Kefalonia

A bow of white pebbles under tall limestone cliffs, with water of deep turquoise. The postcard view comes from a bend partway down the switchback road, and the seabed shelves steeply, so take care on rough days.

A clear lake sits inside a cave whose roof fell in, and a rowing boat takes you round it. Around noon sunlight falls straight through the open roof and lights the water blue, so plan to arrive at that hour.

A stairway descends into a limestone cave with a great chamber hung with stalactites, its acoustics good enough to have hosted concerts. The air stays chilly even in midsummer, so pack a light layer.

Sixteenth century Venetian walls ring a peninsula joined by a slim neck, and a village of pastel houses gathers on the bay below. Reaching the castle takes a lengthy uphill walk with no shade, so go up in the morning.

A harbour village on the northern point, largely spared by the 1953 earthquake, a rare place where Venetian era houses still stand. Summer evenings pack the harbour with yachts, so claim a waterfront table early.

On the waterfront of Argostoli, the island capital, loggerhead turtles surface right by the quay each morning when fishermen clean their catch and toss the scraps. The nineteenth century stone De Bosset Bridge across the bay starts from the same quay.

The island's highest mountain, its ridges covered in forests of the fir named after Kefalonia itself. A road climbs close to the summit, and herds of semi wild horses sometimes appear at the forest edge.

A white pebble beach in a bay where green hillsides slide into the sea, used as a location for Captain Corelli's Mandolin. From Sami harbour the road climbs over a saddle, and in the afternoon the mountain's shadow covers the beach early.

Saint Gerasimos, most revered of Kefalonia's saints, rests in this Omala valley monastery, and a narrow ladder set into the old church floor drops into the small cave he prayed in. His August and October feasts fill it as if the whole island came.

Out on the Argostoli peninsula the sea drains into holes in the ground, and a dye test in 1963 showed the water resurfacing in Melissani Cave across the island. A round lighthouse ringed with Doric columns stands next to it.

A Venetian castle on the hilltop above Peratata, which held the island's capital inside its walls until 1757. Circling the walls, you survey the southern plain down to the sea. A cafe under trees at the gate makes a good pause.

A stone bridge laid across the Koutavos lagoon at Argostoli in 1813, under British rule, by the Swiss engineer de Bosset. It runs over 600m with an obelisk midway. Closed to cars, it makes a walk across the water.

A beach on the south of the Lixouri peninsula with red-orange sand below pale clay cliffs. Some visitors smear the wet clay on their skin and let it dry. The water stays shallow a long way out, so children love it.

White pebbles fill this cove tucked into the Lixouri peninsula's western flank, where a steep, twisting road ends. Turquoise water deepens fast off the shore. Facing west, its tavernas fill first around sunset.