The Rough Guide to the Ionian Islands: The Rough Guide

Covers in detail all the major islands in this idyllic archipelago, from tiny verdant Paxi to rocky Ithaki, immortalised in Homer's Odyssey. Completely updated accomodation, restaurant and nightclub listings. New additions include information on long-distance ferries from mainland Greece and Italy, and inter-island ferries for island hoppers. Additional info for walkers and four additional maps.

When to go

If you can, it's best to avoid the islands in late July and most of August, when holidaying Greeks and Italians descend en masse, accommodation is scarce, and temperatures and prices soar. June and early September are just as good for those concerned about fine weather (in fact, the 1990s have seen a number of fairly unstable high summers, with rainy Augusts followed by stunning Septembers and Octobers). In June, the sea is usually warm enough for swimming; in September it can be as warm as a bath.

May, September and October are the times for bargain flights and packages, and, though you may risk short spells of inclement weather, are probably the best times to visit. In May many spring flowers are still in bloom, and villages and villagers are fresh from the winter. In late September and early October you can be blessed with fine weather, warm seas and almost no other visitors. However, bargain package deals in these low-season periods should be carefully scrutinized: some remote resorts (noted in the Guide) close early, often stranding those without the wherewithal to hire transport.

Early May and late October mark the beginning and end of charter flights to the islands, although there's a mini winter season around Christmas and New Year. Outside these times you have to fly via Athens, but, with the exception of Pax', every island capital has hotels open year-round, and most local accommodation companies can rustle up some suitable accommodation. When the rafts of knick-knacks are packed away until next season, even the most developed resorts resume their prelapsarian charm, and major towns - in particular, Corfu Town - are to be seen at their best. The only bars or tavernas will be those the Greeks themselves use, which is usually the best recommendation at any time of the year. The winter months, November especially, see spectacular storms in the Ionian, yet it is possible to get sunburnt on Christmas Day. Off-season travel is also the only way to catch the two biggest festivals of the year: pre-Lenten carnival, a Venetian tradition maintained with parades, parties and mischief; and Orthodox Easter, which is celebrated for a full week and can be an extremely moving experience.

Prevailing northwesterly winds affect all the Ionian islands, commonly rising in the afternoon, occasionally developing into the mastro - the Ionian equivalent of the Aegean meltmi - which can blow for three days or more. These winds make the Ionians ideal for yachting holidays and watersports, but can make beaches at exposed resorts hellish. The climate figures given below are averages for Corfu - if any generalizations about Ionian weather can be made in advance, they can be made only about the region as a whole. The archipelago has any number of micro-climates: Lefkdha's valleys are like little lost Shangri-Las of meteorology, and Pax' gets only a fraction of the storms that gang up on nearby Corfu's Mount Pandokrtor.

//Transliteration Because there's no standard system of transliterating Greek script into Roman, you're sure to find that the Greek words and proper names in this book do not always match the versions written elsewhere. Place names are the biggest source of confusion, varying from map to map, and often sign to sign. The word for "saint", for instance, one of the commonest prefixes, can be rendered Ayios, Agios, or Aghios. To make matters worse, there are often two forms of a name in Greek - the modern, popularly used dhimotik' and the older, elitist katharvoussa. Thus, for example, you will come across the older Paxo' and the newer Pax', as well as Anglicized Paxos. Throw in inherited Italian and English names, a boggling array of island dialects with their own variants on pronunciation, and haphazard spelling, and you have a real mare's nest.

In this book, we've used a modern, largely phonetic system in the spelling of modern Greek place names. We have, however, retained the accepted "English" spelling for familiar places like Corfu and Athens. We have also accented (with an acute) the stressed letter of each word; getting this right in pronunciation is vital in order to be understood.//