Corfu grotto tour guides.....Need help.

[Leadhitter]

My wife and I will be in Corfu from 12:30pm to 8:00pm next week. We'd like to go to the Paleo beach and do the grotto tours but have two issues. We've heard renting a car is time consuming and navigating the terrain is difficult and tiresome. We've also been told that getting a taxi back may be tough. So my questions are this....

 

Do we have time to do it?Does anyone know of a reputable driver we could hire for the day? And where would I find grotto tour info?

 

Thanks so much for the help.....

 

Parker in Louisiana.

[cruiser620]

We rented a car in Corfu. It was delivered right to the port. It was not really any problem driving around -- it's a small island and there aren't a lot of roads. We drove to the Paleo beach area and stopped when we saw signs for the beach. We walked down the road/path to the water and found a little cove area. (We later found out it wasn't really the main part of the Paleo beach, but that was okay.) There was a little booth on the beach to buy tickets for the grotto tour. We ended up getting a boat just for the two of us (I think it was some kind of water taxi), and it was great. It was one of our favorite days of the cruise. It was just so beautiful and relaxing and a nice change of pace from days touring ruins. We had seats in the front of the boat where we could lay back with our legs out. We went all along the coast and into the little caves. One was like a mini version of the blue grotto in Capri. We saw other boats doing the tour, but they were "tourist type" boats with lots of people on them. We were glad to have our smaller personal boat. After we left the beach and drove further, we came to the main part of Paleo beach and the area was pretty congested with traffic and limited parking, so I was glad we had stopped a little before that. I'm sure you could also get grotto tour boats there. Next we drove up to the monastery which was very scenic. We drove further and stopped for lunch at a restaurant with a scenic view. We looked at a couple of other beaches and then drove back to Corfu Town and went to the Mouse Island overlook for the classic Greek photos. We enjoyed Corfu very much and probably would not have gotten to see as much if we hadn't rented a car.

[ltdavies]

Do you remember the name of the car company that you rented from. I'm being quote 300 Euros for a private tour and I'd like to do this myself.

[ShipOFools]

Do you remember the name of the car company that you rented from. I'm being quote 300 Euros for a private tour and I'd like to do this myself.

 

We are going in June and from what I have read there is no problem finding rental places in Corfu Town near the terminal to get manual shift by just walking up, but some suggest automatic shift renters reserve in advance- but we reserved one manual anyway I think around 50 Euros. We just Googled rental cars Corfu.....

[b0684]

Your day sounds wonderful. Do you remember how much the tickets were for the grotto tour? We will be there in Sept. and hope to rent a car and just drive around.

[cruiser620]

I'm afraid I can't be much help with remembering what we paid for things. If I get a chance I'll try to find my paperwork to see what the car rental company was. Since I needed an automatic, it was imperative to reserve ahead of time. I think you can probably google "car rental Corfu" and contact the companies that are listed. This was a very busy cruise and although I had intended to keep a trip diary and write down everything, I never did. I really can't remember what we paid for the grotto tour. You can go on the bigger boats with a dozen or more people, but we had a "water taxi" which was just the two of us so it did cost more. I tend to be somewhat of a "cheapskate" and it was probably a little more than I really wanted to spend, but I felt it was really an enjoyable ride and well worth it.

 

We had no trouble at all driving around the island, but we are pretty independent travelers and rarely take ship's tours. Not sure how easy it is for someone who is not used to doing that. I always do a lot of research about places before we go there -- travel guides as well as cruisecritic and tripadvisor. We loved our day in Corfu!

[cruiser620]

Do you remember the name of the car company that you rented from. I'm being quote 300 Euros for a private tour and I'd like to do this myself.

 

In my opinion, 300 euros is insane!!!

[CintiPam]

Corfu Sunrise is the car company often recommended on these boards. We are renting from them in two weeks. The price for an automatic for the day delivered to the port is 60 Euros.

[b0684]

Thanks for the info. We also try to do everything on our own. Think we'll rent a car and see the grotto. We'll be there in Sept. and I'm getting such great info from all the post. Any other info would be greatly appreciated.

[tgg]

Corfu Sunrise is the car company often recommended on these boards. We are renting from them in two weeks. The price for an automatic for the day delivered to the port is 60 Euros.

 

I'm so glad that you posted the name of the company and the price. We also want an automatic (in September), and you saved me a whole lot of research. I hope you'll post when you come back because I'd love to know how the car rental worked out. Thanks so much, and have a lovely cruise.