The Ionian island you can drive to — Porto Katsiki's white cliffs and electric blue water, Vassiliki's world-class kitesurfing, and a town built earthquake-proof with tin facades
Lefkada is the only Greek island connected to the mainland by a road — a floating bridge across a shallow channel means you can arrive by car without a ferry. Porto Katsiki on the west coast has white limestone cliffs dropping to electric blue water that photographs as improbably as Santorini but in a completely different register. Vassiliki bay in the south is a world-calibre windsurfing and kitesurfing destination where thermal winds funnel predictably from noon. Lefkada Town was repeatedly destroyed by earthquakes and rebuilt with lightweight tin facades over timber frames — an earthquake-…
Lefkada was connected to the mainland by a causeway since ancient times — the Corinthians cut a channel in the 7th century BCE, making it an island. The ancient city of Leucas was a significant Corinthian colony; the Leucadian Leap was an ancient ritual where a criminal or scapegoat was thrown from Cape Ducato to expiate communal guilt. The Romans and Byzantines held it before Venetian rule (1479–1797), which left the fortress at Santa Maura and the typical Ionian pattern of Venetian-influenced culture overlying an older Greek and Byzantine base.