Kefalonia - daily image of the beauty of the Ionian Sea. More tours fom Red Door: Patmos - Lipsi - Santorini

Kefalonia, Greek Islands

Kefalonia (sometimes spelt Kefallinia, Cephalonia, Cephallenia etc.) is the largest of all the Ionian islands. It is green, like Corfu but much more mountainous and not as dependent on tourism.

We spent a week travelling around Kefalonia in June 2006. We managed to see virtually all of the main towns and resorts of the island, except for the Lixouri peninsular. Apart from the stunning coastal and mountainous scenery, another obvious feature of the island was the newness of the buildings. This is easily explained: earthquakes devastated virtually the whole island, in 1953. Many islanders moved away to other parts of the world to make their fortune and have since come back to help to rebuild the island.

There are no shabby, dilapidated buildings on the island at all. In fact, the only old buildings are way up in the North, at Fiskardo, which was untouched by the earthquake. By the way, there are still many minor tremors each year: you have been warned!