Gouvia v's Lefkas

C

comino

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Lefkas Marina
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We've just started to think about next years cruising ground (currently in Malta) and for a variety of reasons we think a 12 month marina contract in the Ionian would suit our circumstances. The two places we've looked at are Lefkas and Gouvia but apart from the central location of Lefkas, we can't quite decide which would be best. I'm sure people out there can give us some good advice based on personal experience. Also, does one "negotiate" the price, or are the published rates what you have to pay? Feedback much appreciated…….good and bad!
 
comino said:
We've just started to think about next years cruising ground (currently in Malta) and for a variety of reasons we think a 12 month marina contract in the Ionian would suit our circumstances. The two places we've looked at are Lefkas and Gouvia but apart from the central location of Lefkas, we can't quite decide which would be best. I'm sure people out there can give us some good advice based on personal experience. Also, does one "negotiate" the price, or are the published rates what you have to pay? Feedback much appreciated…….good and bad!
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If you opt for an annual contract with either Levkas or Gouvia marina, you can choose to stay for up to one month 'free' in the other one. On that basis I would choose Levkas, since there are more islands/places to visit in the S Ionian and you need relatively more time to do that.

In terms of which marina is 'better,' you'll probably get as many opinions as people who respond. Having stayed in both my take on the marina facilities is:

Gouvia - More, and generally superior restaurants/cafe bars. Excellent swimming pool. Limited liveaboard community facilities. Showers/toilets showing their age and sparse (depending on where you are moored), but no charge for showers - although this may be changing. No pump-out facilities. Water non-potable - unless you pay. Electricity was 'free' but new pontoon stations are going in, which probably means you'll pay for both electricity and water soon. Wifi is pretty useless.

Levkas: - Fewer restaurants but one good cafe/bar (The Porto). Active liveaboard facilities - community room, many activities, gym facilities. Showers/toilets adequate numbers, all renewed and quite up-market; pay for showers by renewable credit card. Fuel and pump-out station in the marina. Potable water and no electricity charges when we were there - but may be changing. Wifi not brilliant - depends on where your berth is.

Both marinas have chandleries and many more (cheaper) outlets off-site. Both have on-site laundries (Gouvia cheaper). Levkas has its own sailmaker, yacht repair and guardianage facilities. Extensive yacht service companies and various 'specialists' (engineers, glass fibre, etc etc) in the near vicinity of both marinas.

Off-site facilities at Gouvia include cricket and croquet (don't laugh, it's good fun) but the town itself is nothing to write home about -although Corfu itself has everything you might want. Levkas town is a much more vibrant affair (even in winter) and you are spoilt for choice with restaurants and cafe/bars.
 
That is a good summary. The only thing I would add is that transport to/from the UK is much easier from Corfu if that is needed, although Levkas has a bus to Athens that works well to get scheduled flights to UK and it is possible to get charter seats from Preveza.
 
ITH said:
If you opt for an annual contract with either Levkas or Gouvia marina, you can choose to stay for up to one month 'free' in the other one. On that basis I would choose Levkas, since there are more islands/places to visit in the S Ionian and you need relatively more time to do that.

In terms of which marina is 'better,' you'll probably get as many opinions as people who respond. Having stayed in both my take on the marina facilities is:

Gouvia - More, and generally superior restaurants/cafe bars. Excellent swimming pool. Limited liveaboard community facilities. Showers/toilets showing their age and sparse (depending on where you are moored), but no charge for showers - although this may be changing. No pump-out facilities. Water non-potable - unless you pay. Electricity was 'free' but new pontoon stations are going in, which probably means you'll pay for both electricity and water soon. Wifi is pretty useless.

Levkas: - Fewer restaurants but one good cafe/bar (The Porto). Active liveaboard facilities - community room, many activities, gym facilities. Showers/toilets adequate numbers, all renewed and quite up-market; pay for showers by renewable credit card. Fuel and pump-out station in the marina. Potable water and no electricity charges when we were there - but may be changing. Wifi not brilliant - depends on where your berth is.

Both marinas have chandleries and many more (cheaper) outlets off-site. Both have on-site laundries (Gouvia cheaper). Levkas has its own sailmaker, yacht repair and guardianage facilities. Extensive yacht service companies and various 'specialists' (engineers, glass fibre, etc etc) in the near vicinity of both marinas.

Off-site facilities at Gouvia include cricket and croquet (don't laugh, it's good fun) but the town itself is nothing to write home about -although Corfu itself has everything you might want. Levkas town is a much more vibrant affair (even in winter) and you are spoilt for choice with restaurants and cafe/bars.
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You are WAY out of date. The shower/toilet facilities at both have been recently re-furbished to the same very high standard but those at Levkas are chokingly badly ventillated. The advantage with Gouvia and the reason we have used it as our "boat park" for the last ten years is that we can fly there in the winter, albeit, via Athens but the stop-overs are very short.

