12 great things to see and do in Corfu

The little-miss-popular of the Ionian Islands, Corfu is far more than the sum of its fly-and-flop visitors in summer. Stray beyond the resorts and you’ll be smitten by one of the loveliest Greek Islands of the lot. Here rugged mountains stagger down to silvery olive groves and pine forests, cliff-wrapped bays with jewel-colored waters, Byzantine forts, bougainvillea-draped monasteries and Venetian towns that are a riot of fresco-painter pastels.  

From dune-flanked beaches to the romance of the Durrells, read on for 12 of the best things to do in Corfu. 

1. Rewind to Venetian times in Corfu Town

Few ports in the Greek islands pack such a romantic punch as Corfu Town (Kerkyra), an elegant, alley-woven, cobbled vision dreamed up by the Venetians. Taking an aimless wander through these backstreets, stacked with tall, shuttered houses in chalk-box pastels and strung with washing, is one of the island’s greatest joys.  

You could easily devote a day or longer to visiting big-hitters like the fresco-filled 16th-century basilica Church of Agios Spyridon and the Venetian-built 14th-century Palaio Frourio (Old Fortress), which guards a rocky headland. But also allow time to just kick back with a foamy frappé (iced coffee) at one of the people-watching cafes under the French-designed Liston arcade.   

Planning tip: To see Corfu Town at its charismatic best, avoid the summer rush in July and August. 

2. Flop on the sands of Myrtiotissa

Cradled by lush green mountains and soaring cliffs on the island’s less-visited west coast, Myrtiotissa is the dream. Sliding into the glassy turquoise sea, this gorgeous scoop of butterscotch sand is tempting for a swim or snorkel. Writer and poet Lawrence Durrell had a real soft spot for this bay, describing it as “perhaps the most beautiful in the world.” The fact you can only reach it on a steep, pine-clad path keeps things pretty quiet, especially if you dodge the high season. Arrive nice and early, park on the hilltop and trudge down.

Planning tip: Bathing suits and bikinis are optional as this is Corfu’s unofficial nudist beach.

3. Hit the Corfu Trail

Rambling 150km (93 miles) from Agios Spiridon at Corfu’s northernmost tip to Kavos in the south, the 10-stage Corfu Trail shows off the island from its most ravishing angles. Lace up your boots for a deep dive into pre-dawn-of-tourism Corfu by walking along old mule tracks into time-lost stone villages, silver-green olive groves humming with cicadas, thickly wooded hills and vineyards. 

The trail takes in a sizeable chunk of the dramatic west coast, from cliff-rimmed castaway bays to flower-sprinkled dunes. Stopping at tavernas, small guesthouses or pitching a tent under starry night skies breaks up the trek nicely.

Planning tip: Download the app to the trail, or get a copy of Cicerone’s handy Walking and Trekking Corfu for the lowdown on the route. The trail is partly waymarked (look out for the yellow signs marked CT), but it’s no substitute for a proper map. 

4. Find a Byzantine fort at Angelokastro

The Ionian Sea spreads out like a vast blue silk sheet before you from the giddy heights of crag-top Angelokastro, a Byzantine fortress and acropolis laid to romantic ruin on Corfu’s northwest coast. Rising high and mighty above olive groves and cypresses, the ramparts and garrisons wings you back to an age when Corfu had to keep a close watch on invading pirates and besieging Ottomans. A rocky path snakes to the top, where views of Albania’s coastline etched on the horizon are riveting.

Planning tip: Avoid the sweltering midday heat by beginning your walk to the castle early. Bring water, sunscreen and a hat as the trail is exposed.

5. Drive or hike up to Mt Pantokrator

A steep, twisty road unfurls like a ribbon through the rocky landscape of Corfu’s highest reaches to 906m Mt Pantokrator, with the Ionian Sea sparkling far below. The road trip is one to remember, but if you fancy even more of a challenge you can trek up here from Old Perithia. Start early, allowing around 1½ hours each way and bringing plenty of water for the moderately challenging hike. At the summit, efforts are rewarded with uplifting views across the island and over to Albania and the Greek mainland. On brilliantly clear days, you can even glimpse Italy in the far distance.

There’s a cafe at the top (open in the summer season) as well as a fresco-adorned, icon-filled monastery.

Planning tip: Pick a cloudless day for the finest views, or time your visit for sunset when the entire island is bathed peach-gold. 

6. Get a taste of Corfu past in Old Perithia

Halfway up the slopes of the island’s highest peak, 906m Mt Pantokrator, Old Perithia long succumbed to the ravages of time and the elements, its weathered stone houses crumbling to dust. Inhabited since the 14th century, Old Perithia was once a hideaway from pirate attacks – villagers could see the sea but couldn’t be seen. When the last residents abandoned the Venetian village in the 1960s, it was billed Corfu’s “ghost town.” But no more.

