Corfu Old Town

Corfu never fell to the Ottomans, and it shows: four centuries of Venice built its old town into something unique in Greece - tall shuttered houses in faded apricot and cream, laundry strung across marble lanes called kantounia, two massive sea fortresses, and an esplanade where locals genuinely play cricket, a legacy of the British decades that also left ginger beer and a philharmonic tradition. UNESCO listed the ensemble, and beyond the town unrolls the green island that enchanted the Durrell family: olive groves numbering in the millions of trees, cypress hills, and the north-coast bays and channels of a landscape more Italian garden than Aegean rock.

What you actually see

• The kantounia lanes - the Venetian alleys between the Liston arcade and the old port.
• The two fortresses - sea-walls, views and the town framed between them.
• The Liston and esplanade - coffee in the arcades while cricket plays on the green.
• The island beyond - Paleokastritsa's coves, the north-east channel and Achilleion palace.

When to go

May, June and September are the island at its best - warm sea, green hills, bearable lanes. July and August bring full Mediterranean holiday crowds and cruise-ship middays in town. Easter on Corfu is famous across Greece, pot-throwing tradition included, and books out far ahead.

Honest expectations

Corfu town's elegance coexists with serious summer tourism - cruise days flood the lanes by late morning, and the main streets run to souvenirs; the quiet Venetian town survives one lane either side of them. The island's beaches are lovely but often pebbly and busy in peak season; the north-east coves reward those who explore. It is a different Greece - visitors expecting Cycladic white cubes should recalibrate for Venetian ochre.

Nearby

Paleokastritsa, the Achilleion and the north-east coast bays; Albania's coast is visible across the channel.