Corfu Shore Excursion

A Corfu shore excursion turns a cruise stop into a day on the island, from the cruise port of Corfu town into the UNESCO-listed Old Town, out to the Achilleion palace, across to the bays of Paleokastritsa, up to the Kanoni view of Mouse Island, or out on the water by boat. This post covers what a Corfu shore excursion includes, where it starts, the Old Town, the Achilleion, Paleokastritsa, Kanoni, boat trips from the port and the best season. It is one of the shore excursions in Greece on Greece VIP.

Each section ends with a Corfu shore excursion that can be booked online.

What does a Corfu shore excursion include?

A Corfu shore excursion is an escorted outing that fits one cruise call at the port of Corfu town. It links the Old Town, the Achilleion, Paleokastritsa, Kanoni and boat routes in one route on land or at sea.

Corfu lies in the north-west corner of Greece, where the Ionian Sea ends and the Adriatic Sea begins, off Albania. During the centuries when the whole Adriatic was the Gulf of Venice, Kerkyra was called the Door of Venice. The island is a port of call again, and a Corfu shore excursion starts from a city of 23,541 residents.

A cruise call lasts until the ship sails, so a Corfu shore excursion fixes its route before landing. A tour leader explains each stop, and a vehicle links the stops. Two national roads leave the capital, the EO24 towards Palaiokastritsa in the west and the EO25 towards the Achilleion in the south. Each outing follows one of those two directions.

The commentary of a Corfu shore excursion draws on a long record. Corfu is the origin of the Ionian Academy, the first university of the modern Greek state, and of the first theatre and opera house of modern Greece. Ioannis Kapodistrias, the first governor of independent Greece, was born there. The European Union held a summit on the island in 1994.

• Name: Corfu derives from the Greek Koryphō, city of the peaks.
• Castles: Two castles enclose the capital, the only such city in Greece.
• Capital: The city is the capital of the Ionian Islands region.

A Corfu shore excursion draws on three areas of the island: the fortified capital, the south around Gastouri and the west coast reached by the EO24. The airport stands around three kilometres south of the city, and the hills of Kanoni and the islet of Pontikonisi lie near its landing runway.

Where does a Corfu shore excursion start?

A Corfu shore excursion starts at the cruise terminal in the New Port of Corfu, called Neo Limani in Greek. The road from the harbour to the city passes the fish market below the walls of the New Fortress.

Ships reach the New Port through the narrow channel beside Vido island, north of the city. Vido, or Ptychia, lies with Lazareto at the midpoint between Gouvia and Corfu Bay, which extends across much of the eastern shore. The gardens of the Palace of St. Michael and St. George overlook the same channel, and high-speed ferries from Igoumenitsa cross that view.

On the hill of St. Mark, the New Fortress dominates the north-eastern part of the city. A naval garrison kept it closed until recently, and tours now run through its maze of medieval corridors and fortifications. The lower level holds a three-storey building named Punta Perpetua, and the British barracks below the bastion now house art exhibits and social events.

The Old Town sits on the wide part of a peninsula, and the Venetian citadel forms its tip. Its cobbled lanes, called kantounia, are too narrow for vehicles in places, so a Corfu shore excursion crosses the old centre on foot. The older kantounia follow the gentle irregularities of the ground, and a promenade rises by the seashore towards Garitsa Bay.

• Moat: The fortress moat links the vegetable market and the new harbour.
• Demolition: The British destroyed the fortress sea defences in 1864.
• Air raid: Italian aircraft bombarded both fortresses in 1923.

A Corfu shore excursion therefore begins on the north-eastern side of the city and moves towards the Old Fortress at the tip of the peninsula. The two castles that enclose the capital explain why the city has been known since the Middle Ages as Kastropolis, which means the Castle City.

What does a Corfu shore excursion show in the Old Town?

A Corfu shore excursion shows the UNESCO-listed Old Town of Corfu, with the Spianada, the Liston arcade and the Old Fortress on its island. The old town joined the World Heritage List in 2007, on an ICOMOS recommendation.

A Corfu shore excursion passes the multi-storied buildings on narrow lanes that reflect the era from 1386 to 1797, when the Republic of Venice held Corfu. Four sieges tested the defences, in 1537, 1571, 1573 and 1716. Will Durant claimed that Corfu owed to Venice the fact that it was the only part of Greece never conquered by the Ottomans.

By area, the Spianada ranks first in Greece and 27th in the world. A street divides it into two halves, the Ano Plateia, the Upper Square, and the Kato Plateia, the Lower Square. The Liston runs along the west side as an arched colonnade at ground level, lined with cafes and restaurants. The Venetian word liston means an evening promenade.

A permanent bridge over the Contrafossa leads to the Old Fortress. The Venetians cut that sea channel between the Gulf of Kerkyra and Garitsa Bay, and it turned the citadel into an artificial island. The public library of Corfu occupies the old British barracks inside the fortress, and the citadel appeared on a Greek banknote issued from 1983 to 2001.

• Music pavilion: The Spianada hosts summer weekend promenade concerts.
• Parades: The Liston thoroughfare hosts parades and mass gatherings.
• Maitland monument: A Roman-style rotunda honours Sir Thomas Maitland.

