Corfu
Corfu is the Ionian island that feels Italian, four centuries of Venice and then France and Britain in a UNESCO old town of arcades, lanes and two fortresses, with cypress hills, pebble coves and the wettest winters in Greece. Reached from Europe rather than Athens, three to five nights, a base chosen for the coast you want, and Albania a ferry ride away.
Corfu in a nutshell
Corfu: what to expect
Our travellers have planned 157,000+ stops in Greece on Stippl. That is where the numbers here come from.
Corfu is flown into from Europe, not ferried from Athens, and that is the most useful thing about it. The Old Town is the Liston arcade, the Venetian lanes and two fortresses, free to wander and best in the morning, Paleokastritsa is six coves under wooded headlands with boats to the sea caves, the Achilleion is the palace an empress built on the Achilles theme, Sarandë in Albania is under an hour and a half by ferry, Mount Pantokrator is the 906-metre summit, and Porto Timoni is a double bay below Afionas. Most travellers give Corfu 3 nights on Stippl.
Corfu is on a different network from the rest of Greece. Athens appears less often than chance on the trips that carry Corfu on Stippl, Lefkada appears 3.17 times as often as expected, because the island attaches to the Ionian and to nothing else, and 29.44% of Corfu stops are a single night, which is the cruise call and the overnight before a flight rather than the holiday.
So fly in direct, pick the base for the coast you want rather than for the town, give the Old Town a morning, Paleokastritsa a day and Albania another, and come in late May, June or the first half of September. Skip combining it with the Cyclades, since the ferries do not exist, skip a big car on the narrow roads, and skip the wrong base, because half the holiday is then bus time.
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History people, not classicists
Venetian, French and British layers instead of temples, and an old town that reads as Italian.
Families on a direct flight
A short transfer, shallow beaches, a bus network and no ferry leg at either end.
Walkers
The Corfu Trail runs about 220 kilometres from the south to the north of the island and can be taken in single stages.
Greece-and-Albania combiners
Sarandë and Butrint are a ferry crossing away, and this is the only Greek island where that is true.
Ionian island hoppers
Lefkada appears 3.17 times as often as expected on Corfu trips on Stippl, and the Cyclades almost never.
Longer stayers
46.60% of Corfu stops on Stippl run three nights or more, and a week fits the island better than any other in Greece.
Maybe not for you: the Cyclades island hopper, because Corfu attaches to the Ionian and to nothing else and there is no ferry to Santorini or Mykonos; and anyone expecting whitewashed cubes and blue domes, since this island is pastel, Venetian and green.
The best time to visit Corfu
Shoulder
Late April to June, early September
Open, warm and dry, and outside the package peak, with the wildflowers in May and the sea warmest in September.
Peak
July and August
Hot, full and at its most expensive, with the cruise calls concentrated in these weeks and the parking gone.
Wet
October to March
A hundred to a hundred and ninety millimetres a month, the wettest winter in Greece, and much of the island's tourism closed.
- Most travellers give Corfu 3 nights on Stippl, and 46.60% of stops run three or more. Four covers the town and the main sights, and a week adds a coast.
- Orthodox Easter is a Corfu event in its own right. The Easter Saturday pot-throwing from the town's balconies is the island's best-known festival, it moves each year, and the rooms in town go months ahead.
- Cricket on the Esplanade runs through the summer. A British-protectorate survival, and Corfu is the only place in Greece where the game is played at club level.
- The Achilleion interior is closed for restoration. The gardens and the terrace are open, so the palace is a garden visit until the work finishes.
- The wrong base costs half the holiday in bus time. The buses radiate from the town and the far coasts are slow from each other, so the base is chosen for the coast, not the town.
- 29.44% of Corfu stops on Stippl are a single night. The cruise call and the overnight before the flight, and the version that never leaves the town.
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Things to do in Corfu
Corfu Old Town on foot
The Liston arcade, the Venetian lanes, the Esplanade and two fortresses, free to wander, UNESCO-listed and best in the morning before the ships.
