Corfu
Greece
Venetian arcades and cricket in the square, on the greenest island in Greece
Photo by Chris Karidis on Unsplash
Photos by CALIN STAN, Serj Sakharovskiy, CALIN STAN and CALIN STAN on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Greece
May to June, and September to early October (it is genuinely wet from November to March)
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 190mm in Nov
Where it is
39.62°N, 19.92°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Several days- Sit on the Liston with a coffee and watch cricket on the square
- Drive to Paleokastritsa and take a boat into the caves
- Climb to Angelokastro for the whole west coast at once
- Find a bay on the west side with no road sign to it
- Eat sofrito somewhere with no menu in English
Corfu travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Greece
Mid-rangeEuro country. The resorts take cards; the village kafeneia and the beach tavernas on the west coast frequently do not.
ATMs & cards
Piraeus, Alpha and Eurobank machines in Corfu town and the larger resorts. Greek bank machines charge foreign cards about three euros; the independent ones in Kerkyra old town charge several times that. Refuse the conversion offer.
Avoid these
- Euronet
- the machines in Kerkyra old town
Use these instead
- Piraeus Bank
- Alpha Bank
- Eurobank
Take the euro price, never the converted one. The village kafeneia and west-coast tavernas often do not take cards at all.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Greece
Very safeSafe and easy, with Corfu town pleasant at any hour. Two real cautions: the west coast roads are narrow, unfenced and steep, and quad hire is heavily marketed to people who have never driven one. Some resorts in the north-east have a reputation for heavy drinking rather than for danger.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (6 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- the west coast roads at night — narrow, steep and unfenced, and quad hire is heavily marketed here
- some of the north-east resort strips in season — for heavy drinking rather than danger
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Greece visa rules
No visa needed
Freedom of movement — no time limit, and no visa. Bring a passport or national ID card.
Other passports
No visa neededup to 90 days
90 days within any 180-day period, counted across the whole Schengen area, not per country. ETIAS, a paid online authorisation, is being introduced for these passports — check the official link for whether it applies to your travel dates.
Visa required in advance€90 (Schengen short-stay visa)
A Schengen short-stay visa is applied for before travel, at the consulate of your main destination.
How to get it: Apply at the consulate or visa centre of the country you will spend most time in, typically 15 working days ahead and no more than six months before travel.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Greece
Good and affordableRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Routine vaccinations up to date
Getting treated
EU/EEA and Swiss visitors are treated on the same terms as residents with an EHIC or GHIC card; UK visitors use a GHIC. Everyone else pays, and travel insurance is worth having for the repatriation cover rather than the treatment. Island clinics handle basics; anything serious means a transfer to Athens or Crete, which is quick but not instant.
Summer heat is the most common reason tourists need help — heatstroke and dehydration, not accidents.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodCorfiot cooking is Venetian more than Greek: sofrito is veal in garlic and vinegar, pastitsada is rooster on thick pasta, and bourdeto is fish cooked red with paprika. Kumquat liqueur is the island souvenir and better than it sounds.
Getting around
Workable- UberWorks here
- BoltWorks here
- FREE NOWWorks here
FREE NOW the Athens taxi fleet · Uber which dispatches taxis here
- Against a taxi
- The same metered taxis, ordered rather than flagged.
Time zone and your working day
Europe/Athens — 7 hours ahead of you
1 hour of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–10:00 your time, 16:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 02:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 02:00–10:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Greece
Why these are Greece's numbers and not Corfu's
Home broadband — Fair. Video calls and streaming for one or two people — fine for a holiday, thin for a household working. Broadband here runs at 70% of the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Good. Maps, calls and streaming, and enough to tether a laptop for an afternoon. Mobile runs at 1.2× the global median of 109 Mbps.
Ookla publishes no separate figure for Corfu, so these are medians for all of Greece. Cities usually beat the national number and remote islands and national parks fall well below it — treat this as the country's shape, not as a measurement of the street you will be staying on.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Greece, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Greek
- HelloΓεια σας — Yia sasyah sas
- PleaseΠαρακαλώ — Parakalópa-ra-ka-LO
- Thank youΕυχαριστώ — Efharistóef-ha-ri-STO
- Yes / NoΝαι / Όχι — Ne / Óhineh / O-hee
4 more phrases
- Excuse meΣυγγνώμη — Signómisig-NO-mee
- How much is it?Πόσο κάνει; — Póso káni?PO-so KA-nee
- The bill, pleaseΤον λογαριασμό — Ton logariasmóton lo-gar-yaz-MO
- Cheers!Γεια μας — Yia masyah mas
The trap: "ne" means yes, not no. No is "óhi".
Religion
Greek Orthodox
Orthodoxy is written into the constitution and is closely tied to national identity. Do not enter a church in shorts, and do not photograph during a service.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Accept offered food or drink — refusing outright reads as a rejection of the host
- Share plates; ordering individually is not how a Greek table works
- Learn efharistó, it goes a long way
- Put toilet paper in the bin, not the bowl — the plumbing genuinely cannot take it
Don't
- Do not show an open palm towards someone — the moutza is a serious insult
- Do not nod up for yes; a single upward head tilt means no
- Do not rush a meal or ask for the bill early; the table is yours for the evening
- Do not photograph inside monasteries without checking, and dress modestly at them
Where to stay in Corfu
No Holistay rentals in Corfu yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Corfu on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Ioannis Kapodistrias CFU
10 minfrom the airport· 2 km as the crow flies
10 min to town; the runway crosses the lagoon.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
