Things to do in Corfu (island)

Corfu is long, narrow and green. It runs about 64 kilometres north to south, and the green has a reason. Venice paid a bounty per olive planted, and roughly four million trees followed.

The length of the island

Mount Pantokrator rises to 906 metres in the northern half. It sets the weather. From the top, Albania is a couple of kilometres off across the channel.

• North. Kassiopi on the narrow channel, with the hill villages of Old Perithia and Strinylas under the summit.
• West. Cliffs and coves: Paleokastritsa below its monastery, and the twin bays of Porto Timoni reached only on foot.
• South. Flatter ground, the Korission lagoon behind its dunes, and the resort strip running down to Kavos.

Where the days go

The days here come in three kinds. Water, ridges and the table — and the table leans Italian rather than Aegean: pastitsada, sofrito, bourdeto.

• Boats south to Paxos and Antipaxos, with the blue caves cut into the cliffs along the way.
• Crossings to the mainland shore for Sivota, Parga and the shallow water they call the Blue Lagoon.
• Four-wheel-drive runs over the ridges to villages the coach road never reaches, sold by the half day and at sunset.
• Slower land days: a tasting with a sommelier, a horse on the sand, the south-coast bike route, the Corfu Trail in ten stages over 220 kilometres.

Off the island for the day

Corfu has two mainlands within reach. That is unusual for a Greek island. Igoumenitsa is about ninety minutes away by conventional ferry, and Saranda in Albania about thirty by hydrofoil.

That puts Meteora inside one long day by road from the ferry, and Butrint inside a short one. Both want an early start.

Practical

• Rain. This is among the wettest places in Greece, well over a metre a year, nearly all of it from November to March. That is what pays for the green.
• Season. May to October. The sea is warmest in September, and the heat peaks around the turn of July into August.
• A car. Close to essential, because the bus network runs in and out of the capital rather than around the coast.
• Roads. Narrow, steep and shared with scooters; the descents to the west-coast bays go single-track in places.
• Crossings. The Paxos boat is called off in a northwesterly, so book it early enough in the week to move it.
• Mosquitoes. A genuine nuisance in the olive groves after rain, and worse inland than on the shore.