Corfu accommodation and restaurant report
Sep 3rd, 2011, 01:22 AM
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Corfu accommodation and restaurant report
We are just back from a lovely 16 days in Corfu. This isn’t a full trip report, but just information on the places we stayed and some of the restaurant highlights we encountered. We weren’t able to find much information on Corfu accommodation or restaurants before we left, so hopefully this will be of help to someone.
A bit about us: We are a couple in our mid-late 30s, with a 4 year old daughter.
We have some very specific requirements when it comes to accommodation. We are both light sleepers so wanted somewhere quiet. We also wanted to be able to sleep in a separate bedroom from our daughter, without breaking the bank, so the two properties we stayed in were both 2-bedroom apartments. A swimming pool was also a must for us.
On the food side, we love eating out and love Greek food. Fish was a highlight for us this holiday – sea bream, sea bass, swordfish, yum.
In general we found that we were more car dependent than we had hoped. For eating out and travelling around we found a car essential.
Accommodation:
We stayed in 2 different places, one on the East coast of Corfu and one on the West.
Glyfa Corfu
The first place we stayed was Glyfa, roughly half way between Barbati and Nissaki: www.glyfacorfu.com.
This place probably offered the best quality of sleep we’ve ever had in Greece – the beds were very comfortable (for Greece!), the location was quiet and best of all, all the windows had outer electronic “blackout blinds” that you could raise and lower using a switch and gave us perfectly dark rooms at night. For us light sleepers this was heaven.
On the non-sleep side, we were very happy with this place. It was clean and modern, and exceeded our expectations from the internet photos. The kitchen was large and fully equipped, our property was a 2-floor maisonette with the master bedroom and ensuite upstairs and we had 2 balconies (one up, one down) both with lovely views out over the sea towards Corfu town. It was cleaned and towels / sheets changed very regularly and had wifi.
The beach was right beside the apartment complex, just down a set of steps. It was a stony beach (but then so were all the other beaches on this side of the island) but the water was crystal clear.
You would definitely need to have a hire car to stay in this area.
Corfu Green Hill
The second place we stayed was Corfu Green Hill www.corfugreenhill.com, a small complex on the hill just below Pelekas and just up from Pelekas Beach.
This property was great, but we didn’t sleep very well there.
The views here are fantastic. We had an enormous balcony looking out over the bay and the sandy beach below. Sitting here at night-time with the candles lit, looking out over the twinkling lights below and the illuminated swimming pool – magic.
The swimming pool was wonderful. Truly relaxing place with a small beach bar, hammocks in the shade, comfy sun loungers and an infinity pool.
The décor in the rooms themselves was quite traditional but nice. On balance, in reality the website probably shows this place off to its best and while the property is nice it is not quite as high end as the website might suggest. Rooms were cleaned every 3 days or so but bins were emptied more regularly.
We felt you definitely need a car here as it is on a very steep windy road between Pelekas town and the beach. It is possible to walk from here to Pelekas town and back to eat in the evenings, but not without a torch, and not without taking your life in your hands!
The only issue here for us was the sleep quality. The place was very quiet, but the beds were really hard, the pillows very uncomfortable and the airconditioning would periodically start whining loudly and wake us up –in the middle of the night. If you’re a heavy sleeper these things won’t bother you and this property would be great.
Folies Corfu
On our way into Corfu town one day we spotted a place we had been considering spending a few days in, Folies Corfu (this is a sister property of the first place we stayed, Glyfa Corfu) www.foliescorfu.com.
We stopped off to have a look at this out of interest and while we didn’t see inside any rooms, we were impressed with the layout of the hotel and in particular the pool area – the complex is a series of low rise 2-storey buildings set in gardens around a really lovely swimming pool with bar area. It’s down a very quiet street as you leave Corfu town heading for Pelekas.
We’d certainly look at this next time if we wanted to stay closer to Corfu town. While I saw on tripadvisor that some people have stayed here without cars, for me a car would be a must here as it is slightly outside the city.
FOOD
We ate out for dinner every night and lunch most days, so I’m not going to review everywhere we ate. Below are the highlights of our trip, places we would recommend without hesitation.
The only thing I’ll say about the other places we ate is that we learned that if you see a restaurant by the beach that offers you free parking all day, there’s a reason for that. We were tempted into restaurants a number of times to save the €4 parking charge in the general car parks, and never really had a good experience in those places.