A short Corfu shore excursion keeps to the open ground in front of the citadel: the Spianada, the Liston and the Old Fortress. A full Corfu Old Town walking tour continues to the Palace of St. Michael and St. George, built of white Maltese stone, and into the narrow lanes.

Why does a Corfu shore excursion visit the Achilleion?

A Corfu shore excursion visits the Achilleion because the palace at Gastouri holds two imperial stories. Empress Elisabeth of Austria commissioned it as a refuge after her only son’s death, and Kaiser Wilhelm II bought it in 1907.

The land belonged to the Corfiote philosopher and diplomat Petros Vrailas-Armenis, and the house on it was called Villa Vraila. Elisabeth visited in 1888 and chose the estate for her palace. Raffaele Caritto, an Italian architect, designed the building. The national road EO25 runs south from Corfu city towards the village, so a Corfu shore excursion reaches the palace by road.

The gardens hold statues that give the palace its theme. The German sculptor Ernst Herter made the Dying Achilles, dated 1884, which forms the centrepiece. Elisabeth had also installed a statue of the poet Heinrich Heine, but the Kaiser removed it. His own bronze Achilles, by Johannes Götz, bore an inscription praising the Greatest Greek, removed after the Second World War.

Kaiser Wilhelm II used the palace as a summer residence until 1914. In the First World War, French and Serbian troops ran a military hospital there. The Greek state took the property in 1919, and Armenian orphans from Constantinople lived there from about 1921 to 1924. In 1962 a company opened a casino, and a Corfu shore excursion now enters a museum.

• Bridge: The Kaiser built a bridge that locals named after him.
• War: Axis forces used it as headquarters.
• Summit: The Achilleion hosted a European summit in 1994.

A port-day stop at the Achilleion gives a Corfu shore excursion one palace and its gardens, while a full island Corfu tour adds the old town, the west coast and the north. The hilltop gardens look out over the green hills and valleys, with the Ionian Sea in the background.

What does a Corfu shore excursion show at Paleokastritsa?

A Corfu shore excursion shows the cliffs and beaches of Paleokastritsa on the west coast, a monastery that dates from 1225 and houses a museum, and a bay that legend names as the place where Odysseus came ashore.

Palaiokastritsa is a village in northwestern Corfu, and the island’s beach areas include it. Its name, Old Little Castle, refers to the nearby fortress of Angelokastro, which stands on a cliff 305 m above the sea. The national road EO24 runs west from Corfu city towards it, so a Corfu shore excursion crosses the island by road from the port.

In 1403 a Genoese fleet landed an army at the village. The force was bound for the Holy Land under the French marshal Jean Le Maingre, known as Boucicault. The Genoese burned and pillaged the surrounding area, then besieged Angelokastro for a year. After furious battles, the Corfiot garrison repulsed them. The castle protected local people from Genoese pirates in the west.

In the Odyssey, a storm sent by Poseidon washes Odysseus ashore on Scheria. The princess Nausicaa goes to the seashore with her maids to wash clothes, and their games wake the hero. She gives him clothes, food and drink and sends him to King Alcinous. Tradition places the landing in the bay, so a Corfu shore excursion links the village with the Odyssey.

• Stone ship: A west-coast rock is said to be a petrified ship.
• Nausicaa: Her name means burner of ships.
• Phaeacian ships: They had no pilots and steered by thought.

Thucydides identified Scheria with Corcyra, the ancient name of Corfu. The identification is not settled, because Odysseus ruled the majority of the Ionian Islands, and Strabo and Plutarch suggested an Atlantic location. A Corfu shore excursion at Paleokastritsa therefore shows a setting tied to a legend that remains open to doubt.

What does a Corfu shore excursion show at Kanoni?

A Corfu shore excursion shows the hills of Kanoni south of Corfu city, the Vlacherna Monastery nearby and the islet of Pontikonisi, or Mouse Island, whose Byzantine chapel of Christ Pantokrator belongs to the 11th or 12th century.

In 551, during the Gothic War, the Ostrogoths destroyed the city of Corfu, then called Chersoupolis, meaning city on the promontory. The name came from its position between Garitsa Bay and Kanoni. Over the next centuries the main settlement moved north to the present Old Fortress. A Corfu shore excursion at Kanoni therefore stands at one edge of that earlier city.

Ioannis Kapodistrias International Airport lies half a kilometre north of Pontikonisi. The runway used for landings in a northeasterly direction sits hundreds of metres from the hills of Kanoni and the Vlacherna Monastery. Arriving passengers therefore see the islet, the monastery and the hills together in one view. A Corfu shore excursion sees the same three landmarks from the ground.

Arnold Böcklin produced different versions of Island of the Dead between 1880 and 1886. The painting shows a rocky islet with a dense grove of cypress trees. Pontikonisi, a small, lush island with a chapel amid a cypress grove, is named as a possible model for it. A Corfu shore excursion at Kanoni therefore shows an islet linked to a well-known painting.

• Name: The white stone staircase resembles a mouse tail.
• Airport: Founded in 1937, it became international in April 1965.
• Runway: Extended in 1959 to 2,373 m.

