The west coast of Lefkada

We start the day calmly, as we have already done the whole holiday. Teije sometimes has a tendency to draw up a busy schedule full of sights that we have to visit, but he also gets a bit calmer (older?) and we have breakfast on our balcony. Our neighbor (the owner), who knows a bit of English, occasionally comes by for a chat. He is a caring man and he wants to be sure that everything is okay and that we are short of nothing. When we have another cup of coffee, the neighbor bring us a homemade cake.

When we set off, we quickly reach the west coast and immediately get a beautiful view of the sea and the beach in front of us. Lefkada is the most mountainous island on the west coast of Greece and the coast is erratic, full of bays so the beaches look very nice in their surroundings. All larger beaches have their own name and this is Pefkoulia beach that looks pretty empty. A small boat floats off the coast on the clear blue water. The dark spots indicate where there are rocks under water.

Especially on the west coast the main road runs high above the coast and is good to drive, but the side roads to the beaches are often narrow and very bad. Agios Nikitas is the only village on this side of the island that lies at sea level and it looks like a cozy tourist village. We stop for a walk through the streets with the many shops and of course we also find a terrace. A somewhat wider shopping street leads to the beach near the village, but the larger, and more beautiful, beaches are a bit further from the village, like the Mylos beach.

Some beaches look pretty empty, others are well organized, meaning that restaurants and taverns have loungers and tables on the water. But that it is not yet a high season, we can see from the amounts of beds that are still unused on the side. Besides swimming you can do more sports here and paragliding is one of them, just like sailing. We are not so sporty but it is nice to look at it.

After Agios Nikitas the through road goes up again, more inland. Kalamitsa is a village on a slope between the green pine trees and because of the height we have a wide view over the coast. There are several beaches a few kilometers away but here also the roads leading to them are narrow and full of hairpin bends to bridge the height difference. So the road to the Kavalikefta beach is good to drive when there is no oncoming traffic, but we come across several cars and then it is a challenge to find a passing spot. It is a beautiful beach but very busy.

We love quiet beaches and we have seen enough of them on the way, so we drive back a bit to the north. The beach is dotted with boulders, from very fine gravel to thick rocks and we are looking for a thick rock to shelter from the strong wind. Being sandblasted by the gravel is not really nice for our skin! Here we spend a long time and occasionally dive into the water to cool down because it is very hot again.