A Lefkada boat tour leaves the harbours of Lefkada in the Ionian Sea for the small islands off its east coast and the beaches of its west coast. This post covers what a Lefkada boat tour includes, the harbours, Skorpios, Meganisi, the west coast beaches and Cape Lefkada, Kefalonia and Ithaca, and the best season. More Greece tours are listed on the Greece VIP homepage.
Each section ends with a Lefkada boat tour that can be booked online.
What does a Lefkada boat tour include?
A Lefkada boat tour covers the waters off the east coast of Lefkada, a Greek island in the Ionian Sea joined to the mainland by a long causeway and a floating bridge. The route passes Skorpios, Meganisi, Madouri and other small islands.
A Lefkada boat tour sets out from an island that measures 35 kilometres from north to south and 15 kilometres from east to west. Its area is about 302 square kilometres, and the wider municipality, which includes Kalamos, Kastos and smaller islets, covers 333.58 square kilometres. The principal town, also named Lefkada, stands in the northern part of the island and is the seat of the municipality.
The causeway that ties Lefkada to the mainland is narrow, and because of it the island is not fully cut off by the sea. In the 7th century BC the Corinthians dug a trench on the isthmus. In antiquity a bridge spanned the gap, and it was the longest stone bridge of ancient Greece. Visitors who join a Lefkada boat tour can also reach the island through Aktion (Preveza) Airport.
The sea off the east coast holds a group of small islands. Skorpios and Madouri are both private islands, while Meganisi has villages and ports of its own. Within this stretch of sea, a Lefkada boat tour can reach small private islets as well as an inhabited island with three villages. From Nydri, regular car ferries also sail to Kefalonia and Ithaca.
- Other names: Lefkada is also known as Lefkas, Leukas and Leucadia.
- Highest point: Mount Stavrota rises to 1,158 metres in the middle of the island.
- Medieval name: The name Santa Maura is first recorded for the island and its capital in 1292.
The island where a Lefkada boat tour begins carries a long record of rule by outside powers. It passed to the Orsini family in 1295, and Orsini soon gained leave to build a castle, which became the core of the Castle of Santa Maura. The Ottomans rebuilt it in 1572–1574 as a hexagonal fortress with large towers. Venetian rule ended in 1797, and the island was ceded to Greece in 1864.
Where does a Lefkada boat tour leave from?
A Lefkada boat tour leaves from Nydri on the east coast or from Vasiliki, 20 kilometres to the south. Nydri sits in a sheltered location facing Skorpios, Meganisi and other small islands, with the Greek mainland also in view across the water.
Nydri lies on the eastern coast of Lefkada and belongs to the municipal unit of Ellomenos. The community also takes in the small village of Rachi, and Nydri is the largest resort on the island. In the sea in front of the town lie Madouri, Skorpios, Skorpidi and Sparti, so a Lefkada boat tour from Nydri has four offshore islands within reach.
Madouri lies 700 metres off the east coast of Lefkada, opposite Nydri, so a Lefkada boat tour from the town starts close to it. The island is small, uninhabited and heavily forested, and it measures about 400 metres in diameter. It belongs to the Valaoritis family, and the 19th-century poet Aristotelis Valaoritis grew up there. The villa on Madouri was the main location of the Billy Wilder film Fedora, released in 1978.
Vasiliki, once called Voivoida, is a town in the municipal unit of Apollonioi on the south coast. It lies 4 kilometres south of Agios Petros and 25 kilometres southwest of Lefkada town. The bay is a windsurfing centre, because a local thermal wind that windsurfers call ‘Eric’ rises in the afternoon as the land warms. More than a hundred windsurfers can be out on the bay at one time. A Lefkada boat tour from Vasiliki shares these waters with other sailing craft.
- East coast resorts: Lygia, Nikiana and Perigiali are small resorts that all lie north of Nydri.
- Coastal road: The main road from Lefkada to Vasiliki runs through Nydri, and a bypass now skirts the village to the west.
- Vasiliki ferries: Ferries leave Vasiliki for the islands of Kefalonia and Ithaca.
