Corfu

Is Corfu safe?

Corfu is safe from crime, and the dangers that matter are on its roads and, in summer, in its hills. Police recorded 1 homicide and 4 robberies in the Corfu regional unit in 2024, according to Eurostat, for about 99,000 residents. The Ionian Islands, on the other hand, had the highest road death rate of any Greek region that year.

We score Corfu 73, level with Mykonos, a point above Santorini (72) and below Rhodes (74) and Dubrovnik (78) up the Adriatic. The gap with Rhodes is mostly roads: Corfu's region has more road deaths per head.

This page covers the whole island: Corfu Town with its Old Town, the resorts and villages of the north coast, the west-coast beaches, and Kavos at the southern tip. The crime figures are for the regional unit of Corfu, the smallest area for which Greece publishes them.

Roads and quads

ELSTAT counted 28 road deaths in the Ionian Islands in 2024, 14.0 per 100,000 people, against 6.4 for Greece and 11.0 in the South Aegean, the next-worst region. The region also takes in Kefalonia, Zakynthos and Lefkada, and the toll was 26 in 2022 and 24 in 2023, so 2024 was not a one-off. Summer visitors inflate the per-resident rate, ELSTAT notes, but they are also on the roads.

Hire cars, scooters and quads share the island's roads with coaches and lorries. The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary warns that quad bikes cause deaths in Greece every year, that many insurance policies exclude them, and that hire firms usually sell only third-party cover and may charge you for any damage, with arrest if you refuse to pay. Drivers often ignore pedestrian crossings, so cross with care in Corfu Town too.

If you drive, hire a car rather than a quad, avoid mountain roads after dark and keep your speed down on bends.

Kavos, theft and nights out

Kavos, at the southern end of the island, is where the news reports of trouble involving visitors that we found took place. In June 2023 police opened an investigation after videos showed tourists apparently attacking a British rapper there, the local news site Enimerosi reported. Thefts follow the crowds: in one August, police in Kavos arrested four people for stealing more than €1,000 from tourists' rented rooms and about €2,000 worth of phones.

The overall numbers are low. Police recorded 73 thefts in the regional unit in 2024, about 74 per 100,000 residents, a fifth of the rate in the Cyclades and far below Attica's 1,047. It is also the lowest recorded rate of any Greek island unit, well below Lefkada (215) and Zakynthos (305), and the thefts from rooms in Kavos show the risk is real, so we do not score Corfu above Heraklion on theft. The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary's pickpocketing warning names the Athens metro, not the islands. Lock valuables in the room safe, keep your phone out of reach in crowded bars and do not leave bags on the beach while you swim.

Drinks are a risk of their own. In September 2023, after a young British woman died in a fall near a bar in Kavos, the island's authorities announced that 28 bars would be shut following an operation against tax evasion and adulterated or contraband drinks, Proto Thema reported. The FCDO's advice for nights out in Greece fits Kavos: watch your drink, do not let friends walk back alone and use pre-arranged transport. Greek police arrest people for rowdy or indecent behaviour, and courts can impose heavy fines.

Walking at night

Corfu Town's Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a maze of stone-paved lanes and squares, and robbery is very rare on the island. For walking at night we use the EU's 2023 survey of city residents. Corfu was not surveyed, so like every Greek island it takes Heraklion, the only island city in the survey, where 68% of residents felt safe walking alone at night. That gives a night score of 77. Athens, at 40%, is a poor guide here: the Corfu unit recorded 4 robberies per 100,000 people in 2024, close to Heraklion's 3 and far below Attica's 60.

Wildfires, earthquakes and health

Wildfires are a summer risk across Greece from April to October, and Corfu has had its share. In July 2023, as fires burned on Rhodes, Greece's emergency service ordered the villages of Santa, Megoula, Porta, Palia, Perithia and Sinies in the north of Corfu evacuated, and boats were sent to take people off by sea, the BBC reported. Switch on emergency alerts on your phone, as the FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary advises, and know the way out of your resort.

The Ionian coast is earthquake country. The US Geological Survey recorded a magnitude 6.3 quake about 80 km to the south-east in 2003, a 5.4 near Gaios, about 50 km south-east of Corfu Town, in 2007, a 5.7 on the mainland about 70 km away in 2020 and a 5.5 in Epirus, also about 70 km away, in March 2026. The FCDO also warns of winter storms that cause flash floods.

The island's general hospital, Agia Eirini, is in Corfu Town. The FCDO says care on the islands may be limited, state nursing is basic and ambulances are scarce on some islands, so take out travel insurance that covers evacuation.

How we scored it

Violent crime (90) is Corfu's strongest factor, followed by theft and scams (78) and walking at night (77), which uses Heraklion's answer to the EU's 2023 survey, as for every Greek island. Traffic safety (42) is the weakest, reflecting the Ionian Islands' road death rate, the highest in Greece in 2024.