Join us as we take a very early morning walk along Sami Beach on the Greek island of Kefalonia. Also known as Karavomilos, we explain where to hire boats, and the best places to stay including the Sami Beach Hotel and the Ionian Emerald Resort Hotel.
*TIMECODES*
00:00 Our walk on Sami Beach begins
01:00 Is the beach sandy?
04:00 Where the ferries go island hopping
05:20 Where I had the best grilled sardines
08:20 Who’s wearing sandals and white socks?
10:40 Over the first bridge we go
13:54 Boat hire from “HOP ON Greece Rent a Boat”
15:50 Sami Beach Hotel
18:10 Ionian Emerald Resort Hotel
20:05 How did he park his car!
21:43 We say goodbye
The beach starts off with large pebbles, but the water is incredibly clear. We’ve been swimming here most evenings and found that after about 3-4 meters of pebbles, the seabed turns to sand. The water is quite shallow at first but then gets deep, making it perfect for swimming, though beach shoes are a must.
Where we started our walk – https://maps.app.goo.gl/w6r1vVE5s75XWJc27
*More of our videos on Kefalonia*
First off, Sami is a great place to stay. It’s a popular tourist spot with a huge variety of hotels, studios, apartments, and villas, so you’ll find something that fits your budget. The town has a bustling harbor that’s also the second busiest port on the island.
Along the waterfront, you’ll find tons of tavernas, cafes, and shops, perfect for a romantic dinner or a fun meal with friends. Plus, many places serve fresh seafood caught by local fishermen. I had the best sardines I’ve ever had there at Τα Δελφίνια (Dolphins) – https://maps.app.goo.gl/SJJnpBAT7AkGAcvS7
Sami is also an awesome base for adventure. You can easily rent a car or motorbike to explore the island at your own pace. From the port, you can catch a ferry to other islands like Ithaca (the legendary home of Odysseus) or even to mainland Greece.
The area is packed with amazing natural sights, many of which are just a short trip away. You can visit the Drogarati Cave, which is over 150 million years old and famous for its fantastic acoustics that are so good, they’ve hosted concerts.
Another must-see is the Melissani Lake, an underground lake where a collapsed cave roof lets sunlight shine in, creating a magical blue glow on the water.
Sami also has a rich history you can explore. The ancient city of Sami had two fortified acropolises, and you can still see the ruins of the old walls, Roman baths, and even a Roman aqueduct. You might even recognize some of the scenery, as Sami was a main filming location for the movie Captain Corelli’s Mandolin!
*Relaxing Videos*
Kefalonia: Gentle Beach Waves to Calm Your Mind – https://youtu.be/nyqSH4sHYJw
Kos: Chill Harbour Sounds from where we stayed – https://youtu.be/fUD15jku44g
Boat Hire on the beach is from “HOP ON Greece Rent a Boat” at https://maps.app.goo.gl/jGXHFkh6cLdwpU2B7
Where I had the best sardines was at Τα Δελφίνια (Dolphins) – https://maps.app.goo.gl/SJJnpBAT7AkGAcvS7
Sami Beach Hotel – https://maps.app.goo.gl/ceCZ1DdZuPqj9hcb7
Ionian Emerald Resort Hotel – https://maps.app.goo.gl/PsdrUqBJLKGy3rVh7
Come with us for a walk along Sami Beach with… Blooper! What am I saying? Come with us for a walk along Sami Beach. We’re here at is about 7.30 in the morning, really early. We’re going to walk from Sami Town, that’s the harbour which is just there, and head all the way down there as far as we can make it. No idea how long it’s gonna take us. It’s about 12 miles isn’t it? We’ll let you know at the end how long it’s taken us, all right? So this is Sami Beach and also known as… Cravo Milos. Well I call it Cravo Milos. Which is, I think translates to little ship, little boat. Okay, well… There you go, Greek lesson for today. Cravo Milos. So the way we are now is extremely… What do you call it? Pebbly, lots of big pebbles actually. But the water, now we’ve come here most evenings to swim. We’ve been in Sami a few days. We were in Augustoli for a week before that. And the water, I’m just gonna go down here a little. As you can see, it is so clear. There’s pebbles out for about, what would you say that is, three or four meters, but then it becomes sand. And it’s quite shallow here. Oh, there’s a big fish there, sorry. But it does get quite deep then. It’s perfect for swimming. You definitely need beach shoes. Yes, you do need beach shoes. As I