I set the alarm for 0615 but woke more than an hour beforehand. My alarm time I estimated would get me to the airport 2h before the 0950 flight which would allow ample breakfast time at the lounge. Breakfast at the hotel starts at 0730 which was too late for me.
I managed to check out at 0630 and walk to the nearby Monastiraki station for the direct metro to the airport. The first train terminated a few stations before the airport. Mild panic set in as the information screen suggested no trains bound for the airport for the next 30 min or more. Other people shared the same concern. I checked on Google and the airport trains were half-hourly at this time. My bad for not having checked this beforehand and factored this into my travel time, but something was still fishy.
Fortunately the information screens were corrected and a train came along at 0704, getting me to the airport at 0800 including walking time at the other end.
The 1h flight to Corfu on the Ionian Sea was short and sweet. It carried an Olympic Airlines flight number with the “commercial duplicate” (codeshare) of Aegean Air flight number. But in fact, it was operated by Aegean Air on behalf of Olympic. It’s all one company anyway.
Landing in Corfu, it was cloudy. I had a 15 min walk to a bus stop outside the Lidl supermarket to wait for the Blue No 6 bus to Bella Vista Beach Hotel. I’ve been craving cherries and other stone fruit but didn’t have the opportunity to eat them prior. It seemed opportune for me to pop into Lidl to get them now but it was closed being Sunday.
The 40 min wait for the bus went quickly between calling home (which I hadn’t done for a while) and watching planes coming in low overhead.
The Bella Vista is a very highly rated property. It was simple but spotlessly clean. What made it special were all the staff supplemented by lots of young interns to help with everything. It was handy to shops, restaurants and lots of loungers on the nearby pebbly beach.
A lounger was EUR3 or free if you buy food/beverages of that value or more. Sounds like a fair deal! I did just that in the afternoon when the sun came out and I had a few long swims.
My impression of Corfu, or perhaps Benitses, is a little surprising. It isn’t as polished as Hydra or the islands that I’ve been to previously eg. Mykonos or Santorini. That’s a description and not a complaint. I guess this is more the real Greece with the odd abandoned building, pavements with long grass, uncollected rubbish etc. Many places in Turkey in contrast seems more well kept and affluent.
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- Waiting for the bus.
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- Corfu, specifically Benitses, is less polished than I expected.
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- Benitses beach on a cloudy day.
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- Benitses beach on a cloudy day.
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- Benitses eating area.
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- Benitses in the evening.
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- Around the back streets of Benitses.
