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| THE VIEW FROM OUR HOTEL ROOM IN CORFU |
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This
is our 5th visit to Greece in the last 5 years. This time, we continued
our journey around Greece by visiting Corfu. We spent 5 days in Corfu,
and then 3 days in Athens. Corfu, known as Kerkyra in Greek, is an
island in the Ionian Sea with a long history, both real and
mythological. As it is on the western side of Greece, it has a varied
series of occupation by others, particularly the Venetians who
controlled the island for over 400 years. There is a significant
Venetian feel to the main town, Corfu Town. After the Venetians, it was
occupied by the French, British, and onlyy became part of Greece in
1864. |
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| Corfu's position off the Balkan coast made it a very strategic target during both World Wars of the 20th century. During
the First World War, the island served as a refuge for the Serbian army
that retreated there on Allied ships from a homeland occupied
by the Austrians, Germans and Bulgarians. During their stay, a large
portion of the Serbian soldiers died from exhaustion, food shortage, and
various diseases. Most of their remains were buried at sea near the
island of Vido, a small island at the mouth of Corfu port, and a
monument of thanks to the Greek nation has been erected at Vido by the
grateful Serbs. |
Kerkyra, the queen of the Ionian Sea11 best thingsto do in corfu corfu occupation during ww2 |
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| During the second World
War, the island was heavily bombarded by the Luftwaffe, and large parts
of Corfu town were destroyed, including most of the city's
buildings, churches, homes, and entire city blocks, and especially in
the Jewish quarter of Evraiki. The island was eventually occupied by
the Germans, and most of the city's Jewish population were deported to
Aushwitz for exterminatation. |
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| CLICK ON ANY THUMBNAIL TO SEE A FULL SIZED PICTURE |
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| Corfu
island has a population of about 100,000 people. About 22,000 live in
the main town, Corfu Town. There are many villages spread about the
island, and many beautiful beaches,
which are very popular with tourists from all over the world, but
particularly Europe. The island is very close to the Albanian city of
Seranda, and it's a short ferry ride to visit that country. |
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| After tourism, olive oil is the one of the leading industries of Corfu. There are estimated to be 4 million olive oil trees on the island. Olive oil is called the Gold of Corfu. There's also a wine industry, but tourism is by far, the most important industry on the island. | 6 amazing monuments in corfu 2,3 AND 4 DAY ITINERARY FOR VISITING CORFU 5 MINUTE YOUTUBE VIDEO ABOUT VISITING CORFU |
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 BREAKFAST AT THE PALACE |
During our time in Corfu, we stayed at the Corfu Palace Hotel, located in Corfu Town. As
far as I know, this is the only 5-star hotel in Corfu town. Its
location is excellent, close to the old town, as well as the modern
part of town, and it is a really beautiful building with full and
impressive 5-star facilities. Our room was large with plenty of storage
place, breakfast was great and the staff were very helpful at all
times. The view from our room was magnificent. |
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| There were only 2 items which weren’t up to expectations. Our room was
built in 2 parts, the main sleeping area, and a corridor which led to
the room entrance. The air conditioner (an independent room unit) was
in the corridor over the room entrance. This created a situation where
the corridor (including the closets and the entrance to the bathroom),
were freezing cold, while the main room wasn’t nearly cool enough. |
 SUNSET AT THE PALACE |
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| The other problem was that the walk to the old town (only about 600 meters), included a section which was very dark with broken sidewalks. I understand that the hotel is not directly responsible for street lighting and sidewalk maintenance, but the situation is dangerous and must be taken into account. We had to use our phone flashlight in order to negotiate this area safely. | |||||
 ANDREAS & ALISA IN THE JEWISH QUARTER |
We
spent a lot of time in the old town of Corfu. The old town is a vibrant
and lively area full of tourists, restaurants, souvenir shops, and
local landmarks. On our first full day in Corfu, we did a private 3-hour
walking tour with a guide called Andreas Grammenos, who was a very good guide. He is a historian and explained things very clearly. We booked the tour through a company called Blue Tours,
who took care of all the details, and booked with Andreas as well. We
can recommend both Blue Tours and Andreas as well. You can book a tour
with either. |
 ANDREAS AND ALISA IN CORFU OLD TOWN |
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| discover the old town of corfu frommers walking tour of corfu town |
On our tour with Andreas, we strolled through the Esplanade, a lovely green park between the old town and the old fortress, The Palace of St Michael and St George, the New Fortress, The Campiello, the Jewish Quarter, the Liston, various churches, including the Greek Orthodox Cathedral, the main streets of the old town as well as parts of the new town. |
 THE LISTON |
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 THE SYNAGOGUE IN THE JEWISH QUARTER |
One of the main attractions of Corfu Town is the Old Fortress.
