Kefalonia vs Corfu or Lefkada: which Ionian island should you choose?

Kefalonia vs Corfu vs Lefkada: the short answer

Choose Kefalonia for space, mountains and a quieter, less built-up coast, with a handful of famous sights (Myrtos, Melissani, Assos, Fiskardo) spread across a large island that you explore by car. Choose Corfu if you want a real historic town, the widest choice of flights and resorts, and green, gentler countryside. Choose Lefkada if the priority is the most photographed beaches of the Ionian, sailing and windsurfing, and an island you can reach by road from the mainland.

None of them is a party island in the way parts of Zakynthos are, although Corfu has its lively resorts. All three are at their best in June and September, and all three are crowded in August, when Italian and Greek holidaymakers join the northern Europeans.

By type of trip: families with young children usually find Corfu's sandy resorts or Kefalonia's south coast around Skala and Lassi easiest, because Lefkada's best beaches involve steps, waves or a boat. Couples and walkers tend to prefer Kefalonia's villages and mountain roads, or Lefkada's quieter inland. Travellers without a car do best in a town: Corfu Town, where island buses start and the old centre is walkable, or Argostoli on Kefalonia, where buses and many boat trips leave from.

Size, landscape and getting around

Kefalonia is the largest of the Ionian Islands, at about 773 km², and the most mountainous: Mount Ainos rises to 1,628 m in the middle of it. Distances are longer than they look on a map, so Argostoli to Fiskardo is about 50 km and an hour or more on winding roads, and a car is close to essential; see car hire in Kefalonia. In return, long stretches of coast have no resort at all.

Corfu is a little smaller, around 611 km², but long and narrow, about 64 km from north to south, with almost three times Kefalonia's population. The north is hilly and green, the centre is dense with villages and olive groves, and the busy resort belts follow the coast. Lefkada, at about 302 km², is the most compact of the three: a mountainous interior with a road around the coast, where the east side faces calm water and the islets near Nidri and the west side drops straight into the open sea.

Getting there: airports and flights

Corfu has the biggest airport of the three and the longest list of seasonal routes from the UK, Germany and Italy, which often makes it the easiest and sometimes the cheapest to reach. Kefalonia's airport, 8 km south of Argostoli, is busy from May to October and quiet in winter, when the usual scheduled link is to Athens; our Kefalonia airport guide has the details.

Lefkada has no airport of its own. Most visitors fly to Aktion (PVK), near Preveza on the mainland, and drive about 25 minutes to Lefkada town, crossing onto the island by a causeway and a floating bridge. The road link also makes Lefkada the easiest of the three to reach by car from Athens or from the ferries arriving from Italy.

Beaches compared

Lefkada's west coast is the reason many people choose it: Porto Katsiki, Kathisma and Egremni are long arcs of white pebble and sand under pale cliffs, with water that turns turquoise in the afternoon sun. They face the open sea, so waves and wind pick up on many afternoons. Egremni was badly damaged by the November 2015 earthquake, so check the current state of the access before you go.

Kefalonia has the same kind of scenery at Myrtos, plus calmer coves on the east coast such as Antisamos, the sandy beaches of the south around Skala and Lourdas, and Xi and Petani on the Lixouri peninsula; our Kefalonia beaches guide sorts them by area and type. Corfu's beaches are more varied but less dramatic: coves below the cliffs at Paleokastritsa, long sandy stretches on the west coast and shingle on the more sheltered east side.

Towns, history and things to see

Here Corfu wins clearly. Its Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2007, is a real Venetian-era town of arcades, lanes and two fortresses, and it is lived in all year. Kefalonia lost almost every old building in the 1953 earthquake: Argostoli was rebuilt as a modern town, and only Fiskardo in the north kept its pre-1953 harbour houses. Lefkada town, also rebuilt after earthquakes, is small and pleasant, with brightly painted houses and a lively marina.

Kefalonia makes up for it with nature: the underground lake of Melissani Cave, Drogarati Cave, the fir forest of Mount Ainos, the Venetian castle at Assos, and the loggerhead turtles that feed in Argostoli harbour. Lefkada's sights are mostly at sea and on its beaches, while Corfu adds palaces, monasteries and hill villages to its coast.

Atmosphere, resorts and crowds

Corfu has been a mass-market destination for decades, and it shows in the larger resorts and the number of package hotels, though the north-east coast and the inland villages are calmer. Kefalonia feels the least developed of the three: tourism is concentrated around Lassi, Skala, Sami and Fiskardo, and the rest of the island is farmland, mountain and small villages. Lefkada sits between the two, busy around Nidri and Vasiliki in summer but quiet in the mountain villages.

Prices are broadly similar across the Ionian, with the yacht harbours (Fiskardo, Nidri, the smart corners of Corfu) at the top end; see is Kefalonia expensive for real figures. To pick a base on Kefalonia, compare the areas in where to stay in Kefalonia.

Sailing, wind and combining Kefalonia with Lefkada

Lefkada is the sailing hub of the Ionian. The sheltered water between its east coast, Meganisi, Ithaca and the north of Kefalonia is a favourite flotilla area, and Vasiliki bay, in the south of Lefkada, is known for its afternoon wind and windsurfing. Kefalonia's own boat trips leave from Fiskardo, Agia Efimia, Sami and Argostoli; our boat trips and boat hire guide explains the options and the rules.

You do not have to choose only one. A car ferry links Fiskardo with Vasiliki in about an hour from April to October, with up to four sailings a day in high summer, so a week on Kefalonia can end with a few days on Lefkada, or the other way round. Timetables are on our Kefalonia ferries page. Corfu is much further north and has no direct ferry to Kefalonia, so combining those two usually means a domestic flight via Athens or a long drive on the mainland.

What about Crete?

Crete is in a different league: at more than ten times the size of Kefalonia it is closer to a small country, with its own cities, gorges, archaeological sites and a much longer season. Choose Crete for two weeks of variety; choose Kefalonia for a slower, greener holiday where you can see the whole island in a week.