Porto Katsiki

Porto Katsiki is on the west coast of Lefkada, in the Ionian Sea, at the foot of a white limestone cliff that drops around a hundred metres to the water. It is the most photographed beach in western Greece and the image most associated with the island.

The cliff is what makes it. Lefkada's west coast is a wall of pale rock facing the open Ionian, and the beaches along it — Egremni, Kathisma, Porto Katsiki — sit at the bottom of it in pockets. The pallor of the cliff and the depth of the water below produce a colour that photographs well and is not exaggerated. An earthquake in 2015 caused significant rockfall along this coast, closing Egremni entirely for years and altering the access here.

The beach is white pebble and coarse sand, narrow, with water that deepens immediately and is cold for the Mediterranean. There is no shelter from the afternoon sun and no natural shade at all; the cliff shadows the beach only late in the day. Swell from the open Ionian arrives directly and the beach can be unusable in wind.

Access is by a stair from a car park above — several hundred steps, contested in count and unambiguous in effect — or by boat from Nidri or Vasiliki, which is how many people arrive. A canteen operates at the top in season. Egremni, the next beach north, was the other great Lefkada cliff beach until the 2015 earthquake destroyed its stair; Kathisma further north is the accessible one, with a road to the sand and the same water.

Several hundred steps down and the same back up in full sun, or a boat from Vasiliki. No shade until late afternoon. A westerly closes the beach outright, which is a decision the sea makes rather than anyone else, and Egremni next door has been shut since the 2015 earthquake took its stair.