5 Days in Corfu

Start where Corfu has started its day for two centuries, at a table under the Liston, the row of arcades along the edge of the main square. The French built it in 1807, during their short rule of the island, modeled on the Rue de Rivoli in Paris. The name may come from the list of noble families in the Venetian Golden Book, said to be the only ones allowed on the promenade, or simply from a Venetian word for a promenade.

The historic old cafés are gone now, replaced by newer ones, and prices are high for what you get. Have one coffee here anyway, for the view. If it's warm, order a tsitsibira, the island's ginger beer, a recipe left behind by the British, or a little glass of kumquat liqueur.

In front of the Liston opens the Spianada, one of the largest squares in Greece. It began as an empty field the Venetians kept clear so that the Old Fortress had a free line of fire at any attacker. The British turned the northern half into a cricket pitch, and Corfiot clubs still play there on summer weekends, one of the very few places in Greece where cricket survives.

In the southern half stands the Maitland Rotunda, a little round Ionic temple built in 1821 for Thomas Maitland, the first British Lord High Commissioner, over an old Venetian water cistern. At the far end is a statue of Ioannis Kapodistrias, born in Corfu in 1776, who became the first head of state of independent Greece.

Two blocks behind the Liston, the red-domed bell tower of St. Spyridon, the tallest in the Ionian Islands, rises over the rooftops. The church was finished in 1589, and the tower, modeled on the Greek church in Venice, was added in 1620. Inside, in a silver casket, lie the relics of St. Spyridon, a 4th-century bishop from Cyprus, brought to Corfu in 1456. It can seem that half the men on the island are called Spyros after him.

Corfiots credit him with saving the town four times, from plague twice, from famine and from the Ottoman siege of 1716, and four times a year his relics are carried through the streets in a procession with all the town's brass bands: on Palm Sunday, Holy Saturday, 11 August and the first Sunday of November, which in 2026 falls on 1 November. If you're in town that day, don't miss it.

Now get lost in the old town. Inside the Venetian walls there was no room to spread out, so the town grew up instead: tall, narrow houses of four and five floors, laundry strung between them, and lanes called kantounia so narrow the sun barely reaches the stones. On the way, look at the Town Hall, which began life in the 1720s as the Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo, the first opera house in Greece. Head north to Campiello, the oldest quarter, with its tiny squares, wells and Venetian doorways, and down to the sea walls, where the old houses look straight out at the mountains of Albania.

For lunch, Rouvas, on Stamatiou Desylla street near the market, has been cooking Corfiot food since 1936. It's lunch only and closes when the food runs out, so go early, and order pastitsada, the island's Sunday dish: rooster or beef stewed in a spiced tomato sauce with cinnamon and cloves, served over thick pasta.

At the end of the Spianada, a bridge crosses the Contrafossa, a sea moat the Venetians cut to turn the rocky point into an island, and leads into the Old Fortress. Behind these walls Corfu held out against the great Ottoman sieges of 1537, 1571 and 1716, the reason Corfu, unlike its neighbors Lefkada and Kefalonia, never came under Ottoman rule.

Inside, past the barracks and the Byzantine icon collection, stands a church that looks like a Greek temple: St. George, built by the British garrison in 1840 for Anglican services and later turned Orthodox. Then climb to the top of the higher of the two peaks, past the lighthouse, for the best view on the island: the whole town below, the bay, and the mountains of the mainland across the water. Below the walls, at Faliraki, locals still swim off the rocks well into October.

In the evening, the whole town comes out for the volta, the slow walk up and down the Liston and around the Spianada, stopping every few meters to greet someone. Join in, then eat at one of the old-town tavernas. Corfu has more brass bands than anywhere in Greece, and on summer evenings and feast days one of them is often playing on the bandstand. The oldest, the Philharmonic Society of Corfu, was founded in 1840, and its first director, Nikolaos Mantzaros, wrote the music of the Greek national anthem.

At the north end of the Spianada, the British built the Palace of St. Michael and St. George in 1819-24, in honey-colored stone shipped from Malta, as the home of the Lord High Commissioner and the seat of the Ionian Senate. The grand state rooms upstairs are still as they were.

The rest of the palace holds something you don't expect on a Greek island: the Museum of Asian Art, the only museum in Greece dedicated to it, with more than 11,000 pieces, from Chinese porcelain and bronzes to Japanese woodblock prints and armor. At its core is the collection of a Greek diplomat, Grigorios Manos, who gave it to the state.

Walk south along the bay to the Archaeological Museum, reopened in 2018 after a long renovation. It's built around one object: the pediment of the Temple of Artemis, carved around 590-580 BC, the earliest surviving decorated stone pediment in Greek architecture. In the middle, nearly three meters tall, the Gorgon Medusa runs at you with snakes knotted around her waist, her children Pegasus and Chrysaor beside her and two great panthers on either side, a demon meant to scare evil away from the temple. It still works.

