Of course everyone is different
and is looking for different things from a holiday. Children, your work
commitments and age (!) all affect when you are able to go on holiday.
Pure Sun?

If you are a sun worshiper, then July and August will suit you. Temperatures during the day will always be in the 90's and will regularly go over 100 (37c). Remember though, that Mid July though to the end of August will be the busiest time. Also in August it is possible to be caught in a
summer storm - heavy tropical rain lasting for an afternoon.
Avoiding the crowds?

If the heat and crowds put you off, then go for the
quieter periods; June and September. Warm summer days with cool evenings. May and October can provide spectacular holidays with quiet deserted beaches, but there is a possibility of rain. Bring the essential clothing just in case.
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Corfu getting Around
Hire a car, take a bus or use a local taxi, but renting a motor boat can be the experience of your Corfu holiday.
Corfu Beach Guide
Find out where the best beaches are.
Corfu News
Have you read this months Corfu News?
Taverna Agni
Find out who created and provides this web site?
Agni Travel
Properties with pools, traditional local houses and quiet apartments. Agni Travel can help you find your perfect holiday.
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A Winter Visit?
"Lazing on a beach in hot sunshine, dipping your toes in
the sea to cool down and eating in the local tavernas
for two whole weeks."
If this is your only idea
of a holiday when visiting a Greek Island, or in this
case Corfu, then you may not have considered a winter
visit.
Many of us have visited Corfu (or any other Greek Island
for that matter) and thought what it must be like in the
winter? When all the tourists have gone, how do the
local people live in the winter when they have their
Island back to themselves?
These two questions occur to me during every visit, and
this year I had the opportunity to find out. Graham and
I recently bought our own property in the village of
Kendroma above Agni Bay, and with our own apartment to
stay in, it made the accommodation situation easy for
me. However there are plenty of houses available for
winter rental with heating, which is definitely required
during the winter months. My visit was for six weeks,
through the whole of November and beginning of December,
maybe this was not the worst of the winter months, but
it certainly answered my questions and showed me Greek
life.
I would mention that I spent this time on my own and
without transport in an old traditional Greek village,
very close to the sea and not far from our favourite
Agni bay. Of course the three Tavernas on Agni beach
were closed and I did not see a Taverna for miles around
that was open, but I did on many occasions have Agni
beach all to myself, apart from a few cats. On really
nice sunny days, especially on Sundays, there would be a
few of the local people down on the beaches fishing off
the end of the little piers and many little boats on the
sea, all trying to catch some fresh fish. Fishing seems
to be a very popular sport at the weekends when no-one
is working and the beaches and rocky coves are all free
from tourists, but then perhaps even the fish are more
laid back and easy to catch when the tourists are not
around! It was quite warm sitting in the sunshine and
there were many sunny days, not quite sunbathing
weather, but I did on the warmer days see people
swimming in the sea.
Our village, like most of the little Greek villages, is
on a bus route, so getting into Corfu town is not
difficult, but the bus service is limited and the last
returning bus is about 2.30pm in the winter months, so
visiting Corfu town has to be in the morning but there
is time enough to shop before catching the last bus home
and anyway the shops close at 2.30pm.
Of course cooking becomes an essential part of life with
no tavernas and no transport to go further a field.
There are some tavernas open which the local people use,
mainly at weekends. most of them are in the larger
resort areas such as Kassiopi and Acharavi especially,
and of course Corfu town, but without transport not even
those are available.
I had brought with me a book about Greek olive oil which
contained recipes. This proved very useful, the dishes
were delicious and simple to cook, I just had to make
sure that I stocked up on plenty of herbs and spices,
the vital ingredients to tasty Greek dishes. You can
also find some very tasty recipes in the Corfiot
magazine in the winter editions, if you come without a
book. So no ready meals, frozen pizzas, or takeaways,
just real Greek home cooking and very enjoyable it was.
For someone who does not like cooking at home, I really
surprised myself.
