Kastos

Kastos is a narrow sliver of an island in the Ionian Sea, lying east of Lefkada and separated from its larger neighbour Kalamos by a deep channel, with the mainland region of Aetolia-Acarnania about 5 kilometres to the north-east. It stretches roughly 7 kilometres from north to south but is rarely more than 800 metres wide, covering just under 6 square kilometres and rising to only 142 metres at its highest ridge. Since 2011 it has formed a municipal unit within the municipality of Lefkada, and it is often described as the smallest permanently inhabited island in the Ionian group.

A Population That Rises and Falls

The 2021 census recorded just 40 permanent residents, a figure that has swung sharply over the decades: 68 in 1981, 50 in 1991, a surprising 120 in 2001, then 80 in 2011. Numbers on that scale are misleading in summer, when returning islanders and their families push the working population well above the official count and the harbour fills with visiting boats. Most year-round residents live from fishing and seasonal tourism, and the island's commercial base reflects that plainly: a mini-market, a few bars, a handful of restaurants and a small gift shop, nearly all of which shut for the winter.

Kastos is effectively car-free. Vehicles cannot be brought over on the ferries and only a couple of pick-up trucks work the island, so movement is on foot, by scooter or by small boat. Two old windmills and three olive presses survive, none of them working. One windmill is recorded as having operated until 1949 and is regarded as the best-preserved example in the Ionian Islands, while another, at the entrance to the harbour, has been converted into a café and has become something of an island emblem.

The Village and Its Churches

There is a single settlement, also called Kastos, set on the east coast around the harbour and climbing the hillside behind it, with an upper quarter looking out over the sea. Its main church, Agios Ioannis Prodromos, dates from the middle of the nineteenth century and holds paintings by Spyridon Gazis, an Eptanesian artist from Lefkada; the church keeps its feast on 23 and 24 June, and early Christian tombs were uncovered in its foundations. A second chapel, Agios Aimilianos, stands about 4 kilometres to the north-east, above a beach of the same name and close to scattered older remains.

Harbours, Beaches and Getting There

The island has two ports. The main harbour lies below the village and offers straightforward mooring, though care is needed over the shoals on the northern side of the bay, and strong easterly to north-easterly winds can make it uncomfortable or unusable. In those conditions boats move round to Sarakiniko, a bay on the west side about 700 metres from the village with a small pier that stays workable in poor weather. Beaches on the sheltered eastern side — among them Ampelakia, Kamini, Kalada, Vrisidi and Agios Emilianos — can be reached on foot or by road, while the rockier western shore is essentially boat-only.

Scheduled boats connect Kastos with Mytikas on the mainland, a crossing of roughly fifty minutes that runs close to daily through the summer, and there are less frequent services from Lefkada. With mild summer winds, dependable mooring and almost no road traffic, this low-key stretch of coastline is one reason many gulet cruises in Greece call in here, pairing a quiet overnight anchorage with a short walk through the island's olive groves and vineyards.