Can anyone who has actually traveled--on the rough--through the Ionian islands provide some sort of upfront report? Our plan this May is to visit Corfu, then skip down to Lefkhada and Kefalonia. We are both artists and like to walk and sketch. Is Corfu City a good base for day trips around that island? And where, in the latter two islands, might be a good, quiet base to fan out from, by bus or ferry? We are not traveling by car.

Since you are not getting much response I'll suggest you look over at Matt Barretts Greece website - hopefully you can get info there altho I do not think there is a place for questions / input from other travelers. I did stop at Corfu on a cruise once - it seemed to be a lovely island but I did not see much of it!

Thanks, yes am familiar with Matt's blog.

This forum is absolute fount of Info on Cyclades, Cretem Peloponnese, Much of Mainland, also some of Dodecanese, such as Rhodes... but doesn't seem to attract as many people going to the Ionian islands ... lots of those on the TA Greece forum tho must say not along your line (artists/independent travel).. seem to be a lot of UK inquiries about "resorts" -- however, since these often return year after year, they'll know a lot about local transport .. and perhaps about quieter places not as impacted by package-holiday build-up.

The old city of Corfu (which belonged to Venice during centuries and was never occupied by Turks) is charming. All Island buses as well as passenger/car ferrries to Igoumenitsa and the boats to Saranda (and sometimes to Paxi Island) start from there.
Ferries to Erikoussa Island, Othoni Island and Mathraki Island start from Agios Stefanos (Northern Corfu).

The Lefkas Island buses start from the main town, boats to Meganissi Island and to Fiskardo (Kefalonia) from Nydri, for the latter destination sometimes from Vassiliki too. The Western beaches, some of them directly below high rocks (like Katsiki) are really stunning.

Corfu - Lefkada:
ferry to Igoumenitsa, bus to Parga - Preveza, bus to Lefkada. A stop over at Parga is highly recommended. Parga may also be reached from Paxi by irregular excursion boats. Igoumenitsa - Paxi ferries stop sometimes at Lefkimmi (Southern Corfu).
www.gtp.gr