I visited the local Kafenion, where I suprisingly found
many essential food items for sale. The local bakery is
down the road in the next village. On Wednesday and
Saturday the vegetable van arrived in the village square
and I would walk up and sit in the warm sunshine with
the older Greek ladies and await it’s arrival whilst
admiring the stunning views towards Corfu town (on one
or two occasion I had to do this in the rain, but it had
no effect on the views, they were still stunning!!). The
ladies would greet me and try to tell me the names of
some of the vegetables, I just wish my Greek was better
and I could have chatted with them. One Wednesday even
the fish van came , they pointed him out to me and
explained that he was selling fresh fish, so it was not
difficult to get supplies and trips to the town were not
needed very often.
If you bear in mind that you have to cook for yourself
in the winter months, and buy the produce, this takes up
some of your time. Visiting friends and people you may
have met in the summer is also very enjoyable because
they have time to talk and spend time with you and
people who would normally be very busy in the summer are
at last taking it easy and much more relaxed and they
make you so very welcome.
My Greek neighbours are very friendly and they also made
me feel very welcome, although their English is limited
and my Greek even more limited, we were still able to
convey a friendliness and I never really felt alone. I
am sure, should I have needed help in any way they would
have been only too pleased to assist.
A hobby or an interest of some kind makes a winter visit
even more fulfilling such as painting, writing, reading
and weather permitting, walking and the all popular
fishing. Even just relaxing and taking life easy in
general can be fulfilling and an escape from the hectic
life and work at home. I had no television and I did not
miss it, although it is available in some of the winter
lets. I will of course confess to my one piece of
‘technology’ that I did have and that was my PC!! (well
just how do you live without one in this day and age!!!)
I was helping Nathan with his winter update on the
website, which made my visit very interesting and
occupied some of my time. Websites, PC technology and
communication, are of my indoor interests and hobby,
however, without it I really feel I could have still
filled my time with the other interests that I have
mentioned. Of course not many people would visit alone,
and with such warm and friendly hospitality, not all of
my time was spent alone, but with a partner or
companion, even some old fashioned games would pass away
the dark, cooler evenings, I had to play them on the
PC!!
It is an excellent time of year to walk, and I spent
many hours walking the coastal footpaths, visiting many
beaches that I had seen so busy and full in the summer
months. You can have every beach on the North East coast
to yourself if you are lucky, but you may find one or
two people around on the good days. I also walked up
into the hills, where it is far too hot to walk in the
summer and the views are fantastic. You can see so much
more of life on foot than in a car. Walking up into the
hills is a fantastic experience, it is nothing like the
hard work it is in the summer heat and it is surprising
how quickly you are high up into the mountains exploring
the quiet and in some cases deserted mountain villages,
a part of Corfu that some people never get to see.
So next time you wonder what it is like in the winter,
save some of those well earned holidays and give Corfu a
try in the winter months. I do believe that if you love
Corfu, the countryside, reading, writing, painting,
fishing, the simple things in life and all that nature
has to offer, then you would really love a winter visit.
Agni Travel is
currently offering suitable properties for winter
rental. Contact Sofri at the Agni Travel office for
details:
sofri@agni-travel-corfu.com
Driving to Corfu
In the very early months of this year,
2003, having read some of the posts on the message
boards about driving to Corfu, we were quite surprised
as to how many people had actually made this journey.
Having read Nathan's write up of his own experience of
this journey and wanting to take some goods out to our
house, we were encouraged to give it a go and drive
there ourselves. As an update to Nathan's report this is
how we did it, as a guide I have given the costs but
this is a guide only as there are various options, and
of course prices change. I hope the report is of
interest and useful to others who may be thinking of
making this journey.
We decided to go at Easter, as we could
then include some bank holidays along with those
precious leave days from work giving us a two and a half
week holiday using only nine days works leave. Our
journey may not have been the shortest or the cheapest
way of driving to Corfu, but since we have done it, we
now realise that there is no one set way of making this
journey, it can be as short/long, cheap/expensive as you
wish to make it. We bought a copy of ‘Philip’s
Multiscale Europe 2003’ maps which we found very clear
and simple to use.
