Kefalonia Ultimate Travel Guide
If you are planning a trip to Greece this summer, consider adding Kefalonia on your travel plan. I hope this Kefalonia travel guide will come in handy in designing your vacation.
In this Kefalonia travel guide, you will find answers to questions like how to get to Kefalonia, how to get around the island, how to choose the best accommodation, what are the top attractions, where to eat the best food (with photos) and many more.
I made this Kefalonia travel guide such that it will help you plan an amazing trip to this beautiful island for the upcoming summer.
Let’s get to the good stuff!
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Table of Contents
What is Kefalonia known for?
Kefalonia is a beautiful summer destination that will surprise you with awe-inspiring scenic overlooks, charming beaches, amazing seashore landscapes, colorful villages and great food.
That being said, there are also some unique and out of ordinary things that Kefalonia is known for, like the following:
- It is home to the endangered Caretta-caretta sea turtles. These amazing animals can be seen in the harbour in Argostoli. Before your visit, please check out this guide, to understand more about this species and how to visit it in the most friendly and respectful way.
- For the gorgeous lake cave Melissani, which is known as “the cave of the nymphs” (of course, a mythical tale involving forbidden love and a broken heart is behind this name). The cave can be visited only by boat.
- Myrtos beach, which is one of the most beautiful beaches in Greece
- This one is weird: goats have golden teeth.
How to get to Kefalonia?
By ferry boat
There are several inland Greek locations, from where you can take a ferry boat to Kefalonia. You can book your tickets online and then, make sure you arrive at the port at least an hour before. The port may be crowded and you need to pick up your tickets and complete some papers before you board the ferry boat.
For us, the best option was to include Kefalonia on our Lefkada trip. It took us only 2 hours via ferry boat to get to Fiskardo Port in Kefalonia. If you want to plan a trip to Lefkada for the following summer, consider including Kefalonia. This is where this Kefalonia travel guide will come in handy.
By plane
Kefalonia has an international airport and you can take direct flights from Athens or Thessaloniki if you are already visiting Greece. Of course, you can find direct flights from many European cities. You can check out cheap flights, here.
If you are looking for a private airport transfer from Kefalonia airport to Fiscardo, then check out prices here.
How big is Kefalonia?
Kefalonia is a pretty big island, it is one of the largest islands of the Ionian Islands. To have a better image, you will need approx 2 hours drive from one side to the other of the island (from Skala to Fiskardo).
How to book the perfect accommodation in Kefalonia?
This Kefalonia travel guide cannot be complete without talking about accommodation options.
When choosing to book the right place, I recommend you check out the locations of all the places you plan to visit in Kefalonia. The island is pretty big, I mean it can take you 2 hours to cross it, as I mentioned above. This is why it is very important to pick a place that is close to the majority of your landmarks.
Hint: follow along with this Kefalonia travel guide and find out all the things you need to include in your itinerary.
Regarding the acommodation, when we planned our trip to Kefalonia, we initially booked an accommodation that turned out to be a disappointment (or to be more precise it wasn’t what we needed at that time).
The place looked luxurious and was close to the sea. They offered little houses with private pools. Also, the bohemian design of the interior was so appealing and different. Basically, we were hooked when we saw that they had houses with a private pool facing the sea, so we booked without thinking that this accommodation was so far away from our main points of interest.
Long story short, there was a mistake in our booking and our house wasn’t facing the sea. And another thing that made us change our minds, was that the place looked like it was deserted. To be honest, the period of our travel coincided with the end of the quarantine and the tourism on the island had just started to pick up.
Luckily, our host was very understanding and charged us only for a night (if we canceled via Booking, we would be charged extra). If you are interested in this place, I will put some pictures below. It’s not a bad place, but it didn’t apply to our needs. Also, maybe the pictures on their website raised too many expectations. The name of the place is Kymata Bohemian Beach Resort.
Luck was on our part because we found a place in Assos, a village that was on our itinerary. This accommodation was lovely, even if it didn’t have the luxurious vibe of the first one. If you visit Kefalonia, I highly recommend you check out Romanza Studios.
The view from this place captured all the colorful atmosphere of the village. And even if the room itself was small, everything was decorated tastefully with great attention to detail. I started smiling the moment the host opened the door for us. By the way, our host was a lovely old man who actually built the house on his own ❤.
