Nature And Outdoors in Corfu

Corfu Town is that rare city where you can walk to the greenery. Just behind the Old Fortress the Mon Repos park begins: a former British estate, later the summer residence of the Greek royal family, now a public wood with ancient excavations inside it and paths down to small beaches under the cliff. To the south lies Kanoni, a narrow spit between the sea and the Chalikiopoulou lagoon; a causeway leads from there to the Vlacherna monastery, with Pontikonisi and its cypresses opposite.

Everything else starts in town but happens further out. Jeep safaris collect you at the hotels and head for the dirt roads of the northwest, up to Pantokrator, or south, where the hills are gentler and empty beaches turn up. The bike route through the south is built for an easy pace: mild relief, almost no traffic. Horse rides go along the shore and through the olive groves, and are the best way onto stretches of coast with no road at all.

The sea part goes to the neighbours. Day sailings run to Paxos with its Blue Caves and to Antipaxos, where a white bottom produces the turquoise; another route crosses to the Blue Lagoon at Sivota on the mainland, with a stop at Parga. They all leave from the port below the town, so getting to the quay takes minutes rather than half a day, as it can on the bigger islands.