The Villa Remvi Experience
We recently spent a week at the wonderful Villa Remvi in Lefkada in the Southern Ionian and I just wanted to say a few words to both the owners and anyone that is considering staying.
Wow, what a view. Like most of you I am sure that we have all seen the holiday brochure about the fabulous hotel or apartment only to be greeted by the building site next door or the “sea view” if you lean out of the window and crook your head in a particular direction. Not a day went by at Villa Remvi without one or both of us saying “Wow will you look at that view” at least 3 or 4 times.
The house is set in a secluded part of Fterno which is a mountain top village towards the south of the island. It is about 45 minutes from the airport (although we came via a different route, more of which later) and did I mention that the view is amazing. Within five minutes of arriving we were in the infinity pool looking over toward Nidri and thinking that a week wasn’t going to be long enough.
Let me tell you about the journey as we thought we would do something a little different and drive all the way down to Lefkada from London. I know, I know it is a hell of a long way but we had a two week holiday so decided to drive down via Austria, the Italian Riveria and Puglia before getting the ferry across from Bari. If you are a family of four it might be worth considering from a cost viewpoint. You could easily drive from Calais to Venice (11 hours) or have a night stop in France on the way and then catch the ferry to Igoumenitsa. It is 36 hours on the ferry but it is very comfortable. Either ferry is around 2 to 2½ hours from the house so we were in the pool before 9am
The House
Anyway, back to the house. The whole house has clearly been modernised and decorated to a high standard and is a genuine home from home. There is lots of outside seating, dining and pool side loungers. Inside is just as comfortable but to be honest we simply didn’t spend anytime there. Did I also mention the view?
The main house has two bedrooms and two bathrooms and there is a lovely annex about 3 metres away that is another twin bedroom with an en-suite, so it sleeps six comfortably. The views from the main bedroom and the annex are stunning and we never closed the curtains as we wanted to be greeted by the fabulous views in the morning. There are full length insect screens so there was no issue being open to the elements and to be honest we really weren’t bothered by too many bugs, maybe a few wasps during meal times but what do you expect?
The beds are very comfortable, it would have been nice to have a double in the annex rather than two large singles but that is me trying to find one thing as a negative. If I needed another negative I could argue that the bathrooms could do with updating but my guess is if that was done then the price would likely be a lot higher than the £2200 for a week. They were very clean, entirely functional but just a little dated. I really struggle to say anything other than how much we loved staying here.
The kitchen could not be better equipped, and we happily cooked some large meals while we were here. There is a great mixture of both glassware and plastic for pool side and a full range of cooking bits and pieces. I honestly couldn’t think of anything else I would have liked (perhaps a sous vide?)
Did I mention the view?
What to do and where to go
We have been here in the 2nd week of September and it is still stunning and the weather magnificent. If you can drag yourself away from the pool and the view there is plenty to do. The owners, Derek and Anita left a couple of walks to follow, one of about and hour and then we did a longer two hour walk (probably best for the mornings and remember to take water). The reward apart form the exercise is the views of the surrounding islands and the house itself. There are any number of great places to eat out for both lunch and dinner and the boards that they have put on the wall in the sitting room have some great places, we tried out 4 or 5 and they were all terrific value as well as good food. I would say on average you are looking at under €25 a head for a meal of two courses with wine (although we were largely enjoying the house wines). Where I would recommend (and what we did on our first night) was to pop down to Phillipos in the village for the genuine Greek kebab experience. They are a hugely friendly family and it let us just relax into the Greek way and it was just a short walk home.
It is also worth spending a morning driving up through the hills at the centre of the island because whilst the Villa Remvi view is fantastic there are also some others worth seeing. The high point of the island is at 3,500 ft (1,100 metres to the youngsters) and the views stretch right the way round from Lefkada in the north and all the way around to Kefalonia. It is about an hours drive, all up hill and about 450 corners but you will be rewarded with a wonderful view. Again look at the board in the house for tips.
Overall
We have been bowled over by Villa Remvi everything from the arrival to the briefing, bottle of wine and help from the staff, though the view (have I mentioned that?) to the house itself has made for a memorable holiday that we will definitely be repeating. If you want to know more you can always email me at paulnorthcott@outlook.com I won’t promise you an unbiased view as we really did have a great time.