A Corfu sailing tour leaves the green north-east of Corfu for its bays, islets and the strait facing Albania. It is one of the Ionian sailing trips in Greece on Greece VIP.
This post covers what a Corfu sailing tour includes, where it starts and the north-east coast. It also covers the Diapontia islands, Vido and Lazaretto and the sea history around Corfu. Lighthouses, the best season and common questions come last.
Each section ends with a Corfu sailing tour or a nearby cruise that can be booked online.
What does a Corfu sailing tour include?
A Corfu sailing tour includes a skipper, swim stops, snacks and drinks on board. Day sails head up the north-east coast from Gouvia marina. Sunset sails and private yacht days also run. Groups range from six to twelve guests.
One north-east day sail leaves Gouvia marina and stops first at Barbati beach. The main stop is Gialiskari beach, with time for snorkelling, swimming and cliff jumps.
That Corfu sailing tour serves sandwiches, fruit and soft drinks. It takes small groups of nine to twelve people, and fuel and an airport pick-up are included.
A private sunset sail from Gouvia marina takes up to ten people. Its snack list names fruit salad, nachos and Greek yogurt, with snorkelling gear supplied.
This Corfu sailing tour serves sparkling wine, wine and beer to guests aged 18 and over. The Gouvia day sail also carries an ice box and fans.
Smaller boat trips around Corfu leave Kassiopi or Gouvia with six or seven guests along the north-east coast. Light snacks of Greek produce and chilled drinks come on board.
On those trips, guests pick a seaside taverna lunch or stay on board. A sunset version runs from Gouvia to Garitsa Bay for a swim or snorkel.
A private Corfu sailing tour from Gouvia can reach Paxos, Lefkada, Kefalonia or Ithaca. Finger food, refreshments, wine and beer come on board, and group size stays flexible.
- Cove cruise: A sailboat cruise of northern Corfu anchors in coves for swims.
- Skipper: The Gouvia day sail lists a Greek-speaking skipper.
- One-way charters: Yacht charters from Gouvia can also end in Lefkas or Preveza.
A sailing source counts more than ten ports worth a visit along Corfu’s coasts.
Where does a Corfu sailing tour start?
A Corfu sailing tour starts at Gouvia marina or at a town harbour. Nearly all North Ionian yacht charters begin and end at Gouvia. Mandraki and NAOK sit beside the Old Fortress. Kassiopi, Benitses, Petriti and Lefkimmi serve other coasts.
Gouvia was the first privately owned marina in Greece. It moors 1,200 yachts on fixed and floating pontoons and stores about 500 more on dry land.
A Corfu sailing tour from Gouvia leaves berths 2 to 6 m deep. The marina takes yachts up to 80 m, with water and power at every berth.
A fuel station stands at the north entrance and a seaplane base at the south. Gouvia lies 6 km from town and 7 km from the airport.
Before a Corfu sailing tour, guests can shop at the marina supermarket, which delivers free to the pier. The quays hold a pool and a cricket field.
Two pairs of red and green buoys mark the channel into the marina. Anchoring in the north bay is banned, and new extensions added over 100 berths.
In Corfu town, a Corfu sailing tour can leave Mandraki, under the Old Fortress. It gives the best shelter from prevailing summer winds and has permanent moorings.
NAOK, the Nautical Athletic Club of Corfu, lies south of the fortress. Its marina sits on Garitsa Bay, beside a 160 m beach named after the club.
- Kassiopi: The harbour gives near all-round shelter, with Imerolia bay as its anchorage.
- Benitses: Yachts anchor in 3 to 4 m beside the harbour.
- Petriti: The village has the largest fishing port on Corfu.
A Corfu sailing tour from Lefkimmi leaves a harbour dredged to 4 to 5 m.
What does a Corfu sailing tour see on the north-east coast?
A Corfu sailing tour on the north-east coast passes seven bays. In order along the coast, they are Agni, Kalami, Kouloura, Kerasia, Agios Stefanos, Avlaki and Kassiopi. Mount Pantokrator rises above them, and Albania lies close across the strait.
