Zakynthos is a small Greek island located in the Ionian Sea. With only 410 square km and 123 coastline, it is a well known tourist destination. The Venetians gave a nickname to the island during their occupation, „The flower of the East“.

In 1953, Zakynthos was rocked by a serie of earthquakes, which destroyed a huge part of the island. Only three buildings were not destroyed in Zakynthos City. In 2006, the western part of the island got hit by an enormous forest fire. 8 years after the fire, we could still see the leftovers of this fire.

I immediately fell in love with this island. It is a really nice place with a lot of charm, very attractive sightseeing places and delicious food. Zakynthos is a perfect destination for a one week holiday.

Shipwreck Beach

The Shipwreck Beach is the most known landmark of Zakynthos and the most photographed view in Greece.

Unfortunately the iconic Shipwreck Beach will remain closed during 2023. After some researches, experts from the Anti-Seismic Planning and Protection Organization think that it is too dangerous to visit the Navagio Beach. It is too dangerous because of the erosion of the surrounding cliffs. There is a significant risk of landslides.

Basically, it is a bay you can only access by boat, but what makes it so famous is its shipwreck, which lies on the beach. The Shipwreck or Navagio Beach is also called Smugglers Cove, because the ship, named Panagiotis, which shipwrecked there in 1980 was a smuggler ship for cigarettes. At that time, they were suspected of smuggling and the Greek Navy pursued them. Once they saw the coast guards, they tried to flee and abandoned their ship.

There are two popular ways to discover the beauty of the beach.

First, you can access the Shipwreck Beach by boat. All over the island, they offer tours to the beach. You pay to get there and the tour operator will leave you there for a certain amount of time and pick you up when time is over. Two recommend places to start are Porto Vromi and Agios Nikolaos.

Second, you can get an amazing view over the whole cove and shipwreck from a famous view point. This one is located in Anafonitria. Most of the tourists step on the viewpoint, which is something like a cage and go. I recommend you to walk a little bit further along the cliff to the end of the rock. From there, you’ll have a breathtaking view on the Navagio Beach. Be sure to have good shoes with you, because there isn’t really a path. When you want to take awesome pictures, the whole cove shines in different colors through the different daylights.

Blue Caves

The Blue Caves are perfect to combine with the boat tour to the shipwreck beach. This is what we did. We booked a combine tour with the blue caves and the shipwreck beach from Agios Nikolaos.

The Blue Caves of Volimes are also only accessible by the sea, but are also a major tourist attraction. Along the north coast of Zakynthos, you’ll find plenty of caves. The biggest one is called Kianoun. They are called Blue Caves, because the caves reflects the blue color of the water. So everything in the caves looks blue. It’s really magical.

Our boat stopped there, so we could go swimming.

Kap Keri

The Kap Keri is located in the very south of Zakynthos. This cape is mostly famous for two reasons. The first one are the two Mizithres rocks and the second is the amazing sunset.

The Mizithres rocks consists of one small and one big rock, which protrudes powerfully out of the turquoise light blue water. Most people only see the rocks from the Lighthouse restaurant, but I got the tip to follow another more secluded way. After a while, we stopped at a cliff. When we looked over, there they were, the magical Mizithres rocks. It was such a beautiful moment. The most beautiful thing was, that we were completely alone on this amazing spot.

To get closer to the rocks, you can jump over a split in the rock. Since you’re completely on your own, you really have to pay attention, because there is no fence or something like that, that will prevent you from falling down the cliffs. Something we recognized later on, the piece of rock on which we sat, was completely separated by a split from the solid part of the rock. It was quite dangerous, but it was completely worthy on it.

Marathonisi

Marathonisi, also called turtle island because of its turtle shape, is an absolutely must do while you’re in Zakynthos. Whether you do it via an organized tour or you hire a boat and sail there on your own, it’s completely worth it. A good point to start is Limni Keriou, a small village in the south of Zakynthos.

The turtle island is one of the main places for the Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) to nest. If you’re lucky enough, you can spot them in their natural habitat.

When you’ve hired a boat, you have the possibility to drive just to the beach of the island. But be sure to pay attention how to fix your boat, because it is not allowed to let the anchor into the water to protect the turtles. If you want to stay the whole day on that beach, be sure to have food and drinks with you, because there is nothing like that on Marathonisi.

Most part of the beach is closed for public, because of the nesting areas of the turtles. You are just allowed to use the front of the beach. The nests of the turtles are marked by a wooden frame.

Banana-Beach

The Banana-Beach is one of the several beaches in Zakynthos located in the East of the island. Basically, it is a sand beach with a very nice beach bar. You get delicious snacks and drinks.

But the Banana-Beach is mostly famous for their water sport activities. The company who organize this is called Banana Watersports. They offer all sorts of water sports. I decided for Jetski and Parasailing. Both of them were so fun, I would immediately do it again.

Callinico Winery

The Callinico Winery is something, which I really highly recommend, especially when you’re a wine lover. It is the biggest private winery of the island and completely open to the public.

First, you go through a kind of museum, which shows and explains how wine was produced in the past.

Second, you go through the winery itself with all the machinery to produce the wine and to stock it.Finally, you are invited to taste their wine for free. You can try all their wines, even those that you can’t buy in a normal store on the island. The girl of the owner did this for us. She was really nice and answered all our questions.

Cameo Island

Cameo Island is a very small island next to the village Agios Sostis. Basically, it is a private island that got its name from its owner. During the day, it is a place to escape all the tourists, because you have to pay to get on the island. It has a small beach and a beach bar. But in the evening, it is a really party area with plenty of music and even a light show. It is accessible by a footbridge, which makes it very special.

It is really famous for being a popular wedding place. Many couples just travel to Zakynthos to get married on the Cameo Island. Even if you won’t get married, go and spend a good time there, it’s really worth it.

Porto Vromi & Porto Limonias

Those two places are basically ports and very popular places to go swimming. They are both located on the West side of the island and are accessible by car.

The Porto Vromi is not that easy to reach, because you have to drive a horrible kind of street to get there. Driving a car in Zakynthos is really exciting when you are used to the Western European standards.

The Porto Limonias is a little bit more dangerous place to swim, because there is no beach, but you enter the sea by rocks, which can be very difficult and painful.

But both of them are so beautiful places to swim with its light blue and clear water.

Zakynthos City

This is the capital city of the island Zakynthos. It is also where we had our hotel. It is a really beautiful city with a lot of delicious restaurants right in front of the port.

A few sights are the Agios Dionysios Church, the Agios Nikolaos Church, the Solomos Statue and of course the Kastro, which is the old fortress of Zakynthos. Even though that the whole island has so many beautiful sights, you should visit at least at one day the capital city of the small island.

It’s also nice to walk along the port and observe all the yachts and small charming boats.

Mountain Vrachionas

For the more fit people, I highly recommend you to climb up to the mountain Vrachionas. It is the highest point of the island with 758 meters. To start, you have to drive to the village Loucha. If you want to know the exact way to get up, don’t hesitate to ask me, I can tell it to you, because it isn’t indicated.

The way up isn’t that complicated if you are in a good shape. It will take you a little bit more than an hour to get up to the mountain. But once you’re there, you won’t return anymore. You’ll have an amazing view over the whole island and also on the neighbor island. If you’re lucky, you can even see the Greek land.

Be sure to have something to drink and perhaps to eat with you, because there is no possibility to buy it.

In conclusion, I really love Zakynthos and I recommend it to all of you. Something really strange for me, was to throw the used toilet paper into a rubbish bin next to the toilet, instead of in the toilet. They have really small sewers there and to prevent them from being blocked, they do it this way.

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