I'd say Kassiopi sound much more what you're looking for - I've never stayed in Sidari but I've driven through enough times to know I never want to - McDonalds, all day full English etc etc... (sorry, but I cannot tell a lie)

Kassiopi's still dedicated to tourism but it is much lower key. And it definately doesn't close at midnight. There are a good range of Greek restaurants, plus a few with an international flavour. And you can get a big greasy giros for a couple of euros (yum).

The area around the harbour is a bit more sophisticated, while the town square (a two minute walk away) is livlier...

If your beach has to be sandy, then Kaminaki is very close - probably only five minutes if you've got a hire car or scooter. Not sure if public transport gets you there, but a taxi probably wouldn't cost much.

Even better, in my opinion, is the smaller beach at Agios Spiridon another couple of miles further north on the edge of a nature reserve.. We were there in May, admittedly when the weather was a little dodgy, and we had the entire beach to ourselves for a good part of an afternoon.

Your memory serves you well. Roda is a triangle and is easily walked in about 15 minutes. As a visit one night this year showed, part of the triangle is dying. The fork to the right if you are looking towards the beach area has virtually no shops open now and the restaurants are very quiet. This is because the tour operators have pulled out of using all the apartments down there such as the Robertos (arrghhh, worst holiday accommodation ever) and the Nikos (good size, well equipped and still available to rent privately) plus others.

Sidari really does lack Greekness and may be a little too lively for you from what you say.

Kassiopi definitely doesn't close at midnight and can be as lively or as quiet as you wish. There are plenty of restaurants for a fortnight but is it does lack the sandy beach.

Arrillas has a sandy beach but may be too quiet for you.

Hi

I would say it depends on what time of year you are planning to holiday

We actually holiday in Sidari in early October when it is not too lively but enough to have a good evening out without sport bars (We hate football!!!!)

There are some good bars with cabaret acts as well as the kareoke or quiz nights. Sidari also has an internet cafe/games place which has a small bowling alley.

I think everyone can find something different about each resort
Maybe you should read through the resort pages to see how diffently people perceive them and try to decide from there.

Hope you find your perfect place

Went to Arillas in June this year, and it is quite a small resort, with a fairly Greek feel. The beach is sandy and long, and we found it relatively quiet, especially if you wander along a bit. The sea was warm and fine to swim in, and there are some watersports if you want them. There are probably upwards of 12 tavernas (no McDonalds!) to choose from and two lively bars with English/American music - open late if you want to stay. Great cocktails. It certainly ticked the boxes for us (we're aged 41 and 37).

Kassiopi gets my vote. Perfect! I've posted my review of last May 2006's visit on the resort forum. If you'd like to take a look. As others have said the only thing lacking is the sandy beach. However we found that as our acommodation had a beautiful large pool with great views over the harbour we didn't miss the beach. You can always make your way to one of the nearby sandy beaches. However, the little pebbly coves were well worth a walk to and the sea was lovely to take a dip in. I've posted a couple of photos of one of the coves in the Corfu photo album. Have fun planning your trip.
Shirley

Thanks for all the replies.

Rich C - I note you recommend the beaches at Kaminaki and/or Agios Spiridon, and Kassiopi for everything else. We would probably hire a motorbike (I am an experienced rider) to see the island in general, so it wouldn't be too much of a problem traveling 5 mins or so to a nice beach if necessary. The map I have doesn't show either of these beaches though, can I presume Kaminaki would be 5 mins or so, and Agios Spiridon another 5 mins or so further on, or are they in opposing directions?

Magster - I wasn't convinced that I wanted to return to Roda, and you've confirmed this. When in Roda we stayed in a small apartments at the top of the right triangle fork, above a restaurant. No idea what it was called tho. I do remeber the resort being small.

Tipsyletti - We plan to travel late June maybe into early July 2008, so I would think the season would be pretty much under way. I've been reading the resort reports and found them very helpful, my deduction on Sidari is that it is probably too British for us, but what seems to vary is people's perceptions on nightlife on other resorts. Hence I decided to take the plunge and ask my own questions. And I'm sooo glad i did too
Phoebe - I think Arillas sounds a bit too quiet for us, but I will certainly read a bit more about it, I didn't realise it had quite as many eating places etc.

Shirley h - Your description of Kassiopi sounds fantastic and I would say that it sounds very promising after considering yours and Rich C's recommendations. What size of resort is it? In any pictures I can find it looks quite small. Is it sizeable enough to have various ways to wander around etc?

In general I think you guys are confirming our suspicions that Sidari isn't the place for us, and I thank you again for taking the time to reply. Any further input would be welcome.

Regards

Al and Fee

Alan - both beaches I mentioned are on the coast road running north from Kassiopi. They are both well signposetd.

Kassiopi is nowhere near as small as views of the harbour seem to indicate. It stretches a considerable distance inland until the main street meets the coast road. If I has to describe it, I'd say it's a large village.

This is a good source of information:

http://www.agni.gr/guides/resort_guide/kassiopi.asp

The site describes Kassiopi as "lively", but it's a relative term. The site is run by a guy based at Agni, and compared to Agni it is lively.

Alan, scroll down the page in the following link and you will find a couple of photographs of Kassiopi that I posted on my blog:

http://isobelmagsbuchan.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html

As Rich C says Kassiopi is far larger than suggested by photographs and I agree with his description of it as a large village. There are two main roads both full of shops, tavernas, bars etc and then lots of smaller roads which are always worth a wander.

