A Kefalonia itinerary: four days, a car

So the honest version of this plan starts with a car. Without one, the island shrinks to whatever your base can reach, and that is a different and much smaller holiday.

Four to five days is the honest minimum: Myrtos, the Sami caves, Assos and Fiskardo, plus real beach time. A week is the comfortable norm, adding the Ithaca day trip and the Paliki peninsula. Three days works only with early starts and a tolerance for driving.

Base first, and match it to the kind of beach you want

The north is pebble. That one fact decides more Kefalonia trips than anything else on this page.

• Argostoli or Lassi for practicality, sand, and the car-free fallback if you would rather not drive every day.
• Sami to sleep next to Melissani, Drogarati and the Ithaca ferry - the efficient base if the caves and the day trip are why you came.
• Skala for the island’s longest sandy beach.
• Fiskardo for the Venetian harbour if the budget stretches. It suits a couples trip best.

Where to stay in Kefalonia works through them properly.

The four days

Myrtos. The beach the island is known for, and the one most photographed in the Ionian. Give it a morning rather than a whole day and go on somewhere else after.

The Sami caves. Melissani and Drogarati, close together on the east coast, and the reason Sami works as a base. Sami covers them.

Assos and Fiskardo. The north in one run: the small harbour under its castle headland, and the Venetian harbour further on. This is the day that justifies the winding roads.

A real beach day. Not a stop between drives - a whole day on one beach, chosen for the shore type you actually want. The beaches split them by pebble and sand.

Where the fifth day and the week go

The fifth day is the one that stops the trip being a driving tour: put it on a beach or in a harbour and do nothing.

A week adds two things that a five-day trip cannot hold: the Ithaca day trip, which is a genuine second island rather than an excursion, and the Paliki peninsula in the west, which most visitors never reach at all. Day trips from Kefalonia covers both.

The three-day version, honestly

It works, but only with early starts and a tolerance for driving. You will see Myrtos, one cave and one harbour, and you will spend a meaningful fraction of the trip on winding road. If that is the trip available to you, base in Sami and cut the north rather than rushing it.

Our Kefalonia guide has the practicalities and things to do in Kefalonia covers the sights.