The highlights of our trip from a food perspective were:
Agni: Taverna Agni.
I have to start with Agni. Imagine a secluded cove where the water is the clearest you have ever seen, the waves lap gently against the stones just a few feet away from you as you sit at one of the wonderful restaurants eating the freshest fish. There is a jetty out into the water and many diners arrive by small boats that pick them up from towns up and down the northeast coast. This place is relaxation incarnate.
There are three or four restaurants here, all rumoured to be very good. We wanted to eat at Toula’s as we had heard very good things about it, but we hadn’t reserved and it was booked out. We ate instead at Taverna Agni, where we had the best meal of our trip (probably due to a combination of setting and food) – we had an enormous red snapper, cooked on the charcoal and served with a simple lemon and olive oil sauce and a side plate with steamed vegetables. It would have fed 3 adults at least, so was a real extravagance. Even with that, the entire meal to include the enormous red snapper, our daughter’s main course, a selection of starters, 2 desserts and 500ml wine was around €100. This was the most expensive meal of our trip, but probably the best fish I’ve ever eaten in my life.
Agni is unusual in that you probably need to reserve a table if you want to be sure of eating at one of the restaurants here. There are shuttle boats to pick up diners from other resorts (the fare is small, just a couple of euros), and I got the impression that most people would reserve a table and book the boat to collect them from another resort. If you turn up here on spec as we did you may be disappointed. There is plenty of parking for those arriving by car.
Roumeli Tavern in Nissaki:
This one was a highlight for us because of the live music and dancers (on a Friday night). We saw the live music / dancers advertised and thought our daughter might like it (she did, very much). The surprise for us was that the food was really quite good – standard Greek taverna fare but very well executed. We had expected that the free music / dancing was a gimmick to get people into the restaurant and that the food would be poor. Not so.
Pelekas:
We ate at a few restaurants in Pelekas, the ones we liked very much were Agnes (for the most wonderful grilled prawns) and Jimmy’s (where we had by far the best dips of the holiday – wonderful aubergine dip and taramasalata, and a mixed grill that was superb value and quality).
Benitses:
Here we ate at an ouzeri – I’ve forgotten the exact name but it’s something like Toni and Alexos, or Tony and Alekos and is located on the main strip of restaurants along the seafront, a few doors along from the Dodoni icecream counter.
Wonderful fish on the charcoal here – one of us had a sea bass and the other sea bream, both great but the sea bass was just to die for.
Corfu town:
We loved Corfu town and ate here on a number of evenings. There are tons of restaurants here, just follow your instincts. Two that bear special mention for us are:
Piperitsa – this is in a small square just off N Theotoki (on your right as you head away from Liston). The atmosphere in the square is lovely with portrait painters etc, and the evening we ate here there was a christening in the church on the square and a wedding in the church behind the square, so it was a wonderful place to sit and people watch.
We liked this place a lot as a departure from the traditional Greek food that we ate most nights. It had modern, stylish Mediterranean food with a nice take on the traditional Greek and Italian dishes. And they welcome you with a small glass of prosecco.
Restaurant del Sole was a lovely Italian restaurant on Gylford (past the Catholic cathedral, going away from the old town) where we had great steak with balsamic vinegar, risottos and pasta.
That’s all folks. Happy to answer any questions!
Jane
A bit about us: We are a couple in our mid-late 30s, with a 4 year old daughter.
We have some very specific requirements when it comes to accommodation. We are both light sleepers so wanted somewhere quiet. We also wanted to be able to sleep in a separate bedroom from our daughter, without breaking the bank, so the two properties we stayed in were both 2-bedroom apartments. A swimming pool was also a must for us.
On the food side, we love eating out and love Greek food. Fish was a highlight for us this holiday – sea bream, sea bass, swordfish, yum.
In general we found that we were more car dependent than we had hoped. For eating out and travelling around we found a car essential.
Accommodation:
We stayed in 2 different places, one on the East coast of Corfu and one on the West.
Glyfa Corfu
The first place we stayed was Glyfa, roughly half way between Barbati and Nissaki: www.glyfacorfu.com.
