Villa Galini, Tsoukalades, Lefkada (or Lefkas, or other spellings), Greece.

Review: An airy, spacious and pleasant villa but not without its problems.

** January 2015 Update – Listing Change (Review originally published in October 2014) **

Just to note that Villa Galini is no longer listed with HomeAway (property number 1109001)

but is now with the smaller UK-based company “Villas Of Luxury”, the listing is here.

The villa was managed by Lilias Morgan for Lefkas

Estates (a UK-based Ltd company we think), but we

don’t know whether this has also changed, the villa

description and photos look the same, although

“Tsoukalades” has been removed from the heading

(making it more difficult to search for).

The photo may make it easier to match the villa to

any listing (the rhs roof covers the single-floor lounge, the lhs roof is above the bedrooms

on two floors and the kitchen is in between with cloth-covered outside dining table in

front). Note the absence of the large parasol shown in the listing photos, and see Villa

Artemis top left, it was the one with the burglar alarm problem (see notes below).

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Bing Aerial View Link (Cords are 38.8131,20.6701, zoom out to see the whole group of six villas)

Coming down the drive and seeing the reddish pan-tiled roof with the deep-blue metal shutters and

matching blue railings contrasting against the cleanly painted yellow walls you find a villa that looks

well-maintained, newish and appealing. The other five villas in the group are all of a similar style but

each is a different size and design.

The large spacious lounge area and master bedroom have high wooden-beamed vaulted ceilings

with a good airy feel; between them the smallish kitchen and a dining area has a similar but smaller

ceiling. Under the master bedroom are the two twin-bedded rooms. The twin rooms share an east-

facing veranda with wicker chairs and a hammock chair with the master bedroom’s balcony above it,

this has simple wooden and canvas chairs and a small table. The rooms are uncluttered, the lounge

has good-sized comfortable sofas, there are nice bedroom chairs and a dressing table in the master

bedroom. Like the exterior decor, the inside feels newish with no general signs of wear and tear.

But before the pleasant almost-first impression of the spaciousness there is the somewhat worrying

and disheartening aspect of long-dead borders alongside a path between a pair of equally dead

grassed areas adjacent to the car-parking patch, in fact we parked on this ex-grassed area thinking it

was part of the parking.

To worsen the poor first-impression was the main door, unlock and push open the right-hand half of

the impressive arched wooden double-door and get hit first audibly by the incredible juddering

screech of it jamming against the floor when only half-way open, then physically by the now

immobile slab of wood sitting just where you were about to walk. Now deal with the somewhat

narrow space available to ease yourself and the luggage through.

And every time you open this door you tend to walk into it because you forget it will not open fully

(and the noise really grated). Apparently a carpenter was not available to fix it (despite it obviously

having been in this state well before we arrived), after a day or so we used some olive oil to make it

slide more smoothly and open a bit further, but still this was unsatisfactory, so after a visit to a ship’s

chandler where sandpaper is sold by the sheet, and with long arms and patience we eventually got

the thing to open fully and quietly, but not completely clear of catching on the floor.

On the subject of noises, holiday villas and apartments with their hard floors and bare walls magnify

any creaking door hinges and other mechanical groans making it all too easy for the restless to

disturb other sleepers. Galini is blessed with quiet internal doors, but has noisy beds (one we

managed to improve a bit) and very creaky loo seats. The a/c, which we didn’t use much, has a single

big external unit at the back and is not much of a disturbance.

All the windows have pull-down mosquito screens and the French windows have sliding

(concertinaed) screens which run in tracks built-in to the frames, these are nice but are impossible to

open without making enough noise to wake a not-quite-ready-to-be-woken partner, maybe some

curtain-rail spray would have helped. The window and French window frames are all good, solid

(coated metal) ones that work well, but there is no provision for fastening them open so they don’t

slam in the sometimes strong and gusty breeze – generally there was no wind for the first few hours

each day and then a gentle to moderate breeze developed that blew in from the west.

A noise we couldn’t control was a neighbouring burglar alarm at Villa Artemis. This looks like the

biggest villa of the group and was unoccupied with padlocked main gates. On our first night it woke

us three times, at our request the villa manager asked the Artemis caretaker to check the alarm for

us and we were OK for almost a week before it went off again, luckily not at quite such an unsocial

hour, but the lack of any direct ability to make it stop made it an ongoing worry at the back of our

minds. Then after one more “non-unsocial” event it saved the best for last and woke us at 6:30am

on our last morning. It would seem the manager is completely ineffectual in being able to get this

dealt with, in fact later saying that she wasn’t actually in direct contact with the caretaker, and

wasn’t able to provide us either with the caretaker’s phone number so we could call them when the

problem occurred, or give us the appropriate police contact details to use as a possible alternative

way of getting something done. Although obviously not the manager’s responsibility it was

disappointing that she didn’t seem able to do anything substantial about it and that even this

complication didn’t prompt her to visit us.

