We booked a hotel from Benitses which was about 30 minutes from Corfu town. It was a tiny village, many restaurants compared to its size and a convenient beach. One thing worth mentioning is all the souvenir shops that actually sold some nice stuff, hamam towels and cute handmade bowls without any touristic text on them. So of course I needed to buy bowls for our bath room and they were a lot easier to carry than the carpet I had bought earlier in Montenegro 😊.
We have done many roadtrips over the years for example in Hawaii, California and Nevada, many countries in Europe, New Zealand and Australia and Greece was by far the cheapest place to rent a car. We couldn’t believe it was only 20 euros/day and it covered all the necessities, insurances and a child seat. Navigators they didn’t however have but there aren’t that many roads anyway on the whole island so it was nice to have a proper map to look at. We thought to rent a car just for a day but ended up having it for the whole time as we calculated that the bus from Benitses to Corfu town would cost about the same from three of us and it was so much easier just to drive there.
Corfu town was so lovely! I couldn’t focus on much more than to take photos of all the cute details, flowers, food, turquoise Mediterranean, charming elder people, colourful alleyways and laundry hanging from the windows. I totally fell in love with the old town the minute I saw it. And you know why it’s not a wonder though? It was built under the Venetian rule and I guess that was the familiarity with it. We have been to Italy every year for about eight years and this was the first summer for a long time not heading there. I was kind of missing all the things that I love about Italy and I couldn’t find the same vibes on the Balkans so I was very satisfied to finally get to see this stunning town and feel the Sicily spirit in it.
Then about fooooood! Oh my goodness how good the food was! We didn’t eat anything but the traditional Greek dishes and we really loved them all. All the stifados, gyros, souvlakis, moussakas, keftethes and dolmadakias. They were just too delicious. Even our daughter who is sort of selective loved all the food she had. I guess it was also the attention she got in the restaurants that she enjoyed. There were two places that really got our hearts. One was in old town of Corfu called Bellissimo. Food was really tasty and it had a nice little quad and traditional decoration. Another one was totally different, Angela’s Tavern in the middle of nowhere, which we found as we were driving around the island. It was a family-run place in Pentati. They didn’t have any menus, the owner just took you to the kitchen to look at the oven and decide from there what to have. We decided to try them all and let me tell you, it was as yummy as it gets! After the lunch they gave us oranges to take with.
Besides the beautiful beaches and gorges there are many quite interesting places to visit as well. One of them is Achilleion Palace, which was built by Empress of Austria, Elisabeth who’s also known as Sisi. I love the story of Sisi and the fact that she used to love Corfu made me like the island even more. Another place worth to visit was Kaisers Throne in Pelekas just for the lookout point from which you can see almost the whole island. No wonder the German Emperor Keiser Vilhelm II used to come there to watch the sunset.
Corfu is the place where you can have a city getaway and a beach vacation on a same trip. Corfu town is just so astonishing! I’m sure you would enjoy it no matter who you’re travelling with, there are everything you need whether you’re going with the family, friends or as a couple. And if you’re not already coming from Albania, go there as well at least for a day. I’ll tell you later why.
