How to do Corfu on a budget

Cheap places to stay in Corfu

In Corfu Town, spacious rooms with sea views carry a high price tag. Your wallet will thank you for staying further along the coast in resorts like Gouvia and Dassia.

Consider family-run Mathraki Resort in low-key Gouvia. It’s just 9km (5.5 miles) north along the coast from Corfu Town and 850m from Gouvia Beach. There are a variety of modern rooms and apartments for up to six people and prices start at £56 per night in low season or £115 in high.

Paradise Hotel Corfu (from £62 per night) is another good pick. Set amongst an olive grove just outside the town, its light and airy rooms all have balconies with a view. A little further north, Dassia has a handful of two-star resorts close to the beach.

Elsewhere, The Wave, just outside Sidari on a spectacular stretch of Corfu’s northern coast, offers good value along with filoxenia – exuberant Greek hospitality. It’s managed by two friendly brothers, whose ‘Mama Irene’ runs an authentic Corfiot kitchen. One-bedroom apartments with a private bathroom, kitchen and a spacious terrace start at just £60 in low season or £95 in high.

Cheap eats in Corfu

The temptations of Corfiot food make it all too easy to forget your budget. There’s sofrito beef simmered in wine, parsley and garlic, and bourdeto fish cooked in spicy tomato – and that’s before you’ve even started on the syrup-drenched pastries.

The trick is to eat where locals eat, and to keep costs down with the occasional self-catered meal. Fridges are standard in many hotel rooms, so it’s easy to supplement taverna dining with picnics. And there’s no shortage of lovely beaches to unwrap a spread of plump olives, tomatoes and fresh-baked flatbreads.

Restaurant prices inevitably rise in popular locations, so head to quieter villages for great-value dining. You can eat well on a budget at Klimataria in the east coast fishing village of Benitses, which serves mouthwatering bourdeto along with catch-of-the-day specialties from fresh anchovies to boiled octopus in lemon and olive oil.

Even cheaper is Greece’s ultimate street food: gyros, rotisserie meat tucked into a flatbread with salad and lashings of tzatziki (usually less than £5).

Even Corfu Town has great-value snacks, if you know where to look. Stop by Alexis Dairy (12 Agiou Vasileiou) for Corfu’s best takeaway desserts: rich, creamy rice puddings, in flavours from chocolate to cinnamon, for only a few euros.

Free and cheap things to do in Corfu

Much of the joy of a Corfu holiday comes from taking it slow. When you are ready to kick the energy levels up a notch, free and low-cost activities can be found both on the coast and within the lush hinterland.

Hit the beach

Wiggling your toes in the brown-sugar sand of Corfu’s beaches is one of the greatest pleasures of a holiday on the island, and it needn’t cost you a penny.

Every coast has spectacular shores, from snorkel-friendly coves in northerly Kassiopi to idyllic Gardenos down south. On the west coast, the crystal waters of cliff-backed Ermones Beach are popular with swimmers.

Spot a variety of bird life

Just south of Ermones, you’ll find acres of space along golden Halikounas Beach, which borders Korission Lagoon. This wetland nature reserve is one of Corfu’s best-kept secrets and is home to strutting egrets, herons and even flamingos – so you can enjoy some bonus birdwatching while you’re in the area.

Tick off Corfu’s top historic sights

You can get a dose of Corfiot culture for free by visiting monasteries around the island. The 18th-century Paleokastritsa Monastery has flower-draped gardens, delicate mosaic art and a church that gleams with gold icons. Just south of Corfu Town, the Vlacherna Monastery floats out in the middle of a tranquil bay to create one of Corfu’s most recognised sights

Park your car in Krini village and you can enjoy the (free) walk through an olive orchard to Angelokastro, a craggy Byzantine-era castle that fended off the Turks throughout the sieges of Corfu in the 16th century. If you want to enter the fortress itself, tickets cost just a few euros.

Seek out cute villages

Many of Corfu’s most picturesque spots aren’t on the coast at all, and setting out to explore them only costs as much as a rental car. Even with just a day’s hire, you can easily hop between northern villages like Strinilas at the base of Mount Pantokrator and Afionas, which overlooks the iconic Porto Timoni beach.

If you like to pound the pavement, the ‘Sokraki Serpentines’ connect the colourful village of Sokraki with Ano Korakiana some 5km (3.2 miles) further down the trail.

How to get around Corfu on a budget

Good news for road trippers: reasonable Corfu car hire prices aren’t hard to find (you can pick up a car from Corfu Airport from as little as £4.62 per day when you compare online in advance). If you prefer to find a car when you arrive, ask for quotes from a couple of places; there are some great deals.

If you want to sun-worship up and down the east coast, you don’t even need a car. Cheap and efficient local bus services can whisk you north from Corfu Town to beach towns Gouvia, Dassia and Ipsos, or south to lively Kavos. A day ticket with unlimited journeys is only €5; get buses and timetables in San Rocco Square.

If you’re car-free, remember that airport buses stop at around 10pm. Still, it’s only a short hop by taxi into Corfu Town.

Insider tips

Travel in the shoulder season

Most hotels in Corfu have three or four sets of room rates: they’re highest in July and August, slightly lower in June and September and very reasonable during the beginning and end of the season, in May and early October. If you can be flexible, you can almost halve your accommodation spend.

Watch out for tourist supermarkets

If you’re going self-catering, look out for tourists traps masquerading as supermarkets. The sign might say ‘supermarket’, but a few are souvenir shops with a fridge full of overpriced groceries and staff waiting to give you the hard sell. There are plenty of small supermarkets in Corfu Town and smaller villages where locals shop. Roadside fruit stalls are also cheap.

Find tavernas with a view

A balcony that opens onto a sapphire sea is heavenly, but it certainly raises the price of a room. Instead, make time to drink and dine with fabulous views. Golden Fox in Paleokastritsa, for example, has a café-restaurant peering over the Ionian Sea.

Enjoy DIY spa treatments

Mid-range and high-end hotels often have a spa, where treatments start at around £30. Or you can feel the benefits of Corfu’s mineral-rich mud for free at coves such as the geologically spectacular Canal d’Amour in northerly Sidari. Do like the locals do: slather some clay onto your skin and stretch out on the sand – you’ve earned it.

Book waterpark tickets online

Aqualand waterpark is one of the most popular family attractions, though ticket prices might feel steep (booked online, day tickets cost adult/child aged 5-11 €36/27). You could consider the two-day ticket (adult/child €65/45) for better value, or why not stay in a resort that has its own water slides? It means you won’t need to factor in waterparks as a separate cost.

*All prices correct as of 5 June 2025.