A Corfu town walking tour is a two-hour guided walk through the UNESCO-listed Venetian old town, from the Spianada and the Liston arcade to the church of Agios Spyridon, the Campiello lanes and the fortresses, priced from 20 euros a head. Plan the rest of the trip with Greece Tours.
This page covers the walk: what it costs, the route, every stop, the food and Durrells versions, the town’s history, cruise calls, timings and how to book.
What does a Corfu town walking tour cost?
From 20 to 45 euros a head for a two-hour small-group walk of the old town, 50 to 85 for the version with local food tastings, 35 to 60 for the Durrells-themed walk, 120 to 250 for a private walk, and a tip on the free walking tours.
The walking price covers the guide and the commentary, and fortress entries are separate. A Corfu town walking tour is booked around it.
Old Fortress entry is paid separately at the gate. The Corfu town walking tour route is set by it.
Food versions include five to seven tastings.
Private walks quote by the party and set their own route.
Children pay a reduced rate on most shared departures.
Cruise-passenger walks start from the port gate.
What does a Corfu town walking tour cover?
The Spianada square and the Liston arcade, the Palace of St Michael and St George, the Old Fortress from its bridge, the church of Agios Spyridon, the Campiello quarter’s kantounia lanes, the Town Hall square, the Jewish quarter and the New Fortress walls.
Corfu’s old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Every Corfu town walking tour is routed around this.
The route runs from the Spianada into the lanes and down towards the old port. Guides raise it early on a Corfu town walking tour.
Guides trace Venetian, French, British and Greek Corfu through the buildings.
Two hours covers the core and three adds a fortress interior.
The lanes are pedestrian and too narrow for traffic.
Museums are visited separately from the walk.
How long does a Corfu town walking tour take?
Two hours for the standard walk, two and a half to three for the food tasting walk, three with the Old Fortress interior, and 90 minutes for a short cruise-call version.
The walking totals two to three kilometres. The Corfu town walking tour listing states it plainly.
Stops run five to ten minutes each. It decides which Corfu town walking tour suits the party.
Morning walks start at 09:30 or 10:00.
Evening walks start around 18:00 in summer.
The Old Fortress climb adds 45 minutes.
A self-guided loop takes a morning.
Where does a Corfu town walking tour start?
At the Spianada by the Maitland Rotunda or the Liston cafes for most walks, at the Old Fortress bridge for the history walks, and at the new port gate for cruise passengers.
The Spianada is one of the largest squares in Greece. This is what a Corfu town walking tour delivers.
The new port sits a 20-minute walk or a short taxi from the Spianada. The Corfu town walking tour price reflects it.
Meeting points are named on the ticket with a map pin.
Guides carry a sign or an umbrella.
Parking in the old town is scarce and paid.
Arriving ten minutes early is what operators ask for.
What are the walk formats?
Small-group walks capped at 10 to 20, private walks with a licensed guide, food tasting walks capped at 10 to 12, Durrells-themed walks, tip-based free walks, and the open-top bus that covers the town and Kanoni.
Licensed guides carry the state qualification. Corfu town walking tour guides prepare for it.
Free walk guides stay on the streets and rely on tips. A Corfu town walking tour fills first on that count.
Private walks suit families and visitors with mobility needs.
The bus suits hot afternoons and short cruise calls.
Food walks suit anyone who wants the town through its tastes.
The Durrells walk suits fans of the books and the television series.
What is the food tasting walk?
A two and a half to three hour walk through the old town tasting kumquat liqueur and sweets, Corfiot sofrito and pastitsada flavours, local cheese and cured meat, mandolato nougat, ginger beer, olive oil and Corfu wine at five to seven stops.
Corfiot cooking carries Venetian influence in its names and spices. A Corfu town walking tour settles this at the Liston.
Sofrito is veal in a garlic and white wine sauce. The Corfu town walking tour calendar is shaped by it.
Pastitsada is a spiced meat stew with pasta.
Ginger beer came with the British and is still made on the island.