How to get around the island?
How to get around the island is one of the most common questions asked by travelers, and I had to include it in this Kefalonia travel guide.
I recommend having a car. If you already rented a car in Lefkada, you can travel to Kefalonia with it, by paying an extra fee to unboard the ferry boat. For that matter, I feel like having a car is a must if you visit any island in Greece. There are so many fantastic views and gorgeous beaches, that I guarantee, you will want to visit them all.
You can check out rental prices.
How many days are necessary to visit the Kefalonia?
I included this question in my Kefalonia travel guide, because I find that the answer will help you out on planning better your traveling days.
Honestly, the number of days of your stay depends on your travel goals and plan. If you want to take your time and visit the island and combine it with relaxing days at the beach, you can book a week or even more. I recommend this kind of approach if you are looking for a slow travel experience.
Regarding our trip, we went in June 2020 and this was right after the lockdown was finished. Hence, the island was kinda deserted. There were only a few tourists, and a lot of restaurants were still closed. Don’t get me wrong, I love places with fewer people, but in this case, the feeling was different, I don’t know why. We planned to stay only two days and tried to see as much as possible of the island. That being said, I feel like you wouldn’t choose wrong, no matter the number of days you’ll book in Kefalonia.
That being said, I feel like 3 days are enough for you to explore most of Kefalonia.
However, if you don’t have enough time, or don’t want to spend a lot of days on Kefalonia, but still want to explore the most of this gorgeous island, I recommend you book a Full-Day Private Tour in Kefalonia. This tour includes the most famous landmarks in Kefalonia all packed in a one day adventure.
What are the best outdoor activities in Kefalonia?
Beach lover or not, in Kefalonia you will find something to your liking, for sure. Some of the best outdoor activities are scuba diving, going on a wine tour and going kayaking. Also, if you are a nature lover, you can go hiking or explore spectacular and unique caves.
What are the top attractions to visit in Kefalonia?
Kefalonia is one of the most underrated Greek islands. But you will be surprised by the beauty of this island. I visited Kefalonia last summer, with my husband and another couple. Our trip was focused on Lefkada, so we spent most of the days there, but we decided to also include 2 full days in Kefalonia. After I started my research and came across these colorful villages and gorgeous beaches I was hooked.
In this Kefalonia travel guide I included a lot of amazing and fun things to do and see for you to put on your itinerary.
Best things to do and see that are a must for this Kefalonia travel guide:
Visit stunning beaches: Myrtos, Antisamos, Petani, Xi, Skala
Xi Beach is the famous red sand beach, but to be honest, it’s not that red, it’s more than a brownish color. I had to include it on this Kefalonia travel guide.
I recommend you plan to visit the beach, close to sunset and take the opportunity to take some gorgeous photos. The color of the sand at sunset will make your photos look even more glowy.
We took our time and walked on the beach for a couple of hours. We even took our shoes off and felt the fine sand and cold seawater between our toes while listening to the waves, the perfect combination. It was so relaxing and refreshing to do so, especially after spending a whole day in the car driving around Kefalonia seashores.
Visiting beaches doesn’t mean you must get roasted in the sun (extreme exposure to the sun can be your enemy, don’t take my word for it, do your research). Walking around the beach bare foot near sunset can also be a thing you should include on your itinerary. Just try it once and you will see what I’m talking about.
Myrtos Beach is another must that I had to include on my Kefalonia travel guide. And if you want to experience the best way to visit it, then consider booking this Melissani Lake and Swim at Myrtos Beach Tour.
Bonus hint: along the main road, there are some amazing scenic overlooks of Myrtos Beach that are simply breathtaking (as you can see in the photos below).
Explore beautiful and vibrant cities: Fiskardo, Assos, Agia Efimia, Sami
We arrived in Kefalonia in Fiskardo Port via ferry boat from Lefkada. This village was our first encounter with this beautiful island. Fiskardo is how you would expect a harbor to be: crowded and with many boats anchored around the shore. The views are quite picturesque if you like colorful and vibrant Greek Ports. There are a lot of taverns with a sea view where you can enjoy traditional dishes, especially fresh fish.
Assos is my favorite village in Kefalonia and was such a surprise to discover that all the photos that I saw online when I did my research, were nothing compared with the beauty and the energy of this place (and keep in mind that many pictures online are overly edited most of the time).