It is a huge promontory with forts built by several different
occupiers. We did not enter it, but did see it from both land and sea.
For those who choose to visit, be advised that there is a lot of
climbing involved. That's why we didn't visit. Another notable
place to visit is the Liston, a collonaded street between the Esplanade
and the rest of the old town. The Liston is primarilly a long street full of
restaurants. We ate at several, some good, some not so good. |
 THE OLD FORTRESS OF CORFU |
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| Below are other activities we did and enjoyed. |
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 ON THE SAIL WITH SKIPPER THEO |
BALOS SAIL Took a nice 4-hour cruise with Balos Yachts.
Theo was our skipper and he was a very good guide and skipper. There
was plenty to drink, but the snacks are very basic. Setting up the
arrangements with the office were convenient and easy. Balos works out
of Gouvia Marina, which is located about 10 KM north of Corfu town. Gouvia is a popular resort town and its marina is the largest on the island.
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 STEVE SWIMMING in the waters of corfu |
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| On
the sail, we sailed by Corfu Town, and took in the beautiful view of
the old forteess from the sea, visited several little islands, and
stopped for a few minutes at Kanoni, and
watched the planes flying overhead. The Corfu airport is only about 5
minutes from the town, and Kanoni has become a popular tourist
attraction, where all the flights into and out of the airport fly
directly overhead. Kanoni is accessible both on land and on the water, and nearby is Mouse Island, another popular attraction. At one of the islands, we anchored, and I did something I haven't done in a long time - jumped into the water and swam around a bit. It was delightful! |
 THE OLD FORTRESS FROM THE SEA |
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 SAINT GEORGE BAY NORTH |
DRIVE WITH DIMITRUS We booked a 6-hour driving tour of Corfu with “Corfu Taxi Private Tours”.
During the booking process we were in touch with Dimitrius, the owner
and chief driver. Dimitrius took us to the most beautiful places on the
island. He knows the island well, and explained about everything in
detail. One of the most interesting places we visited was the Monastery of Paleokastritsa. Its view (with impressive cannon) is shown to the right.
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 AT THE MONASTERY OF PALEOKASTRITSA |
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 OLIVE OIL TOUR WITH ELIFTHERIA |
GOVERNOR OIL We did the Governor Olive Oil Tour,
which included a pickup and return from Corfu town. It’s a 40 minute
drive. The tour is well organized, and informative, and of course it
includes olive oil tasting. Our guide was Eleftheria and she did a
wonderful job. At the end of the lecture and tasting, we had the
opportunity to buy the excellent olive oil. At the end of the tour, a
small group of us took a ride to Mitera, the site of a very huge and
historic olive tree.
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 THAT'S US WITH THE ANCIENT OLIVE TREE |
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After
4 and a half full days in Corfu, we flew to Athens. We arrived in Athens in late
afternoon, and checked into the Electra Metropolis Hotel. This
is a very nice 5-star hotel in the center of Athens. Location is
perfect, between Syntagma, Plaka, and Monistiriki. Breakfast was great
(with the expected view of the Acropolis), and the service was top
notch!
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 BREAKFAST AT THE ELECTRA |
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| Our only
complaint would be that the
towel rack, and towel hooks were apparently mounted by a basketball
player. The height was about 1.8 meters, and anybody shorter than
1.6
meters (like my wife) simply can’t reach the hooks or the towel rack.
However, this was a small annoyance and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay
at this
hotel. |
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 THE VERVAKIOS CENTRAL MARKET |
We had 2 full days in Athens. On the first full day, we took a walk to to the Vervakios Central Market. This
is one of the biggest markets in Athens. It’s mainly a huge fish and
seafood market, but it also has meat and produce. The fish and seafood
area is incredible, but the produce area is surprisingly small and half
empty. The visit to the market was fun, but even more interesting was the walk to get there. |
 AT THE MARKET: THE OLD MAN AND THE SQUID |
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| We walked
from our hotel along Mitropoleos Street, which is an interesting street
in its own right, with one of the most important churches in Athens -
The Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens,
as well as lots of stores and restaurants. This street leads to
Monastiriki Square, one of the busiest squares in Athens. At
Monastiriki, we turned right onto Athinis Street, and that's where the
fun started. |
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 ATHINIS STREET SPICE STORE |
Athinis Street isn’t listed anywhere as a tourist attraction. It’s just a real street, with real people, and real stores. There are no souvenir stores, and no touristy restaurants. However, it was one of the most interesting activities we did in Athens. It leads directly from Monastiriki Square to the Vervakios market. Like I said, a real street, with real people, and real stores! | ||||
 AT THE BENAKI MUSEUM |
On the second full day, we visited a wonderful museum - The Benaki Museum of Greek Culture.