If you’re an early riser the east-facing master bedroom balcony was a delight for watching and trying

to photograph the sun-rise (6:50ish in August, first light at 6) over the mainland hills, after that while

the sun is still low you can lie on (half) the bed and get some warming early morning (7:15-8:15ish)

sun, the balcony gets the sun until it passes round to the right and to the side of the house sometime

around noon. It is nice lying on the half of the bed that gets the sun just after sunrise and feeling that

early morning warmth. But if you like to sleep-in then you’ll need the shutters closed as the curtains

are gossamer-like, not sure how well one of the shutters works though, it has a big obstructive dent

near the catch from where it hits the balcony rail, but a broken bottom hinge may compensate

enough to allow it to close.

Unless you like what seems like the firmest mattress ever made there is a good chance you will be

up to see every sun-rise, as combined with the thickest and firmest pillows we’ve ever seen, we had

the worst sleep here that we can remember, frequently waking at around 4 to 5am and then lying

there desperately trying to snooze without moving too much as the bed groans easily, not too

loudly, but enough to make you very aware of it. The mattress feels like a good mattress, it is not hot

and clammy, just way too firm; the sheets felt good and seemed closer to being cotton than the

stated “poly-cotton” on their labels. The single beds had the same make of mattress, but were softer

and much more comfortable, pity they were so noisy.

To try to cope with the mattress hardness we tried the following: sleeping on top of pillows and or

cushions (didn’t really work), using multiple layers of the thickish “bed quilts” (this did help a bit),

using smaller cushions as pillows, and waxing the edges of the single large board that sits on the

bedframe and adding tissue paper in the contact areas (this did reduce squeaks and groans to just

about acceptable levels).

Perhaps we should have tried harder to improve the mattress as a problem with the leg I sleep on

may have been caused by it; on my return a chiropractor had to sort out a “click” and soreness that

started a few days after we arrived.

There is plentiful good lighting in master bedroom and a nice dresser and some big chairs. Being up

in the hills may have helped us not finding the master bedroom hot enough to need the a/c at night,

instead sleeping with the French windows open, but a fan over the bed would have been nice.

With seemingly endless wardrobes, especially in the master bedroom, even if our two clothes-loving

girls hadn’t been limited by Monarch’s baggage limits (20+5kg, both checked at Gatwick, hand-

luggage not weighed coming back, electronic baggage scales are a must nowadays), they would have

found it difficult to fill them, just enough hangers too! There are nice big mirrors, but a female

whinged about the lack of a full-length one.

There are nice big walk-in showers, even if they are a bit slow to drain and the shower heads aren’t

the best (better de-scaling required too) they are better than most and have enough water to rinse

the more hair-endowed.

Bed-side rugs are present in the two bigger bedrooms, an essential part of not getting sand and

other dust in the bed. The smaller bedroom is the one with no en-suite (has shower and toilet

opposite though), and it has less hanging space and only 35” beds, the bigger twins are a very

generous 47”, note that both pairs of twin beds are right next to each other.

When we arrived the master bedroom balcony was covered in debris and bird droppings, despite a

subsequent assurance “it had been cleaned yesterday, so the birds must have been partying”, 30

minutes with a mop, which broke, and a brush, that was next to useless and also broke, and the

discovery there was no dustpan was a worrying start. We ended up buying our own dustpan and a

brush, a better mop. Although a brush did later get provided; the attitude seemed to be that we

should be using the hoover for any sweeping which seemed ludicrous – whenever in any hot country

we find a quick brush after a meal is the best defence against ants and have always found brushes

and pans abound, not here it seems – we were in no mood to drag a hoover around just to collect a

few bread crumbs. Subsequently we found the numerous magpies did indeed leave a small daily

mess on the balcony, but at a rate suggesting our balcony had been untended for weeks rather than

days.

The balcony also has some folding canvas and wood chairs, these looked much more inviting after a

good scrub and hosing (hose is by the front door), but we found that they were borderline unsafe as

the rods that hold the canvas in the grooves in the frame had half popped out so the canvas was not

properly supported, and because the rods were now jammed it was impossible (with no tools) to

even try to reseat them.

