Going to Greece in August and hoping to find somewhere quiet sounds slightly contradictory.
It's the busiest month of the summer. British school holidays are in full swing, Greeks take their summer breaks, flights are full and some of the best-known island resorts are packed.
But "busy island" doesn't necessarily mean "busy holiday".
Kefalonia is a good example. Stay in the wrong place and you can find yourself competing for sunbeds and booking dinner tables days ahead. Drive half an hour down the road and the atmosphere can be completely different.
If you have to travel in August but would rather avoid the full-on resort experience, these are the parts of Kefalonia we'd look at first.
Skala often comes up when people are looking for a relaxed Kefalonia holiday, so it's worth clearing something up.
Skala is not quiet in August.
It's one of Kefalonia's established resorts and August is its busiest month. The village is lively in the evenings, restaurants fill up and the beach gets noticeably busier.
That doesn't make Skala a bad choice.
Its big advantage is space. The beach is long and the resort is relatively spread out, so it handles large numbers of visitors better than many smaller Mediterranean resorts. If you're travelling with children and want plenty of restaurants, a good beach and an easy holiday, Skala still makes a lot of sense.
If you're looking for somewhere genuinely peaceful, however, we'd keep looking.
HolidayFilter verdict: Good all-round resort, but not our pick for a quiet August escape.
Best for: quiet evenings, couples and a slower pace
If Skala feels a little too developed, travel a short distance along the south-east coast to Katelios.
This is much closer to what many people have in mind when they picture a laid-back Greek holiday: a small waterfront, fishing boats, tavernas and considerably less going on.
And that's really the appeal.
You're not coming to Katelios for nightlife, shopping or a long list of organised activities. You're coming because you're quite happy spending the afternoon near the sea and deciding which taverna to walk to that evening.
The beach at Katelios is generally quieter than the main resort beaches. Nearby Mounda Beach is also one of Kefalonia's important nesting areas for loggerhead turtles.
It isn't undiscovered and you certainly won't have it to yourself in August. But compared with Kefalonia's larger resorts, it remains a strong choice for people actively trying to avoid crowds.
Search hotels in Katelios on Booking.com →Best for: a more Greek feel and exploring by car
Lixouri is Kefalonia's second town, sitting across the bay from Argostoli on the Paliki peninsula.
It's important to call it a town rather than a resort because that's part of its appeal. People live and work here year-round. You'll find cafés, bakeries, shops and a central square alongside the restaurants and accommodation used by visitors.
There are tourists, of course, and package holidays are available here, so claims that Lixouri is somehow untouched by tourism don't really hold up.
But it feels different from a purpose-built holiday resort.
The other reason we'd consider Lixouri is what surrounds it. Having a car opens up the Paliki peninsula and beaches such as Xi and Petani, giving you considerably more scope to escape the busiest parts of the island.
There's also a regular ferry across the bay to Argostoli, so staying here doesn't mean cutting yourself off from the rest of Kefalonia.
For independent travellers who want a base rather than a resort, this may be our favourite option on the island.
Search hotels in Lixouri on Booking.com →Best for: harbour views and a quieter base for exploring
Agia Efimia is one of those places that looks almost suspiciously Greek in photographs: a small harbour, boats bobbing in clear water and tavernas lining the waterfront.
It's on Kefalonia's north-east coast, around 10 minutes by car from Sami, and makes a particularly good base if you intend to explore the island. Myrtos Beach is within easy driving distance, as are Melissani Lake and Sami.
There is a catch if you're searching for complete solitude.
The harbour attracts yachts and boat trips during summer, and organised island tours stop here too. So describing Agia Efimia as virtually empty in August would be misleading. The waterfront can have plenty of life during the day.
But that's rather different from staying in a big package resort.
Once the day visitors move on, the village settles back into a much gentler rhythm.
Search hotels in Agia Efimia on Booking.com →Best for: seeing more of Kefalonia
Sami isn't the obvious choice for a beach-resort holiday, and that's precisely why some people will prefer it.
It's a working port town on the east coast, with ferries coming and going and plenty of everyday local life mixed in with tourism. Melissani Cave is close by, Antisamos Beach is a short drive away and the location makes Sami a useful base for exploring both the north and south of the island.
Don't choose Sami expecting a sleepy fishing village. It has traffic, ferries and visitors passing through.
What it doesn't have is quite the same package-resort atmosphere as places such as Skala or Lassi.
For us, Sami works best for travellers who want to do Kefalonia, rather than spend seven days within walking distance of their hotel.
Search hotels in Sami on Booking.com →Fiskardo is beautiful. It's also exactly the sort of place we'd be careful about recommending in an article promising to escape August crowds.
The tiny harbour attracts yachts throughout the summer and its waterfront restaurants are popular with visitors exploring northern Kefalonia. That can make Fiskardo surprisingly busy during the day and particularly around the harbour.
We'd still visit. We'd just hesitate before paying Fiskardo prices specifically because we wanted peace and quiet in August.
HolidayFilter verdict: Beautiful, sophisticated and absolutely worth seeing – but don't confuse expensive with secluded.
If our priority was the quietest possible holiday, we'd start with Katelios.
If we wanted somewhere that felt less like a holiday resort and intended to hire a car, we'd choose Lixouri or elsewhere on the Paliki peninsula.
For a picturesque harbour and a good base for exploring northern Kefalonia, we'd look at Agia Efimia.
And if we were travelling with children and wanted an easy beach holiday with lots of restaurants within walking distance, we'd still consider Skala – accepting that it will be busy.
That's the important distinction.
There probably isn't a secret Greek island village sitting empty in August waiting for British travellers to discover it. If somewhere is beautiful, accessible and has good places to stay, other people usually know about it too.
But there is a huge difference between busy and overwhelmed by tourism. Kefalonia gives you enough space and enough genuinely different towns and villages to find the former without necessarily suffering the latter.
| Place | August feel | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Katelios | 🟢 Quieter | Peace and slow evenings |
| Lixouri / Paliki | 🟢 Quieter | Local feel and exploring |
| Agia Efimia | 🟡 Quiet–moderate | Harbour atmosphere |
| Sami | 🟡 Low–moderate | Exploring the island |
| Skala | 🟠 Busy | Easy family beach holiday |
| Fiskardo | 🟠 Busy at peak times | Scenery, restaurants and yachts |
If you aren't tied to the school holidays, we'd make an entirely different recommendation: go in September.
Kefalonia doesn't suddenly shut when August ends. The sea is still warm, restaurants and boat trips are operating and the weather is normally excellent, but the peak-season pressure starts to ease.
If August is your only option, though, don't write Kefalonia off.
Just choose your village more carefully than you choose your island.
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