Rides in Corfu

Corfu Town is easy to leave and awkward to drive in: traffic is banned inside the walls, the streets are an arm-span wide, and the parking by the port fills up by nine in the morning. So everything on wheels here is arranged as an outing — vehicles collect you at the hotel or at an agreed point on the waterfront and head straight out of town. A jeep safari, in that sense, is not entertainment but the way to reach the places where the asphalt ends.

There are three routes. The northwestern one climbs to Pantokrator and comes back along the coast through villages, half of which have stood empty since the seventies. The southern one is gentler: hills, olive groves, the Korission lagoon, and beaches that in July you have to reach by dirt road if you want them to yourself. There is also a through version — south to northwest in a single day, for anyone short of time on the island; the programme is dense, but you see the whole place.

The sunset safari stands apart: its timing is set so the last hour falls on the west coast, where the sun goes down into open sea. For anyone who prefers to drive themselves, a convertible for hire fits — easier to handle than a large car on the narrow northwestern roads, and the roof folds down exactly where the road climbs into the switchbacks above the water.