- DESTINATION Greece
Corfu (Kerkyra)
Corfu is a historical Island on Ionian Sea. The myth says that Poseidon fell in love with the nymph Corfu, kidnapped her and brought her to this island which got her name.

Corfu is a historical Island on Ionian Sea. The myth says that Poseidon fell in love with the nymph Corfu, kidnapped her and brought her to this island which got her name. The old town of Corfu is an UNESCO’s World Heritage Site. Τhe old town of Corfu resembles Venice as the island was conquered by the Venetians and shaped its architecture. You have to try koumkouat which is a citrus fruit that is the topical product. The beaches in Dassia, Paleokastritsa, Glyfada, Kontokali and Kavos are must-visits with sandy coves, surrounded by green forests and mountains. As for sightseeing. Top places to visit are Achillion Palace, the former retreat of princess Sissi of Austria, Mon Repos Palace, where Phillip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II was born, the iconic Panagia Vlacherna and Pontikonisi island. The island is also famous for one thing in particular: it’s food which is ased on meat, fish, pasta, and herbs, the island’s gastronomy will excite those who love good food. Has excellent restaurants and traditional taverns are the best places to taste the local delicacies.
Kerkyra, the capital of Corfu, is one of the most interesting towns in Greece due to the strong influence of the Venetians who for four-plus centuries controlled the island. So it strongly resembles an Italian city – a more savoury version of Naples comes to mind for some visitors. Like the other Ionian islands (except for Lefkada), Corfu was never occupied by the Ottomans, which gives it a very different character from the rest of Greece. But Kerkyra Town has had other inputs as well: from the British, the French, and the Greeks and Romans whose ancient buildings are still in evidence at several archaeological sites and the excellent archaeological museum. The compact, strollable old quarter, a protected UNESCO heritage site, nestles between the two Venetian fortresses; its oldest district – the Campiello – is a particular joy to wander aimlessly around. Although the German bombardment of September 1943 caused heavy damage – including the destruction of the sumptuous Belle Époque theatre-cum-opera-house – and most of the low Venetian walls or gates enveloping the town centre (including the Pórta Reále) were thoughtlessly pulled down by the Greeks late in the 19th century, enough has survived to make a pleasing, homogenous ensemble of monumental architecture, narrow lanes (the so-called kandounia) and quiet little squares with fountains in the middle. The population of Kerkyra Town is about 30,000, not counting a large student population at the locally headquartered University of the Ionian, which makes it one of the more cosmopolitan island capitals.
On the west side of the Spianáda (Esplanade plaza), Napoleonic-French style is most evident in the Liston, an elegant arcaded parade modelled on the Parisian Rue de Rivoli. Under the arches shelter some of the most popular (and expensive) cafés on the island; the Olympia (aka Tou Zizimou) is considered the most venerable and stylish. Their tables overlook the Spianada’s lawns, which used to host weekend cricket matches (a British introduction). Alas, parking demands have shrunk the pitch here and most matches are now held at a newish stadium out at Gouvia, but you can still sit here and sip a ginger beer (another British contribution). It was the French who landscaped the Spianada, thus creating one of the most attractive town squares in all of Greece; for the Venetians it was merely a patch of waste ground, the site of old houses demolished to permit a free field of fire from the Old Fort, which lies east of the Spianada, beyond the Contrafossa channel dug by the Venetians and now home to a fishing fleet.
Although originally established by the Byzantines during the 6th century, most of the existing Old Fort is of Venetian vintage; the British demolished most of their additions before handing the island over in 1864. Today you enter at the Schulenberg statue via a metal bridge, which replaced the old draw-bridge over the Contrafossa; the adjacent gatehouse has become an excellent small exhibit of Byzantine and post-Byzantine mosaics and frescoes. Further inside, there is the British-built church of Saint George, a popular snack bar, fortifications to climb around for excellent views over town (best before noon), and on the north flank of the fortifications a small marina (with a restaurant) on the site of the Venetian galley port.
