ElaineK

The island of Paxos is situated in the Ionian Sea, a few miles south of Corfu. It covers an area of only about 19 sq km, so it's small enough to get around easily but big enough not to get bored with.
The whole island of Paxos is covered in olive and cypress trees, so from the air it resembles a huge emerald in a saphire and turquoise sea and I don't think I'd be the first person to describe it as "the jewel of the Ionians".
We first went to Paxos in 1992 and after that first visit we were completely hooked. I hope to post some photos here which will help to explain why!

There are three main villages on Paxos of which Loggos is the tiniest and, for us at least, it just seems the friendliest and least spoilt. It's everyone's idea of a typical Greek fishing village. One of their major concessions to commercialization was to string a row of fairy lights along the harbour front some years ago, but each year we went back, more and more bulbs were in need of replacing, and after about 3 years they had taken them down altogether! Loggos has about half a dozen tavernas, the same number of bars and a handful of shops - so everything you need really.

Gaios is the main "town" and is the liveliest, with lots of restaurants and a huge picturesque harbour where you can stroll along and drool over all the "rich people's" floating gin palaces, but it gets very busy during the day with trippers from Corfu and Parga and many of the shops seem to be aimed at making a quick killing from these daytrippers. There are however some good jewellery and souvenir shops amongst the tourist tat and we always spend at least one day of our holidays on Paxos visiting Gaios.

Lakka is the most northerly of the three main villages and is somewhere in between Loggos and Gaios in terms of size. It has plenty of restaurants, bars and shops and its sheltered harbour attracts many boats which go there to moor for the night. For us it seems to lack both the charm and intimacy of Loggos and the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Gaios. However it's very popular, especially with first time visitors, so maybe that's just our personal opinion.

Because Paxos is so small, it's a great island for walking - even if you get lost, you don't have far to go before you reach civilisation! There are hundreds of little tracks through the olive groves of Paxos and walking them will get you away from the main villages and give you a glimpse of Paxiot life. The island has so much natural shade from the olive and cypress trees that, even in July and August, the walking isn't too difficult. Just remember to take water and a map. For ideas of where to walk on Paxos, our favourite is the Paxos Walking Map by Ian & Elizabeth Bleasdale, available on the island or in advance from Friends of the Ionian. A walk between Loggos and Gaios will take you through little hamlets and olive groves. About halfway along the walk is the village of Fontana, which has a church (shown in the second photo above), a shop, a kafenio and a taverna, so it's a good place to stop for a short rest if you need one. Just before you enter the village centre, you'll pass an olive factory and see the pressed olives piled up outside. If you carry straight on, you'll walk through more villages and hamlets on the way to Gaios, but if you take the new road off to the left, this will take you along the coast, where there are small beaches to swim off after you've passed the reservoir on the right. This road takes you into Gaios alongside the new port and as you walk along the harbour front to the town centre you'll pass hundreds of boats, ranging from small open boats to millionaire-style yachts.

A trip around the island by boat is a must for dramatic views of the western caves and cliffs. The boat we went on was small enough to actually sail inside some of the caves and the rock formations and colours are absolutely stunning. We went on Lefcothea from Loggos harbour and it cost us 15 euros each (July 2005) for a full day, including about 4 hours on Anti Paxos. We left Loggos at 10.30am and arrived back there at around 5.30pm. The highlight of the trip for me was swimming in the clearest, bluest sea I've ever seen, in one of the tiny coves on the west coast of Paxos. Lefcothea is run by Paxos Thalassa Travel and can be booked in their office on Loggos harbourfront.

I think that everyone visiting Paxos for the first time should hire a boat for at least a day or two. Many of the little rocky coves and beaches are only accessible by boat and if you're lucky (and visiting outside the peak months of July and August) you can end up with one all to yourself. Prices vary according to the season, the size of the boat and how long you hire it for - discounts are normally available for weekly hire - but in July 2005 a 35bhp boat cost 45 euros a day, plus fuel, in Loggos

Don't go to Paxos if you're looking for exciting nightlife and partying. There are a couple of clubs in Gaios, but apart from that most people prefer to spend their evenings enjoying a leisurely meal in one of the tavernas, followed by a drink or several at a bar overlooking the harbours or in the town squares and just watching the world go by. Unlike many other places I've visited in Greece, on Paxos they seem to try and encourage visitors to spread their money around the local businesses and so several tavernas we've found don't serve after-dinner drinks. This means that if you want coffee and brandies or whatever after your meal, you're forced to move on to one of the bars. Such hardship!

