Best of the Greek Ionian Islands: Corfu, Kefalonia, Zakynthos, Ithaca, Lefkada & Paxos, A 2026 First-Person Guide
Browse more guides: Greece travel | Europe destinations Best of the Greek Ionian Islands: Corfu, Kefalonia, Zakynthos, Ithaca, Lefkada & Paxos: A 2026 First-Person Guide TL;DR I spent the better part of three Mediterranean summers wandering between seven west-Greek islands, and I will say upfront that the Ionian Islands feel like a different country from the Aegean Cyclades that most first-time visitors picture when they hear the word Greece. The Ionians sit off the western coastline, between Greece and southern Italy, and they were ruled by Venice for roughly four centuries (1386 to 1797) while the rest of Greece lived under Ottoman rule. That single fact changes everything you see, eat and hear: pastel facades instead of cubist white-blue, narrow Italianate alleys called kantounia, bell towers that look transplanted from Verona, kumquat liqueur in Corfu, hand-pressed olive oil in Paxos and a vocabulary loaded with Venetian loanwords. In this guide I cover the five Tier-1 isl...