Emelisse Nature Resort

Ithaca and Lefkada are both in view from the pool terrace at Emelisse, and the hotel keeps a yacht for anyone who would rather be on them. It stands among cypress and cedar on a headland of white limestone above Emblisi Bay, at the northern tip of Kefalonia. The hotel calls its architecture Bali style. From above it looks more like an Ionian hill village, ochre walls and terracotta roofs stepping down to an infinity pool on the edge of the rock, with red loungers along a steel rail. Below the terrace the limestone breaks into ledges, and steps go down to swim from them into water that runs turquoise over the rock. After dark the paths between the buildings are lit low, through stone courtyards where olive trees grow in raised beds of the same stone.

Recommended for couples basing themselves in the north, and for families who want the same view with something laid on for the children. They get a pool of their own, a trainer for games and fitness and a playroom with billiards and chess, and the pool by reception is kept for the adults. Fiskardo is twelve minutes' walk or a shuttle ride away, colourful Venetian houses round a harbour of yachts and tavernas, with Foki Beach five minutes beyond it: sheltered pebbles, and trees that come down to the water. The yacht, a Princess V50, takes up to eleven to Lefkada or to Scorpios, the Onassis island, for the day or the weekend. Dinner is by lantern light at Votsalo, beside the main pool. Riza has pizza nights at its wood oven, and a film in the open air every night for anyone who has had enough of looking at Ithaca.