With two million tourists a year, the island of Corfu is trying to attract fewer but wealthier tourists and they might just manage it, says Herald columnist Kerry Hudson

I cannot quite pinpoint the reason that I've never been on a package holiday at the big age of 45 years old. Some of it is undoubtedly Scottish stinginess, knowing that there is a price tag for someone to parcel up all the activities and make it easy for you. And the second reason is perhaps pride, I don’t want it to be ‘easy’. One of the things I like most about travel is organizing, working out the logistics, and feeling the sense of accomplishment when you make it from one place to another unscathed.

If I'm honest, there is probably also a bit of snobbery, especially for places on ‘The Med’. I imagine men in football shirts with massive bellies, tucking into fried breakfasts ordered from laminated menus with the Union Jack on them, and women the colour of 1970s sideboards, puffing away on Benson & Hedges. What I think of when I think of popular British holiday destinations is TV shows showing and skewering the worst of hedonistic tourism, ‘Benidorm’ (the noughties classic), ‘Club Reps’ or the ‘No carbs before Marb's’ gang from the Only Way is Essex. But, for The Herald readership and for science, I decided to give a package holiday in Corfu a go.

My husband was the first to express doubt that I wouldn’t want to gouge out my eyes after........

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