If you can get out of bed early enough, it's well worth it to see the village houses and trees glinting in the morning dew and the sun rising over the mainland. I usually manage it on the first morning, before holiday mode sets in! Loggos is perfect for this, as you don't get the bustle of the early morning ferries, like in Gaios, or the first early yachts setting off for the day, like in Lakka, so you can just wander around and watch the village gradually waking up and turning from monochrome, through golden-red to full technicolour. Wandering through the alleyways, you suddenly come across fantastic views like this one of a cafe on the harbourfront. It's amazing how much more picturesque everything looks at this time of day!

Take the path that starts just behind the old soap factory and follow it upwards. The last few metres are a bit of a scramble through the bushes, but you should be able to make out the path. Once you reach the mill, climb up on the walls and gasp at the views! If you then follow the path north from the mill, you eventually reach a small church with a very impressive graveyard. Somehow I didn't feel quite right taking photos of the graves, but I think some very rich families must be buried there. At night the mill is floodlit and dominates Loggos harbour

Because Paxos is so rural and covered in olive and cypress trees, the wildlife there is abundant. Some of this you'll probably never see, like the elusive skops owls, whose eerie calls you may hear without even realising it every evening.

Lizards are everywhere of course, but seem to be quite harmless and very timid. If you leave an outside light on when you go out in the evening, you'll probably find at least one or two around it, trying to catch moths, when you get back home at night. However, if you're staying outside the main villages, it is likely that you'll come across the occasional rat (or tree hamster, as we prefer to call them!) running across the track as you make your way home at night. Don't worry, they are much smaller and cuter than town rats and they seem far more scared of people than we are of them! If you don't bother them, they probably won't bother you.

If you have a phobia or allergy to cats, then Paxos (or just about anywhere in Greece for that matter) probably isn't for you - you simply can't avoid them. Luckily, I love them! Some people get worried about what happens to the cats when the visitors go home after the summer. Having visited Paxos for many years, I've come to recognise a lot of individual cats and have seen many small kittens grow into adult cats with kittens of their own, so they obviously know how to look after themselves and manage to survive the winters with little or no human help. The following photos are of some of the cats I've come across over the years.

Dogs are nowhere near as prolific on Paxos as the cats and all the ones I've come across seem well cared for and friendly. The most danger they seem to pose is slobbering all over you! However, the well-behaved ones are often left free to wander around and it's worth being alert to this if you have small children who are unused to dogs.

For a lot of people, their first experience of Paxos is on a daytrip from Corfu. There are many organised trips available, but most of them only seem to give you a couple of hours actually on Paxos and time for a quick swim when the boat moors off a beach on Anti Paxos, so they are more about the trip itself than actually seeing Paxos.
For anyone who is more interested in "being there" than "getting there", I'd recommend going independently by either hydrofoil or seaplane. The seaplane only takes about 15 minutes, as opposed to an hour by hydrofoil, but the timings mean that on a daytrip you don't actually get that much longer on Paxos than by taking the hydrofoil . However, the views from the seaplane are supposed to be breath-taking, so it's worth considering the extra expense for at least one leg of the trip
If travelling by hydrofoil, I would recommend going on a Wednesday or Sunday, when the Paxos Flying Dolphin leaves Corfu at 9.30 am and returns from Gaios at 5pm. This gives you around 6.5 hours to either explore Paxos, using a combination of bus and taxis, or to get one of the express boats that run from Gaios to Anti Paxos about once an hour throughout the day.

The hydrofoils to Paxos leave from Corfu New Port, just behind the Nautica Bar and opposite Hotel Atlantis and are quite frequent during the high season June - September. The journey takes about an hour. The seaplane service started up in November 2004 and runs from Gouvia Marina. During the summer of 2005 it was only operating between Corfu, Paxos and Ioannina but there are plans to run scheduled flights all over the Ionians and to Brindisi and Patras next year. The current service cuts the travel time between Corfu and Paxos to around 15 minutes. Schedules for the hydrofoils can be found here:-
http://www.paxos-greece.com/how_to_get_to_paxos.htm and further details of the seaplane service are here:-
http://www.airsealines.com/index.htm

Apart from the man-made sandy beach at Mongonissi, all the beaches on Paxos are pebbly. This may not suit some people, but I much prefer to have the "inconvenience" of having to sunbathe on a li-lo rather than having sand blow about - it does get everywhere!

Levrechio is the closest beach to Loggos, just along the road from the Manor House. It's fairly unusual for Paxos, in that there's taverna right by the beach. This and its proximity to the village do mean that the beach attracts quite a lot of people, especially during high season, but there always seems to be somewhere to plonk a towel or li-lo and the taverna provides some very welcome shade and cold drinks during the heat of the day. The food's not bad too, cooked by the mother of the owner, Spiros. The photo above was taken around mid-day in July, so you can see that the beach doesn't get TOO crowded!