We’ve
been to quite a few museums in Athens, but this was one of the best.
It’s small and intimate with a wonderful collection of Greek art, from
ancient times almost to modern times. All the exhibits had clear
descriptions in Greek and English. The museum was founded by Antonis
Benakis, a Greek-Alexandrian art collector, who died in 1954. The
museum is a short walk from Syntagma square. |
 AT THE BENAKI MUSEUM |
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 AT PORTO REMOUNDA |
PORTA REMOUNDA This was our first dinner in Corfu. This is a simple restaurant in the old town with excellent seafood and traditional Greek food. The service is basic, but friendly, and the meal we had here was very good! We had mussels, fried tiny fish called white bait, Greek salad, and grilled octopus. Everything was enjoyable. |
 GRILLED SQUID AT PORTO REMOUNDA |
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 SCALLOPS AT REX |
REX Rex is a restaurant in the main area of the old town, called “The Liston”. It’s a cut above most of the restaurants in the area, even with white tablecloths on all the tables. We had a very unconventional spanakopita (spinach pie), scallops and moussaka. |
 SPANAKOPITA AT REX |
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 ROMANTIC TABLE SETTING AT ORA |
ORA Ora is a new restaurant which just opened in August, 2023. It’s clearly trying to be an upscale restaurant with creative and innovative food and top-notch service. It’s located right on the cliff above the shore on the edge of the old town of Corfu, and has a very romantic vibe. We didn’t know what to expect here, because it’s so new. However, everything was great, and we had a lovely meal here. We had scallops, oysters, and tuna tataki. Everything was excellent. |
 DELICIOUS TUNA TATAKI AT ORA |
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 AMUSE BOUCHE AT ANTHOS |
ANTHOS Anthos turned out to be our favorite restaurant in Corfu. It’s not open all day like most of the restaurants in the old town. It opens at 6:30 in the evening, and a reservation is highly recommended. It’s run in front by Giuseppina, an Italian transplant, with her husband, and the brother of one of them, who is the chef. It’s a lovely restaurant, and very well run. We had several excellent dishes here, including terama mousse (fish roe spread), excellent broiled shrimp and excellent monkfish. We even had an “amuse bouche”. All in all, a great meal! |
 BROILED SHRIMP AT ANTHOS |
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 SPANAKOPITA AT AEGLI |
AEGLI Aegli is one of the leading restaurants in Corfu serving traditional Greek food. If Anthos (above) was our biggest positive surprise in Corfu, Aegli was our most disappointing restaurant experience in Corfu. The food was OK, but the service was terrible, and the experience was completely underwhelming. We had salad, spanakopita, and sofrito (traditional beef stew). We ordered the salad and a couple of beers to open. It took forever to get the salad and beer, and then after we complained, all of the dishes came out together. |
 SOFRITO AT AEGLI |
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 OLYMPIA MARE |
OLYMPIA MARE Olympia Mare is located in the Gouvia marina, with a lovely view of the marina. We had lunch here after a boat cruise around Corfu island. We had a green salad which was drowned in balsamic vinegar, but everything else was very nice – grilled shrimp, tamara (fish roe spread), and grilled dorado (sea bream). The best dish was the dorado, which was prepared perfectly, with grilled vegetables on the side. |
 DORADO AT OLYMPIA MARE |
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 MARINATED ANCHOVIES AT ALIPA |
ALIPA This was a restaurant we stopped at for lunch on a driving tour we took around Corfu Island. It was a real surprise! It’s located at the Paleokastritsa beach area, which is one of the most popular beaches in Corfu. Our driver recommended it, as it is a bit away from the main bathing area, so it wasn't as crowded as the other restaurants in the area. We enjoyed our lunch here very much. We had marinaded anchovies, mussels, and marinaded tuna. The marinaded tuna gets special mention. It was a huge portion, even though it was listed as an opener. I think it was close to a pound (half a kilo) of tuna, and it was delicious! |
 HUGE DISH OF MARINATED TUNA AT ALIPA |
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 AT DAPHNE'S |
