Leisurely Tour of Corfu

The places we visited were interesting, but the guide wasn't particularly engaging or overly informative.

This tour started at 9:00 a.m. from the cruise terminal. We headed up the Mountain for some gorgeous views. We wanted to see the Blue Grotto, but the boat tour (10 euros extra) was only to see a few small caves, nice but not very exciting. We were glad we did the boat tour as the Monastery tour was busy so everyone had to walk up the steep hill and back again. Further up the winding roads we stopped for some great views and a nice Greek snack and drink. Next was a gift store that had lots of good items but the prices were a little higher than in town. Ended the tour in Corfu and went for a nice walk. Lovely town with great views of the amazing blue/green water. Corfu seemed less touristy, rougher and more "lived in", enjoyed this very much.

A small group of 14 people, guide was a long term resident of Mykonos. He adjusted our schedule as there was a couple of big ships in that day and we went places and roads that the large coach buses couldn't go. We saw a lot of the island avoiding the large crowds of tourists.

This was a very nice tour of Corfu. We saw many highlights. The guide was very informative and provided several stops to take pictures and shop a little. All around a very good excursion!

Although we did see some beautiful sights on this tour, there were definitely a lot of things that could have been improved. The bus ride made me sick because it was a lot of stop and go in traffic and winding up and down extremely narrow roads. When we stopped at the beach at Paleokastritsa for 50 minutes, no one ever said we could not swim. It seemed like it was kind of expected that people take the boat tour, which was not included, but my husband and I wanted to enjoy the beach. We enjoyed our time swimming there, but the bus driver was really mad when we got back to the bus because he didn't want us to get the seats wet. It was very uncomfortable. If we were not allowed to swim, it would have been nice for someone to let us know before we got off the bus. I also felt like the entire tour was pretty rushed. The guide was nice, but a lot of people were upset that the time she had originally planned to get us back to the ship was later than our "all aboard time," so that was a bit unorganized. Overall, we got to see some very pretty sights, but I would not choose this tour again if given the opportunity.

My husband and I were in the cruise terminal at 8:15am for the scheduled 8:30 am pick-up. No one showed up until 9:20 when were told that the tour begins at 9:30. The guide said that an e-mail went out the day before explaining Viatour's mistake in confirmation of the time. I do not have my phone on or travel with a computer to get e-mails when out of the country. I would have appreciated an extra hour of sleep instead of waiting in the terminal. After we finally left for the tour, the guide receives a phone call to let her know she left 2 people back at the terminal. We turned around and wasted another 1/2 hour traveling back to the pier to get these passengers. Time was not made up.

Our tour guide was great. We did go on the boat to a blue eye cave ($10 extra). That was nice. Wish we had a little bit more time for swimming. It was either swim or boat. Our guide let us put our feet in the water😀 We tour the island. Went to a vista point and had a little mezze (feta, dolma, olive, meat and ouzo) Went to little artisanal shop in the hills. Then went back to visit Corfu town with some free time to shop. After Corfu we visited several other islands and shopping in Corfu was cheaper. (Wish I had know that before going to other islands)

After being greeted warmly and introduced tour guide, the group were led to our first coach. This was a large, modern coach with fully functioning air conditioning. Everyone was in good spirits at this moment in time. The guide then re-appeared and said that he hoped that we weren't too comfortable as we had to move buses. No explanation as to why we needed to move was given. We were then led to a much smaller, older minivan. This was only just big enough for everyone but considering one guest was in a wheel chair, this made access very difficult for her. We set off and very quickly it became apparent that the air conditioning was not working and the temperature began to rise in the van. Eventually, the driver and the guide opened the windows at the front to try and provide some air for everyone but it had little effect as the outside temperature was in excess of 30 degrees centigrade. The temperature in the van was on the rise and was soon stifling hot. At each stop, everyone was reluctant to re-join the sweatbox that the van had become. At one stop - the souvenir shop - the lady in the wheelchair did not get off and was confined to the overheating minivan. To be fair to the guide, he brought out some Lemoncello and Kumquat liqueurs for her to try. Eventually as the tour neared its end, the guide offered the group compensation - an admission of liability in my view - of additional free time in Corfu town. This 'compensation' was declined by everyone as we just wanted the tour to be over and to get back to the ship to have a shower and get a change of clothes. Again, the guide and itinerary were fine but the experience was totally ruined by the lack of air conditioning in the minivan. If we had stayed on the original coach, everything would have been fine.

We had intended to book a small-group tour to Paleokastritsa but no one else wanted to go that day so it looked as if we would be unable to go either. However, the kind lady in the office told us that if we paid a supplement (which was less than a taxi would have charged us) we could have a car and a driver for four and a half hours. It sounded like good value, especially compared with the prices that cruise ships charge for shore excursions, so we opted to go ahead. Our driver was Theo. He was smart, pleasant, a good driver and he spoke good English. We chatted with him throughout the trip. He picked us up at the harbour terminal and took us first to Paleokastritsa which is a beautiful place and one that we want to return to in the near future. He found us places on a boat trip that was about to leave to visit three lovely caves along the rocky shoreline. They were certainly worth seeing for only €10 per person. Next Theo took us high up into the mountains to a restaurant from which we could look down over the places we had just been to at sea level. Paleokastritsa certainly deserves its nickname of "God's balcony". We enjoyed a delicious Meze (plate of snacks) and glass of wine at the restaurant before continuing our journey to an outlet where they sell kumquat liqueur amongst other tempting things! We changed the ending of our excursion as we were not keen to walk around Corfu Town for an hour as we planned to go there by ourselves in the afternoon. Instead Theo took us to a place which overlooks Mouse Island and has a good view of planes taking off from Corfu Airport. Finallly he took us back to the terminal at the end of a superbly enjoyable excursion made all the better by our excellent chauffeur!

I didn’t this was small group tour when all participants fill a bus. Also during the city tour portion of tour, guide just let us off in the downtown portion of city and told us to come back to bus in 45 minutes. The guide gave no guidance as what should see in the downtown area.