Marmari is the second beach you reach heading south from Loggos. To get to it, walk along Levrechio and take the path to the right at the side of the taverna, then turn off to the left behind the group of 3 small white cottages and follow the narrow track. It's about a 10-15 minute walk from Loggos village and is well worth it because it has far more natural shade than Levrechio, beneath the olive trees that grow right down to the edge of the beach.

Kipiadi is about midway between Loggos and Gaios and because it's quite a large bay it's a very popular spot for people in yachts to moor up and have a quick dip. Getting to it by land involves a steep downhill climb, so beware of the return journey uphill if you're on foot and have had a touch too much sun! However, in July 2005 we noticed that they were starting to build a road down to the beach, so it may become more accessible (and popular) in the near future.

Kaki Lagada is the last "big" beach heading from Loggos to Gaios. It is dominated by a large, fairly impressive-looking villa (pm me for details of where to book if you're feeling flush!) and has a small "kantina" in the olive groves behind the beach, serving drinks and snacks. Coming from Loggos, take the new-looking downhill road on the left just past Fontana church and you'll eventually reach Kaki Lagada.

There are many tiny little coves and rocks to sunbathe on in between the main beaches of Paxos. Most of these are best reached from the sea if you hire a boat, but some can be reached on foot if you don't mind a bit of a scramble! One of my favourites is the tiny one between Levrechio and Marmari, which can only be reached from the sea and provides a rest-stop if needed when you swim between the two main beaches.

All the main villages on Paxos are situated on the more accessible East coast, facing the mainland, but the West coast of the island has some magnificent cliffs and beaches and is well worth a trip. Unfortunately, because of its slightly wild and rugged nature, you aren't allowed to take private hire boats to that side of the island and so the only way to see it from the sea is by going on an organised excursion boat. But if you hire a car or take the local bus to that side of the island and then walk the coastal paths, there are some spectacular views. Just be careful near the cliff edges, because some of the paths have a habit of disappearing over the edge! This is Sterna Bay at the southern end of the west coast. It's about a mile from the small village of Makratika.

This is another west coast "must see", especially at sunset if you can manage it and the nearby Sunset Bar is a very popular place to visit at that time of day. From the hamlet of Boikatika, follow the signs for the church of the Apostles - Ag. Apostoli. The cliffs can be seen from the edge of the church grounds.

The abandoned village of Geramonachos is just off the main road about half a mile north of Gaios. You can see the deserted houses and olive presses and it's a good place to have a picnic in the shade of the olive trees. The last time we visited it there seemed to be a few people moving into the area and refurbishing the old houses, so maybe it won't stay deserted for much longer. The photo shows the faded grandeur of one of the old house entrances. Follow the coast road north from Gaios and at the corner where the newer part of the road forks off to the right, stay left on the old road. The track into Geramonachos is a few yards further on the left.

In the corner of Loggos harbour stands the disused soap factory, with its slightly precarious-looking chimney. Over the years this has been earmarked for development as tourist apartments and a cultural centre, amongst other things. In July 2005 it was still standing derelict, but we were told that the local villagers were trying to purchase it from the current owner, who also owns the Manor House at the opposite end of the harbour. Some see it as an eyesore, but to me it's part of the essential character of Loggos and I hope it stays there for many years to come. The photo is of the statue which stands guard over the factory entrance.

We went to Anti Paxos as part of our round-the-island trip on Lefcothea, but there are lots of other organised trips and sea taxis which will just take you straight there and drop you off for a few hours. Unfortunately, at midday in the middle of July, we found it too hot to walk very far, but I'd love to go back there when it's cool enough to really explore the island. The beach we landed on (Vrika) is stunning with pure white sand and crystal clear turquoise and saphire sea. It has two tavernas right on the beach and we chose the Vrika Taverna to have lunch in. After lunch we spent a couple of hours relaxing in their garden, which has free umbrellas, sunbeds, hammocks and showers, with the occasional dip in the sea to wake us up so that we wouldn't miss the boat back! If you're on a daytrip from Corfu and you go in July or August, you'll probably spend most of your time on Anti Paxos sitting in a taverna or on the beach under an umbrella and it's a long way to travel from Corfu just for that. So if the weather's very hot and sunny, I'd stick to exploring Paxos and save the Anti Paxos trip for when you go back to stay on Paxos ;o)

A lot of people ask us why, after so many visits to Paxos, we don't just get cheap flights and do it ourselves instead of booking packages. The problem is that, because we've been so many times, we know exactly where we want to stay and, since virtually all of what we consider to be the best accommodation in the prime locations is contracted to operators for the whole season, we have little choice but to pay the middle man :-( The other problem is co-ordinating flight and ferry times. Most people who travel independently have to spend their first and/or last night on Corfu and for us that's just not worth the hassle at the moment - maybe when we retire and can spend a few months at a time over there!