I feel like Assos is my top recommend place from this Kefalonia travel guide.
To better describe this place, imagine colorful houses sprinkled along the hill surrounding the seashore. Narrow and picturesque streets with vibrant flower decorations made us want to spend days wandering about. Another thing that I really enjoyed in Assos is that we came across spots that offered the best scenic overlooks over the colorful hills.
Even the view from our accommodation was so gorgeous that I would just stare at it for hours, sipping my coffee and soaking in the dreamy landscape, as if it was the single most beautiful painting I’d ever seen.
I wrote about Assos in this article “8 days in Lefkada – Best travel itinerary”. Go check it out, if you want to plan your amazing holiday visiting Lefkada and Kefalonia.
If you don’t have a car and don’t want to rent one, but still want to visit Assos and Fiscardo, then you should consider booking this private tour.
Visit Melissani Cave
We visited Kefalonia last year, and because of the pandemic situation we considered that it is better to avoid crowded places. This is why unfortunately we had to skip visiting this cave.
If you want to visit it, you can book this tour that I already mentioned.
Drive around the island
After we arrived in Fiskardo we had to drive approx 1:30 hours to get to our accommodation. We crossed the island from one place to another. After staying two hours on the ferry boat, we were pretty exhausted and wanted to get some rest before continuing with our explorations. We knew that a long drive awaited us, so it was so refreshing to discover awestruck panoramic views along the coastline. Our boring drive became more interesting and exciting and at least half of our trip passed without us noticing it.
My advice to you is to take the car and explore the island and try to not miss any viewpoint, because you’ll not regret it. Every spot has a dedicated place, where you can safely stop the car and take your time to take gorgeous shots. If you don’t have a car, you can rent one.
Visit monasteries
Some examples are: Agios Gerasimos Monastery, Monastery of Kipoureon, Monastery of Argilion, Monastery of Themata.
Try amazing outdoor activities: scuba diving, wine tour, sea kayaking
If you are a wine lover, then you should definitely book this Kefalonia Wine Tour. During this tour you are going to also explore the countryside of Kefalonia and learn about regional wines from local winemakers.
Eat great food - a must in this Kefalonia travel guide
Check out the next point for some food recommendations.
I feel like every travel guide on my page has a food dedicated article or point 😂.
Where to eat great food in Kefalonia?
This Kefalonia travel guide wouldn’t be complete without food recommendations, am I right?!
Look, I’m a foodie so I take eating delicious dishes really seriously. But, you can’t leave Kefalonia, or Greece for that matter, without trying all the food that you can handle.
I know that you are expecting to read about feta cheese and shrimp with linguini pasta, but this time I will surprise you. The highlight of your trip in Kefalonia regarding food was a food truck that we discovered by mistake on Google Maps after the cravings for burgers and French Fries hit us. This place is called 3 Wise Monkeys.
This place was run by the sweetest and most welcoming couple that prepared burgers, french fries, fried eggs and waffles (Oh, and great cocktails). I can’t recommend them enough! If you ever visit Kefalonia, give this place a try, you aren’t going to regret it. Just look at these photos…even if the food seems basic and simple, it tastes incredible. After a week of greek food, we were excited to find a great burger place.
I think that their key to success (besides the quality of the food, of course), was the energy they channeled around them. They welcomed every customer with big and honest smiles that made it hard to resist them. At some point, later that evening, a big group of girls arrived and even if there weren’t any more tables available, they sat on the sidewalk and still had a great time. This is how you can recognise places with good energy, when people choose the welcoming atmosphere, instead of comfort. Also, I believe that good food and good vibes will always bring people together.
If you are in the mood for traditional Greek food, I recommend you try Nefeli-Anait tavern in Assos and Apagio tavern in Fiskardo. Both places have amazing reviews on TripAdvisor.
At Apagio I tried a plate with different kinds of cheeses and French Fries and my friends tried burgers, Greek salad and meatballs. Every dish was fresh and tasteful.
In general, if you want to find the best places that offer traditional dishes I highly recommend you use Google Maps reviews (check out this link to learn how it works) or TripAdvisor.
On this platforms, people are sharing their honest feedback and authentic photos with the food and the ambient.
I hope this Kefalonia travel guide helps you plan your next vacation in Kefalonia, or it inspires you to put this interesting island on your travel map.