Guide to Vathi

"Meganisi is the Greek island of everyone's dreams - small, unspoilt and beautiful. So perfect is Meganisi that when you arrive in the little port of Vathi, where pretty pastel-washed fishermen's houses line the beautiful bay, and settle down to an ouzo and plate of mezes by the quayside you have to pinch yourself to make sure that you are not dreaming."

At Vathi harbour, the arrival and departure of the little ferry from Nidri is the most dramatic event of the day. The sight of a car is no longer a rare occurance these days, although it still requires considerable skill to manoeuvre anything bigger than a moped through the narrow streets and tight bends of Meganisi's two old villages, Katomeri and Spartohori. Spartohori village is enchanting - a maze of alleys and lanes, along which can be found half a dozen tavernas and several shops. Katomeri, the island 'capital' (although it's even quieter than Spartohori) and site of Meganisi's only hotel, is conveniently situated 1km from Vathi and Atherinos and 3.5km from Spartohori. Like an inverted comma, the main body of the island (smaller than Paxos) trails off to the south in a long and uninhabited tail, whilst the northern coast is notched by a trio of quite magnificent bays. Each of these glorious gulfs is headed by a beach and enclosed on either side by wooded hillsides which reach down to water that glints like blue-green glass.

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