How do I get to Corfu?

Corfu International Airport (CFU "I. Kapodistrias") sits two kilometres south of the Old Town with year-round flights from Athens (50 minutes) and seasonal services from London, Paris, Frankfurt, Vienna and other European hubs. The Igoumenitsa ferry (90 minutes from the mainland Greek port) and Italian ferries from Bari, Brindisi and Ancona also serve the island.

How does Corfu differ from the Cycladic islands?

The architecture, cuisine and pace are Ionian — Venetian and Italianate rather than Cycladic and whitewashed, with British and French overlays absent elsewhere in Greece. Corfu is also greener (olive groves dating to the Venetian planting incentive of 1623), wetter, and substantially larger.

What's the connection to the Durrells?

Lawrence Durrell wrote Prospero's Cell at the White House in Kalami; his younger brother Gerald wrote My Family and Other Animals about their 1935-1939 Corfu years — set across the Strawberry-Pink Villa, the Daffodil Yellow Villa and the White Villa. The houses still stand, mostly private, and the Kalami coast remains the natural Durrell pilgrimage.

When are the famous Easter celebrations?

Corfu Easter follows the Greek Orthodox calendar (usually April-May). The Good Friday procession of the Epitaph follows the four Old Town philharmonic bands; the Holy Saturday "First Resurrection" sees the islanders throw large terracotta pots from balconies onto the street — the most distinctive Corfiot tradition.

Boutique Hotels in Corfu, Greece

Corfu Town (UNESCO Old Town)

The Old Town of Corfu carries 600 years of Venetian, French and British layering. The Old Fortress (Byzantine foundations, Venetian completion) anchors the eastern tip on its own islet; the New Fortress (16th-century Venetian, British-altered) rises to the north. Between them, the Spianada — the largest square in Greece, named for the Venetian word for "open flat area" — opens onto the Liston, the 1807 arcaded promenade built by French commissioner Mathieu de Lesseps on the model of Paris's Rue de Rivoli. Inside the labyrinthine kantounia streets, the Church of St. Spyridon rises beneath its red-domed bell tower; the patron saint's silver sarcophagus is paraded four times a year. The Palace of St. Michael and St. George (1819-1824) housed the British High Commissioner and now holds the Museum of Asian Art.

Achilleion and the southern coast

Ten kilometres south of the Old Town, the Achilleion Palace rises above Gastouri — neoclassical, built 1890 for Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Sisi), dedicated to Achilles, and circled by Greek-mythological statuary in the formal gardens. Closer to the town at Kanoni, the Mon Repos Palace (1826, British Commissioner Frederic Adams) anchors the estate where Prince Philip was born on 10 June 1921 and now operates as a museum. From the Kanoni viewpoint, the white Vlacherna Monastery sits on its causeway with Pontikonisi ("Mouse Island") behind — the iconic Corfu photograph.

The west and northwest coast

The Paleokastritsa bays anchor the west coast — the 13th-century Monastery of the Virgin Mary crowns a hilltop above six pebble-and-sand coves, with the La Grotta beach bar tucked into the cliff below. Angelokastro — the Byzantine "Castle of Angels" — guards the headland to the north. Further north, Sidari is known for the Canal d'Amour sandstone formations and Corfu's kumquat liqueur. At Agios Stefanos Avliotes, the long northwest beaches face the Diapondia islets — Othonoi, Erikoussa, Mathraki — visible offshore. Delfino Blu Wellness Boutique Hotel anchors the BHC inventory here, named Europe's Best Beach or Coastal Hotel by the Boutique Hotel Club, with fifteen suites set above its own beach and a hillside cave-atmosphere spa.

The northeast coast

The northeast coast runs from Pyrgi north through Nissaki and Kalami to Kassiopi. Kalami Bay holds Lawrence Durrell's White House — the 1930s Venetian-style mansion where the poet wrote Prospero's Cell — with the Strawberry-Pink and Daffodil Yellow villas of brother Gerald's My Family and Other Animals nearby. The bay's pebble beach and calm water make it the natural launch for boat hire to Barbati, Nissaki and the smaller coves of the Albanian-facing coastline. Kassiopi anchors the northeast — a working harbour village built around its Byzantine castle, with tavernas above the water.

When to visit

Corfu's season runs late April through October. May and June deliver wildflowers, mild temperatures and the Corfu Easter celebrations — the most famous in Greece, with the four philharmonic bands of the Old Town leading the Good Friday and Holy Saturday processions. July-August is hot and busy. September and early October match May for weather with the addition of warm sea. Winter is quiet but the Old Town remains open and the museums uncrowded.