Old Perithia has recently been reborn as a heritage village and its houses are slowly being lovingly restored using traditional methods, its streets repaved in stone. Life plays out slowly here, with visits to the local beehives (stop to buy a pot of Vasilis’ excellent honey) and drawn-out lunches at the vine-draped taverna on the square, where you can dig into Corfiot flavors like sofrito (garlicky beef stew laced with white wine).

Planning tip: To really feel the magic of Old Perithia, stay overnight for sunsets, starry skies and a night at The Merchant’s House, a characterfully revamped boutique guesthouse.

7. Go birding at Korission Lagoon

With cedar and juniper groves, towering dunes and powder-soft golden sands fizzing into a crystal turquoise sea, the great 3km arc of Halikounas Beach on Corfu’s southwest coast is something special. And its shallow waters and stiff breezes are ideal for windsurfing, kitesurfing, kayaking and stand-up paddleboarding.

Or bring binoculars to join the bird-watchers at Korission Lagoon, which forms a spectacular natural backdrop to the beach. The saltwater lake is a magnet to birdlife. Keep an eye out for egrets, black-winged stilts, herons, flamingos, turtles, tortoises and lizards on the trail encircling the lagoon.

Planning tip: Up your bird-watching chances by visiting during the spring or autumn migrations in May and early October. It’s also nice and quiet then. Mosquitoes can be a pain so bring plenty of repellent.

8. Find the Corfu of the Durrells in Kalami

“Gradually the magic of the island settled over us as gently and clingingly as pollen. Each day had a tranquillity, a timelessness, about it, so that you wished it would never end.” Naturalist and author Gerald Durrell eloquently captured the beauty of Corfu in his autobiographical 1956 book My Family and Other Animals. A TV series, The Durrells in Corfu, looks at the family’s time on the island. His brother, Lawrence, also sang the praises of the island’s radiant landscapes of cypress and olive-cloaked hills and turquoise bays in his 1945 book Prospero's Cell, a compelling account of his life on the island in the 1930s.

For a brush with the island’s poetic side, take the coastal road down to Kalami in the island’s northeast, where green hills fall away to the bluest of seas and a crescent-shaped bay. Here Lawrence lived with his wife, Nancy, in a fisherman’s cottage called The White House. Walk through the house, filled with family heirlooms and photos, before a sea-facing lunch playing up Corfiot flavors in the restaurant.

Planning tip: Providing you’ve booked well in advance, you can stay the night at The White House. Come in the cooler, calmer shoulder-season months for longer stays and better deals.

9. Experience olives from grove to mill

Greece has a heck of a lot of olives, but perhaps no island has more than Corfu, with about four million olive trees casting a silver-green haze over the island. Strike out on foot and you quickly find yourself among gnarled, knotted olive tree branches thrumming with cicadas. The Venetians loved the oil from these trees’ olives, and the industry peaked in the 16th century when the island produced the liquid gold for the Vatican.

For insight into Corfu’s rich olive oil heritage, visit The Governor in the mountain village of Agios Matheos in the island’s southwest. Here the Dafnis family has been hand-harvesting Lianolia olive trees and turning out some of Greece’s finest single-estate, extra-virgin olive oil for the last 100 years. Fresh, fruity and peppery, this award-winning oil is filled with antioxidants and five times the normal level of anti-inflammatory polyphenols.

Planning tip: Take a 1½-hour tour of the mill, rounding out with a tasting of its prized olive oil, with Corfu Olive Tours.

10. Take a regal stroll at Achilleion Palace 

A summer escape fit for royalty, Achilleion Palace is an opulent neoclassical pile replete with marble columns, frescos, Greek statues and mosaics. Built for Austria’s beloved Empress Elisabeth (‘Sisi’) in the 1890s, the hilltop palace just south of Corfu Town is reached on a steep coastal road that twists through olive groves.

Under restoration at the time of writing, the interior is as lavish as you might imagine, with a central staircase rising in geometrical flights. But it’s the gardens – still open to visit – that really blow you away. The terraces are pure romance, with gently splashing fountains, ornamental lawns rimmed by lofty palms and cypress trees, and sculptures of mythological figures such as Dying Achilles or the statue of Hera, wife of Zeus.

12. Hike to the monastery above Paleokastritsa

No matter how many times you’ve visited, arriving in Paleokastritsa on Corfu’s northwest coast makes you gasp. Hills thickly cloaked in cypress and olive plunge abruptly down to the coast, and two horseshoe-shaped bays dazzle with their pale sand and pebble beaches and water so blue it doesn’t look real. This looks like the stuff of legend and it is – myth has it that a rock rising up from the sea is the petrified ship of Odysseus.

Wait until the heat of the day subsides and the light softens to make the short but steep climb up to Moni Theotokou, a 13th-century Orthodox monastery perched on a headland, for the dreamiest of views.

Planning tip: Paleokastritsa’s charms are well-known and the village is at its quiet best in the shoulder seasons, when room rates and crowds plummet.