found out yesterday. Yeah, these… It’s quite difficult to get in and out the water without them. But it’s beautiful swimming and the water is so warm. It really is beautiful. And look at that back drop. Fabulous. So we’re gonna keep walking along here. I’m assuming it stays pebbly. We shall find out when we get a bit further along. There’s no beds or anything here. You do see a lot of Greeks that come and pitch up along here, especially in the evening with kids. I’m just trying to wear them out, I think. Oops, oops. But there’s hotels around the bay there. So I would imagine that there’s probably going to be some beds somewhere along, further along the beach. So we’ve just come up onto the wall. It is a road and I have seen a car on it, but I don’t think this is regularly used. Some lovely seating here, look. Oh look, back to the sea. And some really, really nice properties along here. Very, very pretty. Gosh, imagine waking up there and you’ve got the sound of the sea. Moon] That’s not bad to wake up to in the morning. It’s exactly what you’ll see We’re all concerned with that. It’s not bad. So there we go. Only small but you know you’re not going to be staying here for two weeks. Quite nice. You can get change there as well. Oh back to the mermaid again. You can see how far we go. Sorry how far we come. Goodness me making a lot of mistakes this morning. You’ve got two ferries there. Nearest one to us in blue. That’s like island hopping from here. So you could be Ithaca, Zekinto, Sivan Corfu and the other one as well. You can see the yellow there. Probably the same. There is one also just behind you which just goes to Ithaca. Great place to get to island hop from Kefalonia here all the way to Ithaca. As Jen said we’re one of the beaches on there Sami. Sami is not as popular as Augustoli. It’s much much much quieter. Although having said that Augustoli isn’t really like Roald’s Old Town. But Sami is laid back. I love it. We’re staying I say in the center but it is lovely. There’s not not a great deal to do but it’s you know classed as a village. Quite a few restaurants quite a few lovely restaurants. And we’ve got some videos out there the ones we’ve been to. In fact there’s a bit of a teaser if you’re into sardines. No I don’t mean the tin ones. I’ve had probably my best sardines ever. Grilled sardines. Just grilled on their own. Bit of lemon on top. They really were absolutely gorgeous. There’s about 12 or so for about five euros. Extremely cheap. I mean I’m getting it right now. I’m getting one of the many looks there guys you know. Are we going now? Oh I’m in trouble now. You know who’s the boss don’t you in this YouTube channel? Right. Let’s catch up to the mermaid again. So the beach has gone from pebbles to shingles now. It’s lots smaller bits of sand urine there. It is a lot easier to walk on definitely. Still have that line of pebbles just inside the water. But people out swimming. It’s beautiful this morning. Absolutely beautiful. I noticed there’s kayaks for hire. Gosh can you imagine this is just perfect for kayaking. It’s a lifeguard tower that’s good to see. Just up ahead there just plus the dive you can see it probably in the middle of the screen. That little bridge. That’s one of about three or four along sort of the length of the beach. Whereby you can cross over. What are you crossing? Good point wouldn’t it? Motorway. Now you’re crossing a stretch of water. That’s the best way of describing it. Some of the places you can actually walk around but that there you’ll see. It’s a bridge. We’ve got to go on it. Yeah looks like. Yeah I can see another one in the distance. It’s so quiet. Apart from our crunchy feet. It’s so quiet. And as I said this is one of the things I really like about so well it’s guess Kefalonia as a whole. Even when we went to August Stony it’s you know wasn’t if you like it a bit quieter. Okay with first second week of June. Definitely quieter. Oops lost my shoe. I got stones in my flip-flops. I do have a bit of a confession to make. I guess I’ll show you them so. Really? That’s it. Really? Please don’t do it. It’s worth a laugh. No don’t don’t. Here we go. Okay what a faux pas right? White socks with white socks with sandals. Can I just say my only offense this is not something I normally do. Very rare I do. It’s because the beach is so shingly and I