Undiscovered Greece - the Island of Paxos

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Undiscovered Greece – the island of Paxos

19 March 2009 by Tony Wells.

Is it Paxos or Poros or Paros? It’s Paxos. If you are looking for the simplicity of the old Greece for your holidays – village life, family run tavernas, quiet beaches and picturesque surroundings – take it from us, it’s Paxos.

Paxos is the one in the Ionian, near Corfu. Eight miles long by five miles wide, if that, it’s a fragment of olive-tree covered rock famous only for being the place off which Mark Anthony is believed to have lost the battle of Actium to the future Augustus Caesar. Known, since then, only for the quality of its olive oil, Paxos became British in the early 19th century along with its larger neighbour and has sort of stayed that way, if only because of the large number of British islanders who find their way there each summer. Some of these visitors – like Travel à la carte’s Paxos manager Chris Griffiths - never return whence they came, succumbing completely to the Paxos spell and putting down permanent roots. It’s not hard to see why...

Greek island experts say that one key feature of the perfect island is that you mustn’t be able to fly there. That’s certainly the case with Paxos. The locals, as if fearful for their way of life, make it pretty difficult to reach their island paradise even by sea, never mind air. (There is a story they once sabotaged a heli-pad one wealthier resident had built). Older Paxos hands still nostalgically recall the days when the crossing from Corfu, in the old Kamelia, would take three hours, a gentle, rolling transition that prepared the voyager for the trip back to a bygone age which a stay in Paxos represented. Nowadays, the regular hydrofoil from Corfu has cut the journey time by two-thirds but happily the Paxiot pace of life has barely accelerated at all. There are a few more cars, a few new villas on the road leading out of Gaios, the main village, and internet connections in most offices and homes, but visitors still make their unhurried way on foot to the beach for a morning swim and amble down to the village in the evening to eat al fresco at one of the harbour tavernas, as the sun lowers itself into its crimson bath in the west.

Of Paxos’s three coastal villages, the smallest and least affected by time is Loggos. This is where specialist holiday company Travel à la carte’s properties are mostly concentrated, either in the village or within fair walking distance of it. Loggos consists of a pretty harbour, with a handful of restaurants and cafes grouped around it, a few narrow streets of village houses and one or two larger properties on the surrounding hillsides. The largest of these, the old Manor House, is the centrepiece of Travel à la carte’s Paxos accommodation – an impressive old family house which dominates the entrance to the harbour and commands wide ranging views, reaching to Corfu and the mainland, from its various terraces. Mara and Constantina, two three bedroom apartments, occupy the main house while the former servants’ quarters have been converted into two smaller self-catering flats, Spiros and Stephanos. Other village properties – Aglaia next door and Maltezos just around the corner – have similar views and, like the Manor House, are just a few minutes’ walk from both the beach and the village.

On an island as small as Paxos, the beach is never that far away, even if you’re staying at one of the newer villas with pools inland. The island’s beaches are all pebbly – something even the most sand-addicted children will get used to in no time – and the water all the clearer and more welcoming for that. The glittering aquamarine and emerald colours of the inshore waters have to be seen to be believed and the gentle waves offer a perfect introduction to swimming, snorkelling and rides in the small motor boats available to hire from Loggos harbour. And if the children are desperate for sand, you can whisk them over for the day to tiny anti-Paxos, a speck of land a 15 minute sea taxi ride from Gaios harbour with two bays of silken white sand. From Loggos, Gaios is a short boat or bus ride away or, if you are staying at one of the larger inland houses like Travel a la carte’s Eleonora, Maria or Paradisos, just a ten minute drive in the car.

Paxos’s easy pace of life suits all age groups, except perhaps older teenagers in search of some action in the evenings. Gaios and Lakka boast one disco and in Loggos the waterside bars stay open into the early hours, but by and large the atmosphere is relaxed and low-key. Younger children will find their way around somewhere like Loggos in no time, and will soon be volunteering to go and fetch the morning loaf of bread from the baker’s, while their older siblings can hop on the local bus for the 15-minute trip to Gaios or nearby Lakka, the other main village on the sea. For grown-ups, of all ages, the interior offers gentle walking among the olive groves or along the coast, to favourite Paxos sights such as the Erimitis cliffs or little Ipapanti church, or, if you’re not really excited by the idea of such strenuous activity, morning can be whiled away on the terrace with a good book, to the accompaniment of lapping waves and the susurrus of the cicadas.

Does it all sound too improbable? Well, Travel à la carte has been bringing holidaymakers to Paxos for 25 years and, even now, two-thirds of its clients there are returnees. Some have even been coming each year for the same 25 years, or longer. The place has that effect. Perhaps it’s time you, too, discovered why...

For more information on Travel a la carte’s Paxos programme and all of the company’s properties on the island, go to www.travelalacarte.co.uk or call 0207 316 1867 and ask for Tony Wells. Chris Griffiths can be reached directly at chris@travelalacarte.co.uk or by calling a local UK number via Skype - 0151 324 3458.