5-Day Corfu & Paxos Sailing Itinerary: Route Map, Anchorages & Daily Legs

Before You Slip the Lines

Most crews start this route from Gouvia Marina, the North Ionian's biggest charter base, 6 nm north of Corfu Town. Two pieces of paperwork matter: the DEKPA transit log (required for foreign-flagged yachts over 7 m, obtainable at Gouvia or the Corfu Town port police) and the TEPAI cruising tax, paid online at e-tepai.gr before you arrive. Charter boats normally have both handled — ask your base. The wind pattern is blissfully simple: calm mornings, then the maestro, a NW thermal breeze of 10–18 knots building from around midday and easing at sunset. Plan to motor-sail early and reach in the afternoons.

One habit worth forming on day one: every bay on this route is busy in season, and a boat that drags 30 m here doesn't find open water — it finds a neighbour's topsides. Drop the hook, set it properly, then start your anchor alarm before you head for the taverna. Each anchorage below links to its full guide with a recommended alarm radius.

Day 1: Gouvia → Benitses (8 nm)

A short shakedown leg — deliberately. Check out of Gouvia Bay after the briefing, hoist sails in the Corfu Channel to make sure everything works, and be aware this is a genuinely busy stretch of water: car ferries, cruise ships and day boats all funnel between Corfu and the mainland. Cross traffic lanes briskly and keep a proper watch.

Benitses, a former fishing village below wooded slopes, makes an easy first night: anchor south of the fishing jetty in 2.5–4 m over sand and mud with good holding, protected from the N and NE. Watch the shoaling SE corner of the bay, and give it a miss if southerlies are forecast. Suggested alarm radius here: ~65 m. Ashore you get your first proper Greek taverna dinner without the Corfu Town crowds.

Day 2: Benitses → Lakka, Paxos (22 nm)

The longest single leg of the trip, and often the best: once you clear Corfu's southern tip the afternoon maestro comes over your starboard quarter and the boat settles into a lazy reach across open water to Paxos. Leave by mid-morning so the breeze fills in en route rather than on the bow.

Lakka is the postcard: a near-landlocked horseshoe bay at Paxos's northern tip, turquoise over sand, ringed by olive trees. Anchor free-swinging in the northern sandy part in 3–4 m — the holding is good once your anchor is set through the thin weed — or take a spot on the small town quay. It gets genuinely crowded by late afternoon in July and August, so aim to arrive by 15:00. Free-swinging with plenty of scope out, set the alarm radius around 70 m.

Day 3: Lakka → Loggos → Gaios (6 nm)

Almost a rest day — 6 nm in total down Paxos's pretty east coast, so spend the morning swimming in Lakka before you move. Drop the hook off Loggos for lunch: the smallest and arguably most charming of Paxos's three harbour villages, with a handful of quayside tavernas and good holding in 3–5 m of mud and sand. It's comfortable in the prevailing NW but open to the E–SE, which is exactly why it works better as a lunch stop than a bolt-hole.

Gaios, the island capital, hides behind the islet of St Nicholas in a fjord-like channel — one of the most protected harbours in the Ionian. Go stern-to on the North Quay in 2.5–3 m (your anchor drops into 5–8 m in the channel; note the tripper-boat section is off-limits 10:00–17:00), or swing off St Nicholas island outside. Quay-side with limited swing, a tight ~50 m alarm radius is enough. Gaios has the best provisioning and nightlife of the island — enjoy it, tomorrow is beach day.

Day 4: Gaios → Antipaxos → Lefkimmi (22 nm)

Leave early — this matters. The twin beaches of Antipaxos, Vrika and Voutoumi, are among the most beautiful anchorages in the Mediterranean, and by 11:00 in high summer they are a raft of day-trip boats from Corfu. Arrive by 09:00 and you'll have water so clear the boat appears to float on air, and your pick of the sandy patches. We'd head for Voutoumi: anchor in 4–7 m on white sand with excellent holding — but snorkel first, because Posidonia seagrass fringes the bay and anchoring on it is both damaging and fineable. This is a swim stop, not a sleep stop: both bays are open to the NW maestro.

By early afternoon, break off and sail the ~19 nm north to Lefkimmi at Corfu's southern tip — the route's sleeper hit. The harbour sits in a short canal with virtually all-round shelter, 2–3 m over mud, bows- or stern-to along the quay. Take the narrow canal slowly and watch for fishing boats. It's an authentic, untouristy corner of Corfu, and inside the canal a ~40 m alarm radius covers you. After Antipaxos crowds, the quiet is the point.

Day 5: Lefkimmi → Corfu Town → Gouvia (18 nm)

Leave by 09:00 to carry calm water up Corfu's east coast before the afternoon breeze and to make your charter check-in time comfortably. For a proper last flourish, stop for lunch at Mandraki, the small harbour tucked directly beneath the walls of Corfu Town's Old Fortress — a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Stern-to on the outer quay in 2–3 m, then walk straight into the Venetian old town for lunch. Expect ferry wash, and skip it in NE wind.

From Mandraki it's an easy final hour back to Gouvia. Fuel, tidy the boat, and hand her back — five days, roughly 75 nm, eight anchorages, and (if the alarm stayed quiet) five full nights of sleep.

Variations: 3 Days or 7 Days

• 3-day weekend: Gouvia → Lakka (~28 nm) → Gaios via a Loggos or Antipaxos stop → Gouvia (~31 nm). Skip Benitses and Lefkimmi. It's brisker but entirely doable with an early start on the last day.
• 7-day loop: add a night at Mourtos (Sivota) on the mainland coast between Paxos and Corfu — a lagoon-like channel behind islets — and a second night on Paxos so Antipaxos can be a full, unhurried day. If the forecast is settled and you want one wilder card, West Corfu's Paleokastritsa is spectacular — but treat it as a settled-weather day anchorage in high summer.

Why an Anchor Alarm Matters on This Route

The North Ionian is gentle, but its anchorages are crowded — and crowding changes the maths of dragging. In Lakka at peak season, boats swing within a couple of boat-lengths of each other; holding is good sand, but only once the anchor has set through the weed layer, and the classic failure mode is an anchor that felt set at 6 p.m. letting go when the residual maestro gusts swing the fleet at 2 a.m. A GPS anchor alarm watches your position all night, even with the phone locked, and wakes you the moment you leave your safe radius — while the problem is still a winch job, not a fender drill.

Radius matters as much as the alarm itself: too tight and GPS drift gives you false alarms, too loose and you're alongside a neighbour before it fires. Work it out from your scope with our anchor scope calculator, and read how GPS accuracy affects anchor alarms to tune it. Every anchorage page linked above carries its own recommended radius.

The Bottom Line

This loop is the Ionian doing what the Ionian does best: real sailing in the afternoons, flat calm at anchor, and a different village every evening — with an all-weather refuge never more than a couple of hours away. Time your Antipaxos arrival for the morning, respect the Corfu Channel traffic, keep your chain off the Posidonia, and run your anchor alarm every night. The rest is swimming and tavernas.