We had to ask for a replacement for the missing clothes-dryer frame; we couldn’t find any spare

light-bulbs – and note that a blown light-fixture may flip a trip in the box by the front-door, look for a

switch pointing in a different direction to the others (all the circuits are labelled in Greek).

The villa is advertised as having “Internet”, in fact, as there is no phone line or cable, what you get

(but not delivered prior to your arrival) is a mobile-phone-like 3G (probably) Wi-fi hot-spot gizmo,

maximum of four simultaneous connections, with either 2GB or 5GB data included (we were told

2GB before we arrived but 5GB near the end), more is available to be bought. Although it worked

quite well with a stable connection most of the time (the connection did get erratic sometimes) it

did not have the range to provide wi-fi in all the rooms, but you can move it around. By avoiding any

heavy use (video downloads banned, three fb users, some web browsing, email etc) we did not

manage to use up the allowance, but annoyingly always felt at risk of suddenly being cut-off because

there is no cumulative or daily usage information to be able to gauge how much we were using. One

of the near-by villas seemed to have a line-of-sight wireless connection pointing down the hill, the

envy!

Size-wise the master bedroom, including the en-suite and a few steps, is 10x9 paces (so approx the

same in yards), the lounge is 10x7 and the kitchen/wc/dining area between them is 7x7. The kitchen

felt a little cramped and has limited work-top space, not a good place for any multi-person food

preparation but it works, the serrated sharp knives are not great but do work (always best to take

one of your own), pots and pans etc are not extensive but good enough for some light cooking and

salad preparation. As well as kettle, toaster, microwave (unused by us), oven, hob (and extractor),

dish-washer and fridge-freezer, there is a juicer, but no oven glove, nor salt and pepper grinders.

An outdoor table just outside of the kitchen has wooden slatted chairs (6), but no cushions to go on

them, they were more comfortable than they looked, luckily. This is on the east-facing side of the

house so gets the breakfast sun, later it is shaded by canvas strips from over-head sun and by the

house on the west.

The borders and gardens around the pool and bedroom verandas are laid to large lavender and

rosemary bushes with Leylandii trees used to create privacy hedges. Disappointing, and as

mentioned above, is the area around the path from the rough-laid parking area which looks like it

was once maintained, in fact grass is just visible in one of the photos, but it is now a barren unkempt

wasteland. The lavender and rosemary are pretty, but in places looked like they had overgrown and

been trimmed with a chainsaw or similar.

The pool is on the east side of the house, when we were there (August) the sun, shaded by the

house, left the pool and main area where the loungers were by 6:30pm, you could find sun

elsewhere if you lugged the loungers around (not a one-person job for the big ones).

The paved area by the pool has a mixture of a few “ordinary” fold-up light-weight fabric sun-

loungers and bigger (wider) sturdier ones which have a heavy-duty woven surface, we noticed that

this weave was in varying states of repair with some obviously newish, but others starting to break-

up. In the “garden” area in front of the bedroom end of the villa there are a couple of garden seats

with similar woven threads but as soon as we sat on them you could feel the threads snapping.

Missing from the pool area is the large parasol prominently shown in the photos, so there is only

limited shade right next to the pool. There is a hammock (on a frame so it can be moved), but it is

not the sort with stretchers at the ends to keep it “open”.

Were you looking forward to using the infinity-edge swimming pool to enjoy the “fantastic” views

over the narrow sea “straight” to the range of imposing hills on the mainland that are seen from the

balcony and verandas? A pity if the answer is “yes” because the view from the pool’s infinity edge is

very much finite as it is completely obscured by the small trees in front of it. And it’s not really a very

good infinity edge either as the water does not flow over it, but drains away before it reaches the

actual edge. And because this edge of the pool has wide-spaced railings any ball games result in the

ball disappearing into the same impenetrable undergrowth. The pool water was not noticeably full

of chemicals.

Pool/beach towels are provided, but are not that large and are not changed with the other linens.

There are some mossies to be seen and felt, with the full screening we didn’t get many in the house,

but were surprised to find no coil-burner stands or night-light holders (for citronella-scented ones),

and no fly-swats either. There are of course some ever-hungry ants, boiling water and a brush kept

them at bay.

We found the wasps a bit annoying, some appear on the balcony as soon as the sun starts to warm,

they like breakfast too and are then to be found sharing a corner of the pool and any odd dripping

tap where they like the water, as well as sometimes buzzing around the sun-lounger areas. We did

have one (unprovoked) sting, but generally they were annoying rather than a threat. The lavender

bushes attract the endless attention of many friendly bees, they were quite content to stay by the

bushes and gave us no trouble. We did try to track the wasp flight-paths to find their nest(s) but

gave-up in the surrounding bushes.

