Whilst on Corfu we rented a car for three days. On Monday 1 August – our first day with the car – we drove a little way North to visit some of the beaches further up the West coast of Corfu.
Our first stop was Paramonas (Παραμόνας) – pictured above. Located below Agios Mathaios (Άγιος Ματθαίος), Paramonas is a small village with only around 30 residents. There’s a hotel, a couple of tavernas and a beach – which, as you can see in the photo above, is quiet even in high season. There are no watersports at Paramonas! We stopped at Paramonas for a walk, a drink and a chance to take some photos, before we moved on to our next destination.
Prasousi (Πρασούδι) is another beach on the West coast of Corfu. Here, parking is available free of charge (supplied I think by a fish taveran). However, to get down to the beach there are a lot of steps and/or a steep track – so its maybe not the best place to go if you require good disabled access.
The beach itself is quite wide – almost like an English beach – and although there are a few sunbeds, they are quite a distance from the water’s edge and they don’t go along the whole beach. So if you’re comign equipped with your own mats you’ll find plenty of space.
There are a few rocks once you get in the sea, so probably a good place for snorkelling, and it doesn’t get deep too quickly so it’s good if you’ve got young children. Most of the people there were Greek – one of the things we look for when finding places to go (we try to avoid the tourists) and there are no watersports either, which is good.
We stopped at Prasoudi for a couple of hours for a swim, to sit in the sun and read, and another swim. The sea was really calm!
Afterwards it was back in the car to find some lunch. There was a little snack bar after a few kilometres – just before you get to the Byzantine Fortress of Gardiki from the 13th Century, where it is possible to get things like toasties or pizza for lunch, as well as ice creams and drinks.
Our next stop was Chalikounas (Χαλικούνας) – a slightly busier beach where Kite Surfing is available. This isn’t too much of a problem though – the beach runs the entire length of Lake Korission (Λίμνι Κορισσίων), and so is a few kilometres long, and there are also some good views of the lake – you can walk along the dirt track and find a suitable place. We actually visited Chalikounas twice – we went back a couple of days later. The second time we went, it was very windy and we got covered in sand!
This interactive map will show you where everything is. Zoom in and out, and click on the markers to see what they are.
View Corfu 2011 in a larger map
Really nice blog, Corfu is a beautiful destination to go on holiday! Glad you had a nice time. Thanks for sharing, Jason.