The other highlight is a crouching stone lion from the late 7th century BC, a masterpiece of early Greek sculpture, found in 1843 near a tomb in Garitsa.

Have lunch around Garitsa, then walk 15 minutes on to Mon Repos, a neoclassical villa in a big wooded park, built in 1828-31 for the British commissioner Frederick Adam and his Corfiot wife. It later became the summer home of the Greek royal family, and on 10 June 1921 Prince Philip, the future husband of Queen Elizabeth II, was born here, reportedly on the dining table. Today the villa is a museum of the island's history.

The park is the best part. Paths lead through the trees to the ruins of ancient Corcyra, the city that stood here before the Venetian town: the foundations of a Temple of Hera and, down by the sea, the small Doric temple of Kardaki. Corcyra was a powerful colony of Corinth, and its quarrel with its mother city in 435 BC helped start the Peloponnesian War.

At the tip of the peninsula, the viewpoint at Kanoni looks down on the most famous view in Corfu: the little white monastery of Vlacherna on its islet, joined to the shore by a causeway, and behind it Pontikonisi, Mouse Island, with a tiny Byzantine chapel among cypress trees. Legend says Mouse Island is the ship of the Phaeacians that carried Odysseus home to Ithaca, turned to stone by Poseidon on its way back. It's often said to have inspired Arnold Böcklin's painting Isle of the Dead, though Böcklin never said so.

There's a bonus: the airport runway runs right along the lagoon, and planes land just above your head. Walk down to the causeway for sunset, and in season, take the little boat out to Mouse Island.

Back in town, eat at Taverna Ninos on Sevastianou street, a family place that has been feeding locals for decades at fair prices. This is the night for sofrito, thin slices of veal cooked with white wine, garlic, vinegar and plenty of parsley, another Venetian legacy, and a plate of fried kalamarakia (squid) for the table.

In late 1915, invaded from three sides, the Serbian army, the king and the government retreated across the snowbound mountains of Albania and Montenegro to the Adriatic. Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians died of cold, hunger and disease on the way. In January 1916, after French troops had occupied the island without neutral Greece's consent, Allied ships began carrying the survivors, around 135,000-150,000 men, to Corfu, where the army rested, recovered and was rebuilt, before returning to fight on the Salonika front and in 1918 break through it.

The Serbian House on Moustoxydou street, a small museum owned by Serbia, tells that story with uniforms, flags, weapons, photographs and the medical instruments of the hospitals on Vido. In town, the Serbian parliament met in the Municipal Theatre from 1916 to 1918. The old theatre was destroyed by bombing in 1943, and a new one stands on the same spot. And here in Corfu, after weeks of talks, the Serbian prime minister Nikola Pašić and Ante Trumbić of the Yugoslav Committee signed the Corfu Declaration on 20 July 1917, the agreement that led to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later Yugoslavia.

Right next door, two buildings tell how Corfu became Greek. The Ionian Parliament on Moustoxydou street is where, on 23 September 1863, the parliament of the British-protected Ionian Islands voted for union with Greece, which took place the next year. And a few streets away, on Kapodistriou, the Corfu Reading Society, founded in 1836, claims to be the oldest cultural institution of modern Greece; its library and reading rooms, with views over the sea, are open on weekday mornings.

Then walk ten minutes northwest to the New Fortress, begun by the Venetians in 1576 to guard the town from the land side after the Ottoman siege of 1571. Its huge bastions and tunnels are impressive, and from the top you look out over the old port to a small green island just offshore: Vido.

In 1916 Vido became the island of death. Too weak and sick to recover on the main island, thousands of Serbian soldiers were taken to hospitals there, and at first as many as 300 died each day. There was not enough land to bury them, so over 5,000 were buried at sea in the channel south of the island. The poet Milutin Bojić, himself a soldier, called it "Plava grobnica", the Blue Tomb, and Serbian schoolchildren still learn the poem by heart. Bojić himself died of tuberculosis in Thessaloniki in November 1917, before the war was over.

Right below the New Fortress lies the Evraiki, or Ovriaki, the old Jewish quarter, next to the town market in the fortress moat, with its tall houses and the Scuola Greca, the one surviving synagogue on Velissariou street. Corfu's Jews, some Greek-speaking Romaniotes and some Italian-speaking families from Apulia and Venice, lived here for centuries.

On 9 June 1944, the German occupiers ordered the community, about 1,800 people, to assemble on the Spianada, held them in the Old Fortress and then shipped them to the mainland and on to Auschwitz. Only around 200 survived. A memorial by the sculptor Georgios Karachalios, unveiled in 2001, stands on the square in front of the New Fortress. The synagogue keeps irregular hours, so you may only be able to see it from outside.

