Before even arriving most visitors will be posed with the question of where to stay on the island, whether is it inside the old town of Corfu or in one of the hundreds of resorts spread all along the coast.

If, like us, you don’t have a lot of time on the isle we recommend you to stay in the old town which is centric. Because it is the economic center of the island it is well connected to all the other points of interest around.

We were invited to sleep in Puppet guest house, located in the heart of the old town. George and her niece Christie gave us a warm Greek welcome and made our stay really pleasurable. The hotel has only 3 rooms, each with a balcony overlooking the city. All of them decorated with a sober personal taste and full attention to detail.

On the ground floor, there is the cafe-bar, a lovely space filled with the owner’s rare liquor collection and animated by exquisite tunes.

During the morning it is in this same area that the delicious top quality breakfast is served. We used this time to speak with George, who gave us great recommendations about what to do and ended up being our plan for the day, which unfolded greatly.

Inscribed in the Unesco patrimony you can easily spend hours and hours strolling around the maze of crooked streets and discovering all sorts of hidden corners.

We went to walk very early in the morning when the town is still asleep. Like that, we enjoyed the scenes of deserted streets and the good light of the sunrise.

If you don’t have a good sense of orientation, be sure to bring a map or your phone to find your way back to your hotel. It is easy to lose the orientation with so many little alleys to explore. If you don’t have a map, well, good luck deciphering the names of the streets written in Greek!

Have a drink chilling at Liston esplanade and see peoople go by along the main pedestrian boulevard. Grab a cozy bench between the columns at Josephine cafe.

According to locals, this is the most beautiful part of this island. To arrive there we took the Green bus that is located in a terminal near the airport (10 minutes drive or 25 minutes walking from Corfu’s center). The bus takes around 1 hour to arrive at Paleokastritsa.

Once there, certainly the best activity to do is to rent a boat for the whole day and explore all the beaches of the area by yourself. The most amazing part is that you don’t need a boating license to rent and drive the boat (wtf, right ?!).

We rented ours with the Yellow Submarine. We crossed a really easy and straightforward process of paperwork and signing the contract before going to the boat. On the bay, our instructor Andreas explained to us all the basic skills and reassured us previous to departing on the adventure.

Don’t forget to bring at least a whole meal for a picnic and a good supply of water. Because you will spend your day under the sun, diving between sandy rocky beaches and caves in the waters of the Ionic sea.

We finished the day by climbing up to the monastery at the top of the hill, which is quite photogenic and offers great views over the sea. The plus : the monastery is full of cats 🐈 ❤️).

PRO TIP

If you want to eat something: there are lots of restaurants around. We had a strong recommendation about restaurant Akron, but we didn’t have the time to try it.

Know as well as “ΤΟ ΤΣΙΠΟΥΡΑΔΙΚΟ ΕΚΤΟΣ ΣΧΕΔΙΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΟΤΙ ΠΡΟΚΥΨΕI”. Located in a back street of the old town, you can share tasty mezze (greek tapas) and drinks in a lively terrace full of locals.

Don’t get scared if you see the menu in 6 languages, it’s not a tourist trap. It is actually a low budget option with great family recipes and lots of choices. Be advised, the portions are big!

We had a good reference of Pane e Souvlaki. For our first-night dinner we had dolmades at Fish e Souvlaki (the brother restaurant) and it was great. For sure the rest of the menu is as well.

Right in the middle of the action, the area around Puppet is very animated with lots of bars and night joints.

The ambiance with the carfully selected music and the curated collection of alcohol bottles make this public house stand out from the competition.

Marvelous minimalist interior and delicious speciality coffee. We had an expresso with the advice of the barista.

➞ By plane. The airport is located close to the city center and has international connections to a bunch of main cities in Europe.
➞ By boat. We arrived from Albania in a two-hour ferry departing from Sarandë (Cost : around 20€ / person).

➞ Learn the basics of the language : Kalimera (good morning) / kalispera (good afternoon) / epharistos (thank you) / Parakalo (please).

➞ Go shop the curated pieces of Greek Designers from the concept store Muses, right in the heart of Corfu.