The Golden West-Coast Sand Beaches: Glyfada, Kontogialos, Agios Gordios and Issos Dunes

While the north-eastern coast of Corfu is famous for smooth white pebbles, travellers who love wide, soft, stone-free golden sand beaches where you can walk for a kilometre in shallow surf and watch the sun sink directly into the open sea should head straight across the 15-kilometre waist of the island to the central and southern West Coast.

1. Glyfada, Kontogialos (Pelekas) & Myrtiotissa (15 km Directly West of Corfu Town)

Just 25 to 30 minutes' drive west of Corfu Old Town (and served hourly by Green KTEL Bus B8 and B11), three gorgeous sandy bays sit side by side beneath the hilltop village of Pelekas (where German Kaiser Wilhelm II built his wooden 'Kaiser's Throne' observatory on the rocky summit for 360-degree island sunsets):

• Glyfada Beach: a wide, 1.2-kilometre Blue-Flag ribbon of fine golden sand with a gently shelving, rock-free sandy seabed, framed by steep pine-clad hills and lively beach bars.
• Kontogialos (Pelekas Beach): the next sandy bay south of Glyfada, offering warm shallow water and relaxed family beach tavernas.
• Myrtiotissa Beach (One Cove North of Glyfada): a secluded, dramatic pocket of golden sand tucked beneath sheer green cliffs where freshwater trickles down the rock, famously described by Lawrence Durrell in Prospero's Cell as 'perhaps the loveliest beach in the world'.

2. Agios Gordios (16 km South-West) & The Sahara-Like Dunes of Issos / Lake Korission

• Agios Gordios Beach (Green Bus B10): backed by a towering green amphitheatre of olive and cypress mountains and anchored at its southern end by the dramatic standalone sea-rock of Ortholithi, Agios Gordios offers 1.5 kilometres of golden sand and laid-back sunset tavernas.
• Issos Sand Dunes & Halikounas (At Lake Korission, 30 km South): further south along the western coast, a 5-kilometre-long barrier of towering, golden Sahara-like sand dunes topped by rare centuries-old wild sea-cedar trees (Juniperus macrocarpa) separates the open Ionian Sea from the protected Natura 2000 saltwater lagoon of Lake Korission (home to greater flamingos, cormorants and over 120 bird species). Walk over the wooden bridge onto the vast, uncrowded dunes of Issos and Halikounas for miles of wild golden sand.