Holidays to Southern Corfu

The south of Corfu is gentler than the mountainous north but equally lush, wooded and green, and offers wonderful walking and some very characterful traditional villages tucked away in the hills. Like the north, the east coast is sheltered with a string of mainly fine shingle beaches that shelve gently into a very clear warm blue sea looking to the mainland Epirus coast. The west coast is open and home to mile after mile of golden sandy beaches. Going south from Corfu Town, along the winding east coast road, Benitses is the first proper seaside village along this coastline. Once famed as a party town in the 1980s, Benitses has reinvented itself and is now the most attractive of all the southern Corfu places to stay. With its attractive fishing harbour, pretty beach, colourful bougainvillea-draped houses and good selection of local tavernas and small shops, the village attracts those looking for a relaxed village atmosphere with good facilities. It also has the benefit of easy access to Corfu Town just 12 kms distant, and easily reached by local bus. Further to the south are the resort villages of Moraitika and Messonghi, which have a livelier nightlife, before ending up at youth-centred Kavos, well away from everyone else at the island's southern tip!

The south west coast of Corfu has many long stretches of sandy beach and the long stretch of Halikounas Beach with it's extensive sand dunes protects Lake Korission from the sea. The lake is 5km long and 1km wide at its centre and is a haven for over 100 species of birdlife, including great white egrets, oyster catchers and curlews. Turtles and tortoises abound. IA few kilometres inland, in the hills above Halikounas Beach and set amongst dense forest, is the small Market town of Agios Matheos, one of Corfu's largest and most traditional and picturesque. With a population of 1,600, the majority of which are farmers, the village is particularly renowned for its main street lined with cafe bars and shops, an ideal place to people watch.