Nydri also holds a place in the debate over Homer’s Ithaca. The German archaeologist Wilhelm Dörpfeld believed that Lefkada was Ithaca and that the palace of Odysseus stood west of Nydri. He carried out extensive digs at Nydri and uncovered Mycenaean tombs, walls, ruins and artefacts. Dörpfeld spent the last years of his life in the town and is buried there. A Lefkada boat tour from Nydri begins in the town where he worked.
What does a Lefkada boat tour see at Skorpios?
A Lefkada boat tour sees Skorpios, the private island that the Greek shipping billionaire Aristotle Onassis bought in 1963. He filled it with imported trees and married Jacqueline Kennedy there in 1968. Onassis and two of his children are buried on the island.
On a Lefkada boat tour, Skorpios appears just to the east of Lefkada, in the Ionian Sea off the western coast of Greece. The 2011 census recorded five inhabitants there. Skorpios covers 83.2 hectares, or roughly 205 acres, and has an irregular shape, with main axes of about 1,500 metres and 1,000 metres. Three residences, a helicopter landing pad and a boat quay stand on the island.
Before Onassis bought it, Skorpios was nearly barren. He imported more than 200 varieties of trees, and today the island is heavily forested from south to north. Onassis also created East Beach with sand brought from Salamis Island. High-profile parties took place on the island during his time, and a Lefkada boat tour now sees the planted woods and the beach that he left behind.
A Lefkada boat tour also reaches the island where Onassis married Jacqueline Kennedy, the former First Lady of the United States, on October 20, 1968. After his death Skorpios went to his daughter Christina and then in turn to her daughter, Athina Onassis, the only surviving heir. Onassis, his son Alexander and his daughter Christina are all buried on the island.
- Other spelling: The name is also spelled Scorpios.
- North bay: Onassis built harbour facilities in the bay on the north side for his yacht Christina O.
- Protected area: Skorpios is a Natura 2000 protected area, and no more than 5% of it is to be developed.
In April 2013, Ekaterina Rybolovleva, daughter of Dmitry Rybolovlev, bought a group of companies from the trust of Athina Onassis, and the assets included a long-term lease on Skorpios. Work on a luxury resort of 10,000 square metres began in October 2018. Under the will of Onassis, the island was to stay in the family as long as the heirs had the means to cover its upkeep.
What does a Lefkada boat tour find at Meganisi?
A Lefkada boat tour finds Meganisi immediately to the east-southeast of Lefkada. Katomeri is the central village, and Vathy and Spartochori are the ports. Wilhelm Dörpfeld believed Meganisi was the island of Krocylea, part of the Homeric kingdom of Odysseus.
Both ports of Meganisi, Vathy and Spartochori, have a car ferry service to Lefkada. Regular car ferries to the island also leave from Nydri, on the east coast of Lefkada. A third harbour, at Atheni Bay, is used mainly by fishing boats. A Lefkada boat tour therefore has three harbours on Meganisi to choose from, two of them on the ferry routes.
Meganisi has a school, a lyceum, an ATM, churches and a small number of squares, or plateies. It has no secondary school, so pupils attend the nearby school in Nydri, the largest resort on Lefkada. That link between the two islands runs across the same stretch of sea that a Lefkada boat tour covers on the way from Nydri to Meganisi.
The municipality of Meganisi also takes in the offshore islands of Skorpios and Sparti. Skorpios is the private island once owned by Aristotle Onassis, and Sparti is its smaller islet. Both were part of the long-term lease that Ekaterina Rybolovleva acquired in 2013. A Lefkada boat tour that moves from Skorpios to Meganisi stays inside one municipality, within the Lefkada regional unit.
- Name: Meganisi literally means big island in Greek.
- Area: The municipality covers 22.356 square kilometres.
- Districts: Katomeri, Spartochori and Vathy form the three municipal districts.
Meganisi also has a place in the study of Homer. In Book II of the Iliad, an island named Krocylea forms part of the kingdom of Odysseus, and the ancient name refers to an island in the Ionian Sea near Ithaca. Wilhelm Dörpfeld, the archaeologist who dug at Nydri, placed Krocylea at Meganisi, though Atokos has also been proposed. A Lefkada boat tour to Meganisi thus reaches one candidate for that Homeric island.
Which beaches does a Lefkada boat tour reach on the west coast?