Groups cap at ten to twelve.
The island food day sits at Corfu food tour.
What is the Durrells walk?
A small-group walk following Corfu town through the eyes of the Durrell family, who lived on the island from 1935 to 1939, linking the places in Gerald Durrell’s books and the television series to the streets of the old town.
Gerald Durrell wrote My Family and Other Animals about those years. The Corfu town walking tour route is set by it.
His brother Lawrence Durrell wrote Prospero’s Cell about Corfu. Guests meet it within the first Corfu town walking tour hour.
The family’s villas stood on the coast outside the town.
The walk covers the town the family shopped and socialised in.
Groups cap at eight to twelve.
The Durrell story on the island sits at The Durrells Corfu.
Why is Corfu old town a UNESCO site?
It was inscribed in 2007 as a fortified Mediterranean port town whose Venetian fortresses and neoclassical buildings, shaped by four centuries of Venetian rule and later French and British periods, survive with the street plan intact.
Corfu was never taken by the Ottomans, unlike most of Greece. Guides raise it early on a Corfu town walking tour.
The town’s architecture looks Italian rather than Greek as a result. That is the Corfu town walking tour advantage over a map.
Its fortifications held off major Ottoman sieges in 1537 and 1716.
The inscription covers the old town and both fortresses.
Buildings cannot be altered or raised without permission.
Guides use the inscription to explain why the town looks the way it does.
Who ruled Corfu town?
The Venetians from 1386 to 1797, then the French, a Russian-Ottoman interlude as the Septinsular Republic, the French again, the British as a protectorate from 1815 to 1864, and Greece from union in 1864.
Venetian rule lasted four centuries and gave the town its shape. It decides which Corfu town walking tour suits the party.
Napoleon’s French took the island when Venice fell in 1797. A Corfu town walking tour covers the lanes around it.
The British built the Palace of St Michael and St George and brought cricket.
Britain ceded the Ionian Islands to Greece in 1864.
Each ruler left buildings the walk passes.
The layering is what makes a guide worth having here.
What is the Spianada?
The great open square between the old town and the Old Fortress, cleared by the Venetians as a firing field, now a park and promenade with the Maitland Rotunda, the bandstand and a cricket pitch still used for matches.
The Venetians cleared the houses to give the fortress a line of fire. The Corfu town walking tour price reflects it.
The Maitland Rotunda commemorates the first British High Commissioner. The Corfu town walking tour season turns on this.
Cricket has been played on the Spianada since the British period.
Concerts by the town’s philharmonic bands take place at the bandstand.
Easter processions pass along its edge.
It is the natural start of every walk.
What is the Liston?
The arcaded row of buildings along the west side of the Spianada, built by the French in the early nineteenth century in imitation of the Rue de Rivoli in Paris, now lined with cafes under the arches.
The name comes from the list of noble families allowed to walk there. A Corfu town walking tour fills first on that count.
The arcade is the most photographed street in Corfu town. A Corfu town walking tour is booked around it.
Coffee under the arches costs more than in the lanes behind.
The cafes face the cricket pitch on the Spianada.
Evening walks see it at its busiest.
Guides stop here to explain the French period.
What is the Palace of St Michael and St George?
A neoclassical palace of 1819 to 1824 at the north end of the Spianada, built as the residence of the British Lord High Commissioner and the seat of the Order of St Michael and St George, now the Museum of Asian Art.
It is one of the earliest neoclassical buildings in Greece. The Corfu town walking tour calendar is shaped by it.
The Ionian Senate met inside during the British protectorate. Every Corfu town walking tour is routed around this.
Greek kings used it as a summer residence after 1864.
The museum holds Chinese, Japanese and Indian art.
The palace gardens hold a cafe and a view over the sea.
The museum has its own page at Museum of Asian Art Corfu.
What does the walk show at the Old Fortress?
The fortress on its double-peaked promontory, separated from the town by a Venetian sea moat, the Contrafossa, crossed by a bridge, with the British church of St George in Doric style inside and the view from the lighthouse at the top.