Bounding the Spianada on the north is the Palace of Saint Michael and George, built between 1819 and 1824 by Maltese stone masons working for the British, and used as the official residence of their high commissioner and the seat of the rubber-stamp Ionian Senate. Today it houses two museums, by far the more interesting being the Museum of Asian Art, containing almost 11,000 Asian artefacts collected by two Greek diplomats with exemplary taste stationed in the Far East. The original, east wing comprises mostly funerary statuary and bowls, pottery and blue-and-white porcelain from various Chinese dynasties. The newer, west wing houses an impressive miscellany: Hindu and Jain deities, relief work from Gandhara (a Hellenistic kingdom in present-day Afghanistan), Buddhist devotional art from every south Asian nation, Japanese folding screens and woodblock prints by such masters as Hokusai and Utamaro.
Behind the palace, once past the little Faliraki Lido with its summer snack-café, chapel and pair of all-year bars, Arseniou Street curls around the Campiello, allowing fine sea views across to Albania and Vídos islet, the final resting place for the most desperately ill or wounded casualties among the retreating Serbian army in 1916. From Arseniou, a flight of steps climbs to the Byzantine Museum housed in the single-aisled, timber-roofed 15th-century Andivouniotissa church. Once a private chapel belonging to two notable families, it was donated to the state in the 1970s, and now contains a wealth of icons from the 15th to 19th centuries, many from the so-called Cretan School; after Crete fell to the Ottomans, many highly skilled artists came as refugees to Venetian-held Corfu.
Nearby there is an Orthodox cathedral, but the primary church in the hearts of Corfiots is the one dedicated to the island’s patron saint, Agios Spyridon, just off the Liston, containing Spyridon’s mummified body. Originally a humble shepherd on Cyprus, he became a monk, then a bishop, and took part in the first Ecumenical Council of Nicea in 325AD. After his death in 348 or 349, various miracles were attributed to him, and his exhumed remains were found to exude a pleasant odour – a sure sign of sanctity. They were taken to Constantinople for veneration in the church of the Holy Apostles; when the city fell to the Ottomans in 1453, his relics (along with those of Saint Theodora Augusta) were sent to Corfu, where they arrived after three years of adventures. It is claimed that Saint Spyridon has spared Corfu calamity on four occasions: twice from epidemics, once from starvation, and – at the height of the 1716 Turkish siege, on 11 August – by appearing above the defending forces with a lighted torch and scaring the invaders away.
That day is now a local feast day of the saint, when his relics are paraded through the streets, as they are on Palm Sunday, Easter Saturday and the first Sunday in November. The soundtrack for the procession is always provided by one of Kérkyra Town’s famous philharmonic societies – rather confusingly, in Greek filarmoniki means a municipal marching band and not a symphonic orchestra as in the Anglo-Saxon world. There are two – or perhaps even three – competing, smartly uniformed bands in the town, and very good they are. (Corfu has a rich musical tradition, and historically many of Athens’ symphony orchestra players were initially trained in the island’s conservatories). On Spyridon’s canonical feast day (December 12) there’s no musical procession, but his church stays open for 24 consecutive hours from the night before for pilgrims to pay their respects. A goodly fraction of the island’s men are named Spyros (short for Spyridon).
Other traces of Kerkyra Town’s heterogenous religious past can be found in the Catholic Cathedral of SS James and Christopher on the stepped Platia Dimarhiou, still open daily for use by the over 3,000 local Catholics, all descended from the Maltese masons brought here by the British, and the sole surviving synagogue at Velisariou 4, the Scuola Greca; just 60 Jews still live here, too few to support a permanent rabbi who is brought specially from Israel for the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur holidays.
Above the old Jewish quarter and the Spilia neighbourhood abutting the old port looms the New Fort, built between 1572 and 1645 in anticipation of the next, inevitable Ottoman siege. It’s a masterpiece of military architecture, with some later French and British modifications, but the main reason to show up today (in the afternoon) is for superb views over the old-town rooftops, or if there’s a special event inside.
Above Platia Dimarhiou, at Moustoxydou 19, one of the many parallel lanes of Porta Remounda district, is the Museum of the Serbs on Corfu, which minutely documents the experiences of the Serbian army and government-in-exile here, when nearly 140,000 soldiers took shelter on Corfu from January 1916 onwards: a little-known episode of World War I. Amongst their other notional allies, only France provided transport, supplies and medical attention to the defeated army – though a period poster, issued by a New York-based relief committee, makes interesting reading (“Save Serbia, Our Ally”) in light of the American 1990s demonization of the country.
