Traveling from Saranda on a Wednesday morning, we took the ferry to Corfu for a five-night stay. My friend had arranged the round-trip tickets online, including those for the cars. We departed around 9:30 AM, and after an hour and a half, we arrived in sunny Corfu during a heat wave, with temperatures hitting 45 degrees Celsius and beyond. We had to wait in the sun, standing in line to check our passports. We left our bags at the villa and headed to the nearest beach, about eight minutes away, called Glyfada.
It was a sandy beach and a bit crowded. However, we had a good time. We had enough umbrellas for everyone and beach chairs, so the sand wasn’t very annoying. We had lunch at Jimmy’s, a restaurant in front of the church in Pelekas Village center. It was a nice dinner, although the food was just okay, and we think we were charged more than what we ordered.
Next, we headed to Paleokastritsa. This was a large area with many beaches. The central beach was not very beautiful, so we tried another a bit further, which turned out to have a large resort and a small public beach area that was crowded. We spent a good part of the day searching, but eventually stayed at Rovinia, the third beach, which required a bit of a walk or a high-clearance vehicle to reach the end of the road. There was a parking area for 4 euros. This beach offered a very beautiful view, although there were large rocks in some places, and only the center was sandy. After the beach, we had dinner at Alatopipero in the old town area. We really enjoyed the food and tried a bit of everything. Then we waited in line for ice cream at Papagiorgis Patisserie-Gelateria, which we enjoyed very much. After that, we took a walk in the town, visited some shops. My fouvorite was Namaste however it was not a souvenir store. Finally we returned home after a stop at the supermarket.
The next day promised an adventure. We were going to Porto Timoni beach. We got up early in the morning, prepared some food to take with us, and at 8:30 AM, we set off. The drive took about an hour. At the beach where we stopped, we had to take a taxi boat, which took about three minutes. Porto Timoni is a beach with two shores of a peninsula very close to each other. I could compare it to the same thing in Porto Palermo, but here the shores were separated by a very narrow strip of trees, and you couldn’t see both shores simultaneously unless you climbed to a viewpoint, which was about a 20-minute hike. I remind you that the temperature was 45 degrees, and such an initiative was exhausting, so we just set up our umbrellas, had enough water, food, and other drinks with us, and enjoyed the beach until around 5 PM. We played cards, jumped off the rock, listened to music, and more. On the way back, we called the boat, and immediately returned to the beach where we had left the car.
This time the boat dropped us off a bit far, and many of our things got wet. For this reason, we had to stay about 30 minutes longer before getting into the car. We returned home exhausted, but the evening held a pleasant surprise. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant with a hidden garden in the middle of the city that cooked very well, Boschetto.
The following two days were quite peaceful. We decided to go to Barbati Beach, specifically to Bahia Mare. It generally operated with reservations, but we arrived early enough to find a spot. The sun bed sents started at 25 euros, and there was a public beach on the left. Few people went to the beach early. Generally, they came late and left early. The shore was medium pebbles, and the water was very warm. The service at Bahia Mare was very good and quick. Although the prices were not cheap, it was justified.
We visited the Old Town one last time to eat pita gyro at Mythos and Grill, ice cream and have a drink since the nightlife area was a bit far for us. On the last day in the morning, we left the house and returned to the port to start our return journey. These were some holidays where the people gave more meaning to the experience than the beaches themselves in Corfu.