The Contrafossa moat turned the promontory into an island. Guests meet it within the first Corfu town walking tour hour.
The fortress peaks give Corfu its name, from the Greek word for peaks. The Corfu town walking tour listing states it plainly.
Most walks view it from the bridge and send guests in afterwards.
The climb to the lighthouse takes 20 minutes.
The fortress itself has its own page at Old Fortress Corfu.
Entry is a separate ticket bought at the gate.
What is the church of Agios Spyridon?
The church of Corfu’s patron saint in the old town, built in 1589, marked by the tallest bell tower in the Ionian Islands with a red dome, holding the relics of St Spyridon in a silver casket that is carried through the streets four times a year.
The bell tower echoes the campanile style of Venetian churches. That is the Corfu town walking tour advantage over a map.
The ceiling panels copy the originals painted by Panagiotis Doxaras in the eighteenth century. This is what a Corfu town walking tour delivers.
Corfiots credit the saint with saving the island from plague and siege.
Entry is free and modest dress is expected.
The lanes around it sell candles, icons and religious gifts.
It is the stop where the walk explains the island’s faith.
Who was St Spyridon?
A fourth-century bishop of Tremithus in Cyprus whose relics were carried from Constantinople to Corfu in the fifteenth century, and who is honoured as the island’s protector with processions on Palm Sunday, Easter Saturday, 11 August and the first Sunday of November.
Spyridon attended the Council of Nicaea in 325. A Corfu town walking tour covers the lanes around it.
His relics left Constantinople around the Ottoman conquest of 1453. Corfu town walking tour guides prepare for it.
The processions commemorate deliverance from plague and the siege of 1716.
A large share of Corfiot men are named Spyros after him.
The procession carries the saint upright through the old town.
Walks on procession days change route around the crowds.
What is the Campiello?
The oldest quarter of Corfu town, a maze of narrow kantounia lanes, stepped alleys and small squares between tall Venetian houses on the rise above the old port, with washing lines overhead and churches at every turn.
Campiello means little square in Venetian. The Corfu town walking tour season turns on this.
The houses rise four and five storeys because space inside the walls was scarce. A Corfu town walking tour settles this at the Liston.
Wells and churches mark the small squares.
The lanes are too narrow for cars and quiet in the morning.
The walk loses and finds its way through the maze with the guide.
It is the part of town visitors get lost in without a map.
What are the kantounia?
The narrow lanes and stepped passages of Corfu’s old town, some barely a metre wide, built that way to shade the streets, save space inside the walls and slow down any attacker who broke through.
The lanes stay cool in the heat of an August afternoon. A Corfu town walking tour is booked around it.
Shops, workshops and tavernas open onto them. The Corfu town walking tour route is set by it.
The paving is stone and slippery when wet.
Street names are signed in Greek and sometimes in Italian.
The walk threads them between the main sites.
Photographers find the best light in them early and late.
What is the Town Hall square?
A sloping square in the old town holding the Town Hall, built in 1663 as a Venetian loggia and turned into the San Giacomo theatre, the first opera house in modern Greece, and the Catholic cathedral of St James above it.
The loggia became the San Giacomo theatre in 1720 and staged Italian opera. Every Corfu town walking tour is routed around this.
The building became the Town Hall in 1903. Guides raise it early on a Corfu town walking tour.
The Catholic cathedral of St James stands at the top of the square.
The square hosts concerts in summer.
Cafe tables fill the lower end of the square.
Guides use it to tell the story of Corfu’s music and theatre.
What is the Jewish quarter?
The Evraiki near the New Fortress, home to Romaniote and Italian-speaking Jewish communities for centuries, whose 1,800 or so members were deported in June 1944, with the Scuola Greca synagogue still standing on Velissariou Street.
The synagogue dates from the seventeenth century and is the one survivor of the quarter’s synagogues. The Corfu town walking tour listing states it plainly.
