Paxos
The Venetians planted over 200,000 olive trees on Paxos for health and beauty reasons, everywhere you look there is an olive tree and cats, yes cats – now, I am not a cat lover but there must be hundreds of cats and I don’t know how they got there!
Our trip to Paxos was an afternoon hydrofoil journey from Corfu. Sunvil Holidays arrange for transport to take you to Corfu harbour and a representative is there to greet you and go through the preliminaries that you need for your onward journey.
We had hired a car on Paxos and the Sunvil representative plus the car hire company were waiting for us on the harbour side as we sailed in to Paxos (the cost of the car hire was included in the price we paid). Paxos is a small island approximately 8 miles long, but if you don’t know where you are going it can be difficult to find your accommodation. Our lovely representative Vaso drove her car in front of us and guided us to our accommodation.
The accommodation, Loggos Mills, is a villa managed by GIC The Villa Collection who are partners of Sunvil Holidays. It is a group of four villas on the hillside together with a large swimming pool and barbeque area. This accommodation is ideal for a large family that do not want to be in the same villa but like to be next door to one another. Three of the villas are for two people and a larger one is for four people. This larger villa has a bedroom and a sofa bed in the lounge. These villas are very well appointed, with luxury fittings. Wi-Fi is not available but ask the Sunvil representative about buying a package for the duration of your stay.
GIC The Villa Collection is a company that specialise in tailor-made holidays and luxury villas which can be found on many beautiful Greek islands. Sunvil or GIC are the experts to call and have many years of experience for holidays to suit everyone.
The Loggos Mills complex is on a hillside outside the village of Loggos about 2 km away with stunning views across to the Greek mainland, so hiring a car is advisable. If you have any walking disabilities this isn’t the villa for you.
There is a local bus that runs 3 times a day from Gaios to Lakka and it goes through Loggos. Using the local bus is always an experience I have found, but it does give you the chance to look at the scenery and listen to the locals as they travel around the island. Your Sunvil representative will have a timetable for the running times of the bus.
Loggos is a lovely old fishing village with the ‘main’ road running along the water’s edge. There are six restaurants for you to chose from, all of a good standard, and two bars for you to sit in the sunshine and have your apéritif before dinner overlooking the small harbour.
Gaios is the main port and the largest of the three main villages. It has many bars and restaurants and is a popular spot for the yachts and smaller boats to drop anchor for the night whilst touring the Greek Islands. Gaios is where the hydrofoil and the other ferry boats come into Paxos and from here you can get a boat out to the beautiful, unspoilt island of Anti Paxos. This is a must for anyone visiting Paxos as the boat takes you to the caves and rock formations which are spectacular.
Lakka is a smaller fishing village and has numerous restaurants and bars, shops and supermarkets. It is vibrant and busy with local Greek people in the evenings as they sit outside the bars or restaurants. Lakka has small winding alleyways that take you to the harbour area, whitewashed buildings and tiny doorways that are synonymous with Greek villages.
Lakka was down memory lane for us, as it is 20 years since we first visited Lakka and it hasn’t changed as much as we have! The restaurants have all got character, but we found a gem, the Paximadi, a typical Greek restaurant where the locals go. The food is excellent, not overpriced and it is very popular. The family cat sits in the corner of the restaurant and stops all the other cats coming into the restaurant. He is an old male cat and is the boss, he sleeps all the time and doesn’t bother the diners so if you want a semi cat free zone this is the place, but only inside the restaurant.
If you have a hire car then don’t miss Mongonisi just south of Gaios. It is a beautiful bay with a restaurant and sunbeds – which you pay 2.50 euros per day for. It is a sandy beach – yes, sand – and lovely shallow sea to swim in. This is a private area belonging to the restaurant but well worth the visit. The restaurant is very good and popular with some locals.
A two-centre holiday certainly rang the changes but would not suit everyone, this is the nearest I have got to island hopping and it was most enjoyable, and a very good way to see the Greek islands and to see more of the scenery and lifestyle of this lovely spot on the planet.
The sun has gone down on this year’s Greek holiday. Our dream of visiting Greece this year has become a reality, and we are happy to have had the chance to enjoy the sun, sea and Sunvil, when we thought that this year would be so different and our staycation would be our only holiday. Greece is a place that gets under your skin and you have to return to have your fix of this comfortable, relaxing place to enjoy the good life and the ef zin factor.
