Day trips from Kefalonia: Ithaca, Paliki

Ithaca, the genuine second island

Ithaca is the day trip a longer Kefalonia stay is built around. The ferry runs from Sami, which is also why Sami works as a base if this is on your list: you sleep next to the boat rather than driving to it.

It is not a smaller version of Kefalonia. Ithaca’s best is a network of paths between villages rather than sights you drive to, and it carries an unsettled question about whether it is Homer’s Ithaca at all - which our Ithaca guide holds open rather than settling, because nobody has.

Practically: it is a day if you start early from Sami, and a much better two days if the walking appeals. Things to do in Ithaca covers the paths and the question.

The Paliki peninsula, which most visitors never reach

Paliki is the western lobe of the island, and it is what a week adds after Ithaca. Almost nobody goes, which is most of the recommendation.

It is also the one day out that needs no boat and no timetable - useful on an island where the sights are an hour of winding road apart and the buses are thin. If a morning is wrong for the sea, this is the day that still works.

What the Sami base buys you

Worth saying plainly, because it changes the shape of the week: basing in Sami puts you next to Melissani, Drogarati and the Ithaca ferry at once. If your Kefalonia is caves plus a second island, that single choice removes most of the driving from the trip.

If your Kefalonia is beaches, base for the shore type instead - the north is pebble - and accept the drive on the day you go.

What does not work as a day

The rest of the Ionian is further than it looks from a map. Zakynthos connects in summer and is a genuine second island rather than an excursion, and Corfu is a separate trip. Zakynthos vs Kefalonia and Corfu vs Kefalonia both take the two-island question seriously, and Corfu to Kefalonia covers the leg itself.

Fitting them in

On four to five days, take neither - the island’s own three coasts are the trip, and adding a boat day means cutting Assos and Fiskardo or the caves. On a week, take Ithaca first and Paliki with whatever is left.

Our Kefalonia guide has the practicalities and the Kefalonia itinerary puts the days in order.