A Lefkada boat tour on the west coast reaches Porto Katsiki and Egremni, two beaches under cliffs, then sails south to Cape Lefkada. A lighthouse stands on the cape, and an old legend places the leap of the poet Sappho on its white cliffs.
Porto Katsiki means “goat port” in Greek. The name is said to recall a time when only goats were able to reach this stretch of shore. The beach lies at the foot of a curved, pale cliff, 35 km from Lefkada town and close to the village of Athani. In the daytime, boats bring visitors here, in particular from nearby Nidri on the east coast, where a Lefkada boat tour to this shore sets out.
Egremni, also spelled Egremnoi, is a remote beach on the south-western coast of Lefkada. A sealed road built in the mid-1990s turned it into one of the leading tourist stops on the island, and its water is clear. On 17 November 2015, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck 19 km southwest of Lefkada, and a flank of the beach collapsed. Rubble covered much of the ground where sunbathers once lay. The quake came in the winter months, so no people were harmed there.
Cape Lefkada lies south of Vasiliki, at the south-western end of the island. Its white cliffs stand 30 m high and possibly gave Lefkada its name. In antiquity, a cult of Apollo Leucatos was based on this cape. Criminals were thrown from the rock in the “Leucadian trial”, and their injuries from the fall decided their guilt or innocence. Legend says that Sappho leapt from these cliffs out of unrequited love for Phaon, a ferryman, and Cephalus is said to have leapt here as well.
- Porto Katsiki: The beach has parking lots and canteens, but no lodging, and camping is prohibited.
- Cape Lefkada Lighthouse: Built in 1890 at Cape Doukato, the 14 m tower has a focal height of 70 m and has run on electricity since 1982.
- Sappho’s leap: Modern scholars regard the story as ahistorical, possibly invented by the comic poets.
The 2015 earthquake did its heaviest damage in western Lefkada, and Porto Katsiki was badly hit as well. Geologists expect that beach to recover naturally over time. A Lefkada boat tour views the cliffs, the two beaches and the cape from the water. This west coast run sets a Lefkada boat tour apart from the sheltered east coast at Nidri, which looks across to the small islands and the Greek mainland.
Which islands lie on a longer Lefkada boat tour?
A Lefkada boat tour that heads further south crosses to Kefalonia, the largest of the Ionian Islands, and to Ithaca, the island of Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey. Fiskardo, the northernmost port of Kefalonia, sits a short distance from Ithaca across the water.
Fiskardo is a village in the north of Kefalonia and the northernmost port on the island. The harbour lies in a bay of the same name, two kilometres long, and ferry routes link it with Frikes on Ithaca and with Lefkada, the same crossing a Lefkada boat tour makes. Fiskardo and the dense forest around it are protected under Greek law as areas of great natural beauty. The 1953 earthquake destroyed almost every settlement on Kefalonia but left Fiskardo untouched.
Kefalonia covers 773 km2 and ranks as the sixth-largest island in Greece. Argostoli and Lixouri are its largest towns. Mount Ainos rises to 1,628 m, and fir trees cover its top, which forms a natural park. The fishing villages of Fiskardo and Assos, the Melissani underground lake, the Drogarati cave and Myrtos beach draw visitors to the island. Loggerhead turtles nest on beaches along the south coast, and a small population of Mediterranean monk seals lives around its shores.
Ithaca lies off the northeast coast of Kefalonia, across the Strait of Ithaca, and a Lefkada boat tour reaches it from the north. The main island covers 96 km2 and had 2,862 residents in 2021. Its capital, Vathy, sits on the bay of Molos, and Lazaretto Islet guards the harbour. In Homer’s Odyssey, Ithaca is the home of Odysseus, and coins from the island show his image. In 2010, archaeologists found remains of an 8th-century BC palace at Agios Athanasios, and reports linked the site to Odysseus.
- Fiskardo’s name: The village is named after Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia and Calabria, who died at Atheras beach in 1085.
- Ferries: Car ferries link Lefkada with Kefalonia and Ithaca, and Vasiliki on the south coast has ferries to both islands.
- Polis Cave: Heinrich Schliemann named this cave near Stavros, in the north of Ithaca, as the one Odysseus visited on his return.
