Visit Captain Corelli in Kefalonia (Kefalonia)

Member Name: whiskmite

Product:	Kefalonia
Date:	20/08/09 (193 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful things to see, great food to eat

Disadvantages: Probably wouldn't be enough to do for a two week holiday

My friends and I were after a (fairly) cheap week away somewhere hot, with a couple of interesting trips available. After much searching on the internet, Kefalonia came up trumps.

We visited in late September, avoiding the higher prices of the school holidays, as well as crowds, but still benefitting from the good weather. It obviously wasn't quite as hot as it would have been a few months previously, and it was clearly starting to cool down for winter, but we got five full days of glorious sunshine and only one really bad rainy day - and even that wasn't cold - just rainy!

We booked the holiday through icelolly.com and the whole thing came to £250 - this includes flights and self catering accommodation.

Upon arrival at the airport, we tried to hire a taxi to take us to our villas; however every single taxi driver refused to take us, saying that it was "too close". We had really heavy bags and were starting to get annoyed with this, but thought we'd wander out of the airport on foot and try a taxi outside the airport complex. As we exited the complex we saw the sign for our villas - no wonder they wouldn't take us - it was literally less than 200 metres up the road! We were a little bit nervous about bad airport noise all holiday but I can genuinely say that we barely noticed it!

For our first night we didn't venture far after showering and unpacking. The area we stayed in was called Svoronata and there was a taverna up the road which served amazing food, it was called The Olive Tree, and I would highly recommend the moussaka!

Our rep called us the next day to see if we'd like to book any trips. I am not the type of person who can go on holiday for a week and spend the entire time sunbathing, and luckily I go on holiday with friends with similar feelings! However, none of us felt entirely confident hiring a car, so we were reliant on coach trips.

TRIP 1: KEFALONIA ISLAND TOUR

This started off with a monastery/vineyard. Wine-tasting at 9 a.m.! A great way to start the day! It was a really interesting little place with lots of history, a Church to explore (as well as tombs below the Church, for the brave!) The wine was very nice; in fact, we bought a couple of bottles to take back as souvenirs or gifts.

Next on the list was the Drogorati caves. This cave was discovered 300 years ago after a massive earthquake opened the cave up. The cave is 60 metres underground and very damp - the temperature is 18 C and the humidity is approx 90%. There was no doubt that that this was a very impressive cave with lots of really impressive stalagmites and stalactites, but having somehow seen lots of underground stalagmite / stalactite caves, the memory of this place hasn't really stayed with me. Probably doesn't help that you can't take flash photos so I don't have any decent pictures! However, it was very pretty and I'd say it was worth a look, especially if you haven't been to underground cave type places before!

After this was Melissani Lake. Now this was something special. It probably helped that the day we took this trip was a glorious sunny day, but I still remember going out on the boat on Melissani Lake vividly. The lake is named after a nymph in Greek mythology, and is apparently a geological/geographical (sorry, science DEFINITELY not a speciality of mine) mystery as it is approx 500m from the sea, and the water level is a metre higher than sea level. The water is brackish (a mixture of salt and fresh water) and comes up from an approx 30m deep cave system on one side of the cave flowing to other end of the cave, down through narrow crevices, and into the sea. This was discovered by scientists using some kind of dye tracing experiments in the 1950s, I think. You are taken out by row boats the lake, which has a big opening in the roof of the cave, so you can see the sky. The water is totally transparent - you can see the stones at the bottom of the lake, metres below, it really is amazing. The colours are some of the bluest blues I had ever seen. It was really calm and peaceful.

Sami, the town where Captain Corelli's Mandolin was filmed, was also on the agenda. We didn't stay long but had a little wander. It was very pretty and picturesque! Another town we visited was Fiskardo, a small harbour town at the top of Kefalonia. Fiskardo had some amazing seafood restaurants and was absolutely gorgeous to look at. It is also a bit of a 'place to be seen' with lots of very 'moneyed' people hanging around their yachts!

TRIP 2: ITHAKA

Ithaka was, in general, less busy than Kefalonia - it isn't as much of a tourist destination. We got the ferry across, which was actually a highlight - and I don't mean that in a negative way! The waters between the islands were beautiful and it was lovely being able to see Kefalonia from the sea!

First stop was Ithaka's capital, Vathi. This was situated in a cove within a cove, so totally invisible from the sea! First, we were taken to a museum which had lots of old artefacts. I like learning stuff about where I am, but this museum was very 'dry' so it was a bit of a relief when they let us go out and have a wander! The town itself is really small and very pretty.

Next was a stop by a village Church, for a look around that, and also for us to try a local speciality dessert. I really can't remember the name, but it was very sweet and had pistachios in it - not unlike baklava. It was very nice though. The Church was also impressive, very lavishly decorated for such a small church. There was also an opportunity to learn a little more about the legend of Odysseus and his journey home after the Trojan War to his home of Ithaka.

We also visited the town of Kioni, which was very similar to Fiskardo, I thought.

So - those were our two trips, both of which we really enjoyed. We also made a couple of visits to Agostoli, the capital of Kefalonia. Agostoli was a great town, really friendly, with lots of lovely restaurants, bars, cafes, and even an outdoor cinema, which was really lovely. We tried a lot of the beaches and they were all fabulous. The water was gloriously clear and refreshing after being baked!

All in all I thought Kefalonia was a wonderful place for a break and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to someone. It wasn't exactly action-packed but I felt we achieved a nice mix of relaxing and getting to see some very beautiful places, and most importantly, eat some gorgeous food!

Summary: Great place to visit and enjoy a chilled holiday with a fair amount to see