Another “problem” was a water leak from the connector on the main water pipe where it comes

into the building in a small service space under the front door. We noticed a small drip when we first

arrived and mentioned this, but didn’t think much of it as it didn’t affect the house. Then later we

saw rats in the room, not that nearby rats should be too much of a surprise in this rural setting, but it

seemed likely the water was attracting them nearer to the building than necessary. This was

mentioned, and then yet another email sent when we realised that the water was flowing faster

than we originally thought and were worried that the pipe might be in the process of parting

company from the connector. Also we realised that a box of electrics nearby would get soaked, all-

in-all not something that seemed like a trivial problem, and an annoying worry with no action taken

while we were there.

Although mainly private the villa is not completely free from being over-looked (not by the other

villas), however there is no one around much anyway. Two of the six villas in the group are below

Galini, the nearest is about 15m the other side of the trees that obscure the pool’s infinity edge, the

others are 10s of meters away (70ish for the furthest), see the aerial photos link above to see them.

Of the six villas, Galini and three others seem to be part of a group that are rented-out and have the

same maids, Artemis and the other one gave the impression they were more likely owner-occupied.

Apparently Galini and thus presumably the others are 10 years old, old enough perhaps to escape

de-facto solar heating, there are no tanks and panels spoiling the roof-lines. While we were there

the two villas below us were never occupied, likewise Artemis was empty (but noisy with the alarm),

the other two villas of the group were in use and we could sometimes hear excited shouts from

them, but only faintly.

The mainly single-track road up from Tsoukalades is hardly used, as a through road it doesn’t serve

much of a purpose (although is a useful route to Prementinos, see below). There are a few other

small villa groups on the way up, and the vineyard, but not much traffic. The view is quite nice, hills

(mainland) in the distance (east) with the narrow strip of sea with lights at night visible below

You may wonder why we didn’t get the manager more involved with our problems, especially given

the claim “Every amenity has been catered for to enhance comfort and relaxation”. She had

helpfully answered our emailed questions before we arrived, we seemed to get on quite well in fact,

and we were told to text to arrange to meet when we arrived, but we never met her. We exchanged

texts on arrival, but after a day or two of her not coming to visit she told us that a medical problem

with another guest was keeping her unavailable (and hence also partly the delay in delivering the 3G

wi-fi hot-spot), then she said she’d expected another manager would visit (a long story involving the

fraudulent appropriation of another villa’s email account), but as they hadn’t visited (and not that

they knew anything about our villa anyway) she said she would of course visit and then she still

didn’t visit, instead answering the odd question by email. Hence we never had any chat about the

villa problems or local places to visit etc. In the end we just decided it wasn’t worth trying to get

more input from her (apart from over the water-leak and burglar alarm); having spent 4000 Euros it

seemed reasonable to expect a bit more attention, we were unimpressed to say the least.

A similar lack of care was exemplified by the lack of an “Information Booklet” the idea apparently

being that we could ask what we wanted to know (the first thing being to check whether this Greek

plumbing was loo-paper friendly or not, the second being wanting to know why we couldn’t find the

information Pack), which in turn seemed to imply that we knew what the all the useful questions

were, and that we didn’t mind spending the time asking (typing) them and waiting for a reply –

strange that this novel idea has not caught on elsewhere. Traditionalists can refer to a “DIY

Information Compilation” that follows this review and gives some advice on things like whether to

drink the tap water, where to park in the main town, where to find a closer ATM, a supermarket

location, and other typical useful holiday hints, and a few more villa issues get passing mention.

In conclusion, Galini is a nice spacious, generally well-kept villa. Your enjoyment might not be

affected by the various peculiarities described, of which the ever so uncomfortable master bedroom

mattress was the most dislikeable with things like the front door not opening properly, the water

leak, not providing the Wi-Fi hot-spot in advance and the absence of an Information booklet

revealing the poor attention to important details; some problems may get fixed of course. But if

you’ve only got two weeks you want to enjoy all of them and not have your time wasted by finding

out what should already be written down, fixing things, and generally getting frustrated by the

difficulty in getting information and trying to get things like the Artemis alarm sorted out. Not

sleeping well because of the mattress wasn’t good, and no visit from the manager certainly didn’t

help.

August 2014

A DIY Information Compilation – Villa Galini, Tsoukalades, Lefkada

Managed by Lilias Morgan for Lefkas Estates (a UK-based Ltd company we think).