On the way back, stop at one of the kumquat shops on the streets of the old town. This tiny Chinese citrus fruit is said to have been brought to Corfu by a British agronomist in 1924, and it took to the soil so well that it's now a protected local product, grown mostly around Nymfes in the north. Corfiots candy it, make it into jam and, above all, into a bright orange liqueur. Mavromatis, in business since 1965, and Vassilakis, since 1959, both have shops in town with tastings. Pick up some mantolato too, the local honey and almond nougat.

Spend the evening on the north side of the old town, along the sea walls of Mourayia, where tavernas set their tables on the old ramparts facing the sea and the lights of the mainland. It's quieter than the Liston and much more local. On the way you pass the Antivouniotissa, a 15th-century church that holds the island's best collection of icons, and the small museum of Dionysios Solomos, who wrote the words of the Greek national anthem and lived in Corfu. Order bourdeto, the island's fish stew, red with hot paprika, or bianco, fish cooked white with garlic, lemon and potatoes, and toast the day with Corfiot wine.

At the end of the road, on a headland between the bays, stands the Monastery of the Virgin of Paleokastritsa, founded, according to tradition, in 1225, though most of what you see is from the 18th century. Walk through the whitewashed courtyard, with its bougainvillea and an old olive press, to the terrace at the back for the view down the cliffs to the sea. There's a small museum of icons, and monks still live here.

Down on the main beach, small boats leave all day for the sea caves along the cliffs, where the water inside glows turquoise and blue. The trip takes 30-45 minutes and is the best way to understand why people call this the most beautiful bay in Corfu. If it's warm, ask the boatman to stop for a swim.

For lunch, Nereids, on the road down to the bay, has been a reliable choice since 1985. Order the local fish of the day or sofrito, and a Greek salad with tsigareli, wild greens cooked with garlic and hot red pepper, if they have it.

Agios Spyridon is the main beach of Paleokastritsa, next to the bus stop and the car park, the busiest and best organized of the coves, with sunbeds, tavernas and boat rental. It is sandy in parts and pebbly in others, so bring water shoes. It fills up in the middle of the day, so if it is packed, tiny Ambelaki and the pebbly, unorganized Platakia are a short walk or boat ride along the bay.

On a crag 300 m above the sea, west of the bay, are the ruins of Angelokastro, a Byzantine castle from the 12th or 13th century, first mentioned in 1272. It was the island's lookout and refuge, and during the Ottoman sieges of 1537 and 1571, when the countryside was laid waste, the villagers sheltered here and the castle never fell. The climb from the gate is short but steep, and at the top there's a little cave chapel and a view along the whole northwest coast.

Finish in Lakones, the village on the hill above Paleokastritsa, where the Bella Vista viewpoint looks down on the bays, the monastery and the headlands in one sweep. It's the classic postcard view of Corfu, and at sunset it's even better. Have a drink at one of the cafés on the edge of the cliff, then take a taxi back down to the bay for the bus, or straight to town.

In the village of Gastouri, 10 km south of town, the Empress Elisabeth of Austria, the restless "Sisi", built herself the Achilleion in 1889-91, after her only son, Crown Prince Rudolf, died at Mayerling. She named it after Achilles, her hero, and filled the gardens with statues, among them the Dying Achilles by Ernst Herter. After her assassination in 1898, the German Kaiser Wilhelm II bought the palace in 1907 and added a giant bronze Achilles by Johannes Götz. During World War I it served as a French and Serbian military hospital, and in 1981 its casino appeared in the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only.

The palace interior has been closed for restoration since 2021, and work isn't expected to finish before 2029, but the terraced gardens, the statues and the view over the coast are open and still worth the trip.

Head back to town for lunch. If you didn't make it to Rouvas on day one, this is your chance: since 1936, it has been the lunchtime canteen of Corfu's market and offices, with a short list of home-cooked dishes, pastitsada, sofrito, stuffed vegetables, moussaka and the island's version of pastitsio. It's open for lunch only, Monday to Saturday.

Glyfada, below Pelekas, is a wide beach of fine golden sand, shallow at the edge, with rentable sunbeds and umbrellas, beach bars, a mini market and watersports. Take green bus B17 from the KTEL station after lunch, and bring a hat and sunscreen. The west coast can have waves, so check the flags before you swim. From here it's about 4 km up to Pelekas by road, a steep walk of close to an hour, so ask the beach bar to call a taxi (around ten minutes) for the sunset.

In the late afternoon, take bus 11 or a taxi west across the island to Pelekas, a hill village above the west coast. From the top of the hill, a viewpoint called the Kaiser's Throne looks over the whole of central Corfu, from the old town in the east to the sea in the west. Wilhelm II, who loved the island, used to ride up here to watch the sunset, and the view hasn't changed much since. Below you is Glyfada, where you've just been.

For the last night, book a table at Rex, on Kapodistriou street just behind the Liston, open since 1932 and run by the same family since 1955. It's the classic place for Corfiot cooking: pastitsada, sofrito and bourdeto, plus a good list of Greek wines. Finish with a kumquat liqueur, and drink to coming back.