BOAT-COMPARATOR Guide

Renting a Boat in Kefalonia: Fiskardo, Myrtos and the Monk Seals

Fiskardo, the only village spared by the 1953 earthquake, Myrtos beach seen from the water, Assos and the monk seals of the sea caves: the guide to renting a boat in Kefalonia, the largest Ionian island.

The largest of the Ionian Islands doesn't have Corfu's fame or the notoriety of Zante's Navagio, but it packs onto a single coastline just about everything that draws boaters to this sea: turquoise coves tucked between limestone cliffs, an intact Venetian village, and a population of monk seals that still finds refuge in its caves. Kefalonia is best discovered almost entirely from the water.

Fiskardo, the only village spared by the 1953 earthquake

In August 1953, a devastating earthquake flattened almost every village on Kefalonia and Zante, with one exception: Fiskardo, at the island's northern tip, whose more stable limestone bedrock preserved the ochre and pink Venetian façades that still line its small harbour today. The marina, one of the best equipped in the Ionian, is the classic base for reaching neighbouring Ithaca in a little over an hour, whose port of Agios Ioannis or the bay of Kioni make an easy day trip. Anchoring off Fiskardo is in high demand in the evening during summer, so arrive early to find a sheltered spot.

Myrtos, the beach you visit from the water

Regularly ranked among the most beautiful beaches in Greece, Myrtos sits between two white cliffs on the island's north-west coast, reachable on foot via a dizzying switchback road, but even more striking seen from the sea. Rocky shallows and exposure to the westerly swell make anchoring off the beach viable only in calm conditions, usually in the morning before the wind picks up: many operators advise against dropping anchor there if in doubt and prefer to cruise past instead. A little further south, the bay of Assos, enclosed by a peninsula topped with a ruined Venetian fortress, offers a far more sheltered anchorage to stop and swim.

Argostoli and the south: Melissani by rowing boat, not by rental boat

Argostoli, the island's capital on the gulf of the same name, has the widest choice of rental operators and makes it easy to stock up before a multi-day trip. Nearby, the underground lake of Melissani, lit by a natural skylight piercing the limestone roof, can only be visited by small rowing boat with a local guide — rental boats have no access, a useful detail to know when planning an itinerary. The south of the island instead offers Xi beach, with its striking red sand, and the sheltered waters of the Gulf of Livadi.

The monk seal, a discreet resident of the caves

Kefalonia and the islets separating it from Ithaca host one of the most closely studied populations of the Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus), one of the most endangered pinnipeds on Earth. Infrared-camera monitoring carried out since 2018 across some fifteen caves in the central Ionian has individually identified at least 25 adults and subadults, with up to a dozen births recorded in some years; a more recent study even tracked, by tag, the movements of an adult male between caves on Kefalonia and Zante some fifteen kilometres apart (Panou, Tsoukalas, Anestis & Bundone, First Insights into the Home Range of an Adult Male Mediterranean Monk Seal in the Ionian Sea, Animals, 2025, see the study on Google Scholar). In practice: never approach or enter an isolated sea cave without being certain it's unoccupied, and cut the engine if a seal is spotted at the surface.

Wind and season

Like the rest of the Ionian Islands, Kefalonia escapes the meltemi that sweeps the Cyclades in summer: the prevailing wind here is the maistros, a north-westerly thermal breeze that builds through late morning and dies down by evening, noticeably milder than in the Aegean. See our Mediterranean winds guide to place this pattern alongside other basins. The season runs from May to October, with a peak around Fiskardo in July-August.

Budget and where to embark

Expect €200-550 a day for a RIB, €250-700 a day for a sailboat with an optional skipper, and €3,000-7,000 a week for a catamaran. Three bases cover most of the fleet: Fiskardo for the shortest hop to Ithaca, Argostoli for the widest choice of operators, and Agia Efimia, quieter, for a compromise between the two. Boat-Comparator compares Boataround, SamBoat and Click&Boat live across these three ports; to widen the search to neighbouring islands, see our guides to Lefkada and Zante, or our boat rental in Greece page.

Compare the platforms now →

Also worth reading

• How much does it cost to rent a boat in 2026? Real prices
• License-Free Boat Rental in France: Rules, Prices & Where to Book
• Renting with or without a skipper: how to choose