Galera - (Restaurants in Skala)

Kato C           

Two of us ate for 30 euros. The food wasn't bad: a greek salad (moderate, quite boring) and lamb souvlaki (rather small and dull) plus two cheap, fun puddings, bread, a glass of wine and a coke. The service was friendly and very good: they treated us well. The balcony was a pleasant place to dine. We also ate at Aquarius, Aiolos, Apostolis, The Pines and Flamingo (all better than Gallera) and at Scandinavia (worse). Aiolos was the pick of the bunch, for both food and location.

Aquarius - (Restaurants in Skala)

Kato C           

Two of us ate for 30 euros. The food was good: local salmon stuffed with spinach and cheese (delicious though small) and lamb stuffed with vine leaves, feta and wine (also tasty but meagre) plus bread, a beer and a coke. The service was friendly and good: fairly efficient. The atmosphere was pleasant enough. We also ate at Aiolos and The Pines (better than Aquarius), at Apostolis and Flamingo (similar) and at Gallera and Scandinavia (worse). Aiolos was the pick of the bunch, for both food and location.

Avra - (Restaurants in Skala)

Kato C           

Two of us ate for 27 euros. The food was excellent: Kefalonian meat pie (properly meaty and really good, and much better than the one at Scandinavia) and a seafood platter (delicious, large and varied) plus bread, a glass of wine and a lemonade. The service was very friendly and orderly. The atmosphere was second-to-none: the promenade location really is outstanding. We also ate at The Pines (not far short of Aiolos), at Aquarius, Apostolis, Flamingo, Gallera and Scandinavia (all worse, but Aiolos was the pick of the bunch, for both food and location).

Mikelatos (Scandinavia) - (Restaurants in Skala)

Kato C           

Two of us ate for 28 euros. The food was rather bland: soutsoukakia meatballs (reminiscent of school dinners) and Kefalonian meat pie (inspired by the wonderful one we had at Aiolos, but in this case moderate at best) plus bread, half a bottle of retsina and two lemonades. The service was efficient enough. The atmosphere was spoiled by the screening of a football match, but this was of course our fault for not checking. We also ate at Aiolos, The Pines, Aquarius, Apostolis and Flamingo (all better than Scandinavia) and at Gallera (about the same). Aiolos was the pick of the bunch, for both food and location.

Apostolis Taverna - (Restaurants in Skala)

Kato C           

Two of us ate for 26 euros (an outstanding price). The food was very good: beef stifado (though it was described as veal on the menu, it was a prime cut and excellent) and chicken souvlaki (tender and succulent) plus bread, and two lemonades (that must be how we saved money!). The service was good. As another reviewer has written, we found wasps a real problem and they hastened the end of our meal: they were very persistent. That spoiled the meal a bit. We also ate at Aiolos and The Pines (better than Apostolis), Aquarius and Flamingo (similar) and at Scandinavia and Gallera (worse). Aiolos was the pick of the bunch, for both food and location.

The Pines - (Restaurants in Skala)

Kato C           

Two of us ate for 25 euros. The food was outstanding: kleftico lamb (melt-in-the-mouth with an incredible flavour: quite simply the best lamb we'd ever tasted) and Cobb salad (good, strong flavours) plus bread, tsatsiki, fried Feta cheese and half a bottle of robola. The service was like lightning: we were served in about three minutes flat. The already-pleasant atmosphere was improved hugely by the celebrity presence of Roy Hattersley on the next table. We also ate at Aiolos (the only restaurant to rival The Pines) and Aquarius, Apostolis, Flamingo, Gallera and Scandinavia.

Flamingo - (Restaurants in Skala)

Kato C           

Flamingo appears to have scored quite badly on this website, but evidently only owing to the reviewers being irritated by cats and the upper classes. The restaurant was, we thought, better than that. Two of us ate for 32 euros. The food was fine: chicken Caesar salad (easy enough to do well, but the chicken wasn't warm) and a steak charcutiere (very tasty medium rare, done very well) plus bread, half a bottle of robola and two lemonades. The service was good. It was rather packed in the courtyard, and consequently a little hot. We also ate at Aiolos and The Pines (which were great), at Aquarius and Apostolis (similar to Flamingo) and at Scandinavia and Gallera (the poorer relations, we felt). Aiolos was the pick of the bunch, for both food and location.

Captains House - (Accommodation in Skala)

Kato C           

I have stayed in many two and three star hotels all over Europe, and I would recommend this hotel.

ROOM AND FACILITIES. My girlfriend and I requested a balcony and got one, on the top floor at the back of the hotel. There are two fridges on each corridor, for communal use. We used our fridge a lot and nobody stole anything from it.Our room was en-suite and small, but comfortable. The cleaners changed the sheets and emptied the bins on alternate days, but they did come knocking at half past nine, which might be a little early for some. Air conditioning and fans were not included in the price of the room, but we were able to pay for our air conditioning unit to be switched on at a price of 40 euros for the week. Electric fans could also be hired at a lower cost. The air conditioning was well worth it, though: the unit really worked wonders, but it would have been nice to know about the hidden extra cost at the outset. There was no problem at all with mosquitoes, but we bought a plug-in repellant from a mini market just to be on the safe side.
 
LOCATION. The location really was excellent: we were equidistant from the beach and the main street (each being two minutes' walk at most). There was a mini market opposite, and further shops on the main street. The Captain's Bar (open until two o'clock) was indeed the life and soul of night-time Skala: Tina and Monica were really good hosts. Sky Sports was the channel of choice most of the time, so we managed to catch a bit of the Ashes.
 
QUIETNESS. Despite the central location and excitement of the Captain's Bar, the hotel rooms were quiet and the corridors not long enough to be jammed with noisy holidaymakers, so we slept very well indeed. The Bar music was turned down at half past midnight anyway.
 
PACKAGE. Thomson and their holiday rep, Andy, were very helpful and I would use the company again without hesitation. One word of warning, though: their day-trips were exactly double the cost of local operators, who offered exactly the same trips (including air conditioned coaches). We wasted 30 euros on this mistake.
 
I enjoyed staying in this hotel and would happily go back there again.

August - (Best Time to Visit)

Kato C           

We visited Skala during the last week of August 2005. It was not too crowded and there was always plenty of space on the beach and in the restaurants and bars. The temperature was 27 to 34 degrees Celsius but a pleasant, cooling breeze made the hotter hours tolerable.

Day trip to Ithaca - (Kefalonia Excursions)

Kato C           

We made a tour of Ithaca with Panem (using their office on the main street in Skala) for 29 euros each. We had already made the Discover Kefalonia tour with Thomson. If only we'd known at the time: Thomson and its rivals offer exactly the same tours, but Thomson is twice as expensive. There is no other difference between the tours (air conditioned coaches on both tours).

Ithaca was beautiful and much more remote than Kefalonia. The day was not too hectic and not too hot. The view from the Balcony of Ithaca (at the monastery) is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen.

Island Tour by coach - (Kefalonia Excursions)

Kato C           

We made a tour of Kefalonia with Thomson (through the holiday rep, after the morning welcome meeting) for 36 euros each. We later made the Ithaca tour with Panem. If only we'd known at the time: Thomson and its rivals offer exactly the same tours, but Thomson is twice as expensive. There is no other difference between the tours (air conditioned coaches on both tours).

I would really recommend the island tour, whoever you go with. Fiskardo and Assos are charming villages. The caves at Melissani and Drogkorati are really beautiful: well worth the trip on their own, I think.