Lefkada, Greece

Porto Katziki

Egremni

Lefkada or originally Λευκαδα is a beautiful island in western Greece, in Ionian sea. If you are looking for a good vocation on the island with turquoise blue sea, sand beaches, wonderful nature and all that packed with old traditional of Greece smack, Lefkada is the place you are looking for. I was placed in the capital of the island, Lefkas although the smaller town Nidri on the east coast of the island is typical tourist place. All the best beaches are located in the west coast of the island so if you are planing to visit this gorgeous island, you should come by car or rent one there. Most visited beach is probably Kathisma. Most popular and most famous one is Porto Katziki sand beach with a big cliff leaning over the beach with the view of the unreal color of turquoise blue sea, and that's the reason why this beach is declared as one of the best 10 beaches in the whole world by many travel magazines. Egremni is also beautiful beach with fine sand but only problem is that to get to it you will need to go 350 stairs down, which you will have to climb up later on. But you should definitely check the bar on top of the stairs, the view is amazing and the ambient is totally chill. If you are looking for nightlife, visit club Capital in Lefkas.
 Food

Swardfish

While you are on Lefkada, you should visit some traditional tavernas. Taverna is a small restaurant serving Greek cuisine. I always ask local residents to guide me which are their favorites. So we end up in ''Greco Levante'' close to village Athani close to Egremni beach. In front of the tavern is a beautiful garden with a separate part across the road and with superb views of the sea. Sunset at this place is something special. They offer grilled meat, traditional Greek meals, sea food, etc. The staff is friendly and especially emphasize the tavern owner who welcomes guests with chef hat and a big smile. They will literally take you to the chef and show you what they got on a menu. Wild rabbit in their special sauce is great. All the sea food is fresh so the octopus salad is something special there. And of course there is one meal that I especially like to emphasize. Fresh  grilled swardfish with a whole leaves of shortly cooked spinach, potatoes and the bottle of white vine, mixed all together with fresh smell of the sea. There is also one great taverna called K outside of the island in Plagia village, where all the locals come. That one is great. They serve grilled lamb. Specialty of the house is lamb liver wrapped with chitterlings.

Cookies

Of course whenever you come to Greece, you must not miss Greek salad, Gyros, Souvlaki, feta cheese, lot's of different olives, and one of the best olive oils. Bakeries in Greece are something special. They make lots of tasty pastry with olives, so feel free to experiment. What ever you taste, you will not make a mistake. Greeks are known as good cake bakers so check that out too. There is also a lot of market places to buy fresh veggies and fruits, almost on every corner. Don't miss to buy watermelon. Watermelon in Greece have it's own sweetness I tasted nowhere else, probably because of climate conditions and number of sunny days in the year.
  Vine
As i said Greece has lots of sunny days in the year, and great climate conditions not only for watermelon but for grapes too. There are lots of really good vines, but if you are looking for the spirit of the place like I do, you wanna go for a local vine. I tried many of them, but there is one vine that really deserve to be written about it. Λευκαδιτικη γη or ''Land of Lefkas'' white vine made of Vardea grapes. Vardea is typical species of white grapes from Ionian islands. There are two types regular and limited edition. They are both great, although they taste slightly different. They kept limited edition one in 30 oak barrels for few months so it has rich nose and creamy buttery taste with touch of vanilla and almond. Soft acidity comes in aftertaste. On the bottle says dry wine, but i would say semi sweet. I would highly recommend this vine. And it is not expensive. About 7 euros per bottle.