Fewer than 200 of the deported survived. It decides which Corfu town walking tour suits the party.
A memorial to the Jews of Corfu stands near the old port.
The synagogue opens on limited hours.
Modest dress is expected inside.
The extended walks include the quarter and the memorial.
What does the walk show at the New Fortress?
The Venetian fortress on the hill of San Marco above the old port, built after the Ottoman siege of 1537, with the winged lion of St Mark over its gate, tunnels through the rock and a view over the rooftops to the Old Fortress.
The Venetians built it to cover the town’s landward side. This is what a Corfu town walking tour delivers.
The British and later the Greek navy added barracks inside. The Corfu town walking tour price reflects it.
The winged lion over the gate marks the Venetian state.
The walls run down to the old port and the Jewish quarter.
Most walks view it from outside and the lanes below.
The fortress has its own page at New Fortress Corfu.
What did the British leave in Corfu town?
Cricket on the Spianada, ginger beer, the Palace of St Michael and St George, the Maitland Rotunda, the British Cemetery with its orchids in spring, the church of St George in the Old Fortress, and roads and aqueducts built in the protectorate years.
Corfu has its own cricket clubs that play on the Spianada. Corfu town walking tour guides prepare for it.
Tsitsibira is the local name for the ginger beer. A Corfu town walking tour fills first on that count.
The British Cemetery lies south of the new town.
The protectorate lasted from 1815 to 1864.
British visitors still form one of the largest groups on the island.
Guides link the British years to the Durrells who came later.
What is kumquat and where is it sold?
A small citrus fruit brought to Corfu by the British and grown in the north of the island, sold in the old town lanes as liqueur, spoon sweet, candied fruit and loukoumi in orange bottles and boxes.
The fruit is eaten whole, skin and all. A Corfu town walking tour settles this at the Liston.
Kumquat liqueur comes in orange and clear versions. The Corfu town walking tour calendar is shaped by it.
Nymfes and the north of the island grow most of the crop.
Shops on Nikiforou Theotoki and the lanes near Agios Spyridon sell it.
Tastings are free in most kumquat shops.
The food walk includes a kumquat stop.
What else do you shop for on the walk?
Olive wood bowls and boards, mandolato nougat, Corfu olive oil and soap, handmade sandals, icons and silver jewellery, sold along Nikiforou Theotoki, Evgeniou Voulgareos and the lanes between the Spianada and Agios Spyridon.
Olive wood workshops make pieces from pruned and fallen trees. The Corfu town walking tour route is set by it.
Mandolato is a white nougat with almonds made on the island. Guests meet it within the first Corfu town walking tour hour.
Corfu olive oil comes from the Lianolia variety.
Prices in the lanes near the cruise routes run higher.
Shops close in the afternoon on some weekdays outside summer.
Guides point out the family workshops rather than the souvenir chains.
Is Corfu town walkable?
Yes: the old town measures around one kilometre across, the lanes are pedestrian, the ground is flat apart from the fortress climbs and a few stepped alleys, and every main site sits within 15 minutes on foot of the Spianada.
Stone paving turns slippery after rain. Guides raise it early on a Corfu town walking tour.
Wheelchairs manage the Spianada, the Liston and the main streets. That is the Corfu town walking tour advantage over a map.
The Campiello steps are hard going with a pushchair.
Taxis wait at the Spianada and the new port.
The town bus links the old town to Kanoni and Mon Repos.
Walking is faster than driving inside the old town.
When is the best time for a Corfu town walking tour?
April to June and September to October for mild walking weather, mornings and evenings in July and August, Easter for the processions and the pot throwing, and any cruise day with an early start before the crowds.
Midday heat in high summer makes the walk tiring. It decides which Corfu town walking tour suits the party.
Orthodox Easter is the busiest and most atmospheric week of the year. A Corfu town walking tour covers the lanes around it.
Winter walks run on a reduced timetable.
Rain falls most from November to February.
Cruise ships bring the heaviest crowds between 10:00 and 15:00.