HomeAwayLlink (Property 1109001) Bing Aerial View Link (Cords are 38.8131,20.6701,)

In-lieu of an “Information Pack” (not even a print-out of the local info on the villa’s HomeAway web

page), and with a manager who seems reluctant to visit, here’s some helpful hints that might save

you the time of asking the questions – and probably with no Internet when you arrive you won’t be

able to look things up either, or might shirk the cost of doing so. All info “correct” as at Aug 24th

2014!

Depending on what you like to have at hand, here’s a few things to possibly bring, ask to be

provided, or buy – salt and pepper grinders, an oven-glove, mossi coil burner holders, outdoor

night-light burners, fly-swat(s), pillows unless you like really firm and thick ones, mattress

cover/protectors if you like something between the sheet and the mattress, a soft mattress topper

for the master bed unless you like the firmest mattress ever made, cushions for the outside chairs if

you don’t like slatted wood, big parasol and base if you want the one that is prominently shown by

the pool in the photos, secateurs in case the bushes on the verandas get too intrusive, chainsaw

(and maybe neighbour’s permission) if you want a view from the “infinity-edge” pool, some netting

if you want to play ballgames in the pool but not have the ball go through (or above) railings and

disappear into dense undergrowth below, plumber’s tools if you want to stop the water leak in the

service area below the front-door, silicone spray to maybe make the French window screens

smoother and quieter, a sheet or two of 60-grit sandpaper to deal with the front door, some

builders’ expanding spray-foam to try to silence the Artemis alarm but that may also need some

legal loopholes to avoid any subsequent litigation problems. I quite like a waste-paper bin in the

bedroom, in the absence of one a Dodoni yogurt pot worked well.

If you want a good map, one that shows the roads and tracks with good reliability, I found the “351

Lefkada” 1:40,000 by TerrainMaps and bought from Stanfords (London) in advance to be good. It

shows virtually all the roads and tracks and includes the distances between junctions which is a great

help with navigating. It also shows the petrol stations (one error found), see they soon run out

heading south-west, but you can’t drive that far anyway, so half a tank is good enough. The map is

printed on indestructible waterproof “paper”, a pity though that the ink tends to come off at the

folds. See there are updates on the terrainmaps.gr website, we did find a few amendments, for

instance there is a no longer a petrol station in Karya. Oddly it says the western beaches are “sandy”,

well they are closer to sand than the eastern ones are, but are actually small pebbles with some sand

in places. For online viewing we found Bing’s maps have better aerial photos and roads than Google

does.

Contact numbers and addresses – Police ?, Minor Medical ?, Serious Medical ?

The Villa

The sewage system is of the normal “no paper” Greek style. The showers don’t drain that well.

The water is piped from the mainland and is drinkable, when it fails there are back-up tanks that

probably aren’t drinkable (I found one with a broken lid, but not sure which villa it supplied), and

you won’t know which supply you are drinking from, except when the back-up fails of course (which

it did one night, but the water was on before we got back from the beach, we don’t know which one

though).

Don’t lock yourself out – the main door self-locks and there is only one key, maybe best to leave it in

the lock on the outside during the day.

The safe doesn’t work, the manager says the area is safe.

The various squeaks and groans etc (some may be fixed of course): Clattering noise on balcony and

roof just before sunrise is magpies, not that noisy, just confusing at first; burglar alarm is probably

Artemis (the “squarish” villa with a separate out-building seen by looking straight out and slightly up

from the right-hand railing of the master bedroom balcony, the red light just visible at night (below a

tree) on the alarm box is normal, see it turns orange when the alarm sounds), good luck with that

one. Bed squeaks – we improved the master-bed by taking the large heavy board off and applying

candle wax to areas that touch the frame and adding tissue to deaden sound, didn’t try to fix the

single-bed squeaks. The slight squeak heard in the master bedroom during gusts is probably the

hook that holds the right-most shutter open (took ages to work out what it was), try some tape

round the hook. When raised/lowered the loo seats creak unbelievably loudly (especially at night).

Front door –if sticking try olive oil or a sheet of sandpaper (100 grit was probably a mistake, try 60,

available by the sheet from ships’ chandlers on main pedestrian drag in the Town) and slide it under

door and (with long arms) work it backwards and forwards, use some kitchen paper sheets to add a

soft backing to make it press better against the whole door base.

There are no shower floor-mats, use handtowels.

Twice weekly maids – the villa was well-cleaned, the maids are helpful.