The only significant sight or site in the sprawling newer quarters is the Archaeological Museum, a short walking distance south of the Serb museum at Vraila 5. The most celebrated attraction is the menacing Gorgon pediment (c. 585 BC) from the Temple of Artemis, discovered in 1912 at Paleopolis, but rather unfairly it tends to eclipse equally noteworthy finds such as the earlier Archaic Lion of Menekrates, a small pediment from 500 BC showing the god Dionysos and a youth reclining at a symposium, and a dozen statuettes of the goddess Artemis in her primary aspect as mistress of the beasts.
Kerkyra Town is ideal for walking around, and you shouldn’t have to use the urban blue-bus system with its base at Platia Sarokko (San Rocco). The extravagant can rent a horse-drawn carriage for a perimetric tour of the town, or take the little train that rides through the old city. The town is the transportation hub for the island and you can get anywhere by green bus (the station is in the moat behind the New Fort), taxi or by renting a car. Like any city you can find whatever you need. There are supermarkets, outdoor markets, clothing stores, gift shops, and anything a local or tourist would need to survive. And the city is a joy to explore.
Though the best beaches are outside of town, locals and tourists do swim below the walls of the Old Fortress on the north side of the peninsula. You have to go into the fortress and go around to the left side and it is near the sailboat marina. There are also swimming areas by the Faliraki Lido which is right behind the Palace of Saint Michael and George.
Corfu is famous for having some of the most beautiful beaches in the Mediterranean. Some are endless stretches of sand (on the west and north coasts), others are sheltered pebble coves (mostly on the mainland-facing shoreline), plus there are a fair few somewhere in between. The east coast of Corfu above Kerkyra Town, and the far north coast, are completely tourist-developed and unless you care nothing about Greek culture and only about baking like a reptile on the beach all day and hitting the local bars at night you may want to steer clear of those areas in the summer months. But what the hell? If this is your idea of fun there is nothing wrong with that. We can’t all be Grecophiles, a holiday is a holiday and there is something to be said for being able to get drunk with someone from home while in a far-away place. As tacky as the beach resorts may be in the summer, if you come here in low season (but not winter, obviously) they can be quite peaceful; even in the summer, to escape the crowds just get in a car and drive inland for some of the most beautiful scenery in Greece.
The first attraction south of town, too far to walk to but easily reached by #2 blue bus, is Kanoni, so named for an artillery piece poised here by the French. Here at the end of the peninsula also home to ancient Paleopolis and the Mon Repos villa-museum (both worth a stop) is the overlook of Panagia Vlahernon monastery and Pondikonisi (Mouse Islet) just beyond. Medieval Vlahernon, which pretty much covers its own islet, is tethered to the rest of Corfu by a small causeway lined with fishing boats; Pondikonisi, with dense stands of trees all but hiding a small, undistinguished Byzantine chapel and a drinks bar, can only be visited by excursion boat from the causeway harbour. Pondikonisi is a prime candidate for being the Phaeacian ship petrified by the vengeful Poseidon on its return from Ithaka. The Kanoni belvedere, with handy cafés, is a favourite vantage point for taking one of the millions of photos of the scene which will have been snapped over the years – despite the rather unphotogenic (but ecologically important) Halikopoulou lagoon just to the right, and the constant descent of jets to the adjacent airport runway. Another, larger causeway (pedestrians only) crosses the mouth of the lagoon to Perama on Corfu’s east coast.
Just southwest of Perama, but uphill and inland, is the main island bus-tour destination, the Achilleion Palace. This was designed and built by Austrian empress Elisabeth (better known as ‘Sisi’), who bought the land here in 1889 and within 3 years designed and built the palace in a style best termed Classical Kitsch. It has always been fashionable to deride the building (as did Lawrence Durrell and Henry Miller), and/or make fun of the unhappy empress who retired here semi-permanently after the breakdown of her marriage and suicide of her only son. But the empress was no bimba, and with the help of local tutors managed to learn competent modern Greek, something utterly beyond most contemporary expats. After Sisi was stabbed to death by an anarchist in Geneva in 1898, Kaiser Wilhelm II bought the place from her daughter, only to lose it in turn to the Greek state as war reparations in 1919. In the meantime it had been commandeered by the Allies as a military hospital, and just downhill from the palace is a large, well-tended cemetery of French casualties – one of those secret corners in which Corfu abounds. Since then, the Achilleion housed the island casino for some decades and served as a location for the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only before becoming a museum in the 1990s. All this by way of saying that palace’s history is rather more interesting than the exhibits and ostentatious murals inside. The formal gardens, with their two contrasting statues of Sisi’s hero Achilles (the larger put up by Kaiser Wilhelm II), afford great views towards Kerkyra Town and are a favourite photo op for amorous couples.
