Corfu Taxi Tours or Corfu Private Tours?

[jane02]

Hello,

We will be in Corfu on 2nd Sept from 9am -7pm. I am wondering if a half day tour to see the island is enough and then a few hours to wander around Corfu Town or should we opt for a full day tour that does everything. Corfu Private Tours seem to offer a full day tour and the information that I have got from previous threads read that Corfu Taxi Tours are more for half a day.

Any suggestions or recommendations. There will be just the two of us and we are not looking for the cheapest tour.

Thanks

[JZCruiser]

Hello,

We will be in Corfu on 2nd Sept from 9am -7pm. I am wondering if a half day tour to see the island is enough and then a few hours to wander around Corfu Town or should we opt for a full day tour that does everything. Corfu Private Tours seem to offer a full day tour and the information that I have got from previous threads read that Corfu Taxi Tours are more for half a day.

Any suggestions or recommendations. There will be just the two of us and we are not looking for the cheapest tour.

Thanks

 

I am going to tag along on this thread. ;) I am also trying to decide what to do in Corfu. I will be there on November 9th from 8am to 6pm. I am interested in a half day tour of the island in the morning (and then going around Corfu Town on our own in the afternoon).

 

Jane02 - I e-mailed both Corfu Private Tours and Corfu Taxi Tours. Corfu Private Tours offered me a half day tour for 250 euros, which I assume is the Corfu Highlights tour on their website (although they did not say so in their e-mail). Corfu Taxi Tours gave me several options ranging from

2-3 hours to 5-6 hours with different itineraries at a rate of 40 euros per hour with a minimum of 3 hours. With Corfu Taxi Tours, the itineraries are their suggestions and you could change them however you want.

 

The other option I am considering is renting a car. I got a quote from Corfu Sunrise for an automatic car for 60 euros for the day. The price includes full insurance, taxes, unlimited mileage, and pick-up and drop-off from the port.

 

Would I miss out on any must-see places if I just stick around Corfu Town? Considering I am going in November, would the beaches be worth stopping by? How much time does one need to see the major sights in Corfu (excluding Corfu town)? Should I take a private tour or rent a car?

 

I think those are all the questions I have (for now...) :D Thank you!

[jane02]

Hi JZ,

Thanks for that information. I am now leaning towards a trip to a nice beach (Glydes??sp) stay until mid afternoon then catching a cab back to Corfu town for a wander around. As this is towards the end of our two week cruise, I think I will be ready for a restful day.

Let me know what you decide on.

[jane02]

Glyfada beach is the one I was thinking of :)

[JZCruiser]

A day at the beach sounds like fun! I'm going in November so it may be a little too cold to go to the beach.

[Terpnut]

Having just returned from Corfu, I can share some of my thoughts. I had originally planned to use Spiros of Corfu Taxis but decided that 40 Euros/hr was too much to be chauffered around or to have him sitting while we slept on the beach. So I rented a car for 60 Euros right at the pier, and thus had maximum flexibility to see what we wanted at our pace. While I made a wrong turn a couple times, overall it's pretty easy to find your way around the island. While most street signs are in Greek, the key interchanges and directional signs are also in English.

 

We first drove south to Gastouri to tour the Achillion Palace. Then we headed west to have lunch in Palekas with a high-up beautiful view of the sea and countryside. Then we made our way down to Palekas Beach for a couple hours. I understand nearby Glyfadas is similar to Palekas, and others from our ship enjoyed Paleokastritsa. You can check out Corfu town either with your car, after you return the car.

 

If you're really not comfortable renting a car and driving yourself, you can still do all this at 40 Euros/hour with a hired taxi driver.

[JZCruiser]

Terpnut,

Thank you very much for sharing your experience. I am leaning towards renting a car (if my husband agrees to drive it) since I also feel that paying 40 Euros an hour is a little too much. If you don't mind, I have a few questions. Do you recall the name of the taxi company at the pier? Did you rent a manual or an automatic car? I would need an automatic car. Did you use a map or travel guidebook to find your way around and see the sights? Oh, and did you need to get any special/international driver's license to drive in Corfu?

Thank you!

[Terpnut]

Terpnut,

Thank you very much for sharing your experience. I am leaning towards renting a car (if my husband agrees to drive it) since I also feel that paying 40 Euros an hour is a little too much. If you don't mind, I have a few questions. Do you recall the name of the taxi company at the pier? Did you rent a manual or an automatic car? I would need an automatic car. Did you use a map or travel guidebook to find your way around and see the sights? Oh, and did you need to get any special/international driver's license to drive in Corfu?

Thank you!

I actually had a reservation with CorfuSunrise but was late in getting down to the pier so they must've already left. Royal however has a bunch of cars right there at the pier so I just said "I had a reservation with CorfuSunrise for 60 Euros for this particular class car, will you honor that price?" and they did. I'd bet you could rent it for even less if you negotiate--that seems to be the way it all works! :D

 

Our car was a manual but automatics are available. If you must have an automatic, I recommend making a reservation since your walk-up options might be limited. We had a GPS but it didn't have detailed street maps for Corfu so I ended up using a paper map. Try to plan ahead as to what you want to see so you're not wasting valuable port time figuring out what to see and how to get there.

 

And you don't need an international driver's license in Corfu or anywhere else for that matter--your state license will do. It might be better to have an international driver's license, but I didn't.

[JZCruiser]

Thank you very much for the great tips, Terpnut! I really appreciate it. :)

[tinabarton]

Me last October pay 40EURO per hour for four people with www.taxitourscorfu.com

They is very good team

[trav25]

We will be there this May and made reservations with Corfu Sunrise. They got right back to me and we will hope for the best. Both of us can drive a stick but prefer an automatic so that's what we reserved.

 

After doing research we got the best insurance (only 2 Euros more) and to be safe we are going to go to the Auto Club and get international drivers licenses because it couldn't hurt and we read somewhere that only police care so.....

 

Looks to us like the best island to drive and do your own thing.

 

I'll post what happens!