Kefalonia, verdict by verdict

Kefalonia is the Ionian's biggest island and its most scenic: Myrtos Beach under white cliffs, pastel Fiskardo, the Melissani cave lake, and Mount Ainos rising black-fir forested over the sea. It delivers postcard Greece at a slower tempo than Santorini or Mykonos, with harbour villages like Assos under its castle and the ferry hop to Ithaca, Odysseus's island.

The fair trade-offs are distance and quiet. The island is 50 km across with mountain roads, Argostoli to Fiskardo runs over an hour, and public buses exist but run thin, especially off-season, so the best beaches and villages are a car's work from any base. Nightlife is taverna-centric and the island turns quiet after dinner outside the harbour villages, and travelers without swimming plans miss the point, since the payoff is the coast.

Four to six days is the shape: one for the north's Assos, Fiskardo and the Myrtos viewpoint, one for the caves, Sami and Antisamos beach, one for the west coast's Petani and Xi, plus an Ithaca ferry day, and a week allows a split between north and south bases. June and September are the sweet spots with warm sea and open businesses. Against Corfu it feels wilder and less polished, fewer museums but more dramatic beaches, suiting scenery-and-swimming trips over culture-heavy itineraries.