Paleokastritsa
Six coves under wooded headlands, the clifftop monastery above them and boats out to the sea caves, the most photographed bays in the Ionian.
The Achilleion gardens
The palace Empress Elisabeth of Austria built on the Achilles theme, ten kilometres south of town, with the interior closed for restoration and the gardens open.
A day in Albania
Sarandë is under an hour and a half by ferry and Butrint's archaeological site is beyond it, with passport control at both ends.
Mount Pantokrator
The island's summit at about 906 metres, with a medieval monastery on top and a view that reaches Albania and the mainland on a clear day, by road only.
Porto Timoni
A double bay below Afionas reached by a thirty-minute descent, or by taxi boat from Agios Georgios, and the swim of the north-west.
The coasts of Corfu
Corfu Town
The UNESCO old town
Venetian lanes, French arcades, two fortresses and the Esplanade, with every bus on the island starting here and the culture done without a car. For history.
Everything historic and every bus, but the beaches are a ride away.
Paleokastritsa
The coves
Six bays under wooded headlands on the north-west coast with a clifftop monastery, the boats to the sea caves and the most photographed water on the island. For scenery and swimming.
The scenery, at coach-tour prices and coach-tour crowds by noon.
Glyfada
The sand
A long west-coast beach backed by resort hotels, the best swimmable sand within easy reach of town. For a straightforward beach week.
The best sand near town, and a resort strip with nothing behind it.
Kassiopi
The north-east village
A fishing village below the Pantokrator ridge with the quiet coast, the trailheads and a working harbour. For villages and walking.
Quiet and the walks, though the west-coast beaches are an hour away.
Agios Gordios
The backpacker bay
A west-coast bay with surf, cliffs and a long-running backpacker scene, the cheapest real beach base and the sunsets the coast is known for. For budgets.
Cheap and the sunsets, but the surf rules out weak swimmers.
Benitses
The east-coast village
A small village south of town on the bus line, with the lowest prices on the island and the town twenty minutes away. For local feel on a budget.
The cheapest rooms on the island, and no real beach to show for it.
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Where to stay in Corfu
Pick the wrong base and half the holiday is bus time, and both of the guides that cover where to stay open with that warning, which they do not give for smaller islands. Most travellers give Corfu 3 nights on Stippl, so the base is chosen for the coast, with the town for a night at either end.
Corfu Town
Old-town hotels and apartments in the Venetian lanes, €70 to €180 a night.
Paleokastritsa
€80–160
Hillside hotels above the coves, €80 to €200 a night.
Glyfada
€90–180
Resort hotels on the sand, €90 to €220 a night.
Kassiopi
€75–150
Village rooms and villas on the north-east coast, €60 to €160 a night.
Agios Gordios
€80–150
The hostel and cheap rooms on the bay, €20 to €90 a night.
Benitses
€60–120
Budget rooms and apartments on the bus line, €40 to €90 a night.
What to eat in Corfu
Veal in a white wine, garlic and parsley sauce, a Venetian inheritance
Rooster or beef with thick pasta in a spiced tomato sauce, the Sunday dish
Fish stewed in red pepper and paprika, hot by Greek standards
Made from a citrus the British introduced, sold everywhere on the island
The island's main agricultural product, from groves planted under Venice
The budget breakfast, at €2 to €4
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Corfu customs and what not to do
Venice is not a footnote
Four centuries of it produced the town, the food names and the olive groves, and a visitor expecting the Cyclades has come to the wrong island.
The British left cricket
The game is still played on the Esplanade, Corfu has the only cricket club in Greece, and the ginger beer came with it.
Easter is Corfu's own
The balcony pot-throwing on Easter Saturday is a Corfu tradition rather than a Greek one, and the town fills for it.
The Durrells are a category
Lawrence Durrell's house at Kalami is now a taverna and the north-east coast is marketed on the family's name.
