Day trips from Corfu: Paxos, and Albania

A week on Corfu is the length that makes these comfortable. On four or five days you are choosing one.

Paxos, an hour away and a different pace

Paxos is the day trip a longer Corfu stay is built around: an hour, and then a different pace. It is a much smaller island than Corfu, and the point of going is that it does not do resorts.

Corfu to Paxos covers the crossing itself, and our Paxos guide covers the island. If it pulls at you, it is a better second base than a day trip - which is worth knowing before you spend a day discovering it.

Albania, the short crossing to Saranda

The other direction goes to another country. Saranda sits across a short crossing from Corfu, and it is the least Greek thing you can do on a Greek island holiday.

Treat the border as a border. Bring your passport and check the current entry requirements through official sources before you book, rather than relying on what an excursion seller tells you at the quay. That is the part of this day that changes and the part nobody else will get right for you.

Corfu to Albania has the crossing.

The inland day, which is not a boat

The one most people skip: the mountainous north around Pantokrator and the villages behind the coast. It costs you nothing but a car and it is the only day on Corfu that has nothing to do with the sea.

On an island where the two coasts are a real drive apart, an inland day also solves a practical problem - it is the day that does not commit you to either side.

What does not work from here

Corfu is Ionian and Santorini is Aegean, with the Peloponnese in between: no direct ferry and no direct flight connects them. Getting between the two means going via Athens and planning about half a day door to door. It is not a day trip, and any itinerary that implies otherwise has not looked at a map.

The same applies in reverse to most of the Cyclades. If you want both an Ionian island and an Aegean one, that is a two-centre trip with a flight in the middle, not a day out.

Fitting them in

With four to five days, take one: Paxos if you want the Ionian quieter, Saranda if you want the day to be strange. With a week, take both and still have the second coast.

Our Corfu guide has the practicalities and the Corfu itinerary puts the days in order.