The ‘Greek Caribbean’ where you can holiday like a celeb for a fraction of the cost

Weaving through a maze of sun-kissed tables and sky-blue chairs, ebullient host Freiderikos Errikos leads me inside his eponymous family restaurant on the little-known Greek island of Meganisi to a wall of photos featuring famous diners who have graced his tables.

Amid the montage of framed snaps, Errikos is pictured smiling proudly with Hollywood actress Demi Moore, Italian designers Georgio Armani and (the late) Roberto Cavalli, as well as a host of Greek dignitaries worthy of the VIP status the picture wall commands.

We’ve anchored at Vathi, the pretty main port of this hidden Ionian gem off the west coast of Greece, reputedly a haunt for the rich and famous who moor their yachts nearby and arrive quietly to explore.

Earlier, we stop at a secluded pebble and sand beach on the island, deserted apart from a smattering of empty sun loungers and a small bar, where two young locals are serving ice-cold frappes and espressos for less than it would cost at a famous coffee chain at home.

Asking if any celebrities have visited their bar, they talk of Sarah Jessica Parker and show me a TikTok on their phone of rapper Travis Scott trying his hand at Greek dancing with the Meganisi locals, which they say has gone viral.

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My Gen Z kids are probably more impressed than me, but leaving this under-the-radar celebrity haunt, our skipper Dasos puts the throttle down on his rib to give us a tour of neighbouring Skorpios, once the private island of late Greek shipping billionaire Aristotle Onassis (he married Jackie Kennedy there in 1968), now leased long-term by a Russian oligarch.

There’s a James Bond vibe to Skorpios – even the name sounds like it could come out of a movie – as Dasos points out the security men looking ominously at us, plus the cameras at every possible entry point. He tells us that when the oligarch is in residence, security boats patrol the area to ward off unwanted visitors.

Enough of the drama. Meganisi is just a watery detour from where we are actually staying, on its larger sister island Lefkada, nicknamed the ‘Greek Caribbean’ because of its vivid blue waters and glorious beaches, but less well known than the popular Ionian islands of Kefalonia, Corfu…