This place probably offered the best quality of sleep we’ve ever had in Greece – the beds were very comfortable (for Greece!), the location was quiet and best of all, all the windows had outer electronic “blackout blinds” that you could raise and lower using a switch and gave us perfectly dark rooms at night. For us light sleepers this was heaven.
On the non-sleep side, we were very happy with this place. It was clean and modern, and exceeded our expectations from the internet photos. The kitchen was large and fully equipped, our property was a 2-floor maisonette with the master bedroom and ensuite upstairs and we had 2 balconies (one up, one down) both with lovely views out over the sea towards Corfu town. It was cleaned and towels / sheets changed very regularly and had wifi.
The beach was right beside the apartment complex, just down a set of steps. It was a stony beach (but then so were all the other beaches on this side of the island) but the water was crystal clear.
You would definitely need to have a hire car to stay in this area.
Corfu Green Hill
The second place we stayed was Corfu Green Hill www.corfugreenhill.com, a small complex on the hill just below Pelekas and just up from Pelekas Beach.
This property was great, but we didn’t sleep very well there.
The views here are fantastic. We had an enormous balcony looking out over the bay and the sandy beach below. Sitting here at night-time with the candles lit, looking out over the twinkling lights below and the illuminated swimming pool – magic.
The swimming pool was wonderful. Truly relaxing place with a small beach bar, hammocks in the shade, comfy sun loungers and an infinity pool.
The décor in the rooms themselves was quite traditional but nice. On balance, in reality the website probably shows this place off to its best and while the property is nice it is not quite as high end as the website might suggest. Rooms were cleaned every 3 days or so but bins were emptied more regularly.
We felt you definitely need a car here as it is on a very steep windy road between Pelekas town and the beach. It is possible to walk from here to Pelekas town and back to eat in the evenings, but not without a torch, and not without taking your life in your hands!
The only issue here for us was the sleep quality. The place was very quiet, but the beds were really hard, the pillows very uncomfortable and the airconditioning would periodically start whining loudly and wake us up –in the middle of the night. If you’re a heavy sleeper these things won’t bother you and this property would be great.
Folies Corfu
On our way into Corfu town one day we spotted a place we had been considering spending a few days in, Folies Corfu (this is a sister property of the first place we stayed, Glyfa Corfu) www.foliescorfu.com.
We stopped off to have a look at this out of interest and while we didn’t see inside any rooms, we were impressed with the layout of the hotel and in particular the pool area – the complex is a series of low rise 2-storey buildings set in gardens around a really lovely swimming pool with bar area. It’s down a very quiet street as you leave Corfu town heading for Pelekas.
We’d certainly look at this next time if we wanted to stay closer to Corfu town. While I saw on tripadvisor that some people have stayed here without cars, for me a car would be a must here as it is slightly outside the city.
FOOD
We ate out for dinner every night and lunch most days, so I’m not going to review everywhere we ate. Below are the highlights of our trip, places we would recommend without hesitation.
The only thing I’ll say about the other places we ate is that we learned that if you see a restaurant by the beach that offers you free parking all day, there’s a reason for that. We were tempted into restaurants a number of times to save the €4 parking charge in the general car parks, and never really had a good experience in those places.
The highlights of our trip from a food perspective were:
Agni: Taverna Agni.
I have to start with Agni. Imagine a secluded cove where the water is the clearest you have ever seen, the waves lap gently against the stones just a few feet away from you as you sit at one of the wonderful restaurants eating the freshest fish. There is a jetty out into the water and many diners arrive by small boats that pick them up from towns up and down the northeast coast. This place is relaxation incarnate.
There are three or four restaurants here, all rumoured to be very good. We wanted to eat at Toula’s as we had heard very good things about it, but we hadn’t reserved and it was booked out. We ate instead at Taverna Agni, where we had the best meal of our trip (probably due to a combination of setting and food) – we had an enormous red snapper, cooked on the charcoal and served with a simple lemon and olive oil sauce and a side plate with steamed vegetables. It would have fed 3 adults at least, so was a real extravagance. Even with that, the entire meal to include the enormous red snapper, our daughter’s main course, a selection of starters, 2 desserts and 500ml wine was around €100. This was the most expensive meal of our trip, but probably the best fish I’ve ever eaten in my life.
