Beaches in Lefkada

The water is turquoise almost everywhere on Lefkada, which makes a ranked list useless. The useful way to sort these beaches is by what each one costs you to reach: stairs, parking, shade and, on the west coast, whether the sea will still be swimmable by the time you get down there.

The two coasts do different jobs, and that is the first decision of the day. The west faces the open Ionian, so it gets the white cliffs, the deep turquoise and the swell; the same bay that reads like a swimming pool at ten in the morning can be rolling surf by four. The east is low, green and screened by small islands, so the water there is flat and the boats leave from it. Most Lefkada trips do both, and which way you turn out of the drive decides the character of the day more than the beach name does. Before you plan a west-coast swim day it is worth knowing what the sea is actually like on an open coast.

The cliff beaches, which are the ones you came for. Porto Katsiki is the signature image: a wedge of sand under a sheer white wall, reached by leaving the car in a paid car park at the top and walking down a long flight of steps cut into the cliff. There is almost no natural shade, so it is a morning beach with a full water bottle, and the car park fills. Egremni, further south, is the special case on this coast and gets its own paragraph below. Kathisma is the west made easy: loungers, beach bars and level access straight off the road, which is exactly why it collects the crowds the other two make you earn.

Egremni needs telling honestly, because the internet does not. On 17 November 2015 a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck about 19 km south-southwest of Lefkada and shook a flank of the west-coast cliffs loose, cutting the long staircase that was the beach’s land access. The sand is still there. What changed is how, and whether, you can get down to it, and that has kept changing since. You will find confident reopening years online; they trace to tour-operator blogs rather than to any authority, so we print none. Check the current access locally before you build a day around Egremni, or take it from the water on a boat trip instead.

The coves, for when you want clear water without the staircase. Agiofili, near Vasiliki in the south, is a small bright cove reached on foot or by a short boat shuttle out of the harbour, which is the gentlest way anyone gets to a good beach on this island. Mylos, on the west, is a walk or a boat ride and stays quieter for the effort. Both trade spectacle for ease, and on a hot afternoon that is the right trade.

The wind beaches, where the forecast is a feature. Agios Ioannis near Lefkada Town and Vasiliki in the south are shallow and breezy, built for boards more than for sunbathing. Vasiliki in particular has one of Europe’s most dependable afternoon winds, which means the same conditions that ruin a swim make the bay. If nobody in your group is on a board, read the afternoon forecast as a signal to be somewhere else.

The east coast, and why it is not a lesser option. Around Nidri and Nikiana the water sits calm behind a screen of islets, and that is the side families and weak swimmers should start from. It is also the launch point for the day boats out to Meganisi and the offshore islets, so an east-coast beach day and a boat day are the same drive.

What a lounger costs, and why we do not print a figure. The organised stretches here run on concessions: somebody sets out the umbrellas and you pay for them. A charge exists at the developed ends of these beaches and is displayed on site. We name no business and print no amount, because a beach concession is a seasonal trade and any list of them is wrong within a year. What that money buys is the lounger and the umbrella, which is worth knowing before you assume the whole beach is ticketed. The wider picture is in sunbeds and free beaches.

The one thing every beach on this list has in common is that you drive to it. Lefkada is the Greek island you reach across a bridge rather than by ferry, so the car you arrive in is the car you use, and the practicalities are in our Lefkada guide and in which islands need a car. If you are still choosing between here and the island south of it, Lefkada versus Kefalonia is that decision in full.