Boutique hotels in Corfu

Corfu after dark

The Liston's cafes trade late and expensively and act as the town's living room. Actual clubbing sits at Kavos in the far south, which operates June to September for a young British crowd and is a shut village otherwise. Corfu Town keeps small bars through the Campiello lanes and the old Jewish quarter, while Sidari and Ipsos occupy the middle ground.

What to eat in Corfu

Corfu cooks Venetian. Sofrito is veal in white wine, garlic and vinegar; pastitsada is rooster stewed with spice over thick hollow pasta and eaten on Sundays; bourdeto is scorpionfish reddened with hot paprika. Kumquat liqueur is a British import turned local industry, and tsitsibira is Corfiot ginger beer made nowhere else in Greece. Order all of it off the Liston, where the prices halve.

What's actually worth your time in Corfu

The Spianada is the largest square in Greece and has a cricket pitch on it, a leftover of the 1815 to 1864 British protectorate, and matches are still played. The Liston arcade alongside was built by the French to echo the Rue de Rivoli. The Old Fortress costs around 6 euro. At Kanoni, Mouse Island sits directly beneath the airport approach path.

Corfu with kids, realistically

Aqualand at Agios Ioannis is the island's big water park and swallows a whole day. Paleokastritsa's coves are sheltered enough for small swimmers, whereas Glyfada on the west coast takes Ionian swell. Campiello's alleys are stepped and narrow, so a carrier beats a pushchair. Blue town buses are cheap; the green KTEL buses reach the villages but stop running early evening.

When the weather turns in Corfu

Corfu is the wettest of the large Greek islands and winter storms are serious. The Asian art museum and the Archaeological Museum, home to the Gorgon pediment from the Temple of Artemis, are both indoors in town. The Old Fortress has covered casemates. Casa Parlante, a costumed nineteenth-century house museum on Nikiforou Theotoki, works with children, and the Liston arcade keeps you dry between cafes.

When to go to Corfu

The month to avoid is January — around 14°C (57°F) with roughly 14 rain days. Prices and crowds track the weather here: June is the sweet spot, January the month most people skip.

Pack for peak season: Summer clothes, plus one light layer for air-con and evenings, High-SPF sunscreen, sunglasses, and a refillable water bottle, Comfortable walking shoes — every guide on this site assumes you'll use them.

Where to base yourself in Corfu

• Corfu Old Town — UNESCO-listed Venetian-Ottoman-British layers — cobbled arcades, Spianada green, two forts.
• Paleokastritsa — A dramatic west-coast cove with a monastery and boat tours to sea caves.
• Kassiopi — Fishing-village harbor in the north — Venetian ruins, family tavernas, boat rentals.
• Glyfada / Agios Gordios — The west-coast sunset beaches — sand, cliffs, and beach bars.