Washing machine – takes forever for door to unlock (turn dial to off first we think but still have to

wait), good luck with instructions, some is obvious, but lower temperature washes and rinsing

proved confusing.

Phones - no landline, good mobile signal.

Internet – the 3G wi-fi hot-spot (when it arrives) has a password behind the battery. Note that it

times-out so you need to re-waken it by briefly pressing the on-button if not used for more than a

few minutes. Maximum of four simultaneous connections. Maximum data is 3GB or 5GB (don’t ask

me, we were told both). No way to monitor data usage so just hope you don’t run out at a bad time.

Connection is reasonably stable, some brief periods of temporarily poor connections to be expected.

Not enough wi-fi range to cover whole house, but you can move it about easily!

Satellite TV - never tried it (TV has no HDMI input if you were thinking of plugging-in a modern

laptop/tablet, it does have VGA and phono sockets, but you might not want to stream anything over

the hot-spot connection).

Pool - 8m to start of curve, 11.5 to maximum length, 1.3 m deep. Pool man is called Ian (or possibly

Iain as he sounds Scottish).

There are lots of outside lights that come on automatically and stay on part of the night, the pool is

lit from below and they seem to stay on longer.

Some Local Facilities

ATMs – there is one in Aghios Nikitas, (not used by us, may charge), in Lefkada town most of the

main banks (and their ATMs) are a few 100m back from the seafront, one is on the main

pedestrianized street, the others nearby.

Petrol – there is none on the west coast south of the two stations just past Aghios Nikitas. There are

several in the Lefkada main town, the one in Karya is no more, but there is one in Lazarata which is a

small detour off the main west coast road.

Shops – two mini-markets in Tsoukalades, the one 100m south of the villa lane is bigger than the one

opposite the lane, surprising what they manage to cram in, don’t forget there is a baker/patisserie

too (we ate too much of their very gooey chocolate cake). The only “real” supermarket we found is a

Carre Four, it is just off to the right when you get to the point you normally go left where you can’t

go straight on when driving back into Lefkada town (ie it is in the “Y” where the road to Nidhri splits

off). There is a LiDL somewhere too.

Lefkada Town Parking – gets busy. We found a free “dirt park” with lots of potholes that worked for

us. Follow the road into Lefkada and go left with everyone else when you get to the no-entry one-

way bit. Follow this past a few junctions until you get a “dual-carriageway”, turn right (if you turn left

this is the “back” road out of Lefkada that goes up the hill and past the monastery to the normal

Tsoukalades road, it is one-way (up)), follow this for a few 100m and get to a cross roads with

another “dual-carriageway”, go straight on and find the road is now single carriageway. You should

see the mobile phone mast, turn left into potholes just before the building under the mast. There is

another entrance on the opposite side of the car-park (nearer the sea, turn left at the dual-

carriageway junction to get there).

Short-cut to the southern west coast and east coast (Nydhri) roads. There is a road from the villa

to Prementinos, this saves either going down and back up either via Aghios Nikitas or the (nearer)

road inland from Pefkoulia. Instead go left out of the villa, left at T after about .4km, right after

100m, stay left at .8km, continue for 1.3km (not a road to be in a hurry on at night) ignore a small

road on right, but look for and take a slightly hidden downhill right-hand fork immediately after and

then stay left in .6km when joining the road up from Pefkoulia beach. After .9km at Prementinos

turn right at T (go left for nearby fuel and two bakeries), at .3km the next T will be signed left for

Karya and Nydhri (ie east coast) and right for Exanthia (ie the southern west coast, the road is quite

good in parts, but see big pothole just outside Komilio where you leave the main road if heading for

Egremni or Porto Katsiki etc).

Photography – be aware, we are told, that you have to ask permission before taking a person’s

photo, even if they are on a boat over 100m away, you can’t see them as more than a blob and you

don’t have a huge telephoto lens (see Afteli beach description below). Remember (2001) the Greeks

don’t like plane-spotters either!

Eating – visited and recommended

Nearest – Taverna Kambos in Tsoukalades on the lane to the villa does good local Greek food, the

kind of place where you go into the kitchen and point at the likes of stuffed peppers, aubergines

grilled with mince etc, seems quite popular, we enjoyed a meal there.

In Tsoukalades there are other tavernas including “Elias” (The Olive Tree) that offers slightly more

uncommon “authentic” Greek food and seemed quite good; there is a souvlaki place, but you have

to be happy with the raw meat being handled by the same fingers that prepare the finished

souvlakis, they were good though the one time we went there before we saw how it works; but they

probably all work that way, so does it really matter? Don’t forget the bakery (is also a café with

espresso, ice-cream etc). There are other tavernas that we didn’t try.

