Kefalonia
You can be here in January for about €867, 4 days, direct.
Why now
Shoulder season in January: 15°C days, 14 rainy days, sea 17°C.
Late May to June and September to October keep the roads clear, and the sea is warm from June; in August the island's few main roads jam at Myrtos and Assos, and the ferries from Italy fill. Most of the coast closes from November to April.
Best months here: June, September, October. Daytime highs, sea temperature and rainy days from three years of Open-Meteo reanalysis; a rainy day is one with at least 1 mm of rain, which is the WMO threshold and not the same as "it drizzled".
The place
Kefalonia is the largest Ionian island and one of the emptiest, with a mountain over 1,600 m, a fir forest, and villages rebuilt in concrete after the 1953 earthquake, so the appeal is landscape rather than architecture. It suits people who drive, swim off white-pebble beaches under cliffs, and want a Greek island that has not turned itself into a product.
What you can do
- 01Swim at Myrtos in the morning, then drive on to Assos for lunch below the Venetian fortress.
- 02Take the boat across Melissani cave lake when the sun is overhead, then walk into Drogarati.
- 03Spend an evening in Fiskardo, the one village the earthquake spared, then eat in Matsoukata instead.
- 04Drive or walk on Mount Ainos among the endemic firs and wild horses.
- 05Visit the Robola wine cooperative in the Omala valley, then the monastery of Agios Gerasimos beside it.
Where to stay · neighbourhoods
A first visit should stay in the north around Fiskardo or Assos for the coast, or at Sami for the caves and ferries; Argostoli works for a night before a flight.
Unusual things
- ◦Katavothres at Argostoli, where seawater flows into sinkholes and re-emerges at Melissani across the island.
- ◦The Kipouria monastery on the west cliffs beyond Lixouri, a single monk and the best sunset on the island.
- ◦De Bosset bridge over Argostoli lagoon, a 700-metre stone causeway built by the British in 1813.
Day trips
Flight options
Routes come from OpenFlights (historical) and a 2026 route reference compiled from public timetables. Durations are the published schedule where we have it, otherwise a block-time model fitted on measured nonstop flights. Verify schedules with the airline before booking.
Entry requirements · IT passport
Source: passport-index-data, March 2026 (coarse indicator), covering 258 of our 268 destinations for each of 199 passports. Always confirm with the destination's official site.
Airports
Distances are centre to airport derived · nonstop counts are our route reference for 2026, not every flight that exists.
Local transport
- Airport to city
- Taxi, 15 min, €20; car essential
- Car needed?
- Recommended for most of what is worth seeing
- Getting around
- The airport is 8 km from Argostoli, about 15 minutes by taxi; KTEL buses reach the main villages once or twice a day. A car is the only realistic way around, with slow mountain roads and distances that look short on the map.
- Clock
- 1 hour ahead of Frankfurt (Europe/Athens) derived
- Daylight
- 9.8 hours of daylight in January · sunrise 07:53, sunset 17:40 derived
- Currency
- EUR
Alternatives at a similar price
Whole trip per person for 4 days from Frankfurt in January, then the flight time; estimates, like the total above.
Addis Ababa
Abu Dhabi
Dubai
Jeddah
Cape Verde
Riyadh