keep getting stones in it so it does help a little bit. I don’t know if we can get past that water coming in so I think we have to go over the bridge. Yep that’s why the bridge is there. So as I was saying it’s Kefalonia I do like. We’ve been here a few times. Quite a few times actually. It is much quieter now. It’s much quieter than roads. So I’m just gonna have to try and get a stone out my sandal. There you go. Oh wow that’s a nice bit of artwork. Look at that. Yeah. Do you know what? These bikes you see you can hire them as one or two places both in the town up ahead Caravamilos and also in Sami where we’re staying. Not too bad actually depending on length of time. You can pick them up 10 euros a day and they also have electric ones. Kefalonia is known for adventure though isn’t it? There’s a lot of hiking trails and you often see like posters for hiking or mountain biking. Yeah. A little bit too extreme for me in this heat. Well good tip go as early as you can. So here we are on the bridge overlooking I suppose this like a river isn’t it? Yeah. I told we would probably call that a canal actually because it looks very still and wide and deep. Oh loads of fish down there. Very nice. And there yeah we wouldn’t have got past that look. Nope that’s what I said. It goes over the water. Now we’ve got some trees on the beach now. This is probably the first shade we’ve had since we started walking. Trees. That’s an electric moped. I think we should hire one of those do you? Yeah maybe. Ticket interns to ride it. We’ll get back down and see what the beach is like. Rejoin. It is so quiet isn’t it? Apart from our crunchy feet. No everyone’s still in bed. It’s still very very early. We should do a similar line like they have on spring watch and winter watch or autumn watch. You know the mindfulness moment. All right yes. Oh we’ve got one of those though haven’t we? With the boats coming into the harbour. Oh yeah we had the if you want a really relaxing video with a good few hours you check out the playlist cars. It’s on there you’ll see it’s where we were staying. Costa Palace wasn’t it? Yeah. Lovely hotel recommend it right on Cos Harbour and I just stuck the camera there on our patio and you can see all the boats come in come out really relaxing. So we’ve got a mixture of pebbles and shingles here. It’s still quite crunchy underfoot. It’s not not particularly very flattening even either. But the water look at that. It’s unbelievable. It’s annoying show the camera’s quite picking it up. It’s completely clear and so still it really is beautiful. I’m actually tempted to go in. Yeah okay. Obviously boats for hire here. It’d be quite nice wouldn’t it? Taking a boat around the coast there. Well we have sort of discussed it haven’t we? Yeah it’s been a little bit too hot for me. I just feel going out on one of those that shade is now enough. Probably burnt her crisp. These boats though and the ones just slightly up ahead they belong to a really good five-star review on Google with about I think it’s about 150 as we’re doing this video reviews. It’s um hop on that’s it. Hop on Greece Rent a Boat. Okay. As with the usual put all of the links to everything we’re going to discuss. So as you can see up ahead we’ve got another bridge. There’s also some rather large boulders stopping our way anyway so we’re going to have to nip across and get up onto the path. Another bridge. To get over the next bridge. Oh it’s exciting isn’t it? Yeah. So quiet. It’s yeah as I said it is extremely early in the morning. I know but even so when we’ve done walks another beach is um we don’t when we did the one on uh Sambica Beach and Lindos Beach when we’re in Rhodes. All right we’re there actually much early but there’s one or two people. This is considerably quieter. Oh this must be where you hire the boats. Yeah. There you go. I remembered. So this is obviously where you hire your boat. I said we’ll stick a link to them if you can’t make out. It’s hopongrease.gr. There’s a lot of boulders in the sea here so it’s going to be a bit more difficult to get past these. So we’re going over the bridge here and then we’re much closer to the centre and as you probably make out there are some beds. So this is obviously um much more of a hub if you like. I know there’s a big hotel. I can’t remember the name of it. Um there is one pretty