About 10 mins drive south Aghios Nikitas is the nearest “fishing village” with a single pedestrian

walk down to the small seafront with various typical tavernas to table-gaze, bars and shops, busy but

quite pleasant, more relaxing than the Lefkada main walk. Parking along the main road or in the few

parking areas works, eventually!

Slightly further to drive, and in the opposite direction to Aghios Nikitas, is Levkada’s main town,

certainly worth a visit or two, parking can be an issue, try the free pot-hole ridden area mentioned

above. A range of tavernas, fast food outlets, bars, waffle and ice-cream parlours (and souvenir

shops and some real shops) await alongside the main seafront and pedestrianized main road (try

hard enough and you can find somewhere that sell waffles with a good selection of chopped fruit

(plus piped cream and ice cream and Nutella of course) as well as cocktails (Mojitos) and coffee, thus

simultaneously satisfying all our family’s “pudding” requirements). The Cuban bar has a singer in 9

to 10 pm and has a nice feel, but the cocktails we had weren’t great.

The two helpful maids did give us some suggestions for where to eat, but we didn’t get to try them

except for the Seven Islands, the ones we remembered are:

● Pardalo Katsiki (Goat’s Head) – Karya. Looks nice, is on edge of main square in this

surprisingly busy village, oddly we found no bakery here.

● Seven Islands – Lyghia. East coast, south of Lefkada (almost visible from the villa in fact), nice

sea-side, some private parking nearby. Nice place (quiet when we visited), we had a nice

lunch (with brief walk before to nearby village fishing harbour) and enjoyed excellent baby

squid and a mixed sea-food grill, tasty grill but would have been nicer if slightly less cooked.

All the appetisers we ordered were good. Fresh fish was 50-60Eur/Kg. Dutch+Greek couple

own and run it (rooms available).

● Raxi – Exanthia. Good sunsets (we think).

● Petrino(?) on the hill back down to Lefkada from Tsoukalades, views out over Lefkada.

The manager’s emailed list is as follows (only two tried):

● Kambos – at the bottom of the road before turning off onto the main road. Family taverna with traditional food. [See notes above]

● Seven Islands – Ligia. Fabulous location right by the sea. Great for fish. [See notes above] ● Xouras – Ligia harbor. Very special for fish.

● Thymari – Lefkas Town. Lovely little restaurant in the back streets of the old town. [We walked past this, certainly looks more like a restaurant than a tavern.]

● Rachi – Exantheia. Fantastic views, amazing sunsets, great traditional food at great prices. ● Pavlos – Haradiatika past Nidri. The best grill house on the island. ● Seaside – Geni (close to Nidri) very good Mousaka and fish

From as many bakeries as possible try out the spinach pies (Spanakopitas), (feta) cheese pies and

yellow cheese pies! The one near the lane in Tsoukalades sells a variation on a pain au chocolat that

includes a banana filling, definitely worth trying, as is their chocolate “cake”.

For the local greens/spinach/Calalloo alternative look for “Horta”, sometimes translated as

“Vegetables”, served cool, well-cooked, with oil.

The strong Italian influence means almost everyone sells espresso (from a proper machine), the

default serving is a single, and served very short. Although the instant-coffee based Frappé is the

main Greek cold coffee, there is also “Iced Espresso” (Espresso Freddo), not quite sure how it is

made exactly, but it seems to be a double espresso (glyki for sweet, metrio for medium and sketio

for no sugar) that is foamed in a frappe machine (possibly with a little ice added) poured over ice in a

glass and served with a straw – most of the glass will be foam with a layer of liquid at the bottom.

Beaches – the ones we visited

The west has the longer beaches, the east the smaller bays, we mainly stayed on the west. The

western peaches are varying size of “fine” roundish pebbles with some sand in places, the eastern

beaches are more stony and as they are more sheltered (and closer to main roads) are more family-

friendly for safer swimming compared to the more variable waves on the west.

The beaches with sun loungers get busy, well the western ones do in August as there are lots of

Italians there as well as Greeks and everyone else. You need a car, preferably small but powerful (or

turn the a/c for the uphill roads), patience, and some confident driving when negotiating cars going

the other way in small passing areas on narrow steep roads with many zig-zags. Our policy,

especially with beaches we’d not visited before, was to get there early (say 10-11ish), as this makes

it easier to find a good place to park etc (when you leave see the approach road will be littered with

cars in places you never realised was a parking space when you arrived), but diving is slow (often

under 30km/hr we found).

