Lefkada is an island with wonderful
sandy beaches, especially on its west coasts. Most people
know the beach of Porto Katsiki in the southwest side
of the island, which is full of tourists in the summer.
Much bigger, equally impressive but much quieter is the
beach of Egremni, a little more to the north; the only
problem being that the road does not go down to the beach
and visitors have to walk for about 10 minutes. Vast,
quiet and spotlessly clean are the beaches of Gialos and
Kathisma, where road does take visitors down to the sea.
The most popular is the beach of Aghios Ioannis, with
numerous clubs, restaurants and renting rooms, very close
to the City of Lefkada.
Vasiliki, with its wide,
sandy beach is one of the most popular tourist resorts, with camping
sites, numerous renting rooms, excellent tavernas, clubs and coffee-houses,
sea-sport facilities. Those travelling in their own boats prefer
the lee bay at Sivota, where there is a nice harbour and a lovely,
small sandy beach. Campers will find own paradise in Mikros Gialos
with the wonderful sandy beach, the well-organised camping-site
and the picturesque tavernas.
The dramatist Ioannis Zabelios (1787 - 1856), the poet and politician
Aristotelis Valaoritis (1824 - 1879), the poet and novelist Angelos
Sikelianos (1884 - 1951), the historian Nikos Svoronos (1911 -
1989), the poet Nanos Valaoritis and the mezzo soprano
(thanx Susanne) Agnes Baltsa are only a few of
the Lefkada men and women who excelled in arts.
Map of Ionian Islands
Map of Lefkada
From 1901 to 1914 the
German archaeologist Dorpfeld was searching all over Lefkada for
the palace of Odysseus, believing that the Homeric Ithaca was
actually Lefkada. Although he did not find the palace, he brought
to surface a settlement that fllourished during the Early-Helladic
and Middle-Helladic period (1900 - 1600 B.C.) and its impressive
cemetery in the plain just outside the city of Nidri. When he
died, in 1940, he was baried in his garden, close to the chapel
of Aghia Kiriaki, on the small peninsula opposite Nidri.