Evening walks catch the Liston at its liveliest.
What is the Easter pot throwing?
On Holy Saturday morning, Corfiots throw clay pots full of water from balconies and windows in the old town, mostly around the Spianada and the Liston, to mark the first resurrection, a custom tied to the Venetian New Year.
The pots are called botides. The Corfu town walking tour price reflects it.
The throwing starts at 11:00 after the church bells ring. The Corfu town walking tour season turns on this.
Philharmonic bands march through the town the same morning.
The streets fill with crowds hours before the start.
Hotels in the old town book out for Easter months ahead.
Guided walks that week plan around the processions.
Can you do a Corfu town walking tour on a cruise call?
Yes: cruise ships dock at the new port 2 kilometres from the Spianada, and a two-hour walk fits any call of five hours or more, with a 20-minute walk, a shuttle or a short taxi to the old town.
Some walks start at the port gate for cruise guests. A Corfu town walking tour fills first on that count.
The New Fortress sits on the way from the port to the old town. A Corfu town walking tour is booked around it.
Independent walks cost less than ship excursions.
Guides time the finish to the all-aboard hour.
Short calls suit the 90-minute version.
The open-top bus covers more ground in the same time.
Is a Corfu town walking tour good for families?
Yes: the distances are short, the fortresses, cannons and cricket pitch hold children’s interest, the lanes lead to gelato and kumquat sweets, and private walks let families set the pace.
Two hours is the limit for most young children. The Corfu town walking tour calendar is shaped by it.
The Spianada playground and gardens give a break.
The Old Fortress climb suits older children.
Water and a hat are essential in summer.
The tuk-tuk and bus tours suit families with toddlers.
Evening walks run late for young children.
What do you bring on a Corfu town walking tour?
Comfortable shoes with grip for the stone paving, a hat, sunscreen and water in summer, modest cover for the churches and the synagogue, cash for small shops, and a light layer for spring and autumn evenings.
Shoulders and knees are covered for Agios Spyridon. Guests meet it within the first Corfu town walking tour hour.
Card payments work in most shops and cafes.
Public toilets sit near the Spianada.
A small bag leaves room for kumquat purchases.
Phones double as a map for the lanes after the walk.
Umbrellas are useful from November to March.
What are the common Corfu town walking tour mistakes?
Walking at midday in August, visiting only the Liston and missing the Campiello, skipping a guide in a town whose layers need explaining, missing the Old Fortress, and booking on a day when four cruise ships are in port.
Midday heat drains the energy for the fortress climb. That is the Corfu town walking tour advantage over a map.
The Liston is the start of the town, not the whole of it.
Without a guide the Venetian, French and British layers blur together.
The Old Fortress view is the best in town.
Cruise schedules are published online by the port authority.
Booking early in the stay helps plan the rest of the island.
How do you book a Corfu town walking tour?
Book one to two days ahead in summer and on the day in the shoulder months. Groups cap at 10 to 20, and the food walk, the Durrells walk and the Easter week departures fill first.
Operators confirm the meeting point by message the evening before. A Corfu town walking tour covers the lanes around it.
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead is standard on the platform listings.
Cruise bookings state the ship and the all-aboard hour.
Private walks quote by the party and set the route.
Dietary needs go on the booking for the food walk.
The rest of the island sits at Corfu.
What music story does the walk tell?
Corfu is the home of Greek band music: the Philharmonic Society of Corfu was founded in 1840, Nikolaos Mantzaros set Dionysios Solomos’ Hymn to Liberty to the music that became the Greek national anthem, and three town bands still march in the processions.
Solomos lived and wrote in Corfu town for the last decades of his life. The Corfu town walking tour season turns on this.
The Solomos Museum stands in the lanes near the old port.
The bands rehearse in their own halls in the old town.
Brass band music fills the streets on Easter Saturday.
San Giacomo gave the town an opera habit from the eighteenth century.
Guides link the music to the Italian influence on the island.