Agni is a small cove between Nissaki and Kalami. Its east-facing beach of small pebbles and shingle has three tavernas and wooden jetties for small boats.
A Corfu sailing tour then reaches Kalami, home to 18 people in 2021. A Rothschild family mansion stands there, and Kouloura beach lies about 1 km east.
Kouloura sits in a horseshoe-shaped bay ringed by pine and eucalyptus. In the 16th century, the Quartano family used its seaside mansion as a fortress against pirates.
A Corfu sailing tour finds Kerasia beach 275 m long, facing north. Pleasure boats anchor off its fine gravel, beside a stone pier at the north-east end.
Agios Stefanos lies between Kerasia and Kassiopi, about 3 km from Kassiopi. Its bay gives solid anchorage in prevailing north-west winds, and luxury homes line the hillsides.
A Corfu sailing tour next passes Avlaki, a closed bay 3,300 m long. Its 650 m gravel beach faces north-west, and small boats anchor off its western end.
A Corfu sailing tour finally reaches Kassiopi, home to 988 people in 2021. Its beaches are largely rocky, with very clean water at Kalamiona, Bataria and Pipitou.
- Pantokrator: The abandoned village of Sinies can be seen from its double peak.
- Avlaki: The beach offers boat hire, sailing and canoeing to explore the area.
- Strait: A sailing source puts Corfu only 1 nautical mile off Albania.
The Greek-Albanian border line runs through the strait east of Kassiopi.
Which Diapontia islands does a Corfu sailing tour reach?
A Corfu sailing tour heading north-west reaches Othonoi, Ereikoussa and Mathraki. The 2021 census counted 386 people on Othonoi, 447 on Ereikoussa and 174 on Mathraki. Small rocky islets such as Tracheia, Plateia, Diaplo and Diakopo lie around them.
Othonoi rises to 393 metres at Imerovigli, the highest point of the group. A Corfu sailing tour finds two harbours on the island, Ammos and Avlakia.
Tradition places Homer’s Ogygia, home of the nymph Calypso, on Othonoi. Odysseus stayed there seven years in the myth. Aspri Ammos beach is reached only by boat.
Othonoi lies 43 nautical miles from Otranto in Italy. A Corfu sailing tour there reaches the western edge of Greece. The Greek submarine Proteus sank nearby in 1940.
Ereikoussa tops out near 130 metres at Sandardo, and its municipal unit covers 4.449 square kilometres. The name comes from the heath shrub ereiki, which blooms in October.
A Corfu sailing tour to Ereikoussa covers 29 nautical miles from Corfu. The island lies only 8 miles from Sidari, on the north coast.
Mathraki rises only to 152 metres above the sea. Settlers reached it in the 16th century from Othonoi and Paxoi. Paxoi is better known from cruises to Paxos and Antipaxos.
On a Corfu sailing tour, Portelo beach on Mathraki lies by the harbour. It runs 650 metres, and the sea reaches 5 metres deep about 230 metres out.
- Seabirds: Cory’s shearwaters nest on Tracheia, one of two known Ionian colonies.
- Seagrass: Posidonia beds lie mainly 5 to 30 metres deep.
- Old council: The three islands formed one municipality from 1869 to 1912.
Mathraki’s municipal unit covers 3.532 square kilometres, the smallest area of the three islands.
What does a Corfu sailing tour see at Vido and Lazaretto?
A Corfu sailing tour meets Vido, a wooded island of 0.538 square kilometres. Nearby Lazaretto served as a quarantine area for about four centuries. Vido holds a mausoleum for Serbian soldiers who died in the First World War.
The first Serbian soldiers reached Vido on 21 January 1916. A Corfu sailing tour skirts the island where up to 300 died each day at first.
The dead were first buried on the stony shore. Boats later took the bodies out and sank them at sea, weighted with rocks.
The Serbian poet Milutin Bojić wrote a poem about these sea burials. Architect Nikolai Krasnov designed the mausoleum a Corfu sailing tour passes.
