Your Bespoke Corfu Itinerary: 7 Days on the Emerald Island

You can get to Corfu by air or by sea. Corfu's main airport is Ioannis Kapodistrias International Airport (CFU), just 2.7km from Corfu Town. 

By sea, ferries run to Corfu from Igoumenitsa and Patras on the Greek mainland, and from Italian ports including Bari, Brindisi and Venice. Corfu also connects by ferry to Albania and to other Ionian islands, making it a natural starting point for island hopping onward to Paxos, Kefalonia, Zakynthos or Lefkada. For those who'd rather skip the ferry terminal altogether, a private sea taxi is a more flexible way to arrive, particularly when travelling on to a villa directly.

For the full picture, including car hire and transfer options, see our guide to travelling to and around Corfu.

Hiring a car is generally the most practical way to get around Corfu, especially for an itinerary like this one that whisks you across the island’s many wonders.

• Car hire: Arranged through our local partners, with the right vehicle chosen for the terrain around your villa
• Chauffeur service: A relaxed alternative for day trips, dinners and getting around without driving yourself
• Boat charters or sea taxis: The most direct way to reach the northeastern bays and to travel between islands

Roads inland can be narrow and slow going, so build extra time into any cross-island driving.

• Day 1: Corfu Town
• Day 2: Olive Oil and Royal Corfu
• Day 3: Walking the West and In the Footsteps of Odysseus
• Day 4: Old Perithia
• Day 5: Corfu by Boat
• Day 6: Butrint National Park
• Day 7: Saddle Up and an Evening in Kalami

Start in Corfu Town itself, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2007 and one of the more distinctive capitals in the Greek islands. Its pedestrianised lanes, floral piazzas and mix of Italianate and 19th-century British architecture are dense enough to justify a full day. It’s well worth building in extra time on either side of your villa stay to experience it fully.

Two Venetian fortresses still stand watch over the town, both offering sweeping views for the climb. The Museum of Asian Art, housed in the Palace of St Michael and St George, and the Church of St Spiridion are both worth an hour or two.

For a softer introduction, arrange a private boat transfer in from Kassiopi or Kalami, a guided evening walk through the antiquated streets, and a drink at the Liston or on the Cavalieri Hotel's roof terrace..

Olive oil runs deep in Corfiot life, and a visit to the Mavroudis family estate, around 15km south of Corfu Town, will deepen your appreciation for the nectar. Their mill and museum cover five centuries of production, and a tasting of their green-golden oil often ends taking a bottle or two home (they also ship to most of Europe).

Nearby stand two very different royal residences. Mon Repos was the birthplace of the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, while the Achilleion Palace was built as the summer residence of Empress Elizabeth of Austria, known as Sisi. The Achilleion has since done duty as a hospital, an orphanage, a casino and even a James Bond filming location, and its collection of tributes to Achilles is unusually thorough. Its 50 acres of gardens look out over southern Corfu and the capital.

Corfu has attracted explorers for generations, not least since Gerald Durrell wrote about its wildlife and landscape. The west coast trail is a beloved choice: rugged cliffs, archaic olive groves and expansive views out over the sea. 

Homer places the shipwreck of Odysseus on a beach in the land of the Phaeacians, where the King's daughter Nausicaä finds him washed ashore. Tradition points to Palaiokastritsa as that beach, and it's worth pairing a visit with the monastery just above it, perched high enough for 360-degree views out to sea. Those same views are matched, if not outshone, by the 13th-century fortress of Angelokastro a little further along the coast.

High on the northern slopes of Mount Pantokrator, roughly 400m above sea level, Old Perithia is a 14th-century village that time has largely passed by. Of its original 130 houses, many built in the Venetian style, most now stand empty, alongside eight surviving churches, a ratio that hints at how sizeable the village once was, home to some 1,200 residents at its peak.

It isn't entirely abandoned, though. A small number of tavernas still operate here, serving the kind of mountain cooking that makes a natural stop before the road carries you back down.

Corfu's northeastern tip is scattered with delightful bays, among them Agni, Kalami, Kerasia, Agios Stefanos and Avlaki, each backed by verdant pine trees and fronted by calm, crystalline water.

A day or two spent on a boat is arguably the best way to see this stretch of coast, dropping anchor to swim wherever the water looks most inviting, then pulling in at a taverna for a hearty lunch.

Close out the week by seeing Corfu from horseback, an option suited to riders of any level, and those seeking an alternative adventure. One of the best spots is the Erimitis nature reserve on the northeastern tip of Corfu. Your expert guide will take you through the unspoilt wooded landscape and down onto the beaches of St Spiridon and Acharavi where the views over the sea to Albania are to die for.

End the day, and the itinerary, with Prospero's Cell, Lawrence Durrell's 1945 account of life on Corfu. Durrell once lived in Kalami Bay's White House, now a bar and restaurant, and reading it there, coffee in hand and the sea close by, feels like the right way to close a week on the island.

Seven days is enough to get a real sense of Corfu, but it only scratches the surface of what the island beholds. This itinerary is a starting point rather than a fixed route, and our expert team can adjust the pace, the order or the focus to suit how you like to travel.

Get in touch with a Villa Specialist to begin shaping your own version of this trip.