anchor in the bay in 4-6 m of sand; the holding is excellent if you drop well clear of the moored boats and back down properly, and it's free and sheltered from the south and southwest. For a restaurant buoy, pick it up and settle the fee when you eat ashore.

Paxos
5
Day 5

Paxos → Paxos

An idle day on Paxos splits neatly two ways. South lies Antipaxos, four miles below Gaios, where Voutoumi and Vrika hold the best swimming water of the fortnight: three to seven metres of pure sand, no weed underfoot, the sort of transparent turquoise that people photograph and nobody believes. A single vineyard on the slope above Vrika bottles Verdea, an amber-tinged white you won't find anywhere off the island, so drink it while you can. The other option runs up the wild western shore. The Erimitis cliffs stretch three unbroken miles of limestone north of Lakka, the sea arch at Tripitos makes the obvious photograph, and Levrecchio cove on the way back is where the beach glitters with old sea glass. Whichever you pick, come back to Paxos for the night; Antipaxos has no harbour after dark.

Things to do

Long midday swim at Voutoumi beach

Taste Verdea white at the hillside vineyard

Lobster pasta at an Antipaxos taverna

Walk the Erimitis cliffs and Tripitos arch

Comb Levrecchio cove for sea glass

Mooring tip

Anchor off Voutoumi or Vrika in 3-7 m of sand for the day; the holding is excellent, but there's no overnight harbour on Antipaxos, so head back to Paxos before dark. If you'd rather move to Gaios, expect a tight lazy-line berth on the town quay for a small fee.

Lefkas
6
Day 6

Paxos → Lefkas (Vasiliki Port)

This is the long leg, and it rewards an early alarm. Forty miles of open Ionian separate Paxos from Vasiliki, and the wind here runs to a schedule. The westerly that funnels between Lefkas and Kefalonia switches on around one in the afternoon and can be blowing twenty-five knots by four, which is exactly why the windsurfers colonised the place. Leave by eight and you ride it as a friendly beam reach rather than fighting a beat into the teeth of it. Break the passage with a swim at Atokos, the empty island roughly halfway, or Arkoudi a few miles on; both sit near enough the rhumb line to cost you nothing. Vasiliki itself is a fishing village that grew a watersports habit. The quay lies on the eastern, quieter side. Get tied up before two, before the wind makes backing in a wrestling match.

Things to do

Mid-passage swim at Atokos or Arkoudi

Watch the windsurfers work the bay

Sofrito at a quayside village taverna

Cliff walk to the Porto Katsiki overlook

Sundowner over the open Ionian

Mooring tip

Berth stern-to on the town quay for a small fee; it's basic, with water but no electric, and the holding in the bay is good over 4-6 m of sand. The westerly thermal builds hard through the afternoon, so grab your slot before two while backing in is still manageable.

Ithaka
7
Day 7

Vasiliki → Ithaka

A short fourteen miles brings you round into Vathy, the island's main town and the harbour where every Homer-themed cruise eventually ties up. The bay is a tidy horseshoe, pinched at the entrance and opening into a still inner basin lined with cypress and pale plaster. Above the village sits the Cave of the Nymphs, where the poem has Odysseus stash his gold on getting home. It's twenty-five minutes up a dirt track, and the dripstone chamber inside is worth carrying a head-torch for. On the way back, stop at Dexa Bay to swim off the pebbles where the Phaeacians supposedly laid the sleeping hero ashore. Dinner is grilled sardines under the plane trees at To Trehantiri or Sirenes. If you want the stroll, the little Venetian gun battery at the harbour mouth catches the last of the light.

Things to do

Hike up to the Cave of the Nymphs

Swim Dexa Bay's landing pebbles

Grilled sardines under the harbour plane trees

Wander Vathy's cobbled old-town lanes

Sunset at the harbour-mouth battery

Mooring tip

Tie up stern-to on the Vathy town quay for a small fee, with water and electric on the wall, and set the anchor firmly in 5-8 m of mud since the bay is narrow and the entry channel steep. It fills early in mid-August, so Kioni, three miles north, is the calmer fallback.