Greece agreed in 1926 to cede the land for the monument. Inside, 1,232 soldiers known by name rest in marble-walled cassettes, moved there from Corfu cemeteries.
A Corfu sailing tour rounds Vido, where remnants of Fort Wellington survive. The French had added two redoubts. The British later built three forts in secret.
Vido was nearly bare of trees before 1940. Agronomist Ioannis Sordinas led the planting of pines, olives, cypresses and almond trees. Pheasants live there.
A Corfu sailing tour reaches Lazaretto, an islet of about seven hectares off Kontokali. Its name comes from a leprosarium opened there in the 16th century.
- Camp: Italian occupiers held Greek resistance prisoners there from 1941 to 1943.
- Executions: Municipal records list 118 executions there from 1947 to 1950.
- Wall: Bronze rings and bullet holes remain on the old quarantine wall.
The roofless church of Agios Dimitrios still stands. The islet became a historic site in 1992.
What sea history does a Corfu sailing tour recall?
A Corfu sailing tour recalls the Venetian arsenal at Gouvia and the siege of 1716. The Holy League fleet gathered off Corfu in 1571. Italy occupied the island in 1923. The 1946 Corfu Channel case became a landmark in the law of the sea.
A Corfu sailing tour into Gouvia Bay passes the old Venetian arsenal, built after the siege. A keystone there bears the year 1778 in Roman numerals.
Three arched docks served two squadrons, one of 25 galleys and one of 12 heavy sailing ships. Fifteen arches and the harbour portal still stand today.
A Corfu sailing tour recalls the 1716 siege, when the Ottoman fleet counted 62 ships of the line. The Venetian garrison holding the town numbered 5,700 soldiers.
Andrea Corner led 27 Venetian ships against Canım Hoca Mehmed Pasha’s fleet on the siege’s first evening. A storm on 20 August wrecked ships on both sides.
A Corfu sailing tour also recalls the Holy League fleet, which left Messina in mid-September 1571. It moored off Corfu on 27 September, ten days before Lepanto.
After Italian general Enrico Tellini was killed at Kakavia in 1923, Italian warships shelled Corfu on 31 August. Italian troops held the island until 27 September.
A Corfu sailing tour through the channel recalls the 1946 mine strikes. The cruisers HMS Mauritius and Leander sailed with the destroyers. HMS Saumarez was damaged beyond repair.
- Filing: Britain took the case to the International Court of Justice in 1947.
- Jurisdiction: A 1948 vote of 15 to 1 upheld the court’s jurisdiction.
- Merits: In 1949 the court ruled the British mine sweep broke Albanian sovereignty.
In 1992, Britain and Albania jointly expressed regret over the Corfu Channel incident.
Which lighthouses mark a Corfu sailing tour?
A Corfu sailing tour passes lights listed in the American NGA List of Lights. The citadel light above Corfu Town shines 78 m above the sea. Peristeres, Serpa shoal, Vido, Gouvia, Cape Lefkimmi and Othonoi carry their own signals.
The Cape Sidero light on the citadel shows a 13-nautical-mile range. Its 8 m stone tower has a green lantern roof. It now runs automatic and unattended.
The citadel lamp went dark in 1941 and shone again in 1944. German bombs damaged the tower in September 1943. Its first range was 15 nautical miles.
Peristeres, off Kassiopi, flashes red every 5 seconds from 23 m. British builders lit it with olive oil in 1828. No other Greek lighthouse has its large water jars.
On a Corfu sailing tour, this light marks the channel entrance toward the Albanian mainland. An acetylene beacon ran there from 1945. Solar power took over in 1982.
About 2.5 km south of Peristeres, a 12 m mast marks the Serpa shoal. Its east cardinal beacon gives three quick white flashes every 10 seconds.
Vido islet, passed by sunset cruises off Corfu Town, shows a green flash every 3 seconds. Its white pyramid holds the lamp 12 m above the sea.
Inside Gouvia bay, a Corfu sailing tour meets two fixed red lights on a red column. They sit 1 m apart, and the NGA list marks them private.
- Cape Lefkimmi: This 1874 station’s 5 m white tower is listed unlit since 2020.