One of the things I like about Kassiopi is that there are lots of nice walks. You can walk the headland starting on the road to the left of the harbour looking out to sea, which is circular and brings you back out at the top end of the village. Or to the right there is a shorter walk which brings you to a lovely small pebble beach. Also if you walk up to the main road and go either north or south (I prefer south) you soon come across little lanes that are not busy with traffic, some of which lead down to secluded coves.

You can also book a private motorised boat from the harbour at a reasonable cost and go out on your own and discover lots more secluded beaches. They advise you to go no further than Agni and of course you can stop at the taverna there and refuel before the return trip.

Then there are all the other boat trips and the trip into Corfu town by boat is infinitely preferable to a bus trip and takes about the same amount of time.

There is a Venetian fortress on the hill that overlooks the town. It was being restored and renovated when we were there this year and so there was no access but when it is open again I recommend a visit because the views are tremendous. It's also very lovely with the flora, fauna and the goats!

We don't like noisy, busy resorts which is why Kassiopi suits us. It's big enough for you (and children for us) not to get bored, offers interesting people watching opportunities (!) plus if you fancy a lively night you can get one. We have never been disturbed in the middle of the night by rowdy behaviour. Having said that it isn't so quiet that you might consider disturbing the dead in order to liven things up.

The only downside to Kassiopi that I can think of is that it is a popular drop in for boat trips/coach trips from elsewhere during the day which can mean some of the tavernas get extremely busy. However they are all gone by 3pm so you get the place back to yourselves.

I would add that we gave Sidari two bashes as day/night visits from other resorts. The first time we left after 20 minutes, The second time we decided to be fair and stay longer but apart from the Canal L'Amour, it really doesn't offer what somewhere like Kassiopi does; beautiful views, picturesque harbour with a definite Greek feel etc.

I must say the resort you are looking for is St George South. Your list of requirements are exactly like ours. We are 49, 44, 16 & 14 and the kids have asked us to book again for next year as they love it. There are no McDonalds or english bars and it is so safe we even allowed the kids to wander about at night themselves. It is very greek - one main street with lots of restaurants and bars. No clubs but plenty of eating places. The beaches are also lovely. There are water sports at one end of the beach such as paragliding, banana boat, ringos etc. In fact, we are going next year for the 3rd year in a row and many people have been going for a lot longer than that. Here is a link to a site which may be useful to you

http://www.stgeorgesouth.bravehost.com

If you need to know more just ask

Hi, Alandfee, If you want a smallish resort that offers a truly Greek,laid back but with a bit of not too loud life then I would reccommend Acharavi, on the northern coast of Corfu. My wife and I have been going there 5 years and have been 8 times. It is a very friendly place with a great selection of good class tavernas and bars. The beach at the eastern end is sand and shingle but the shingle ends at the waters edge so no problems entering the water. There are gaps in the shingle and it is not very dense. It is one of the safest beaches we have ever come across. Many Greek families with young children use this area during their school holidays. There are many good apartments in the area but we travel independantly so arrange our holidays through Travel with friends website and their Acharavi office which is Castaway Travel on the main road in the village. They will send you a brochure if you contact them, then you can choose an apartment or a bungalow then look for a flight only deal. We have sussed them all out and find the AVRO site to give us the best deal and fly with Monarch Airways. Hope this gives you food for thought, Peter Pan of Acharavi is the name I am known by in the old part of the village.

Thanks again for all the input guys.

I think we've maybe decided on Kassiopi. It sounds like a mix of everything we want except the beach. On the plus side a pebble/shingle beach means you don't get sand in your camera, and there are sandy beaches nearby if we want one. We like the idea of the harbour area for boat trips and for generally watching the world go by, and it sounds like it's not too quiet a resort if we do fancy some late night drinking.

It's time to browse through the choice of apartments and read the reviews.

Many thanks to each of you for your time and thoughts.

Al and Fee

Just picked up this thread.

I would suggest you consider Agios Stefanos on the north-west coast. This has ALL the features you consider important....an excellent wide sandy beach, plenty of restaurants and tavernas and still very greek. The resort has many regular visitors and a good atmosphere.
The setting in the bay is beautiful and the surrounding countryside is lovely with hills, valleys and olive groves. Popping into Sidari is easy via a local bus service. Check out http://www.sanstefanos.co.uk

I also 2nd the earlier suggestions of nearby Arillas which also has a good sandy beach but is slightly smaller. See http://www.arillas.com which has a useful Forum too.

The resort we favour is Agios Georgios north but it may be too quiet for you. Worth a visit though when you are touring with your bike. For other readers though the superb long beach and laid-back friendly atmosphere for a real "chill out" sort of holiday might be just what they need http://www.agiosgeorgios.info

Dennis

We stopped in Roda (Roda beach club? i think it was called) and although it was quiet in the town itself it really does depend on what you are looking far, we like to travel the Island too and we hired a jeep to do it in.

The complex we stayed in was first class with plenty to do so we didnt have to really go to the town which was only yards away. Little bit suprised to hear that tour operators are pulling the plug on Roda which i find a shame because we had a great time - helped ofcourse by the complex we stayed in.

Next time i visit Corfu though i would like to stay in Kassiopi because it was a lovely place when we visited and it would be great especially for a base.

Sidari didn't appeal because it was like a sunny Blackpool with all the usual drunken Brits.

Hope this helps - Mark.