Lefkada gives you two holidays at once: an island of mountain villages, long taverna lunches and slow, blue mornings — and a launchpad for the Ionian's most beautiful sailing waters, with a dozen smaller islands a short hop offshore. You could happily do nothing but swim and eat. But if you want a week with shape to it, here is how we'd fill the days, in the order we'd take them.
A boat day to Meganisi & the blue caves
If you do one thing on Lefkada, do this. Meganisi is the green, low-slung island just across the channel from the south-east coast, ringed with hidden coves you can only reach from the water. You have two easy ways to go:
- Hire your own small boat from Nidri or Sivota — no licence needed for the smaller engines. Pack a picnic, point it at the channel, and spend the day drifting between empty bays. It's the freedom that makes the memory.
- Join a day cruise if you'd rather someone else drove. Most loop around Meganisi, Skorpios (Onassis's old island) and the famously photogenic blue caves, where the light bounces off a pale seabed and turns the water electric.
Either way, aim to be on the water by mid-morning when the channel is still glassy. We can arrange a skippered day or a self-drive boat for guests — just ask before you arrive.
Windsurfing & the wind at Vasiliki
Down at the island's southern tip, Vasiliki is one of the best-known windsurfing bays in the Mediterranean. A reliable afternoon thermal — the locals call it the Eric — fills the bay from around lunchtime, so the mornings are calm and beginner-friendly and the afternoons belong to the sails. Several schools rent kit and run lessons by the hour, whether you've never stood on a board or you want a fast reach across the bay. Even if you don't sail, it's a fine spot for a late lunch watching the colours criss-cross the water.
The Nidri waterfalls & a mountain village or two
A short walk from the resort town of Nidri leads up a shaded gorge to the Dimosari (Nidri) waterfalls — a cool, green pocket with a couple of plunge pools that feel a world away from the beach. It's an easy 20-minute stroll to the first falls; go on for the upper pools if you fancy a proper swim in cold mountain water on a hot day.
Make a morning of it by driving up into the hills afterwards. Karya, the island's prettiest mountain village, is built around a plane-shaded square famous for its embroidery; Englouvi, higher still, is known for its lentils and its old stone threshing circles. The roads are good, the views run all the way out to sea, and the tavernas up here cook the kind of slow, oven-baked food the coast forgets about.
Walk the waterfall gorge before 10am. By late morning the tour groups arrive from the Nidri quay and the narrow path back gets busy — go early and you'll often have the first pool, and the cool air, entirely to yourself.
Long lunches: the tavernas we send people to
Eating well is half the point of Lefkada, and it rewards anyone willing to leave the main strip. A few honest steers:
- Sivota for grilled fish and lobster pasta, eaten at the water's edge with the yachts moored in front of you.
- Mikros Gialos & Poros for unfussy beachside tavernas — fresh fish, a Greek salad, a carafe of cold white, ten minutes from either of our villas.
- The mountain villages (Karya, Englouvi) for the oven dishes — slow lamb, stuffed vegetables, local lentils — that you won't find on the coast.
A simple rule that rarely fails on this island: eat where the menu is short, the fish is whatever came in that morning, and the family is doing the cooking.
Lefkada Town & the Saturday market
The island's capital is unlike anywhere else in Greece — earthquake-proof timber-and-tin houses painted in soft colours, a long pedestrian main street of cafés and shops, and a small marina you can wander at dusk. Come on a Saturday morning for the open-air market, where the growers bring in fruit, vegetables, honey, oil, herbs and cheese from the villages. Buy a bag of whatever's ripe, a jar of thyme honey and some olives, and you've stocked the villa kitchen for days. Stay for the evening volta — the slow stroll along the waterfront as the heat goes out of the day.
And then, the blue hour
The island is named, in our minds at least, for that last soft hour before dark. The west coast gets the famous fireball sunsets — Kathisma and Agios Nikitas have bars built for exactly that — but our favourite version is quieter: back on the south-east side, a swim as the light goes gold, then violet over the Ionian, the lights of the fishing boats coming on one by one. You don't have to go anywhere for it. It comes to you.
Stay nearby
Every day above starts and ends better from your own pool. Cavos Villa sits above Mikros Gialos with the boat harbours of Nidri and Sivota close by, while Villa Anatoli watches the sunrise from its ridge over Poros — both ten minutes from the water and a short drive from everything in this guide.