Lefkada has its own place in the Odysseus story. The archaeologist Wilhelm Dörpfeld argued that Lefkada was Homer’s Ithaca and placed the palace of Odysseus west of Nidri. Modern scholars broadly accept the island now called Ithaca as the Homeric one. A Lefkada boat tour to Ithaca and Fiskardo therefore moves through the Lefkas–Kefalonia–Ithaca triangle, the stretch of sea at the centre of this debate.
When is the best season for a Lefkada boat tour?
A Lefkada boat tour fits the dry summer months best. Lefkada has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate, Csa in the Köppen system, with hot summers and cool winters. On neighbouring Kefalonia, summer days reach nearly 30 °C, with little to no rain.
The Csa code marks the hot-summer type of the Mediterranean climate. In this climate type, the warmest month averages more than 22.0 °C. Summers are hot and dry, and winters are wet and mild. Lefkada fits this pattern with hot summers and cool winters. For a Lefkada boat tour, this places the dry season in summer and the wet season in winter.
Climate figures for neighbouring Kefalonia add detail. Summer there brings little to no rain, with days near 30 °C and nights around 21 °C. Winter days average 14–15 °C and nights 8–9 °C. The winter months bring up to 156 mm of rain and high humidity, and snow can fall on the mountain peaks. These figures point a Lefkada boat tour toward the summer months.
Wind also shapes a Lefkada boat tour in summer. The etesian winds are strong, dry north winds of the Aegean that blow from late spring to about mid-September, and similar winds blow in the Ionian region. They are strongest in the afternoon and tend to die down at night. At force 7–8 on the Beaufort scale, they can stop yachts and inter-island ferries from sailing. On Lefkada, a thermal wind known as “Eric” rises in the afternoon in summer at Vasiliki, a windsurfing centre on the south coast.
- Ionian Sea: The sea is an elongated bay of the Mediterranean, linked to the Adriatic Sea in the north.
- Calypso Deep: The deepest point in the Mediterranean, at 5,109 m, lies in the Ionian Sea.
- Seismic activity: The Ionian Sea ranks among the world’s top zones for earthquakes.
The figures point to summer. The summer months bring little rain, and the etesian season runs from late spring to about mid-September. A Lefkada boat tour in those months meets dry weather and daytime heat near 30 °C. The afternoon wind is the factor to plan around, since it peaks after midday and eases at night. Winter brings rain, high humidity and cooler air to the islands.
What do travelers ask about a Lefkada boat tour?
A Lefkada boat tour starts on an Ionian island that a causeway and floating bridge join to the mainland, so no ferry is needed. Aktion National Airport serves the island, and Zakynthos, home of the Navagio shipwreck, lies further south in the same group.
Which island group does a Lefkada boat tour explore?
A Lefkada boat tour explores the Ionian Islands, a group in the Ionian Sea west of mainland Greece. Tradition calls the group the Heptanese, or “Seven Islands”. From north to south, the seven main islands are Corfu, Paxos, Lefkada, Ithaca, Kefalonia, Zante and Kythira. The islands joined the modern Greek state in 1864.
Does a Lefkada boat tour need a ferry to reach the island?
No ferry is needed before a Lefkada boat tour. A long causeway and a floating bridge join Lefkada to the mainland, and Greek National Road 42 reaches Vasiliki. In antiquity, the longest stone bridge of ancient Greece joined the island to the shore, and in the 7th century BC the Corinthians dug a trench across its isthmus.
Which airport serves a Lefkada boat tour?
Aktion National Airport, code PVK, serves Preveza and Lefkada. It stands on the Aktion Peninsula in Acarnania and is also known as Preveza Airport. The airport began operations in 1968, and NATO and the Hellenic Air Force Command also use it. From the airport, the causeway leads onto the island and to the start of a Lefkada boat tour.
Can a Lefkada boat tour pair with a Navagio shipwreck tour on another Ionian holiday?
Yes. Navagio Beach, also called Shipwreck Beach, is a cove on Zakynthos, the Ionian island south of Kefalonia. The coaster MV Panagiotis ran aground there on 5 October 1980 and still rests in the limestone gravel of the beach. A Navagio shipwreck tour covers that cove, while a Lefkada boat tour covers the islands further north.
Featured photo: Dimitra Papadimitriou, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.