We left England on (UK) Good Friday
afternoon about 4.00pm from Long Eaton in Derbyshire and
drove to Harwich where we took the night ferry to Hook
of Holland, arriving about 7.00am Saturday morning. We
booked a cabin at a cost of about 60 GBP for two people
(single journey), in addition to the standard fare for a
car and 2 people of 105 GBP (single journey). The cost
can be reduced by not taking the cabin and booking an
aircraft type seat for about 10 GBP per person (single
journey). Having had a meal, a good nights sleep and a
good breakfast (meals are included on this ferry) we
could then enjoy a full days driving feeling quite
refreshed. This is not the cheapest way to cross the
channel, the short crossing to France would have been
cheaper as cabins would not have been needed but
crossing the channel very much depends on where you are
starting your journey from in the UK, and how far you
wish to drive before taking your first stop. What is
saved on a crossing would probably be spent on an extra
nights stop in Europe. We felt it was important to
consider how long we would be driving for and as a
safety issue not be feeling too tired at the start of
the drive through Europe.
Arriving in Hook on the Saturday morning,
we drove south through Holland passing through Breda and
into Germany through to Koln. We drove for most of the
day passing through Frankfurt, Wurzburg, Nurnberg, and
Munchen stopping at the motorway services two or three
times. If cost is important we would recommend using
the shops on the services for sandwiches and snacks,
coffee is also available, as it is much cheaper than
using the café/restaurants. By the end of the day we
were in the south of Germany and now very close to the
Austrian border. We stopped in the evening for a meal in
a lovely restaurant in the small town of Rosenheim and
would recommend making this an overnight stop. There
are many B&B accommodations in this area, so it would
not be difficult to find accommodation out of the
season, perhaps booking would be advisable in the busy
Summer season. Accommodation could also be taken at
many of the Motorway service areas. (I do not know the
cost for these rooms - we slept in the car overnight as
we did not want to leave a car loaded with goods
including computer equipment unattended for the night).
This is another part of the journey where the cost can
be reduced by sleeping in the car, but taking into
account the amount of driving done during the day and
the remaining amount to be done, we would recommend
taking a room for a proper nights rest as we did on the
return journey.
The following morning we woke at dawn to
see the beautiful Austrian mountains in front of us
topped with snow. A really beautiful sight and quite a
surprise as it was dark by the time we had left the
restaurant and parked up the previous evening. We had a
really early start with staying in the car, so we were
off on the road again at about 6.30am after coffee and a
wash and brush up in the service station. The toilet
facilities in the services were excellent, and nowhere
appeared to be very busy. Had we taken a room for the
night we would probably have had a little later start
about 8.00am. We had pre booked the Venice–Corfu ferry
which left at 3.00pm on the Sunday afternoon, so an
early start was needed, especially as we later found out
that we had misjudged the mileage on the last stretch of
the journey by about 100 miles.
We continued the journey into Austria,
which was the best part of the journey, through Salzburg
and on towards Villach near the Italian border. The
scenery was breathtaking, as we drove through valleys
and snow capped mountain passes. We passed by some of
the ski-ing areas in the little Alpine villages of
Austria and if we could make a leisurely journey with
plenty of time to spare we would certainly consider
stopping and visiting some of the lovely villages in
this area and in the South of Germany. However, we had
a ferry to catch and had to continue, so after passing
through many tunnels and mountain passes we continued
until we arrived at villach, it is here where we turn
right for Italy and left for Slovenija, so we had to
make sure we took the correct slip road on the motorway
as we did not have time to make any mistakes !!
We managed to get it right and passed
over the border into Italy where we stopped for a coffee
and very late breakfast break at the motorway services
in Italy, the standard of which is not as good as the
German and Austrian services. This is were Graham had a
brain malfunction as he suddenly declared “we are going
the wrong way” the blood drained from his face as he
looked up and said “the sun is in the wrong place, it
should be over there”. He had driven along way and as I
was the one reading the map, following every twist and
turn in the road and reading every sign, I had no doubt
as to which direction we were going. So I just stared at
him and replied that if he wished to continue the
journey using the SUN as a guide to getting to Venice he
could do so – on his own – as I was going to stay with
the map !! (I think for a moment, he thought he was a
Greek – an Ancient Greek!!)