Agni is unusual in that you probably need to reserve a table if you want to be sure of eating at one of the restaurants here. There are shuttle boats to pick up diners from other resorts (the fare is small, just a couple of euros), and I got the impression that most people would reserve a table and book the boat to collect them from another resort. If you turn up here on spec as we did you may be disappointed. There is plenty of parking for those arriving by car.
Roumeli Tavern in Nissaki:
This one was a highlight for us because of the live music and dancers (on a Friday night). We saw the live music / dancers advertised and thought our daughter might like it (she did, very much). The surprise for us was that the food was really quite good – standard Greek taverna fare but very well executed. We had expected that the free music / dancing was a gimmick to get people into the restaurant and that the food would be poor. Not so.
Pelekas:
We ate at a few restaurants in Pelekas, the ones we liked very much were Agnes (for the most wonderful grilled prawns) and Jimmy’s (where we had by far the best dips of the holiday – wonderful aubergine dip and taramasalata, and a mixed grill that was superb value and quality).
Benitses:
Here we ate at an ouzeri – I’ve forgotten the exact name but it’s something like Toni and Alexos, or Tony and Alekos and is located on the main strip of restaurants along the seafront, a few doors along from the Dodoni icecream counter.
Wonderful fish on the charcoal here – one of us had a sea bass and the other sea bream, both great but the sea bass was just to die for.
Corfu town:
We loved Corfu town and ate here on a number of evenings. There are tons of restaurants here, just follow your instincts. Two that bear special mention for us are:
Piperitsa – this is in a small square just off N Theotoki (on your right as you head away from Liston). The atmosphere in the square is lovely with portrait painters etc, and the evening we ate here there was a christening in the church on the square and a wedding in the church behind the square, so it was a wonderful place to sit and people watch.
We liked this place a lot as a departure from the traditional Greek food that we ate most nights. It had modern, stylish Mediterranean food with a nice take on the traditional Greek and Italian dishes. And they welcome you with a small glass of prosecco.
Restaurant del Sole was a lovely Italian restaurant on Gylford (past the Catholic cathedral, going away from the old town) where we had great steak with balsamic vinegar, risottos and pasta.
That’s all folks. Happy to answer any questions!
Jane
Sep 3rd, 2011, 05:30 AM
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Littlejane, thanks for this informative post. Returning to Greece next year after a 40 yr. absence - what's with hard beds? Is that common everywhere in Greece (incl. the high end properties?) That's a problem for aging hippies still sleeping on water.......
Sep 3rd, 2011, 05:57 AM
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It is not common in Greece.... i don't like hard beds either, and only had a problem once ( in Agiokampos near Larissa), took me 2 weeks to recover..
High end properties are using expensive matresses, that are not hard at all..
Many boutique hotels on the islands started using expensive cocomat matresses as well, and they are always mentioning it in their description.
I think the higher risk of having to spend the night on a hard bed is in simple hotels and private rooms.
High end properties are using expensive matresses, that are not hard at all..
Many boutique hotels on the islands started using expensive cocomat matresses as well, and they are always mentioning it in their description.
I think the higher risk of having to spend the night on a hard bed is in simple hotels and private rooms.
Sep 3rd, 2011, 08:18 AM
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Thanks very much everyone.
Yes Clausar agreed, simple hotels and private rooms are the main areas where the hard bed is a problem.
We tend not to stay very frequently in the luxury top end accomodation, so we do find hard beds to be the norm rather than the exception - we go to Greece once every two years, sometimes more frequently.
Oliver and Harry, hope Greece is a delight for you! Where are you planning to go? We went back to Santorini once after a 7 year absence and were scared it would not live up to our memories, but it was still wonderful. A 40 year absence is a tad different though!
Yes Clausar agreed, simple hotels and private rooms are the main areas where the hard bed is a problem.
We tend not to stay very frequently in the luxury top end accomodation, so we do find hard beds to be the norm rather than the exception - we go to Greece once every two years, sometimes more frequently.
Oliver and Harry, hope Greece is a delight for you! Where are you planning to go? We went back to Santorini once after a 7 year absence and were scared it would not live up to our memories, but it was still wonderful. A 40 year absence is a tad different though!
