Shopping

Kythera has about 10 supermarkets – the closest to the house is about 8 minutes by car away in the major village of Potamos. On Sundays there is also a fruit and flea market in Potamos which shouldn't be missed. You'll also find some great restaurants and cafés there.

Bakeries are also in about 10 villages on the island, and down in Agia Pelagia, a port town about 15 minutes by car from the house (or an hour overland by foot), there is a supermarket, lots of restaurants and cafés, and 4 beautiful beaches to enjoy.

Beaches

Kythera has more than 30 stunning beaches which, except in July and August, are almost completely empty. There are beaches with fine white sand (Diakofti), small pebbles (Kalathi, in the picture), and others covered with red sand (Firi Ammos) and large smooth rocks (Paliopoli). All are wonderful in their own way.

The Magic Green Pool on the mid west coast (take your shoes - it's a hard walk!)

Paliopoli (east coast), the most ancient and magic area of the island.

The white sands of Diakofti, the main port. East coast.

The bay at the fishing village of Avlemonas (good restaurants!)

If you've been invited to visit our house, this is where you'll find all the relevant information to make your stay enjoyable.

How to get there:

Once you get to Athens (for example with Easyjet from Berlin which costs between €150 and €330 return, depending upon season and holidays), you still of course have to get to the island. It takes about 35 minutes with Olympic Air from Athens to Kythera, and flies at least once a day and which you can book here. At the time of writing it cost about €120 return (Sept-June) and €180 return (July/August) for the Athens-Kythera-Athens flight.

You can also take a ferry from Piraeus, the port of Athens, to Kythera. That costs less than half as much as the plane, takes 8 or 9 hours, and is a wonderful, if long, journey. I think it sails twice a week in season but in the winter it is sometimes affected by bad weather. You can see the ferry timetable here.

If you can find a cheap flight to somewhere on the Peloponnese (Patras, Kalamata), it is sometimes cheaper to fly there and hire a car (4WD if you are staying at our place because of the road) and drive to Neapoli (see below) and take the ferry across. This is especially interesting if you want to see more of Greece anyway.

There is also a daily ferry from Neapoli, on the southern tip of the Peloponnese, to Kythera. In the summer it runs twice a day. So you could rent a car in athens, make the 6-10 hour drive down the Peloponnese, and take the ferry across. The crossing takes about 2 hours.

You can rent cars on Kythera from the port or from the airport directly from the friendly Drakakis Tours or Panayotis motor rent.

In July and August the island is pretty full of Australians returning to their ancestor's home island, so you might want to avoid it then if you want peace and quiet in the villages and beaches. On the other hand it is an exciting time to be on the island, as there are regular village dances and lots of friendly faces at the markets and in the restaurants.

For insiders the months of September and October are considered the nicest, as the bulk of the tourists are gone, the weather is perfect, the sea still warm and the restaurants still open.