Gouvia, incidentally has a, in MY view, marginally better sailmaker (Giatras) to the one at Levkas (Sailand) who is very good though and extremely helpful and two others almost as good (plus one VERY average one!)

The 28 days swapped usage is, btw, accumulative over 12 months.

The immediate locality around Levkas Marina has FAR more restaurants/social facilities than Gouvia IN SEASON which is located in the small village of Kontokali, a €20 taxi ride from Corfu Town. However, most of the Gouvia ones are open all through the year and at Bistro Boileau, in Kontokali Village, Sue and Alex offer, to MY mind, the best steak in Greece! (Sue is from Liverpool, Alex is a local Greek).

Levkas Town is, however DEAD in the winter. Gouvia's swimming pool gets drained in the winter, incidentally and they only play cricket there or at the main pitch in Corfu Town, in the summer.

There is absolutely NO intention of charging for electricity in Gouvia in the future. (Those who have a berth in what we call the "Council Estate" pontoons don't all get the choice of water supplies yet those of us in the "Country Estate" DO but this is being remedied. The Italian made "Gigieffe" water pedestals have the facility for both water and electricity metering but the electricity is not connected, it being supplied by another set of non-metered pedestals, adjacent: perhaps that explains your confusion?)

As to the water, Don't do anything except the preliminary boat salt wash-off with the free water at Gouvia and certainly don't let it dry on or you'll be chiselling it off! Most of us always wash our boats in the metered supply since we don't want them covered in limescale. The free water at Levkas is only a slight improvement but they don't offer the processed water available at Gouvia using the pre-paid blue key system. My front tank is currently full of Levkas water but my rear one has the sublime soft water from Mesolonghi. We are surviving on this combination here in Trizonia.

Gouvia, although the equivalent of a cross channel trip (Solent to Cherbourg) south to the "Disneyland" of the Inland Sea, (but there is the half way stop at the delightful Paxos, on the way), offers in MY view, the best place to locate a boat in the Ionian.

Corfu is, incidentally slightly cheaper than Levkas and there are FAR more all year around liveaboards in Gouvia, I can guarantee.
 
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jordanbasset said:
Some excellent info in all the above posts, re the 28 days you can use at the other marina for free, can you just turn up for this or do you have to book in advance and are you limited to a number of days each time.
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The "Proper" procedure is that you email the KG headquarters in Athens with your boat details, your customer number, where you have your long term berth and where you want to go. They usually respond within 48hrs. Then just turn up.

Curiously though, Kalamata, their marina on the south eastern Peleponisos has been excluded now. However, the prestige "Zea Marina" in Piraeus nr Athens is now included. That is where we will be end of next week. It also covers some marinas in Turkey which belong to the group that KG has partnered with there.
 
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Steve C Cronin said:
As to the water, Don't do anything except the preliminary boat salt wash-off with the free water at Gouvia and certainly don't let it dry on or you'll be chiselling it off! Most of us always wash our boats in the metered supply since we don't want them covered in limescale. The free water at Levkas is only a slight improvement but they don't offer the processed water available at Gouvia using the pre-paid blue key system. My front tank is currently full of Levkas water but my rear one has the sublime soft water from Mesolonghi. We are surviving on this combination here in Trizonia.
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I dissolved all the chalk out of our tanks, which has built up over 6 years, with HCL before we left Croatia and a few weeks later filled up both tanks with the non-potable water at Gouvia. We only drink bottled water so the tanks are used for washing, showering and boiling.

When we left the boat a couple of weeks ago I drained down the tanks to find, much to my amazement, that one fill-up with Gouvia water creates about as much lime scale as 6 years of filling up with Croatia water!

So, back to square one and another job back on the list for later this year!

Richard
 
RichardS said:
I dissolved all the chalk out of our tanks, which has built up over 6 years, with HCL before we left Croatia and a few weeks later filled up both tanks with the non-potable water at Gouvia. We only drink bottled water so the tanks are used for washing, showering and boiling.

When we left the boat a couple of weeks ago I drained down the tanks to find, much to my amazement, that one fill-up with Gouvia water creates about as much lime scale as 6 years of filling up with Croatia water!

So, back to square one and another job back on the list for later this year!

Richard
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Hope you pumped it through your calorifier and cleared all the hydrochloric acid out too!
 
Cr*p I just filled up the tank at gouvia. Noticed nothing yet although output on manual pump which has a filter seems reduced.

We just had to make the same decision and chose corfu (corfu boat yard rather than gouvia) ;mostly because the flights are more convenient and a lot cheaper.
 
eagle160 said:
Cr*p I just filled up the tank at gouvia. Noticed nothing yet although output on manual pump which has a filter seems reduced.

We just had to make the same decision and chose corfu (corfu boat yard rather than gouvia) ;mostly because the flights are more convenient and a lot cheaper.
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Don't get that. From anywhere on Corfu, we all fly from the same, one and only airport!
 
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