- Othonoi: The Kastri light flashes white every 10 seconds from 103 m.
- Erikoussa: Cape Potamopoulo shows three white flashes every 15 seconds from 49 m.
The Kastri lamp stayed dark from 1941 to 1954, then burned kerosene until 1985.
When is the best season for a Corfu sailing tour?
A Corfu sailing tour meets the weakest airport gusts in June and August, near 20 km/h. July brings the highest airport arrivals, and February the lowest. Sea passengers at Corfu port peak in the July to September quarter.
HCAA figures for 2023 show 439,019 passengers landing at Corfu airport in July, the year’s peak. In August, total passenger movements reached 865,863, the highest monthly figure.
February 2023 was the quietest month at Corfu airport, with only 4,600 arrivals. In January, February and December, the HCAA logged no international passengers at all.
In June 2023, arrivals already reached 351,509. They fell from 147,458 in October to 9,293 in November. The full-year total reached 3,941,805 arrivals, departures and transits.
Eurostat counted 1.06 million sea passengers at Corfu port from July to September 2023. The first quarter logged 279,000, with cruise passengers left out of both figures.
Albania accounted for 257,000 of those third-quarter passengers. Domestic Greek routes carried 723,000, and Italy 80,000. In the first quarter, Albanian routes carried just 7,000 passengers.
From October to March, mean winds at Corfu airport blow from 140 to 158 degrees. That points to the southeast. July swings to 262 degrees, a westerly flow.
Mean wind speed at the airport peaks in February, at 12.8 km/h. July averages 11.7 km/h. For a Corfu sailing tour, November gusts average 40.2 km/h.
- Spring port traffic: April to June 2023 brought 627,000 sea passengers.
- Year-end port traffic: October to December 2023 carried 371,000 sea passengers.
- Annual wind: Airport records since November 2000 average about 11 km/h from the south.
In September, a Corfu sailing tour meets average airport gusts of 26.4 km/h.
What do travelers ask about a Corfu sailing tour?
A Corfu sailing tour from Gouvia starts on the coast north of Corfu Town. City bus line 15 links the airport and port. Line 7 serves Gouvia from San Rocco Square. The port authority answers on +30 26613 65200.
Which bus links the airport and port for a Corfu sailing tour?
City line 15 runs both ways between Corfu airport and the port. At the port, it leaves from the mooring area for cruise ships and Albania ferries. It passes the intercity bus station, the city centre and San Rocco Square.
Which bus reaches Gouvia for a Corfu sailing tour?
City line 7 runs from San Rocco Square to Ipsos-Pyrgi. It passes Kontokali, Gouvia, Tzavros, Kommeno, Dassia and Ipsos. On this line, Kontokali comes just before Gouvia. Line 15 from the airport also stops at San Rocco Square, where line 7 starts.
Which port authority oversees a Corfu sailing tour?
The Hellenic Coast Guard runs a central port authority for Kerkyra. It sits at the New Port of Corfu, postcode 49100. Its telephone is +30 26613 65200. Written messages go to kerkyra@hcg.gr. In Greek, the office is the Kentriko Limenarcheio Kerkyras.
Which hospital serves a Corfu sailing tour?
The General Hospital of Corfu, named Agia Eirini, stands at Kontokali, postcode 49100. Its switchboard answers on +30 26613 60400. Kontokali sits on a headland that merges into Gouvia on its western side. Its protocol office takes mail at protokolo@gnkerkyras.gr.
Does a Corfu sailing tour toward Albania cross a time zone?
Yes, a Corfu sailing tour toward Albania crosses into another time zone. Albania keeps Central European Time, one hour ahead of UTC. Greek clocks therefore run one hour ahead of Albanian clocks. Both countries change clocks on the same two Sundays each year. The one-hour gap holds in every season.
Which papers does a Corfu sailing tour to Albania need?
Albania requires a passport valid for at least three months. Listed nationals can use a national ID card instead. American citizens stay visa-free for up to one year. Albania grants 90-day visa-free entry to nearly all Schengen Annex II nationalities.