Avali (also known as “Kalamitsi”, the nearby village) was our favourite for a “laidback beach with

snacks”. Search for “avalicantine” to read about the two-year old low-key “café bar” at the end

where the road first hits the beach, we liked the beach south of the bar (it also has campers and

nudists, no sunbeds). The bar-guys like people who smile and aren’t in a hurry, no problem there,

there are daily specials, all simple honest stuff, one of the chefs is a vegetarian so always some

options in that direction. They sell beer but no cocktails, and have a great Tzatziki (when they get

around to making it). The beach also goes a long way north (towards Kathisma) and there is another

bar. Parking is piecemeal and the road down takes more than a few minutes. There is also another

small beach to the south with better parking, you can walk there along the rocks from Avali, but we

didn’t see the attraction.

Porto Katsiki, sometimes listed as “one of the 10 best beaches in the world” is well down in the

south but worth a visit to judge for yourself (but busy of course despite being relatively remote, has

bars and car-parks at top of steps), check out the Cape on the way back in the evening (the Greek

poet Sappho committed suicide there).

On the west we also tried: Kathisma (another “best beach”, not far south of Aghios Nikitas, has good

road access, is hugely developed with beach-side parking but with some open beach at the southern

end), Pefkoulia (quite close, on main road before Aghios Nikitas), has two tavernas (good lunch at

northern one), parasols, lots of open beach, quite nice), Egremni (near Athani, 320 steps down, plus

however far back you had to park, has parasols and bar with “fast-food” snacks, but with a lot of

open beach, we had a few waves there, the steep drop-off beach means they crash a bit

intimidatingly, when you return you’ll find the hosepipe in the red box by the front door), and Mylos

(20-ish minute walk up and down over headland from Aghios Nikitas, no bar or parasols, but some

cold drinks and donuts can be bought from wondering traders, the gentle slope meant that the

waves we had can be enjoyably body-surfed (ie no bodyboard), quite a good beach).

Afteli on the south is very small, pebbled with clear water, has a nice bar on the beach (mojitos!)

and is pretty, well it was pretty until some 40m grey mega-gin-palace parked there, and then the

attached policeman got quite shirty with me and started shaking his handcuffs when I showed a lack

enthusiasm for fessing-up to what photos I had taken. Considering I just had an unremarkable small

compact camera at my disposal and the boat was over 100m away this seemed to be stretching the

claimed “no photo without subject’s consent” Greek law (he said) a bit far, I was obliged to delete a

photo; they obviously don’t get the “undelete” concept. Snorkelling was not as good as hoped for.

On the east we visited Dessimi (south of Nydhri), a shingle beach on a sheltered bay which isn’t very

developed (has bars, a taverna, two campsites just behind beach) and has pedalos and canoes (and

small motor boats) for hire, very much a family beach due to the shallow beach and calm water. Nice

lunch in the only traditional tavern “Pirofani”; the name comes from “fish” and “light”, as in “fishing

by light” which is how the local fishing works, the boats go out at night with bright lights to attract

the fish. When the moon is full there is less fishing because the boat lights don’t attract the fish so

much.

We drove round the northern spit, it has long beaches, looks good for a long walk, but in fact the

other beaches we visited were often unusually difficult to walk on. We didn’t see much of the

eastern beaches.

Windfinder.com is a good place to get wind and sun/cloud forecasts, note the two different

forecasts (normal and “Super” forecast) can be at odds with each other though!

Other Places

Drive up the hill from Karya to visit the chapel “Prophitis Ilias” for views to the east, probably best

to go in the mid/later pm when sun is on the hills (but not too late). Avoid following the thick yellow

road centre line that links the military bases up there (see the “golf-balls” visible from a distance are

here), it guides you into the base entrances! Probably best not to wave cameras about as you go

past the military bases.

Drive down from Karya to enjoy the view over the islands around Nydhri from the final descent.

The Nydhri waterfalls are hardly worth a visit in August, enough water to attract the insects and

not do much else.

The local chapel (100m away, turn right up short lane just after leaving villa going back downhill) is mentioned in the HomeAway page as “There’s a lovely view in store”, but we failed to find it (the view), all you can see is the villa group. Instead, keep going past the chapel turn and when you get to a concrete track only another 100m or less away walk along that a few 10s of meters and then look for small grassy tracks (avoid the spider webs across these tracks) to get a nice view over the northern spit. © Dave Turnbull 2014