Kefalonia and Ithaca, Greece

Kefalonia Grand Hotel

Price per night from$121.99

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR115.34), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Kefalonia Grand Hotel Photos

Style

Get me to the Greek

Setting

Harbour heights

Explore

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A tall white townhouse on the edge of Argostoli’s harbour, Kefalonia Grand Hotel is a budget-boutique bolthole perfectly placed for island exploration. The biggest landmass of all the Ionian ones is yours for the taking, whether you want to head underground at a cooling cave complex, track down the brightest white beaches or simply feast on Greek food at a harbourside hotspot. The subtle staff deliver superb service, placing a drink and chilled towel in your hands within moments of your arrival. It’s simple and stripped back, but with with heart in all the right places.

Smith Extra

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A cocktail each, accompanied by nibbles of olives and nuts

Facilities

Photos Kefalonia Grand Hotel facilities

Need to know

Rooms

42, including three suites.

Check–Out

Noon. Earliest check-in, 2pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £100.81 (€119), including tax at 3 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional government tax of €3.00 per room per night on check-out.

More details

Rates usually include breakfast.

Hotel closed

The hotel usually closes between early November and mid March.

At the hotel

Free WiFi throughout. In rooms: TV, free bottled water, air-conditioning and Zealots bath products.

Our favourite rooms

Avoid the rooms with only a side view if you want to take ship-spotting out to the harbour seriously. The best place to do this, naturally, is the Master Suite, since it has a water-facing terrace with a sofa and Jacuzzi. If the budget’s a little more modest, the Superior Double Rooms with Sea View have similar views of the sea, but are on a smaller scale.

Poolside

There’s no main pool, but some of the rooms have Jacuzzis or plunge pools.

Packing tips

Hello, sailor: this harbourside hotel will bring out the inner (boat-shoe’d, nautical-striped) yachty in the best of us.

Also

The hotel’s communal areas are all accessible for wheelchair users and some rooms have been adapted.

Children

All ages are welcome, but there’s not a lot to keep mini Smiths entertained.

Sustainability efforts

The hotel’s eco efforts include using local products, environmentally friendly light bulbs and bath products, and solar panels.

Food and Drink

Photos Kefalonia Grand Hotel food and drink

Top Table

Request an outdoor table for people-watching-on-the-promenade purposes.

Dress Code

Mythical creatures.

Hotel restaurant

Breakfast at KG is a spread of house-made cakes, pastries and jams, Greek cheese, bread from the local bakery and made-to-order omelettes and pancakes. By night, hanging clay lamps light up the wooden tables, as you feast on modern Greek meals, such as oatmeal-battered feta, slow-cooked lamb, just-baked pittas, all with lashings of Kefalonian olive oil, obviously.

Hotel bar

There’s a list of wines from all over Greece to work your way through, as well as some potent cocktails and a local take on sangria. 

Last orders

Breakfast is served from 7.30am to 10.30am. Brunch is available between 10.30am and 3pm, when a snack menu takes over until dinner service (7pm to 11pm). The bar’s hours are 8am to 11pm.

Room service

Dishes from the restaurant menu can be delivered to your room.

Location

Photos Kefalonia Grand Hotel location
Address
Kefalonia Grand Hotel
Antoni Tritsi 82
Argostoli
28100
Greece

Kefalonia Grand Hotel is on the westerly shores of Captain Corelli’s favourite Greek island, close to the town and port of Argostoli.

Planes

The island’s airport is a 15-minute drive from the hotel. Transfers for up to four guests cost €25 each way.

Automobiles

The hotel is in Kefalonia’s capital, Argostoli. There’s free public parking nearby. A car will be useful if you want to tour the island, which is the largest in the Ionian archipelago, but the town centre is all walkable.

Other

It’s possible to travel by ferry to Kefalonia from other parts of Greece, including fellow Ionian island Ithaca, Kyllini in the north-west Peloponnese, and Zakynthos; as well as southern-Italian ports Bari and Brindisi.

Worth getting out of bed for

There aren’t a lot of activities to do at the hotel, so it’s worth having a hire car so you can head out and explore the island. Don’t miss a stroll through Fiskardo, a lovely little town with a harbour, cute boutiques and dazzling views. The hotel can help to organise boat trips around the island with shipwreck-spotting stop-offs at the aptly named Shipwreck Beach. Other stretches of sand within easy reach are Makris Gialos Beach; or try the pebbly, mountain-flanked Myrtos Beach. Argostoli’s harbour has the added bonus of potential sea-turtle sightings: if you stroll along in the morning when the fishing boats come in, you’re in with a shot. Kefalonia has lots of pretty villages to call in at; the waterfront Sami and the charming Assos are great ones to start with. Anyone with more than a passing interest in a troglodyte lifestyle will enjoy a subterranean trip to Melissani, a lake slash cave around 40 minutes by car from the hotel, and Drogarati, a 150-million-year-old stalactite-filled structure. 

 

Local restaurants

Palia Plaka is a traditional taverna, which serves up hearty local fare in a simple, sea-facing setting. Stroll along the seafront for 15 minutes or so and you’ll reach Vinaries and its amazingly fresh fish. Argostoli (nor Kefalonia in general) isn’t known for its glitzy gastronomy, but for something a little smarter, try the romantic Casa Grec, a gorgeous, greenhouse-like (trust us on this one) restaurant; or make the 15-minute drive to the sea-edge Il Borgo for sublime steaks.

Local bars

Try every Greek wine going at Oenops, a boutique bar in Argostoli with pleasingly oenophile staff.

Reviews

Photos Kefalonia Grand Hotel reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this boutique hotel in Greece and unpacked their Nicolas Cage DVDs, a full account of their Ionian island break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Kefalonia Grand Hotel in Greece…

This is Greece, so you’re never going to be far from some ruins (archaeologists, rejoice) – and on Kefalonia, you’ll get Roman, Byzantine and Venetian variations, along with grand old mansions and sleepy farmhouses. In the island’s buzziest town Argostoli, Kefalonia Grand Hotel is a sort-of city break, if you like your cities on the soporific side, with harbours, fishing spots and laid-back restaurants on the water’s edge. There’s not a lot in terms of facilities, but what the hotel lacks on that front it sure makes up for with its accommodating-but-not-OTT staff, simple but stylish sea-facing rooms and parasol-lined restaurant. The tall white townhouse is tucked between Argostoli’s bars and restaurants, and close to the pretty promenade. Captain Corelli may have made Kefalonia famous, but its fabled fishing villages, heavenly harbourside towns and sugar-white shores keep the visitors coming.

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