A holiday favourite since Victorian times CORFU sits in the Ionian chain of Greek islands that lie off the north-west coast of mainland Greece.
Corfu's popularity, especially with the Brits, has exacted a high price over the years. This was one of the first of the Greek islands to be "discovered" by cut-price package tour holiday firms and many Corfu resorts turned belly-up to their downmarket demands.
Beautiful bays of golden sand and pretty fishing villages were quickly overrun with cheap hotels, happy-hour karaoke bars and neon-lit all-night discos. Corfu was once the embarrassing byword for bar-crawling British lager-louts on bargain holidays abroad.
Fortunately the damage was confined to relatively small areas and large parts of Corfu escaped the worst of the ugly Brit invasion. Some of the loveliest beaches and most romantic villages in the whole of Greek islands can still be found all over Corfu.
The most popular tourist spots for Corfu holidays are still concentrated among the hotel complexes to the north and south of Corfu Town but many Corfu villages, notably deep within the lush, green interior, appear to have escaped the holiday hotel boom altogether.
If you opt for a Corfu holiday, check out the best travel insurance deals here. The island is a popular destination for independent travellers and many seek out Corfu hostels each year for the best in budget Corfu accommodation.
Corfu is the most popular Greek holiday island for Brits - more so than Crete or Rhodes. Around 10,000 Brits now live there. Corfu is also the nearest Greek island to the UK so Corfu flights are always in demand.
North Corfu has the biggest beaches, most heavily geared towards tourist entertainment. The west of Corfu is more remote and lays claim to wild and unspoilt countryside.
Inland, the north of Corfu is dominated by mountains while the centre and south are home to lush farmland. Wherever you are, Corfu islanders are famously friendly - even by Greek standards.
Corfu favours those looking for cheap and cheerful, all-inclusive hotel resorts, but more tranquil hideaways can still be found to the south and west with exceptional beaches and some super scenery.
Corfu has an international airport. As well as charter planes there are daily flights to Athens and Thessaloniki and a seaplane service to Paxos and Lefkas.
There are regular ferries to the mainland ports at Igoumenitsa, Patras and Sagiada and a service to Paxos. There are daily ferries to the Italian ports of Brindisi, Bari, Ancona, Trieste and Venice.
There is a daily bus service to Corfu from Athens and Thessaloniki.
Corfu caters mainly for the package tour crowd. The stretch north of Corfu Town has the biggest hotels and the worst beaches.
Roda and Sidari, in the north, and Kavos, in the south, are the other hotspots. Elsewhere, Corfu has many beautiful resorts, only occasionally scarred by monster hotels
The north-east has its idyllic bays, the north-west has its share of sedate family resorts while the south-west coast has miles of empty, windswept sands.
Corfu is the most northerly of the Ionian chain off Greece's west coast, the nearest to the UK in flight time.
Corfu is is the most densely populated Greek island with 140,000 living there. Corfu is long and narrow - 63km long and 18km wide. It has an area of 640sq km with more than 200km of coastline.
Heavy winter rainfall (twice that of London) encourages lush growth and Corfu is notably green, even in high summer.
