Our Holiday in Kefalonia!

I'm home!  I am knee deep in washing of course.  And very limited on where to dry it as it has been pouring with rain since we stepped off the plane at Gatwick.  The house was intact despite my 19 year old son having a few 'gatherings'!  I am desperate to keep my tan so I think the St Moriz Self-Tan is going to get some use over the next few weeks.  

I am kicking off my first post-holiday blog with a little overview of the island and some of the places we visited.  

So Kefalonia is one of the largest Greek Islands and one of the least spoilt, It became better known as it was the setting for the book and then film, Capitan Corelli's Mandolin. Mainstream tourism has largely left it alone and their are vast mountainous areas and remote beaches that have not be touched at all.  You need a car though as taxi's are expensive and public transport is non-existent.  Negotiating the mountain roads is a challenge and don't rely on Google Maps, it takes you the fastest route and this often means off-roading (roads to them are not roads to us and are not suitable for the small hire cars) - yes we learnt the hard way.

View of our pool from the breakfast terrace at the Avithos Beach Estate

We stayed near the capital Argostoli not far from the airport and in the south of the Island. We travelled with Simpson Travel and stayed in a two-bedroom suite at one of their small hotels Avithos Beach Estate (just 8 suites/apartments with a shared pool and breakfast terrace), 

I didn't fall immediately in love with the island, it took some getting used to!  Having been to much busier places in the past, I struggled with how remote it felt.  Finding good restaurants or taverna's was an initial challenge and everything was a good 20+ minute drive away.

But, the benefit of being away for 14 nights and not 7 means that you can spend the first week winding down and finding your way around before really being able to relax.

To be honest we don't move far from the pool and sun-loungers.  My daughter loves to sit and read with me and we can enjoy the view.  Clean toilets are close at hand and we don't suffer with the heat that comes with being on a beach.

Once we got our bearings we found some lovely restaurants and taverna's.  I can definitely recommend Il Borgo just below the Castle of St George and with amazing views from the terrace across the mountains and out to the sea.  I also loved Lorraine's Magic Hill at Lourdas, get a table on the terrace at about 8 pm and watch the sunset.  Lorraine makes you very welcome and the food and service are excellent.

We had two full days out.  First of all we spent a day on a sailing boat, the Golden Otter, with Alan, our very friendly and knowledgeable skipper.  I love swimming in the sea from a boat and we had fun trying to row the little dingy (hubby had to come and rescue us) yes it did cause some amusement!  

And another day we drove up to the north of the island, via Myrtos Beach and onto Fiscardo.  Myrtos Beach is one of the most photographed beaches in the world and is best viewed from above, it really is stunning, white sands and turquoise sea.  Fiscardo is a beautiful harbour town, very cosmopolitan 'Shopping and Yachts' and was the only town to survive the 1953 earthquake that hit the island.  We had lunch there and of course a wander around the shops!

Myrtos Beach

We also visited Argostoli one morning to see the giant turtles in the harbour and another evening to have a look around and have dinner overlooking the harbour.  Another evening we drove down to Skala to have dinner with our friends, we found a lovely taverna overlooking the beach and had a very enjoyable evening.

All in all we had a fabulous time.  Karen and John made us very welcome at the Avithos Beach Estate, John did two wonderful BBQ evenings, we made some great friends and absolutely loved being able to relax and do nothing for two weeks.

Look out for my next post when I will share more details of my outfits, lots of dresses and bikinis.

Love from
Michelle xx

Lorraine's Magic Hill at Lourdas