Ithaka
8
Day 8

Ithaka → Ithaka

With no schedule to keep, spend the day hopping short distances up the sheltered north coast. Kioni, six miles from Vathy, is the prettiest harbour on the island: three Venetian windmills stand on the headland, one restored and two left to ruin, and the pastel houses crowd into a tight green bowl above a free quay that takes eight or ten boats. Two miles short of it lies Polis Bay, the swim of the day. A cave at the back once gave up Mycenaean pottery, and the shallows by the entrance show clear stone foundations that archaeologists still argue over. Frikes, the working port in between, does the best octopus stifado around; Penelope and Ulysses are the tavernas to look for. If the crew has legs left, the goat path from Frikes to Kioni takes about forty-five minutes and opens a fine view across to Kefalonia.

Things to do

Sail north to Kioni harbour

Snorkel the submerged ruins in Polis Bay

Octopus stifado on the Frikes quay

Walk the goat path from Frikes to Kioni

Visit the Stavros archaeological museum

Mooring tip

At Kioni, go stern-to on the small free quay, which fills by four in the afternoon in season, or anchor off in 4-6 m of sand, with Frikes as the overflow if it's full. The whole north coast is well protected from the north and northwest, so either sleeps easy.

Fiscardo
9
Day 9

Ithaka → Kefalonia (Fiscardo Port)

Five miles is barely a passage, so there's no rush to leave Ithaka. Fiskardo is the only village on Kefalonia the 1953 earthquake left standing while it flattened the rest of the northern peninsula, and the run of Venetian-era neoclassical houses along the front is the reward. It's been under heritage protection since the sixties, which is why it still looks the part. The catch is the quay: free, but packed by early afternoon in high summer, so raise the Port Police on Channel 12 and aim to arrive before one. A mile east, Emplisi beach hides Roman villa ruins in the shallows, with walls and potsherds scattered across the sand in three to five metres. Book a hillside table at Tselenti or a front-row one at Lagoudera, and ask for kreatopita, the Kefalonian meat pie under its thin pastry lid.

Things to do

Walk the cypress-lined Fiskardo quay

Snorkel the Roman ruins off Emplisi beach

Kreatopita meat pie at a waterfront taverna

Sundowner above the harbour at Tselenti

Dinghy to the cove shipwreck

Mooring tip

Go stern-to on the free town quay, but it's full by two in August, so call the Port Police on Channel 12 well ahead. Foulis Bay, a mile east, is the overflow anchorage in 4-6 m of good-holding sand, though the ferry wash can make a crowded wall lively.

Kastos
10
Day 10

Fiscardo → Kastos

Eighteen miles northeast puts you back across the channel and onto Kastos, a long splinter of rock east of Ithaka with fewer than fifty people living on it year-round. The quiet takes some adjusting to. There's one village around the harbour, one free quay with space for eight or ten boats, and one taverna under a fig tree, run by the same family for three generations. Walk the donkey path up to the derelict windmills on the ridge, about half an hour, and the view opens back over the water to Ithaka. On the south coast, the Blue Cave with its sandy floor and skylight makes a good snorkel; the local fishermen ferry visitors across for a few euros a head. Dinner is slow-cooked chickpeas in tomato and rosemary, mopped up with bread. There's no fuel and no shop, so stock up before you come.

Things to do

Climb the donkey path to the windmills

Snorkel the Blue Cave on the south side

Tomato-stewed chickpeas at the harbour taverna

Walk up to Kastos Village

Sundowner at the single quayside table

Mooring tip

There's just the one free quay with no services, tight at eight to ten boats, so drop the anchor well clear in 5-7 m of sand and back in carefully, since the holding is only fair. It's sheltered from every direction, but top up fuel and provisions at Fiskardo or Lefkas first, because Kastos has neither.

Kastos
11
Day 11

Kastos → Kastos

There's nothing to clear and nowhere to be. A free day on Kastos is the one that tells you whether you booked the fortnight for the right reasons. The dinghy runs are all short, a mile or two at most: Sarakiniko Bay to the south, a white-pebble strand with no road to it and often nobody on it, then round to the Blue Cave for a second snorkel, and a small cove on the east side where the donkey track drops to the sea. Late in the afternoon, walk twenty minutes up to the abandoned village behind the port, its roofless stone houses a quiet record of the families who left for America in the fifties. Come evening, the kafeneio pours raki by the carafe and hands you a dominoes set for the table outside. This is the night that earns the second week.