Cover up at the monasteries
At Paleokastritsa shoulders and legs are covered, a free shawl is provided at the door, and silence applies inside.
Do
- Fly in direct and skip Athens altogether
- Pick the base for the coast you want, not the town
- Walk the Old Town early, before the cruise tenders land
- Carry water shoes; most of the beaches are pebble
Don't
- Try to pair Corfu with the Cyclades; the ferries do not exist
- Rent a big car for the narrow roads
- Swim under the west-coast cliffs in a swell
What a Corfu trip costs
Budget
€55–95
An Agios Gordios or Benitses room, gyros and bakery food, the buses and the free beaches.
Mid-range
€90–160
A town or west-coast double, a taverna meal a day, a shared small car and the Albania ferry.
High-end
€200+
A beachfront hotel, a self-drive boat day and the restaurants without checking the price.
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Fun facts about Corfu
Corfu was Venetian for 411 years, from 1386 to 1797. The longest-held Venetian territory in Greece, and the reason the town reads as Italian.
Corfu is the wettest place in Greece, at 1,111 millimetres a year. Against roughly 400 in the Cyclades, which is why the island is green and the Cyclades are not.
The only cricket club in Greece plays on the Corfu Esplanade. A survival of the British protectorate of 1815 to 1864, with matches through the summer.
The Achilleion was built in 1890 for Empress Elisabeth of Austria. On an Achilles theme, ten kilometres south of the town, and later bought by the German Kaiser.
A monastery founded in 1347 sits on the summit of Pantokrator. Sharing the top with a cluster of radio and television masts and a view to Albania.
Athens appears less often than chance on Corfu trips on Stippl. The national gateway sits below expectation, and Lefkada appears 3.17 times as often as it should.
Local tips for Corfu
Every bus radiates from town
Corfu Town is the base for a traveller without a car and the far coasts are slow from each other, with reliable timetables and slow routes.
Take a small car
Hire runs about €30 to €45 a day in the shoulder, booked ahead, and the local advice is the smallest car on offer because the roads are narrow.
Parking is the summer problem
Town and the popular beaches charge about €4 to €10 and are genuinely difficult in July and August, so the early start is the answer.
Most beaches are pebble
Water shoes are the standard local advice, against sea urchins and sharp stones, and the sand beaches are Glyfada and a few in the north.
The west-coast cliffs have surf
Logas and the beaches under the sandstone cliffs take a powerful sea, and they are not calm-water swimming beaches.
Three nights, or a week
Most travellers give Corfu 3 nights on Stippl, and 8.50% of stops are no night at all, which is the cruise call.
Corfu questions, answered
No, and most visitors do not take one. Corfu has direct flights from much of northern Europe, and Athens appears below chance on the trips that carry Corfu, of everyone who plans it on Stippl, which makes it the weakest Athens pairing in Greece.
It can, but almost nobody does, because Corfu sits on the Ionian network and there is no ferry to the Cyclades. Lefkada appears 3.17 times as often as expected on Corfu trips on Stippl, and that is the pairing the map allows.
A week if the calendar allows, four days for the town and the main sights. Most travellers give Corfu 3 nights on Stippl, which is shorter than either, and 29.44% of stops are a single night, the cruise call.
October to March, and heavily: the island is the wettest place in Greece, December averages sixteen wet days, and July averages under nine millimetres in the whole month. Put the coast days into Stippl for May to September, then ask people in subreddits like r/GreeceTravel which cove was calm the week they went.
The gardens, yes, with the terrace and the Achilles statues open. The palace interior is closed for restoration, so until it reopens the visit is a garden one, and Mount Pantokrator is the better half-day for the 46.60% of Corfu stops on Stippl that run three nights or more.
A ferry from Corfu Town to Sarandë, 55 to 70 minutes, daily all year, with passport control at both ends, and Butrint's archaeological site a short taxi beyond the port. A day is enough, and an overnight in Sarandë is cheap.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
Plan Corfu in Stippl
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