It's possible to stay quite cheaply on Paxos in basic rooms or studio apartments and it's also possible to spend a small fortune on a fabulous luxury villa with its own private pool. We normally go for something somewhere in between, but have stayed in budget accommodation a couple of times and still enjoyed Paxos just as much! This is a list of websites to start you off looking for accommodation on Paxos. I have no personal experience of many of these and have posted the list as a resource tool and not necessarily as personal recommendations. The first section is a list of UK-based package operators. It's still worth looking at some of these sites, even if you're coming from outside the UK, because many of them will break up the package and sell accommodation only:-

http://www.travelalacarte.co.uk
http://www.planos.co.uk
http://www.sunvil.co.uk/

http://www.cvtravel.net/index.htm

http://www.kosmar.co.uk
htp://www.filoxenia.co.uk/Pages/villas/villas_paxos.htm

http://www.greekoptions.co.uk/
http://www.olympicholidays.co.uk/Greece%2DPaxos/
http://www.simpson-travel.com/greece/the_ionian.htm

http://www.tapestryholidays.com/destinations/resort/pax/portfolio/ <

The following is a list of local rental agencies on Paxos, for those who prefer to travel independently:-
http://www.paxos-holidays.gr/paxos.html
http://www.paxos-glyfadabeach.com
http://www.geocities.com/boikos.geo
http://www.paxossun.gr/gaios.htm
http://www.bouastours.gr/about_us.html
http://www.paxos-villas.com
http://www.paxos-greece.com/index.htm
http://www.kerkyra.net/lioniskari/
http://www.corfuxenos.gr/pl/paxos-acc.htm
http://www.paxosweb.gr
http://www.greecead.com/gadhome/paxos/accommodations/
http://www.paxos-travel.gr
http://www.routsis-holidays.com
http://www.zefitravel.com/villas.htm

This is where I'll put anything that doesn't really fit into any of the other headings and hopefully will add to it from time to time as different ideas spring to mind.

If you're used to using ATMs to get cash on holiday, it's handy to know that, as far as I'm aware, the only ones on Paxos are still in Gaios. There was talk of one being installed in Lakka a while ago, but I seem to recall someone telling me that it was just a "hole in the wall" and didn't actually work! If anyone knows different, please let me know. Credit cards are widely accepted on the island nowadays, but you will need some cash for small day-to-day purchases and Paxos is one of the few places in the world where I wouldn't have any qualms about taking a wad of euros with me and not needing a safe to keep them in. Several of the tour offices in Loggos and Lakka exchange cash or travellers' cheques and seem to give a reasonable exchange rate with about 1￿ - 2% commission and if you happen to travel with Planos, they have a fantastic scheme whereby they allow you to "run up a tab" for cash throughout your holiday and then settle it with a normal personal cheque before you go home.

Paxos isn't so isolated that if you forget to take anything essential with you, you won't be able to find one somewhere on the island, but one thing that I always try and remember to take with me is a torch for walking home at night. Outside the village centres even the "main" roads are badly lit at night and to reach your accommodation, you may find yourself having to stumble along narrow winding goat tracks or up donkey steps, which are very picturesque in the daytime, but no so easy to negotiate in complete darkness. Especially not good after a few ouzos or metaxas!

There is a public bus that goes between Gaios and Lakka via Loggos a few times a day, but it's not very frequent and for most of the year stops running at around 6.30 in the evening. It does run later during the peak season, but nobody ever seems to be sure exactly when this will start (it was around 18th July this year I think) and even then the last bus from Gaios is about 10pm and from Lakka to Gaios about 10.30, so it's not exactly designed for late nights out! There are a few taxis on the island, but you never seem to be able to find one when you need it, so if you're planning a late night out of your home village, or need to be somewhere by a set time - like catching a ferry home - it's always best to try and book in advance. There are plenty of cars, bikes and boats to hire on Paxos though, so there's no need to be stuck in one place all holiday if you don't want to be. Mind you, I'm usually quite happy to be "stuck" in Loggos for as long as I possibly can be!

The official website for Paxos has loads more information and photos and can be found here:-
http://www.paxos-greece.com/index.html

My latest holiday on Paxos was July 2005 and I'll be back there in July 2006 (yippeee!). My favourite photos from the latest trip, which include some of the ones I've posted on this page, can be found here:-
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/xenosinloggos/my_photos