Gerald Durrell, the naturalist whose family lived on Corfu from 1935 for four years, swam to Pontikonisi as a child, and part of his ashes were scattered on the islet. The islet therefore joins a Byzantine chapel, a famous painting and a modern literary name in one place beside the airport.

Can a Corfu shore excursion go out by boat?

A Corfu shore excursion can go out by boat, because the harbour of Corfu opens onto the islet of Vido, the east coast and the open sea towards Paxos. Paxos and its Blue Caves lie further south of Corfu.

Vido guards the entrance of the harbour, about 1 km north of the old fort, and measures less than a kilometre across. The ancients called it Ptychia, and Athenian generals held prisoners there during the Peloponnesian War. Fort Schulenburg rose on the island between 1716 and 1727, and the fortresses there were blown up in 1864. Peacocks and rabbits live there.

The east coast has its own islets. Corfu Bay fills a long stretch of the eastern shore, and two islets, Lazareto and Ptychia, lie at the midpoint between Gouvia and the bay. Ptychia is another name for Vido. Lazaretto lies 1.1 km off the coast north-east of Corfu city, and a monastery was built there in the early 16th century.

A short Corfu boat trip beside the capital fits a port call, while the cruise to Paxos is a longer outing that leaves the island. Paxos sits about 15 km off the south end of Corfu. Steep white, chalky cliffs, greatly eroded at sea level, line its west coast and harbour the Blue Caves. Antipaxos lies about 3 km south of Paxos.

• Vido: Serbs erected a monument of gratitude there in the 1930s.
• Lazaretto: The islet was formerly named St. Dimitrios.
• Paxos: Ferry lines link Gaios with Corfu.

Vido and Lazareto sit close to the capital, Corfu Bay frames the eastern shore, and Paxos and Antipaxos are part of the Corfu regional unit although open sea separates them from the island. A Corfu shore excursion by boat therefore ranges from the harbour mouth to the next island south.

When is the best season for a Corfu shore excursion?

A Corfu shore excursion fits the dry months best. The island has hot, dry summers and mild to cool winters that bring far more rain than winters on the other Greek islands, while spring and autumn fall between the two.

Corfu city belongs to the Csa climate class. Its summer is humid, and daytime highs reach 33 °C on hot, dry days. Winter days are mild and wet, near 10 °C. On 24 July 2007 the island reached its record high of 42.8 °C, and on 17 January 2012 it fell to its record low of −6.0 °C.

Olive groves and cypress trees give the island its typical Corfiot look. Left alone, the land turns to high maquis first, then to oak woods that drop their leaves, and to pine woods in smaller areas. Botanists have recorded over 1800 plant species. The mild climate also lets growers raise kumquat and bergamot orange, fruits that go into spoon sweets and liqueurs.

The three Philharmonic Societies send their bands out on Good Friday to play beside the Epitaph processions of the city churches, and on Holy Saturday morning the bands join the procession that carries the relics of Saint Spyridon. A Corfu shore excursion in Holy Week meets these ceremonies, and the Carnival parade spills into the narrow streets, called kantounia, of the old city.

• Summer: The bands give weekend promenade concerts at the Spianada.
• Winter: The season brings heavy rain.
• Carnival: The parade, Ta Karnavalia, has Venetian roots.

Corfu is an important port of call once more. Until the early 20th century, European royals and elites were the main visitors, among them Emperor Wilhelm II and Empress Elisabeth of Austria. Today middle-class families also visit, mainly from the UK, Scandinavia and Germany, so a Corfu shore excursion joins a long record of visitors.

What do travelers ask about a Corfu shore excursion?

A Corfu shore excursion starts in Corfu city, the capital, home to 23,541 residents out of 99,134 on the whole island of Corfu. UNESCO inscribed the old town of the city on the World Heritage List in 2007.

How does a Corfu shore excursion return on time?

A Corfu shore excursion by road begins and ends in the capital, because two national roads radiate from the city, one westbound and one southbound. City buses also run through the city to the airport, the Achilleion, Gouvia, Afra and Pelekas.

How does a Corfu shore excursion reach the Old Town?

The New Port, Neo Limani, links to the city by a road that runs through the fish market below the New Fortress. The Spianada is an esplanade between the city and the citadel, and the Liston arcade borders it on the west.

How do private and group Corfu shore excursions differ?

A private excursion is built around one party and its own route, while a group excursion shares a set route with other travelers. Either format can include Saint Spyridon Church, the resting place of the preserved body of the island’s patron saint.

Is a Corfu shore excursion suitable for limited mobility?

The old town has narrow cobblestone lanes laid over uneven ground, and part of them are too narrow for vehicles. Large green spaces fill the Spianada square. Angelokastro stands on precipitous, rocky terrain 305 m above the sea on the north-west coast.

Can a Corfu shore excursion combine two sights?

Sights that share a road combine. The EO25 leads south from the city to the Achilleion, and the airport stands south of the city, next to the Vlaheraina Monastery and the hills of Kanoni. The EO24 leads west towards Palaiokastritsa and Angelokastro.

Featured photo: Liilia Moroz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.