big hotel here. Well on the left that’s the um just up ahead. Now on the left that’s the Samy Beach Hotel. That’s that’s the one I was thinking about. I think that’s the one you’re referring to. Oh look this is fabulous because you’ve got this hotel here. There’s obviously lots of people staying there but there’s no there’s no towels on beds which is so lovely to see. It’s gorgeous. This is the waterway underneath. Look at that. So clear. But that’s got a lot of views. I think it’s about 260 or something like that and it’s about 4.6 on Google. Um tell you what that’s not bad for a three star. Certainly from just looking. Looks lovely. And then you’ve got beds look. They’ve um flattened out some of the beach there to put beds in which is quite nice. Again very shingly and quite pebbly down near other water. But you’ve got umbrellas here which is great. No one, not a single person has uh put their towel down. Looks lovely isn’t it. Really nice to see. If you’ve got but if you’re all staying, you’re thinking of staying at this hotel. There it is. That’s the hotel and this is how close it is to the sea. Look at that. Perfect. Now the other one we’re coming up. The one that’s on is that three floors of curvy bed on the left. That’s the five star hotel. And that’s the IONI NEMROLL. That’s the IONI NEMROLL Resort Hotel. Wow. Get that right. Oh there you go. This is interesting. We’ll capture this. Well if you’re interested in prices. So it’s the hotel which is just here. And there’s the prices on some beds. Yeah. Actually 10 euro if you’re if you’re not a resident. That’s really good. That’s okay. Yeah free for hotel residents. Some beds on about 10 euro. That’s really good. So you certainly see a lot more. So that’s the IONI NEMROLL Resort Hotel. Some people call it the IONI NEMROLL Resort. Five star compared to three but you know you can stay that one there. Or the one just here for going to be considerably less. Your choice. But I think in this one as well if memory serves me right you’ve got five level suites. So you know suite on there two floors. She’s not bad. And there’s quite a lot. We won’t go in there. Look at her by herself but there’s quite a nice pool in there. Spa. Let’s see if I can get a bit of room for you in case you happen to be staying there. We can lift the camera up. So I just hope there’s no one on the other side watching. I just hope you can see a bit more there. If you are staying there then hopefully that’ll give you a bit more of an idea of what it’s like. And there’s I can see towels on beds. I’m not sure if we captured this but the Greeks know how to park a car and go fish don’t they? Personally I think the Greeks are the best parkers in the world. How on earth did you get the car there? That’s incredible. I know. Well you would have had to reverse that. I wouldn’t even drive in. That’s incredible. Yep. I will stand my ground on that one. I’ve often said to Jan I think the Greeks are the best parkers in the world. Anyway we’re coming to the end now. Let’s just go through here. I’ve forgotten what’s around the corner. Oh we’ve got posh sun beds there and with towels on. Oh there we go. It’s fun all the way isn’t it? Look at that. I’ve got some grease. I’ve got grease. Another blooper. Got some geese. Yeah I would say these belong to the posh hotel. The five star on there. The Ionian one. So quiet isn’t it? Really yes. Absolutely beautiful. If you can see in the distance just in the middle that’s where we came from right over there. It’s only about 15-20 minute walk if you do it properly not slow like us. Well I hope you enjoyed that walk. It’s actually taken us just over 30 minutes but we really did stroll and we stopped so you could probably easily do that in 15-20 minutes really. Yeah. So if you are staying at this end it’s quite an easy walk over to town there and you don’t have to walk on the beach there’s that road path all the way as well. So I hope you enjoyed that. I certainly did. Yeah. Nice nice romantic walk on the beach early in the morning. Yeah and you know what I need breakfast. Yeah. My stomach’s starting to tell me it’s time for breakfast. So we’re gonna pop off now and go find somewhere that we can get something to eat and enjoy this sandwich. It’s getting really really hot. It is. Thanks for watching. We really appreciate it. Thanks now. Bye bye. Bye.