Just downhill from the Achilleion is the first notable east-coast resort, Benitses (photo), now rather quiet after its long-standing British-lout clientele deserted it for greener pastures (eg Kavos) during the 1990s. Something of its original identity as a fishing village now shows through, especially with the recent completion (supposedly with Russian money) of the newest yacht marina on the island, which also doubles as a handy base for excursion boats to Parga on the mainland and Paxi island. There is little to see other than the underwhelming ruins of a Roman baths, and local beaches are serviceable at best, but Benitses is getting a new lease on life as an overnight halt on the Corfu Trail traverse.
South of Benitses, Moratika and Mesongi are both busy, MOR resorts slowly being taken over by all-inclusive hotel programs and a non-English-speaking market. Again, beaches are pebbly and narrow, if usually calm, so for something different head west at the big Mesongi roundabout towards the far coast of the island, beyond the artificial lagoon of Korission (fashioned by the Venetians as a fish nursery and still used as such). The little canal linking it to the open sea divides the sandspit closing off the lagoon into two beach sections.
More or less due west of Benitses, but reach by a more direct road via the airport and Kynopiastes, Agios Gordios (universally known as Aď Gordis) is one of Corfu’s more popular resorts despite a rather average beach by Corfiot standards (though with a very scenic sea-stack at one end, the Ortholithos; Corfiot writer Iakovos Polyllas wrote a short story in which the main character leaps to her death from the summit). Aď Gordis is fairly well dominated by the famous Pink Palace, known to students and party animals across the world. This sprawling hotel/hostel complex stages lots of activities to keep young people happy and occupied, from water-skiing and volleyball to drinking contests. For many young people touring Europe for the first time, this is the last stop and for some people who make the mistake of beginning their European holiday here it is also their last stop. Like Íos island, it’s the sort of place you must force yourself to leave so you can get on with the rest of your life – and the rest of Corfu.
On the way down to Aď Gordis, you’ll have skirted Sinarades, an attractive and still thriving village with the quirky History and Folklore Museum of Central Corfu, an old house minimally changed from its past as a dwelling other than a top-floor gallery of rare exhibits, such as a papyrella raft made of cane fennel, of a design used from ancient times until the 1950s, and birthing saddles used by village women when in labour.
Heading north from Sinarades, the next place is Pelekas, one of the few inland villages with significant tourism (evident in multiple tavernas), thanks to its superb views (a natural rock formation just uphill is called the Kaiser’s Throne after Wilhelm II’s habit of coming here to watch the sunsets) and proximity to several beaches. The closest is Kondogialos, about 700m long but a bit narrow, with wooden walkways at points to cross the burning sand. In low season you might find some free parking near the little anchorage, but note that all popular west-coast beaches generally have stiff parking fees – and at times considerable surf and undertow which could be dangerous in the absence of lifeguards. Glyfada, the next beach up, is a tad shorter but fatter, and a bit encroached upon by two hotel complexes, but has showers, sunbeds and water sports facilities.
There’s little of that at Myrtiotissa further along (with yet another steep, winding access track), touted rather implausibly by Lawrence Durrell as the world’s most beautiful beach – he must have had his beer goggles on that day, a not uncommon occurrence for the old sot. The reality is a decidedly small, diamond-shaped patch of sand at the base of cliffs, crammed to the gills with nudists in peak season, and a corral of boulders just offshore providing some shelter from the waves. For my recent update of the Berlitz Pocket Guide to Corfu, I was handed an irate email from a Brussels-based Englishman taking issue with Myrtiotissa’s lazy rating in the book as World’s Best. He was also particularly exercised by the quantity of “elderly scrota” on display – presumably not enough young boobs on offer to please him? So I went back to have another look after being away for some years. Scrota of a certain age there certainly were, and a definite gay/countercultural ethos. And bad vibes upon my arrival, when one of the hippie-trinket sellers was engaged in thumping the hell out of somebody (male) who had been behaving in an unspecified inappropriate manner. One for off-season then, when you might even get a parking place within 300m of the sea, and might gain admission to the wonderfully perched medieval monastery of Myrtiotissa just uphill, averting its eyes from all the naked flesh on the sand below.