Sep 4th, 2011, 02:58 PM
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Thanks to you both, littlejane and clausar - I am relieved. Nothing ruins a holiday faster than bad beds! Littlejane, Greece has been 'on the list' for a long time, since DH has never been and I spent the beginning of my first European trip there after my uni graduation many years ago. We saw Athens, Delphi and Hydra and I loved it but Greece has been pushed back often in favor of other places, even before we developed am addiction to Australia and made three trips in the last seven years. So, next year: hopefully starting in Corfu, and then on to Naxos and Sifnos, and I hope someone will help me become less conflicted about Santorini. It goes on and off the list nearly weekly depending on the posts! We do not like crowded places, and if it someplace 'everyone' goes,(particularly a lot of Americans) chances are we won't. That said, I don't want to cut off my nose, etc., and give it a miss when it could be a spectacular experience. Still deciding.....
Sep 4th, 2011, 09:09 PM
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oliverandharry
Should you start with Corfu, i would highly recommend a visit to Sivota 25 km away from Igoumenitsa.
Igoumenitsa is just opposite of Corfu on the mainlandall you need is take the ferry.
Sivota is a small village with many small green islands,wonderful beaches in a lesser known part of Greece, Epirus. You will find many beaches to swim every day, all of them with smaragde green waters, and very good greek food.
We've been there once, and we loved it so much, that we went 2 more times. The surroundings are also amazing as you can visit Ioannina ( beautiful city on a lake), Acheron river or Parga ( a nice small town 30 km away)
There is lots of history everywhere, and an amazing nature!!
Should you start with Corfu, i would highly recommend a visit to Sivota 25 km away from Igoumenitsa.
Igoumenitsa is just opposite of Corfu on the mainlandall you need is take the ferry.
Sivota is a small village with many small green islands,wonderful beaches in a lesser known part of Greece, Epirus. You will find many beaches to swim every day, all of them with smaragde green waters, and very good greek food.
We've been there once, and we loved it so much, that we went 2 more times. The surroundings are also amazing as you can visit Ioannina ( beautiful city on a lake), Acheron river or Parga ( a nice small town 30 km away)
There is lots of history everywhere, and an amazing nature!!
Sep 5th, 2011, 02:04 AM
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Hi Oliverandharry
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Santorini. The crowds there have never bothered me, because I've been happy just to look out at that wonderful view and ignore everything else around me! I can see how some people would be put off by that though.
If you could visit it with a strategy to help you avoid the crowds that could work. Oia and Fira get crowded when the cruise ships dock, especially during the day. So I would stay in the quieter town of Oia, spending the day elsewhere to avoid the day trippers (there are so many things you could do that would not be full of crowds - touring the island, taking a trip on a boat in the caldera, relaxing by the pool etc) and coming into Oia town in the evening to watch the sunset and go for dinner. You could also go to Fira town a couple of evenings.
If you don't like crowded places, I would say don't get your hopes up about visiting Paleokastritsa in Corfu. It is famous as the island's main beauty spot. It is lovely, but I felt it was very crowded and overrun by tour buses which I thought spoiled it somewhat. I preferred the more secluded coves that we visited.
Naxos is a great island too - the three you have picked are all very different so would be a good combination, although adding Corfu does make things more difficult logistically.
Clausar, Sivota sounds marvellous - I'll put it on the list!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Santorini. The crowds there have never bothered me, because I've been happy just to look out at that wonderful view and ignore everything else around me! I can see how some people would be put off by that though.
If you could visit it with a strategy to help you avoid the crowds that could work. Oia and Fira get crowded when the cruise ships dock, especially during the day. So I would stay in the quieter town of Oia, spending the day elsewhere to avoid the day trippers (there are so many things you could do that would not be full of crowds - touring the island, taking a trip on a boat in the caldera, relaxing by the pool etc) and coming into Oia town in the evening to watch the sunset and go for dinner. You could also go to Fira town a couple of evenings.
If you don't like crowded places, I would say don't get your hopes up about visiting Paleokastritsa in Corfu. It is famous as the island's main beauty spot. It is lovely, but I felt it was very crowded and overrun by tour buses which I thought spoiled it somewhat. I preferred the more secluded coves that we visited.
Naxos is a great island too - the three you have picked are all very different so would be a good combination, although adding Corfu does make things more difficult logistically.
Clausar, Sivota sounds marvellous - I'll put it on the list!
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