It is the mountain passes that made the
distance look much less on the map where the roads twist
and turn through the mountains (and where the sun
appears in the wrong place !!) and this is why we
misjudged the remaining distance by about 100 miles. As
we did not have much time to spare for this stop we
stood outside in the bright morning sunshine, drank our
coffee and was soon away again for the remaining part of
the journey.
We continued on – in the right direction
- towards Udine where the motorway splits left for
Trieste and right for Venice, the last leg!! Not much
further to go now and we were really looking forward to
seeing Venice as neither of us had been before.
We arrived in Venice at about 11.30am in
good time to catch the ferry. Boarding time was about
1.00pm, we had made it in perfect time, but should
anything have gone wrong we would have struggled to make
it. It would perhaps be advisable to leave a little
more time to reach the ferry but it worked out perfect
for us. We had no time to visit Venice but did not have
to wait long before it was time to board to ferry. Not
being able to visit Venice was not that much of a
disappointment as when the ferry pulled away it sailed
right along the Grand Canal and you could see all of
Venice in front of you from the deck of the ferry!! It
was fantastic, a real birds eye view and it is well
worth taking the ferry for the sail around Venice.
The ferry is like a small cruise ship,
with bars, restaurants (al a carte and self service)
spacious lounges, a large sun deck and swimming pool.
It is a 24 hour journey to Corfu so we booked a cabin,
which really bumps the price of the journey up, at a
cost of 175 GBP per person return. This is an option and
it is possible to take an Aircraft type seat for 83 GBP
per person return or a deck passenger ticket for 63 GBP
return. In addition to these prices is the vehicle cost
of 77 GBP return for a normal vehicle up to 5.5 metres
in length. If travelling as a deck passenger I think
that you would have to sleep on the outside decks as we
did see people on the deck in sleeping bags the
following morning.
After a very relaxing afternoon, a much
needed shower, a nice evening meal and a good nights
sleep, we awoke the following morning, had breakfast and
went up onto the deck of the ship. It would have been
about 10.30am by this time and we were by then cruising
along the Albanian coastline and there was Corfu and her
Northern Islands clearly ahead of us. We passed Agni
bay at about 11.30am, as the Minoan ferry does most
mornings at about this time and at this point usually
passes the sister ship going in the opposite direction.
The ships always acknowledge each other with a blast on
the horn, and can often be heard when lazing on Agni
beach. As the boat unloads at Igouminitsa first, it is
about 2.30pm before we finally arrived at Corfu docks.
As a guide to the distance and the actual
cost of the trip, our mileage was 945 miles from Harwich
to Venice and the same again on the return as we took
exactly the same route. The Petrol cost was
approximately 200 GBP (using a 4x4 Diesel Engine
vehicle) including the return journey, bearing in mind
that Diesel is very much cheaper in Europe than in the
UK. We had taken single journey tickets on the
Harwich–Hook ferry as we were unsure as to the time we
would be crossing on the journey back. On the return
journey we crossed during the day, so a cabin was not
necessary, the cost was approximately 30 GBP per person
and 40 GBP for the vehicle. We also had a Bed and
Breakfast stop on the return journey (I would not
recommend sleeping in the car) at a cost of 60 GBP for
two people. The rooms on the Motorway I believe would be
less than this.
The total cost of our journey was
therefore approximately 952 GBP plus meals and snacks on
route at 2003 prices. These prices are only a guide and
will vary according to the time of year and current
exchange rates.
When comparing the costs with flying, the
summer charter flights are obviously the cheapest, but
travelling out of season we estimated the air fare via
Athens to be about 260 GBP each, but do not forget to
take into account about 250 GBP car hire for 2 weeks and
about 100 GBP for airport car parking, then the cost is
not so much more than travelling by air.
It was a wonderful experience, a lovely
journey with so much to see on route even without
stopping and visiting places of interest. We shall
certainly be making this journey again next year and as
soon as we can spare the time we shall do it over a much
longer length of time and visit some of those places of
interest on the way. I think on that occasion it will
probably take us about a week or more to get to Corfu.
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