That makes this a chain along a coast rather than a spine running out from one hub, and it changes the planning completely. Each island’s most reliable connection is to the mainland, and the island-to-island links are the ones that come and go with the season.
The islands, north to south
- Corfu anchors the group’s north - a Venetian old town, and greener than the Aegean islands.
- Paxos is three harbours, blue caves and no airport.
- Lefkada is the one you can drive onto, with the west-coast beaches.
- Meganisi is a short ferry off Lefkada, and another pace.
- Ithaca is small, green and quiet, with the Odyssey attached.
- Kefalonia is the largest and the one you drive: caves, the long white curve of Myrtos, and distances that surprise people who booked without a car.
- Zakynthos is split in two, between a party south wrapped around a loggerhead-turtle marine park, and quiet cliffs and sea caves in the north.
- Kythira is administratively Ionian and geographically nowhere near.
That last one matters for planning: do not put Kythira in this route because it appears on the same list.
The realistic shapes
The northern pair. Corfu and Paxos - an hour, and then a different pace. This is the easiest hop in the group and the one that needs least planning. A week does both comfortably.
The southern cluster. Kefalonia, Ithaca and Lefkada sit close together and link island to island. Ithaca is a genuine day trip from Sami on Kefalonia, and Fiskardo links north to Lefkada in season. Kefalonia to Zakynthos runs Pesada to Agios Nikolaos, summer only, roughly mid-June to late September.
The whole chain is a two-week trip rather than a one-week one, and the north-to-south link is the weak point - Corfu to Kefalonia sets out why, and why the overland version down the west coast is often the reliable answer.
Take a car, or plan around not having one
Kefalonia’s sights sit on three different coasts an hour of winding road apart, and Lefkada is the one you drive onto rather than sail to. On the bigger southern islands a car is close to essential, and on Paxos it is close to pointless.
That asymmetry is worth planning: a hire car that makes Kefalonia work becomes a liability on a small island with a car ferry in between.
Where this route breaks
Assuming the seasonal links run. The Zakynthos and Lefkada connections are summer services. Outside that window the chain becomes a series of mainland crossings, and the trip you planned is a different trip.
Trying to reach the Aegean from here. Corfu to Santorini is only via Athens - no direct ferry and no direct flight, because Corfu is Ionian and Santorini is Aegean with the Peloponnese in between. Budget about half a day door to door and treat it as two trips.
The Ionian islands has each one, and the island-hopping guide covers sequencing.