By AURA Private Yachting ·
From Preveza by private boat you can reach Lefkada (1.5h), Ithaca (3h), Paxos (3.5h) and Kefalonia (3.5h) — all in a single day cruise. Charter from __FROM_PRICE__.
Why Preveza Is the Ionian's Best Kept Secret
Most visitors to the Ionian head straight for Lefkada or Kefalonia. What they miss is that Preveza — sitting at the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf — is one of the best launch points in the entire Ionian Sea. From here, five genuinely different islands are within reach of a single day's sailing.
This isn't a list of destinations on a map. It's a description of what you actually experience when you get there.
1. Lefkada — The White Cliffs You've Seen in Every Photo
Sailing time from Preveza: about 1.5 hours. The moment you round the western cape of Lefkada, you understand immediately why this island appears in every list of Greece's most beautiful beaches.
Porto Katsiki — the most photographed beach in Greece — is only truly accessible by boat. You anchor, swim to the shore, and look up at the white limestone cliff from directly below. The image you've seen on Instagram doesn't prepare you for the scale of it. Egremni, just north, offers the same dramatic landscape with a fraction of the boat traffic.
2. Paxos — Caves, Cliffs, and Impossible Blue
Sailing time: 3-3.5 hours. Paxos is the island that hides its best features from anyone who stays on land. The western coastline is lined with sea caves — Ipapanti, Kastanida, Grammatikula — where the boat enters narrow passages and the water turns a shade of blue that looks digitally enhanced but isn't.
Just south, Antipaxos has a lagoon of perfectly clear, turquoise water that looks more Caribbean than Greek. Waist-deep in places, ideal for snorkelling and swimming in conditions you won't find anywhere else in the Ionian.
3. Ithaca — Odysseus's Island, Unchanged
Sailing time: 3 hours. Ithaca doesn't compete with Lefkada on scenery or Paxos on caves. It has something harder to describe: an atmosphere. Dark rock, small quiet harbors, a sense of being somewhere that hasn't been packaged for tourists.
Off the northern tip, the uninhabited island of Atokos is a regular AURA stop — a completely wild anchorage where you swim in water that almost no one else reaches that day. You anchor, you swim, you have the cove entirely to yourselves.
4. Kefalonia — The Island That Keeps Giving
Sailing time: 3.5 hours. Kefalonia is the largest island in this guide, and AURA's route explores its quieter northern coastline — the part that doesn't appear in package holiday brochures.
Fiskardo's Venetian harbor is genuinely pretty, and nothing like the port towns further south. The beaches of Dafnoudi and Afales have no road access — you can only reach them by boat. The water in the northern bays is a shade of blue-green that looks tropical. This is Kefalonia before it became famous.
5. Meganisi and Scorpios — The Quiet Surprise
Sailing time: 1.5-2 hours. Between Lefkada and Ithaca, two small islands offer something the bigger destinations can't: genuine solitude. Meganisi is inhabited but unhurried — fishing-village scale, emerald water, almost no tourism. Scorpios, just opposite, was Aristotle Onassis's private island. Landing isn't permitted, but swimming in the water around it — with deer visible on shore and absolute silence — is one of the more unusual things you can do in the Ionian.
Which Island Should You Choose?
It depends entirely on what you're looking for:
- Dramatic scenery: → Lefkada
- Caves and impossible water color: → Paxos
- Wild, untouched anchorages: → Ithaca
- Full-day exploration: → Kefalonia
- Escape from other tourists entirely: → Meganisi / Scorpios
AURA departs from Nydri (Lefkada) and Preveza and can design a private cruise around any combination of these islands.