After what felt like a lifetime I FINALLY got to go away on holiday, we booked Liberatos Village in Kefalonia through Booking.com and our flights through Skyscanner.com. I’d looked at loads of all inclusive deals but I felt like they were just way too much money for that time of the year (September), although when I worked it out at the end of our trip, we ended up spending more than what it would have cost to go all inclusive. Never mind, you learn from these things ey!
Alarms going at 4am, TODAY WAS THE DAY! I gave Max a firm excited shove and up I got, prancing round the room like I’d had a solid 8 hours sleep when in reality I’d had less than 4 (too excited). We got on our direct flight with Jet2.com (who were amazing btw) and off we went! Extremely soon after sitting down on the absolutely jam packed flight – my excitement was tarnished by the overwhelming smell of the private parts owned by the lady sitting directly next to me. I swear to god it was like she’d never seen water, I could feel my eyes burning and my throat closing up even when my face was pressed up against Max’s near the window. This whole situation made my 4 hour flight seem like a 12 hour flight and I couldn’t wait to be able to breath fresh air again. When that seatbelt sign was finally turned off after we’d safely landed on the tarmac, I held my breath whilst fishy woman put her V pretty much in my horrified face to collect her luggage above our heads. “Hurry up before I pass out” was all I could think and when she was finally a safe enough distance away I let it out – lungs had almost just collapsed but who cares anymore WE’RE HERE!
Getting off the plane and feeling that warm air against your skin is one of life’s simple joys. A short walk through a tiny airport and we were at the taxi rank, we got a taxi straight to Liberatos Village and apart from being terrified with the taxi mans lack of care for other road users, we got to our apartment complex in one piece and only 10 euro’s down.
After arriving at Reception and paying for our stay we headed to our room – F4. We walked up the steps into an end apartment which was literally right across from the sea and the amazing pool, perfect location! We thanked the lady at the door and headed in to our temporary home. The first thing I did was go to the balcony – what a view! The sun was right over our room, giving it a nice mid morning glow. Max went and sat on the bed and instantly expressed his dislike for the mattress and to be fair, he wasn’t wrong – worst mattress ever. We requested more sheets to pad the mattress out with which was better but we never managed to get a good night sleep, but that didn’t really bother us as it meant we got the most out of our day! The room was BASIC, we hadn’t paid an arm and a leg for it though so it was to be expected, and since we knew we weren’t going to be cooking and eating in we didn’t mind about the dated facilities.
Since it was only 11am by this point, we changed into our swimmers and headed for the pool, we hadn’t bought any towels with us since they were heavy and we’d only taken hand luggage – but I’d seen a shop next to the pool so thought they’d surely have some there (oh how I was wrong). No towels at the pool side shop meant having to try and find a souvenir shop, we headed down the hill/mountain and found there was a shop pretty much directly at the end of the hill. We got to the till to pay for some towels and some sunscreen – “45 euro pls.” WHAT! 45 sodding euros for two paper thin towels and a small sunscreen spray that I could have got on offer at Boots!? I had to pay it since we had nothing, and after about 20 minutes of moaning, I got over it. Back up the mountain we went to finally enjoy the massive pool.. The first day the mountain was tough – enough for me to consider a taxi kind of tough. It was 29 degrees and we weren’t used to that kind of exercise in that heat, but by the end we were pretty much sprinting up it with beautiful brown skin – we always say how much we actually miss the hill.
The bar next to the pool had really amazing and insanely strong cocktails, the Greeks don’t mess around when it comes to their measurements! We ordered a couple and set up some sunbeds near the pool which was pretty busy now it was like 12.30pm. You could order food from the kitchen next to the bar and even though there wasn’t an abundance of choice, there was still enough there for everyone. They closed the kitchen at 4pm so we had to go out for dinner or cook our own in the apartment, since I hate cooking obviously we went out – back down the mountain and hit the bars and restaurants in Lassi!
During our stay we went to the same restaurant 3 nights in a row simply because we loved it that much, it was called Butlers which was located along the main strip of Lassi and I swear it was the best restaurant I’ve been to in a LONG time. Max tried swordfish and octopus which made me heave, but he seemed to enjoy it, I wasn’t quite so adventurous and stuck to Ceasar salads, Gyros and fish linguine.
