Durrell Island Private Tour by coach

Who would have known, back in 1935, that the arrival of this odd family from Britain, the Durrell family, would have resulted in so much creativity, writing and filming. Both Gerald and his older brother Lawrence, critically acclaimed writers, each in their own style, have certainly shaped Corfu’s history, having made her so popular through their books.

On the Durrell Island Tour we will see the first house they lived in, known as the Strawberry Pink Villa. We will also visit the home of their taxi driver and invaluable friend Spiros “The American” Chalikiopoulos, in Kanoni, and retrace the steps taken by the young Gerald and his mentor Theodore Stefanides around the Chalikiopoulos lagoon. It was these first steps around the shores and in the omnipresent olive groves of Corfu, which set him on his course to become one of the world’s greatest naturalists, writers and first conservationists. Here is where he first acquired his interest in wildlife, from the smallest insects, to the birds and fauna, characteristic of the island.

We also visit the house that Lawrence and Nancy lived in for three years, the world famous White House in Kalami, on the Northeast coast of Corfu. This was the base from which they walked or sailed in their yacht, to places like the chapel of Agios Arsenios on the rocks in a nearby cove. And within its sanctuary, Lawrence continued on his course to become a great writer, eventually publishing a multitude of novels, poetry and essays, amongst them “Prospero’s Cell” based on the experiences of his life in Corfu.

For those who are either already fans, or those who are just setting off to get to know the story of the Durrells, the Durrell Island Tour is the best way to immerse yourselves into the world that helped to form and fuel the creativity of these two great writers.