Tours in Corfu (island)

Corfu is the greenest of the large Greek islands and the only part of the country that never came under Ottoman rule. Venice held it for four hundred years and paid farmers to plant olives, which is why several million trees still cover the interior and the oil comes from very old, tall stock. France followed, then Britain until 1864. The island is sixty kilometres long and narrow, and changes along its length: the north ends at Kassiopi and the channel where Albania stands two kilometres off; the west is cliffs and coves, with Paleokastritsa below its monastery and the twin bays of Porto Timoni reached on foot; the south flattens into the Korission lagoon, the dunes at Issos and the resort strip towards Kavos. Mount Pantokrator rises to 906 metres in the middle, and the villages under it grow the kumquat the island turns into liqueur.

Three kinds of day divide the island. On the water: the boat to Paxos and Antipaxos with the blue caves cut into the cliffs, kayaking and small-boat hire along the west coast, and the half-hour crossing to Albania for Butrint. On foot: the Corfu Trail, which runs the length of the island in ten stages, and shorter walks between the hill villages of Old Perithia and Strinylas below the summit. At the table: cooking classes and oil tastings, which make more sense here than on most islands because the Ionian kitchen is closer to Italy than to the Aegean — pastitsada, sofrito and bourdeto rather than grilled fish and oregano. Igoumenitsa is ninety minutes by ferry, which puts Meteora within reach as one long day.

Practical. Corfu takes more rain than any other Greek island, well over a metre a year, most of it between November and March, and that is the reason for the green; the season runs May to October, the sea is warmest in September, and the heat peaks in the last week of July and the first of August. A car is close to essential: the beaches worth the drive are on the far side of the island and the buses run through the capital rather than around the coast. The roads are narrow, steep and shared with scooters, and the descents to the west-coast bays are single track in places. Boats to Paxos are cancelled in a northwesterly, so pick a day you can move. Mosquitoes are a nuisance in the olive groves after rain. Fuel and tavernas cost less inland than on the coast road, and village shops shut for hours in the afternoon.