Waking up every morning to beautiful sunshine was amazing, we got ready at the speed of light each morning just so we could make the most out of our day, we walked down the hill and to Makris Gialos Beach most days, which was beautiful! I’d never seen the water so clear and it was so warm, you could see all the fish swimming beneath you and there was something really peaceful about it. Once we’d had our fun in the sun we’d head back to the hotel for a shower and to get changed, then it was back down the hill for food. Before eating, we often went to Trentis (a bar) for 2 for 1 cocktails – it had an amazing view across the bay and was the perfect setting to watch the sun set. One of the nights we went to eat at Ta Pitheria, the view wasn’t fantastic as it was on the other side of the road to the beach view, but the food was amazing and you couldn’t fault the service.
One of the days we got the bus into Argostoli in the morning and I was adamant that I needed eggs benedict (anyone who knows me, knows its my favourite food ever) and I wasn’t going to rest until I found a café that did it. Just so happened that we stumbled across Kefalonia Grand – a beautiful hotel/café resort that was right up my street décor wise and also catered to my need for eggs benedict.. PERFECT!
(not my pic)
Once our bellies were nicely full, we went and took a stroll along the waters edge and saw the beautiful sea turtles gliding around and swimming with the fish.
Kefalonia is renowned for its amazing sea turtles who the locals call – Caretta Carretta, along with Melassani cave, Drogorati cave and many more amazing attractions. These tourist attractions were why we originally booked Kefalonia but we ended up having such a chilled holiday we didn’t visit hardly any of them.
So on our last full day after accidentally not visiting any other tourist attractions, we headed back into Argostoli and decided to go on the Pedal boats hoping to see the Carretta Carretta up close and personal. We soon found out that they are not shy and love elegantly swimming right next to the boats. I let Max take over and do some pedaling whilst I hopped on the back and dipped my feet in the cool water.
Once we’d had our 45 minutes on the boat we headed back to Lassi and headed down to a different beach, one we wish we’d known about from day one – Costa Costa beach and bar!
The beach had hundreds of sunbeds all lined in rows ranging from cheapest to most expensive (those fancy white 4 poster beds that you see everywhere on instagram). We were too late in the day to nab a sunbed so we walked down slightly further, set up our towels, grabbed our snorkels and masks and headed down to the sea!
On the last day, we woke up and got all of our stuff packed and ready to go. We were sad to be leaving our oven of a room but excited to get home to a bed that didn’t leave you bruised. After getting our swimmers back on, we went back down to costa costa beach and since we were one of the first ones there we paid for a couple of sunbeds under a brolly which made the world of difference. I pretended to be Arial and swim with the fishies for a few hours before heading back and spending an hour in the pool before leaving. We’d seen that there was a bus service to the airport so we left ourselves plenty of time to get it and back down the hill we went for the last time. We waited for the bus, and then waited, then waited some more – until the bus eventually came an hour later!! 3 Euros each and away we went, back to the teeny tiny airport.
Overall I really enjoyed our holiday and the location of Liberatos Village, it could do with a bit of TLC in some areas but for what we paid it was good. We fell in love with Kefalonia and the people, and we’re looking to go back to Greece early September this year. I would go back to Liberatos Village, but I think I’d like to maybe try somewhere different next time. Somewhere that had a bit more going on at night, right on the beach and not up such a steep hill.
Positives:
- Seeing the Carretta Carretta in their natural habitat
- Snorkling with fish
- Friendly People/Apartment Staff
- Large pool + Bar area
- Really nice view from the pool and bar
- Amazing weather and beaches
- The food was insane everywhere we went
- Loads of information on tourist attractions and arranged travel
Negatives:
- Everything is quite expensive
- Really uncomfortable beds
- I wouldn’t say the hill was a negative but if you’re older or don’t fancy the hike then I’d probably say keep hold of a taxi number.
- There wasn’t any entertainment at the Complex
- The room got cleaned once whilst we were there and our sheets only got changed twice
- Not a lot of choice in the complex shop – could do with selling towels and sunscreen!
Overall:
I really enjoyed our holiday and the location of Liberatos Village, it could do with a bit of TLC in some areas but for what we paid it was good. We fell in love with Kefalonia and the people, and we’re looking to go back to Greece early September this year. I would go back to Liberatos Village, but I think I’d like to maybe try somewhere different next time. Somewhere that had a bit more going on at night, right on the beach and not up such a steep hill.
SIMPLEOCEANSOUL 