Things to do

Kayak south to Sarakiniko Bay

Fish off the rocks at the harbour mouth

Read in the shade of the fig tree

Hike to the abandoned hillside village

Raki and dominoes at the kafeneio

Mooring tip

Stay put on the Kastos quay, or shift a mile south to Sarakiniko Bay and anchor in 4-6 m of sand for a quieter night. Either way, remember there's no fuel or shop here; whatever you carried from Lefkas is all you've got before the run east.

Kalamos
12
Day 12

Kastos → Kalamos

Four miles is the shortest hop of the trip, usually done under engine across flat water, hardly worth hoisting the main. Kalamos is Kastos's bigger sibling: still small and unhurried, but pine-clad and mountainous, with two settlements rather than one. Port Kalamos sits by the harbour, Episkopi higher up the ridge. The set piece is Port Leone on the north coast, an entire stone fishing village left empty after the 1953 earthquake wrecked the spring that watered it. Nobody moved back, and the houses are folding slowly into the bay. Reach it by dinghy or on a ninety-minute coast walk. South of the harbour, Asprogiali beach is the swim, its grey-blue moonstone pebbles a direct clue to the Pindus geology underfoot. At the harbour taverna, order savoro, small fish fried and steeped in vinegar and rosemary.

Things to do

Hike to the Port Leone ghost village

Swim the moonstone pebbles at Asprogiali

Climb up to Episkopi village

Savoro vinegar-fried fish at the harbour

Watch goats wander the shoreline at dusk

Mooring tip

Berth stern-to on the single Port Kalamos quay for a small fee; it's basic, water but no power, and holds about a dozen boats. The holding is excellent over 5-8 m of sand, and you're sheltered from the north and northwest, though the channel between the two islands turns gusty in the afternoon.

Lefkas
13
Day 13

Kalamos → Lefkas (D-Marin)

The last full day runs eighteen miles north, threading the Meganisi Channel and the inner waterway back to D-Marin Lefkas. Save time for one more swim at Agiofili, a mile south of Vasiliki, a pocket cove under white cliffs with a coarse-pebble beach and a bright turquoise patch in the middle worth the last photo. From there it's the canal swing-bridge that governs your arrival. It lifts on the hour, and the waiting basin backs up by half past four in August, so plan to be there by half past three for the four o'clock opening. D-Marin handles the second handover, so refuel before six and drop laundry with the marina desk for the morning. Lefkas Town is a fifteen-minute walk over the lagoon; the floating bridges are a local curiosity, and bakaliaros with garlicky skordalia is the right way to close the trip.

Things to do

Last swim at Agiofili's white-cliff cove

Dinghy stop off Skorpios island

Bakaliaros salt cod at a marina taverna

Walk the Lefkas Town floating bridges

Refuel at the D-Marin fuel dock

Mooring tip

Berth back at D-Marin on lazy lines with full services for a fee, pre-booked through your agent. Leave plenty of margin for the canal swing-bridge, which opens on the hour and queues up early in August, and top up fuel before the technical hand-back.

Lefkas
14
Day 14

Lefkas → Check-out

The hand-back at D-Marin is painless if you've done the groundwork: papers signed at the desk, fuel receipt filed, cleaning slot agreed the evening before, and the boat alongside by nine for the Saturday changeover. If your flight leaves you a spare hour, spend it in Lefkas Town. The covered market on the east side of the old centre sells leather sandals, village embroidery and jars of thyme honey, and any kafenio on the square will set you up with a Greek coffee and a plate of loukoumades, the little honey fritters dusted with cinnamon. The floating bridges across the lagoon are the last local oddity: they swing aside rather than lift, and it's a twenty-five-minute stroll over them to Agios Ioannis beach for a final dip. Aktion airport sits eight miles south, about twenty-five minutes by taxi or the KTEL bus from town.

Things to do

Greek coffee with honey-soaked loukoumades

Browse the leather-sandal market stalls

Cross the lagoon floating bridges on foot

Last swim at Agios Ioannis beach

Taxi to Aktion airport across the canal

Mooring tip

For the D-Marin hand-over, confirm your fuel slot and cleaning time with the base manager the night before, and have the boat alongside by nine on Saturday for the technical check. From there it's a direct taxi or the KTEL bus to Aktion (PVK) across the canal.

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