August 2020, 5 nights with the family
Visit the Instagram famous Shipwreck Beach and enjoy the best food in the Greek Islands, but don’t expect any charming towns or high quality amenities or services.
Like the rest of our travel guides, this is not an all-encompassing account of everything we did. We do not want to make a list of ‘Best’ or ‘Must-do’ experiences since we know it depends on your personal preferences. These are only our personal favorites and they are divided into two groups: “Avventura Favves” and “Other Things We Liked”.
The Avventura’s Ionian Islands Map with pins dropped for all of the Avventura Favves from Zakynthos and Kefalonia.
Overview
After our visit, we designated Zakynthos as the best food that we’ve had in Greece. That’s quite an accomplishment, given our love and focus on food and that we’ve eaten lots of Greek food in our lives. The best part about the food was that it was never the same from place to place. There were little twists on old taverna classics and many times we had to ask for clarification on an item on the menu. The highlight of our trip was an amazing day on a private boat circling the island. We hit the famous Shipwreck Beach, swam through some of the coolest caves in the world and spotted a few sea turtles near Turtle Island. It’s paramount while in Zakynthos to steer clear the tourist traps — there are several towns of “Vegas-like” amenities (electronic message signs for cheap drinks, restaurants with pictures of their food, and amusement park rides). You also want to be sure you pay attention while driving — Google maps was not very good on this island and took us on many impassable dirt roads and even almost led us off a cliff to Sfogio Beach (which is only accessible by boat!). But overall, it’s an island that’s worth a few days — definitely one on a boat, a trip to Banana Beach, to enjoy the good food and then head to Kefalonia on the direct ferry.
Avventura Favves
Beaches
Shipwreck Beach (Navagio Beach) – This is the famous Instagrammable beach and it is easily the most popular thing to do and see on Zakynthos. The colors and lighting are incredible and the story of how the ship got there is entertaining (spoiler alert: it involves cigarette smuggling). It has to be seen in two ways. First, visit by driving to the overlook point and gaze down onto the beach. We stopped short because the road said do not enter and walked 15 minutes down, but there is a parking lot right next to the point if you prefer not to walk. And second, you must take a boat to visit the beach. There are many many boat options, from private tours to huge 50 person boats. See below for our choice. We did the boat in the morning to avoid the crowds and went to the overlook one afternoon to see that water color at its most spectacular.
Banana Baya Beach Bar – This was Dave’s favorite beach in Zakynthos. He continued to talk about it for the rest of the vacation. It was a great combination of beautiful white sand, fancy chairs and umbrellas (for 7-10€ for the day total), bar service, easy parking, and showers. We spent several hours there having drinks and relaxing.
Gerakas Beach (turtle nesting site) – This is a great place to head to early in the morning. The turtles nest there and can often be seen around 7-9am. We arrived around 10 and still got to see one baby turtle trying to get out to sea. The beach itself is really nice too, with chairs and umbrellas for rent, and beautiful water.
Private boat ride with Seascape – Although this experience could be tricky to fit into the budget (around 500 euros for the day), it was definitely worth it. We started the day at 8:30 and headed straight for Shipwreck beach to get there before the big boats and crowds (note that the early time avoided the crowds, but since the sun was not directly overhead it also affected the color of the water – it depends on your priorities). We then took our time visiting several boat-only accessible beaches and caves. The highlight was Keri Cave that you could swim through. The color was mesmerizing. The boat company even had a GoPro for us to use during the adventure to record our experiences and the kids loved it. Finally, we spotted and snorkeled with a couple of sea turtles near turtle island (an island shaped like a turtle that is another nesting spot for the local loggerheads). Simple snacks and drinks were provided and it was an overall great day.
Restaurants & Bars
We didn’t take many individual pictures at restaurants, except of the food! It was amazing all over the island (remember that we have declared it the best food all over Greece). These were our favves.
- Ampelostrates – This is a really cool restaurant/winery up in the mountains with a fun, rustic taverna vibe. The food was delicious and we were the only ones speaking English there.
- Bassia – This was a beautiful restaurant with an incredible view. The dishes were creative and they had delicious seafood.
- Pita Break Grill House – We ate a lot of gyros this week…and when I say a lot, I mean usually once per day. Ours kids cannot get enough of them. These were easily the best gyros we had in all of Zakynthos and Kefalonia. And they were 2.20€ a piece. Go there.
- Artogonia Bakery – This is a bakery in town with a huge variety of delicious sweets. We grabbed their perfect spanakopita (spinach pie) for breakfast, as well as many other items.
Other Things We Liked
Porto Limnonias is a very small rocky beach on the west side of the island that although beautiful was actually one of the more crowded beaches we visited. Be sure to bring water shoes and a snorkel. Further down, is another very small rocky beach area called Porto Roxa that has a cool diving platform to take a jump from.
Makris Gialos is a small pebble beach right off the road with amazing water color and not too crowded. It was worth it for a short stay and then lunch at the nearby El Sueno. For having many international items on the menu (like pasta and hamburgers), their Greek cuisine was surprisingly delicious and the view could not be beat.
Meraki Taverna – This was our first meal in Zakynthos and really set the stage for the rest of the week. They serve really well prepared taverna classics, and had some interesting twists.
Ilyessa Cottages – We stayed at this small family run hotel about 20 minutes from the port. It had a nice pool with a sea view and served a really good mojito. Very family friendly and nearby to a little bakery where we got most of our breakfasts. Similar to a lot of Zakythnos, it was not quite as refined as our accommodations on Kefalonia.
Auto Traffic Rentals – After a few terrible experiences of waiting in line for hours at the airport in Europe trying to rent a car from a large company in the summertime, we’ve turned to using these small car rental companies instead. It was a convenient and fast experience, but the car was old and they charged us a pretty big fee (60€) to leave the car at the Agios Nikolaos port instead of back at the airport.
Logistics and Miscellaneous Notes
- We flew to Zakynthos directly from Milan – direct on EasyJet. Super easy.
- There is a direct ferry between Zakynthos and Kefalonia (not from Zakynthos port but but the northern point of Agios Nikolaos; and Pessada port on Kefalonia). There are only 2 ferries per day in the summer months. You can buy tickets at Xionis Tours in Zakynthos. There are multiple places on Kefalonia to get tickets – http://www.ionianseaferries.gr/en/sale-pointsprices
Next Time We Go
We would swim in the sea caves again or have another drink at Banana Beach or maybe we would just spend more time in Kefalonia. Have we mentioned enough how much we love Kefalonia?!?!
Have any questions or suggestions for Zakynthos? Post them in the comments below or contact us at LewinAvventura@gmail.com.
The Avventura 