Marina Lefkas

NIDRI on the island's east coast, about 17km south of Lefkas Town, is the island's biggest resort and has a lovely setting at the mouth of the long and impressive inlet of Vlycho bay.
Once the playground preserve of billionaire Aristotle Onassis, the area remained undeveloped until his death when the locals made up for lost time.
Now noisy tavernas line the sea front and a large section of the beach has been used to build a new quay. New hotels have been built on the flat, marshy ground behind the resort and mosquitos can be a real problem.
There are delightful corners to the found around the enter and there are plenty more tavernas and cafes in the harbour area, but many geared to the demands of cut price tourism with English breakfasts, karaoke and big TV screens on offer, with pushy waiters touting for trade. Music bars and a couple of nightclubs open in the summer.
The setting may be idyllic but beautiful views are spoiled by docking cruisers, traffic noise, flashing neon and fast food seediness of the surroundings.
The resort is also popular for school outings and often swamped by hordes of young teenagers whose buses park in a huge car park on the edge of town.
Beaches are found to the north of the town. They have great settings and marvelous views but are for the most part disappointing - long, narrow, crowded and mostly rough pebble, though lorry loads of sand have now been dumped here and there to improve the situation.
The sea is not the cleanest but it is shallow and calm, thanks to the resort's position in the sheltered bay. The views may be glorious but they are regularly shattered by noisy jet skis and even noisier screaming teenagers being towed on inflatables.
Nidri is a major yachting centre and boats always seem to fill the bay with the annual Ionian Regatta in late September one of the highlights of the Mediterranean year.
Ferries leave here daily for tours of the local islets and to the many secluded bays that lie along this part of the coast. There are also early-morning boats to Ithaca and Kefalonia.
Inland from Nidri the land is fairly flat and cycle rides through the olive groves are popular, with several good walking paths in the nearby hills.
A trip to the Vafkeri waterfall is worth a visit in April or May, but not later as the water turns to a trickle. The waterfalls, about 4km from Nidri, get more spectacular the higher you climb but the going can be difficult and the stepping stones slippy.
German archaeologist Wilhelm Dorpfeld was virtually alone in claiming Nydri, not Ithaca, as the site of Odysseus' palace. He lived and died in Nydri and a statue on the quay was erected in his honour.