Yassas Corfu

Corfu is located in the northern Ionian Sea and is an hour flight from Athens. Only 593 square km in size, Corfu has a stunning landscape with many mountains and amazing beaches along its coastline. During a tour of The Governor’s Olive Mill we were told Corfu itself had over 2 million olive trees with a variety (small and thin) only found on the island. This is not surprising considering almost every tree we’ve seen is an olive tree and if it isn’t an olive tree it’s a fig tree. Interestingly I may have discovered that I might like Corfu figs - they are of the red variety. 

Our resort, the Domes Miramare is situated on the coast and consists of two properties; beach side and another hillside across the road. While the hillside property is brand new, we chose the beach side property (duh!) and it did not disappoint. Our ground floor room was a lovely king sized studio room with walk out patio and a sea view. From our patio we could easily walk a short distance to the beach. The room was nicely appointed with plenty of space to store our stuff and decorated in the iconic white which Greece is known for. The bathroom had a lovely rain shower and for once with a design where you didn’t get the floor all wet while taking a shower. If only other hotels would learn. The sitting area had a very comfortable single couch seat with ottoman, but we spent most of our “sitting time” outside on our patio. The hotel surprised us with a welcome gift for our birthdays consisting of a lovely bottle of local Greek white wine, a bottle of their sparkling white wine called Za Za Zu, which was surprisingly good, and a birthday cake. Little did we know that Greece has a good, but rather small, wine industry. 

The resort is an adults only resort. Seems like most of the guests are European and some Australians. The staff here are amazingly friendly and eager to help. We had no difficulty with language as all staff speak English. We are trying to learn a few key Greek words though and it makes people smile when we try. The lobby was built around a very large olive tree which sits right in the middle of it. Several times in the morning for a couple hours there is a pianist and often you can find the resort cat, Sissy, sitting on a couch wasting the day away; Sissy can also be found at breakfast roaming the tables or just sunbathing. 

The property itself is quite expansive and boasts very lush gardens and grassy areas. The beach is rocky at the entrance but once you’re a few feet into the crystal clear, very warm and calm waters, the sea bottom turns to sand. This made for very ideal swimming, bobbing, and just refreshing yourself from the heat. Totally my kind of beach. There is a small pool at the beach side property while the hillside property has a larger pool area with two pools; one large enough for swimming laps while the other is designed more for wading. The resort spa is also located in the hillside property. There are a couple restaurants on site; Makris served as the all-day restaurant - serving an expansive buffet breakfast with traditional Greek dishes, European and North American style breakfasts; dinner was also buffet and again serving up different styles of dishes. We ate breakfast here each morning and had the pleasure of a complimentary dinner one evening. 

Just a short walk south is the small village of Moraitika where you can find a number of restaurants and shops. One evening we ventured to the Village Taverna for dinner and had a very memorable Greek hospitable experience. Nico, the restauranteur, is the maitré d’, his wife the chef, and his daughters the main wait staff. The restaurant is situated in a residential neighbourhood up on the village hill and it's a bit of an effort walk to get there. All else around the taverna are residential homes and it would seem the neighbours don’t mind the constant stream of people or the noise from the restaurant. In fact, the neighbourhood cats come by to check out the guests and probably hope to be fed some. Nico was quite welcoming with many stories of life and his family history to tell; he made our whole experience quite delightful and after we wold him what times of food we enjoyed eating, we entrusted him to order for us. A bit of a gamble on my part as I am not that adventurous and like what I like, but our meal was a delicious a traditional Corfiot dish.  

We rented a car for a couple days so we could explore the island a bit further than just our resort. Good thing Z was driving because I'm not sure I could handle the narrow, windy roads where it often felt like the oncoming vehicle might hit you while passing. He did an amazing job navigating the roads and thank goodness for Google maps because I'm not sure we would have found anything with out those directions. One day we ventured across island to the west coast to a beach called Halikounas. It's about a 25 minute drive and well worth the visit. Halikounas is a sandy beach stretching roughly 3km and is absolutely beautiful. The water was just a calm as our resort beach, and equally as crystal clear and warm and ideal for swimming. The beach had some amenities and plenty of space to plunk down a towel and enjoy the day. After spending a few hours here, we were off to our olive oil tour and tasting and The Governor's Olive Mill. This tour was very informative touching on how olive oil was made in years past to how it is made today. The 4 million olive trees growing on Corfu produce both green and black olive; green are harvested in September/October and every second tree is left another month and harvested in November when they become black olives. During the tasting portion of the tour, we were able to sample both olive oil made from green olives, black olives and a combination of both. The olive oil made from green olives had a much stronger, bitter taste, while the olive oil made from the black olives was a lot more drinkable and tasted more like what we are used to tasting. We learned that Greeks use olive oil for all their cooking and in fact we tried something we would never have thought to combine: greek yoghurt with olive oil - it was actually a great combination and tasted fantastic. This was a great little stop. 

After an exhausting day of sitting on the beach, we drove about 40 minutes south to Tomata Corfoit Cuisine in Kavos; a new restaurant open since mid May sourcing local ingredients and serving generations-old family recipes. Thomas, the restaurant owner recently returned to Kavos with hopes to change the town away from the current young party-goers atmosphere back to a multi-generational tourist destination. An amazing host, Thomas provided excellent service and advice on food options along with suggestions for our wine choice. The food was amazing and the restaurant atmosphere, ignoring all the people wandering the street, was fantastic. After dinner we wandered the town for a bit but didn't stay too long as it wasn't much our scene. 

All in all our 5 days in Corfu gave us a great introduction to Greece, the hospitality of the people, the great food and drink, the amazing beaches and crystal clear waters, and the hot Mediterranean sun. The only draw back I'd say was we managed to get bitten by what we think were mosquitoes and they were itchy!