DAPHNE’S Daphne’s is a lovely restaurant located in Plaka which serves classic Greek cuisine. It is a sprawling restaurant with several separate dining areas, both indoors and outdoors. It also has 2 different entrances, and it can be confusing if you enter one, and leave by the other. The main clientele is tourists, and the food was mostly very good. We had marinated octopus, rabbit stew (fetsida), and a dish of grouper. Unfortunately, the grouper was both expensive and overcooked. However, we were sitting in an outdoor area, where we were in eye contact with the person in charge, named Fotis. We told him about the grouper, and he was very apologetic, and served us complimentary dessert and tsipouro (our favorite Greek digestif) at the end of the meal. |
 RABBIT STEW AT DAPHNE'S |
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 BROILED SHRIMP AT AIOLOU 68 |
AIOLOU 68 Aiolou 68 is a seafood restaurant right near the Vervakios market in Athens. The restaurant is close enough to the market to serve absolutely fresh seafood directly from the market, but far enough so that it’s definitely not a “market restaurant”. It is a lovely restaurant, with seating both inside and out. We arrived more than half an hour before it was supposed to open, and the waiter, who was still setting things up, invited us to sit, brought us cold water and glasses, and made us feel welcome. The food was inconsistent. The fish soup was disappointing, but the broiled shrimp and scallops were excellent. The scallops were accompanied by small potatoes which were drowning in a mustard sauce. They also prepared Greek fish roe (tamara) in a way no other restaurant did – fried into a kind of omelette. It was different, but disappointing. |
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 SEABASS CEVICHE AT 2MAZI |
2MAZI This is our favorite restaurant in Athens. We ate here almost exactly one year ago, and decided to visit again on our latest visit. We met up with co-owner Leo, who remembered us, and we had another memorable meal. We had sea bass ceviche, and pappardelle with seafood. For dessert, we had the exact same desert we had on our last visit – semifreddo with tahini, melon, fig cream, and spice crumble. Once again, it was absolutely delicious! |
 BEAUTIFUL DESSERT AT 2MAZI |
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 AT OINESCENT WINE BAR |
OINESCENT This is a lovely wine bar very close to our hotel. They have an incredible selection of rare and expensive wines by the glass, and the great food is a bonus. It opens only in the evening, and a reservation is recommended. We had 2 glasses of fantastic (and super expensive) wine, and a dish of amberjack (a cold water sea fish) and an order of artisanal bread. The wine was great, and the food was delicious. |
 AMBERJACK AT OINESCENT |
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| OVEROLL CROISSANTERIE This isn't exactly a restaurant, but it deserves a mention! We enjoy good croissants. It’s hard to find decent croissants in Greece, but this little “croissanterie” on Praxitelous Street in Athens, had some of the best we have had anywhere, including France. They have a wide variety of baked delicacies, including croissants in various colors and various fillings. Not surprisingly, when we returned to get more plain croissants the next day, they were already gone. We were there twice and there was a line of customers both times. Our only complaint would be that they didn't make enough plain croissants! |
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| WIKIPEDIA ON CORFU |
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| HOW THE JEWS OF CORFU HELD ON TO THEIR HISTORY |
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| MUST DO THINGS IN CORFU |
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| 3 DAY PLAN FOR VISITING CORFU |
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| VISIT CORFU BY PHILOXENIA |
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| 11 BEST THINGS TO DO IN CORFU |
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| EXCELLENT 6 MINUTE YOUTUBE VIDEO ABOUT CORFU ISLAND |
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| 1 DAY IN CORFU BY EURO TROTTER - 10 MINUTE VIDEO |
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| HOW TO GET FROM CORFU TO ALBANIA |
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| VISIT PAXOS |
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| GREECETRAVEL: MATT BARRETT ON THE IONIAN ISLANDS |
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This is a page from our site "Travels with Steve & Alisa". It describes one of the many trips we have made together. We've built these pages not just to describe our trips, but to help other travelers if we can. Please use the information we've provided freely, and let us know if you have any questions we might be able to answer about your own planned trip, or just let us know if we have helped you. Or perhaps you have some information we could add to the site. Visit our home page using the link to the right. Enjoy
your next
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~Steve & Alisa~
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