Argostoli - Sami : Best Way???

[Ausellen]

We are arriving in Argostoli June 7th & looking at finding a tour/taxi etc to get us (4 Adults) around island sites.

Have read posts about hiring car etc, but not sure about this as I don't know what road would be like (have been on some very narrow roads in Italy, high above cliff tops!!!!)

HA is offering tours but would rather do private + have heard that they don't allow time in places that you would like to stop at.

 

Has someone got some advise for us as to where to spend our time here or tour companies they have used.

Love to see Sami as I loved "Cpt Corelli's Mandolin" movie.

 

Ship arrives 7 am & departs 4pm.

 

I have received so many helpful posts for our upcoming cruise in May, hope you can once again help here.

Need this holiday...............bring it on!!!;)

[Goldygolfer]

We did a Med cruise last May which included a port stop at Argostoli - not many of the cruise lines include this port.

 

I organised a private tour through Kokolis Tours. The tour was about 5 hrs in a minibus with a driver and guide. The quoted price was E300 + E27 VAT for any number of pax up to 15 (number of seats in bus). Each person also paid E12 for entry fees to the Lake and the Cave. 11 others from our roll call joined us, so we were a group of 13. The tour therefore cost each person 42E, including entry fees and tips.

 

We saw most of the northern part of the island - including Myrtos Beach, the village of Assos, village of Fiskardo, Melissani Lake, Drogerati Cave and the church of Agios Gerassimos. We passed briefly through the village of Sami and were told that we would not recognise anything from the movie as the village was transformed especially for filming and restored immediately thereafter. (Actually some of the scenes were fimed at Myrtos Beach.)

 

We chose to start early (7.30) and therefore have the option of returning to the ship for a late lunch or dining in the town of Argostoli.

 

Given the number of others from our roll call who were interested in joining us, the tour worked out to be very good value and we had a very enjoyable day.

 

If you are interested, then I suggest you "google" Kokolis Tours as they have a very good website and you will find contact details and further information. Our contact was with a lady called Kathy.

[Ausellen]

Thank you for your help with this - I will look into it

[margmx]

Hello.

We will also be in Argostoli in late April. We are there only 4 and a half hours. What do you recommend that we could do in that time? Thanks.

Marguerite

[the lovely mama]

We are also going to Argostoli, what did you end up doing? and how did you get to/from Sami?

[Goldygolfer]

We are also going to Argostoli, what did you end up doing? and how did you get to/from Sami?

 

Scroll up to post #2 for some ideas. It's a beautiful island, made even more interesting by the fact that not many cruiselines call there.

[Eileen G]

We really loved our day in Kefelonia. Here is what we did.

 

Saturday, May 23 Today we went to the Greek Island of Cefelonia. We arrived at 7 and after all the excursions got off we were able to tender into town at 8. We were planning to rent a car so we headed down the street. The first two car rental places weren’t open yet so we asked someone where we could rent a car and he said keep going. We found Sunbird car rental and they were opened and ready for all the cruise ship passengers. We rented a cute little Chevrolet. We got a map and were off. Since we were here before the season we had no trouble finding a car but if your going in summer and want to rent a car I would arrange a car ahead.

The drive from Argistoli to Assos has to be one of the most beautiful drives in the world. The road is cut along the side of the mountain and you have mountain on one side and a long sheer drop to the water on the other. The water is an amazing color of blue with mountains in the background. We wanted to stop and take pictures but there was no place for quite a while. Finally we came to some scenic turnouts. We had to watch for goats on the road but luckily there was little traffic.

We stopped at Miktros Beach which is the island’s most famous beach. There is a long windy road down to the beach but it’s well worth it. The beach consists of white pebbles and the water is clear blue. There is a small cave at one end that you can walk into that has an outlet to the water. The beach is pretty large and surrounded by mountains.

We continued a short bit more down the road to Assos. This is a small picturesque village on the water. We walked around a little but didn’t stay long as we had much more to see on the island. We back tracked a little to get to the road that crossed the island to Agia Efimia. This is another small village on the water. On this side of the island the road continues right along the water. You can see modern windmills on the top of the mountains.

It was a short beautiful ride from Agia Efimia to Sami which is one of the major ports on the island. Sami has a very nice water front area and we stopped here and had a gyro for lunch. We continued a little past Sami to Antisamos Beach. Again the views were absolutely beautiful. This beach was a bit rocky but had a nice beach restaurant and clear blue water. Unfortunately we had to be back to the ship’s tender by 2:30 so we had to head back to Argistoli. It was an easy drive back over the mountains. It took us 45 minutes to get back to the car rental place. We stopped for gas and returned the car. We had a little time left to do a little shopping.

 

My pictures are here:

 

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=1e98e90214e77bf9#cid=1E98E90214E77BF9&id=1E98E90214E77BF9%21885

[shilu]

Hi Eileen,

I know you hired a car but can you remember if taxis were readily available or if there were tour companies offering an island tour, as we do not want to drive. My husband and I only have 4.5 hrs in argostoli,

many thanks,

Shilu

[Eileen G]

Hi Eileen,

I know you hired a car but can you remember if taxis were readily available or if there were tour companies offering an island tour, as we do not want to drive. My husband and I only have 4.5 hrs in argostoli,

many thanks,

Shilu

 

 

I believe there were taxis waiting where we got off the tender. Just leave the ship as soon as possible as I'm sure they will be gone if you wait too long. Try to watch Captain Corelli's Mandolin wihich was filmed on Kefalonia. It is a war movie so it is a bit violent.

Edited April 16, 2012 by Eileen G

[stretty]

Thanks to Eileen G we arranged car hire beforehand from http://www.rentcarkefalonia.gr

 

We got a fiat Doblo which had 5 seats, aircon and large windows for only 25 euros they even threw in a road map to keep. Insurance and damage waiver was also included. They were there at the appointed time to deliver and collect. I could not fault them.

 

Driving in Cefelonia is easy with fairly good wide road surfaces however due to a heavy rain storm their were a few small rocks scattered across the roads at the side of the mountains.

 

We also had 4.5 hours so we followed Eileens route. However if we had another couple of hours we would have gone right up to Fiskarro but time and cruiseships wait for no-one so we had to give it a miss:( Other than the short time we had a great day even in overcast weather.

[Eileen G]

I'm so glad you had a great day. We loved Kefalonia and we would love to go back if we could find a cruise that spends a full day there.