Greek Islands

The main port in Greece is Piraeus and for most people this is the beginning of their Greek islands holiday, as they fan out across the sparkling blue Aegean. Patras is the second largest Greek port and it connects the mainland with the Ionian Islands off the Northern shores of Greece next to Albania. Corfu is the most well known of the verdant Ionian Islands and its breathtaking beauty has inspired writers for centuries. The town of Agni is accessible by a steep road but arriving in Corfu on a Greek island ferry is immeasurably easier.

In the British writer Edward Lear wrote:

'This place is wonderfully lovely. If you came I could put you up beautifully and feed you on ginger beer and claret and prawns.'

“The smart set” holidays in Corfu began when Poseidon the God of the Sea fell in love with Korkyra and kidnapped this nymph and took her back to this Ionian island he named after her. The Venetians ruled the island for nearly 400 years. They offered twelve pieces of gold for every hundred trees planted and left a legacy of orchards filled with peaches and lemons, the cypress trees with their carpet of fragrant thyme and myrtle still dominate the landscape. In 1795 Napoleon grabbed the island off the Venetians and added a French touch to the Rue de Rivoli.

The British Prime Minister Gladstone was governor of this Greek island, Prince Philip came into the world on a dining room table in the Greek royal family's summer palace in Mon Repos. Today the Greek island of Corfu has a rich archaeological and architectural history, remote and stubbornly traditional mountain villages and glorious beaches; it embodies all that is perfection in the Greek Isles. It is not unusual for tourists to explore the east side of the island by chartering private boats, for a truly unique Greek island experience. Another unique experience is to hire Gerald Durrell’s house at Kalami, he was a British author grew up on this Greek island he later wrote “My Family and other Animals” describing his Corfu experience.

A Greek Isle's holiday can be combined with an Italian holiday as there are many ferries connecting the Greek island of Corfu with Italy.The Greek port of Igoumenitsa connects north western Greece with Italy and Corfu. Other major ports of Greece are Heraklion and Chania in Crete and the Northern ports of Thessaloniki, Kavala and Alexandroupolis the embarkation point for the north Aegean islands owned by both Greece and Turkey. Within this group, the main islands along the Turkish coast are the Greek islands of Samos, Ikaria, Chios, Lesbos and Lemnos.