What is the Reading Society of Corfu?
A private library and cultural society founded in 1836 in a Venetian building on Kapodistriou Street by the Spianada, holding books, maps, engravings and archives on the Ionian Islands, one of the oldest cultural institutions of modern Greece.
The external staircase is a landmark of the Spianada side. A Corfu town walking tour is booked around it.
Its collection covers the Venetian and British periods.
Researchers use its archives on Ionian history.
Exhibitions and talks run through the year.
Opening hours are limited and change with the season.
Walks point it out on the way from the Liston to the palace.
What does the Archaeological Museum of Corfu hold?
The Gorgon pediment from the temple of Artemis at ancient Korkyra, carved around 590 to 580 BC and one of the oldest surviving stone pediments in Greece, with finds from the ancient city, set in the Garitsa district south of the Spianada.
The Gorgon Medusa stands at the centre flanked by panthers. Every Corfu town walking tour is routed around this.
The pediment stands more than two metres high at its centre.
The museum reopened after a full renovation.
It lies ten minutes on foot from the Spianada along the bay.
Most walks end near it and leave the visit to guests.
An hour covers the collection.
What is the church of Saints Jason and Sosipater?
A Byzantine church of the twelfth century in the Anemomylos district south of the old town, the oldest standing church in Corfu town, dedicated to the two disciples of St Paul who brought Christianity to the island.
The church is built in the cross-in-square plan with a dome. The Corfu town walking tour listing states it plainly.
Fragments of wall paintings survive inside.
Ancient stones from older buildings are reused in its walls.
The walk along the Garitsa bay reaches it in 20 minutes.
It opens for services and on limited hours.
Longer walks and bike tours take it in.
What is Mon Repos?
A neoclassical villa built in 1828 to 1831 for the British Lord High Commissioner Frederick Adam, set in wooded grounds south of town, later a Greek royal summer home and the birthplace of Prince Philip in 1921, with the ruins of ancient Korkyra in its park.
The villa holds the Museum of Palaiopolis. This is what a Corfu town walking tour delivers.
The park holds the remains of the temple of Hera.
Paths lead through the woods to the sea.
It lies a 40-minute walk or a short bus ride from the Spianada.
The grounds are free and the museum has a ticket.
Walks with a Mon Repos extension run three and a half hours.
What is Kanoni and Mouse Island?
The viewpoint at the tip of the Kanoni peninsula south of town, looking down on the white Vlacherna monastery on its causeway and Pontikonisi, Mouse Island, with its small chapel, and planes landing over the lagoon behind.
Kanoni takes its name from a French cannon placed on the point. Corfu town walking tour guides prepare for it.
A small boat runs from the causeway to Pontikonisi in summer.
Legend names Pontikonisi as the ship of Odysseus turned to stone.
The airport runway runs alongside the lagoon.
The town bus and the open-top bus both reach Kanoni.
It is a separate trip from the old town walk.
What is Vidos island?
A small wooded island facing the old port, where the Serbian army recovered in 1916 after its retreat across Albania, with a mausoleum to the Serbian soldiers who died there and a small boat running from the old port in summer.
Thousands of Serbian soldiers died of disease and exhaustion. A Corfu town walking tour settles this at the Liston.
The Serbian Museum in the old town tells the story.
Serbian visitors come to Corfu to honour the dead.
Vidos has walking paths and small beaches.
The crossing takes ten minutes.
Guides point to it from the walls of the New Fortress.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a Corfu town walking tour cost?
From 20 to 45 euros a head for the two-hour small-group walk, 50 to 85 for the food tasting walk, 35 to 60 for the Durrells walk, and 120 to 250 for a private walk with a licensed guide.
Does the walk go inside the Old Fortress?
The standard walk views it from the Contrafossa bridge, and the three-hour version goes in. Entry is a separate ticket bought at the gate.
Where do the walks meet?
At the Spianada by the Maitland Rotunda or the Liston for most walks, and at the new port gate for cruise passengers.