From the vicinity of Myrtiotissa you can get to Paleokastritsa via some narrow secondary roads skirting the large Ropa Valley on its west, but most people arrive direct from Kerkyra Town on a relatively fast, wide highway whose predecessor was opened by High Commissioner Frederick Adam during the 1820s to facilitate picnics out here with his Greek wife. However you get there, Paleokastritsa is a stunner, at least seen from a distance, an improbably convoluted seascape of lushly vegetated cliffs and promontories, tiny pebble or sand coves, sea-caves (boat-trips visit them) plus little islets offshore (a couple of these being more candidates for the petrified Phaeacian ship victimized by Poseidon). Up close it may not seem so enchanting, with traffic jams, standing room only on the beaches, touristy tavernas, and astoundingly high prices at the two local scuba-dive outfitters (probably because of the exorbitant premises rental they must pay). On the furthest promontory, but still accessible by tourist buses, is the pastel-coloured, monk-inhabited Theotokou Monastery, with burgeoning gardens, arcaded passages, an odd little museum and more fine views; although founded in 1228, the monastery’s present buildings date from after a fire during the 1600s.
From Paleokastrítsa, you can head via the “balcony village” of Lakones (plenty of food and lodging) and Makrades to Angelokastro, a Byzantine castle probably built during the 12th century by Emperor Manuel I Komnenos and revamped by the Despot of Epiros Mihaďl Angelos Komnenos in the next century. It was closed in recent years for further refurbishment and has now re-opened (Mon–Fri only), though there is little to see inside other than massive cisterns, an underground shrine (locked) and, at the summit with its sweeping panorama, some rock-cut graves. The compact castle served as an advance watchpoint for mischief on the Ionian Sea; bad news could be relayed by signal fire to the citadels in Kerkyra Town. At Makrades “tourist bazaar”, the onward road heads through the olive groves for Pagi village and then down to Agios Georgios Pagon, a vast bay bracketed by two headlands, with one of the best, least regimented and (at the far end at least) cleanest, calmest beaches on the island. At mid-beach there’s considerable windsurfing activity, plus a family-pitched resort of sorts.
Most people will be satisfied with Agios Georgios, but if not, two more resorts beckon further up the coast: Arilas (also home to the island’s microbrewery) and Agios Stefanos Avlioton, both fairly low-key and family-pitched – no Kavos style excess here. Just offshore from the latter hover Mathraki and Othoni, the two westernmost of Corfu’s satellite Diapondia islets, a favourite hideout of Italians in summer but pretty empty otherwise. Little daily ferries go there from Agios Stefanos’ equally diminutive port, but if you intend to stay the night, do your research and booking in advance as none of the Diapondian islets has more than a few score beds each. All have lush greenery and varying numbers of beaches; Erikoussa, the smallest, easterly islet with the sandiest coastline, is more easily reached from Sidari on the north coast . Like many islanders from the northwest part of Corfu, most of the Diapondians have spent some time in New York, so east-coast English is widely spoken.
Just outside the village of Doukades which is located on the main road to Paleokastritsa, there is a wonderful donkey shelter where visitors are most welcome to visit the donkeys and share the company of these animals. It is a beautiful place in the middle of olive trees and an oasis. CDR was started by an English woman named Judy Quinn some 7 years ago. When Judy was walking her dog after having moved to Corfu just a short while before, she found a donkey wandering in the bushes. She tethered the donkey and fed her and gave her water for one week. Apparently the donkey had no owner because after one week she was still there. Judy took her home and gave her the name Hope. This was the beginning of a donkey shelter for the former working donkeys on the island. Through hard labour, being resourceful and committed, Judy secured land and decent stables for the donkeys. But a lot still needs to be done and volunteers and visitors are both welcomed. A day or just a few hours at the donkey shelter is very rewarding, relaxing and makes you happy! Because of CDR these donkeys can enjoy a peaceful retirement after 20 years of work.
Where to head next?
Keep exploring the best of Greece! After Corfu, the top destinations to visit are Kefalonia, and Ithaca.

Corfu-Paxi-Antipaxi

Paleokastritsa, Lakones and Corfu Town

Paleokastritsa-Exclusive Wine Tasting Tour

Cruise to Parga, Sivota islands and Blue Lagoon

Corfu-Pontikonisi-Old Town Walking Tour
