Where to stay
A 19th-century seafront art hotel in Vathy. A seven-room house in the hills with homemade jam at breakfast. A pool above the bay. Luxury villas in the north. Ithaca has no resorts.
The most distinctive hotel on Ithaca — a 19th-century building on the Vathy seafront, beautifully restored and filled with art throughout. The breakfast is considered the best on the island. Rooms face the bay; the promenade is directly outside. The combination of the building, the art, and the setting makes it unlike anything else in the Ionian. Book well ahead; it is consistently sought out by the kind of travellers who research carefully.
Seven rooms, each individually named and decorated, in a small hotel that feels like staying with family. The hosts bake daily — bread, cakes, biscuits — and make all the jams themselves. Breakfast is served in the garden. The rooms have modern amenities with the aesthetic of a carefully considered home rather than a standardised hotel room. One of those places that generates devoted repeat visitors who return every summer for years.
In Frikes — the small port village on the north of the island, close to Kioni and the ferry connection to Lefkada and Kefalonia’s Fiskardo. Comfortable, clean rooms with balconies facing the sea or the mountains; a restaurant, a pool, and a garden. The name means ‘homecoming’ in Greek: the emotional concept at the heart of the Odyssey, and the right word for the experience of settling into the quietest part of an already quiet island.
Well-designed apartments on the edge of Vathy with an outdoor pool looking over the bay — one of the finest views on the island available at a genuinely reasonable price. Practical kitchens for self-catering breakfasts; walking distance to the port and Vathy’s tavernas. A good choice for those who want independence and a view rather than a hotel experience.
Private villas in and around Stavros in the north of the island — close to the Pilikata hill, the Mycenaean excavations, and the quiet villages of the north that most day visitors never reach. Private pools, sea views, and the silence of an island that has not been developed. The right choice for those who want Ithaca but want to share it with nobody.
Vathy is the most convenient base — largest concentration of restaurants, ferry connections, and services. Frikes and Kioni in the north are quieter and more beautiful but further from everything. A hire car is useful; scooters are popular and practical on the single main road.