Kefalonia to Ithaca, Port by Port

20 to 30 minutes on the main route, Sami to Pisaetos - one of Greece's shortest inter-island hops. The Poros alternative runs about 50 minutes. Day cruises take longer by design: they're spending the time in coves, not crossing the channel.

Yes - two operators, Levante Ferries and Ionion Pelagos, run the Sami-Pisaetos crossing with around 14 weekly sailings each in season, carrying cars and foot passengers. In winter the timetable collapses to a couple of crossings a week, so the operators' own sites are the authority on any given day: the full ferry guide.

Comfortably - it's one of the easiest island day trips in Greece. The organized versions run from Sami, Agia Effimia and Poros, with bus-and-boat combos collecting the far coasts; the DIY version pairs the morning ferry with the afternoon return. One day genuinely covers Vathy, a swim at Gidaki and Kioni's harbor: the one-day plan.

Foot passengers cross from single-digit euros - about $6 booked ahead - with cars costing more per vehicle. That price is the route's honest secret: the crossing itself is nearly free, so what you're really choosing is what surrounds it - a bare quay landing on the ferry, or a structured day on a cruise.

Sami, on the east coast - about 45 minutes' drive from the airport and half an hour from Argostoli - landing at Pisaetos quay on Ithaca. Poros runs a longer alternative crossing. Note that Pisaetos is a working quay with no town attached: arrange your onward leg (taxi, hire car or a tour pickup) before you sail.

The one nearest your bed, almost always. Sami has the ferry and the featured cruise; Agia Effimia and Poros run their own cruises; Skala, Argostoli and Lassi stays are usually best served by the bus-and-boat combos that do the driving. The two-minute version: the port chooser.

Vathy - one of Greece's prettiest natural harbors, ringed like an amphitheater - plus Gidaki beach (reachable only by boat or trail, which is why cruises own it) and Kioni's windmill harbor in the north. The Odyssey sites are scattered and interpretive rather than monumental; the island's real exhibit is the water and the quiet.

Ithaca is the closest and easiest; Zakynthos to the south and Lefkada to the north both work as bigger days out, and summer excursion boats run to smaller spots like the Echinades. Honest ranking for a single day trip: Ithaca first on effort-to-reward - the crossing is 20 minutes, not a morning: the island menu.

May through early October is the practical window, with summer running a dozen-plus weekly ferry crossings plus daily cruises. Winter service shrinks to a couple of ferries a week and the cruises stop entirely. August boats genuinely fill - book the ferry and the cruises ahead rather than gambling at the quay.