Also known by its Italian name Zante, Zakynthos offers lush hills, pine-covered mountains and crystal-clear seas. Home to wildlife sanctuaries and protected turtle beaches, it’s a haven for nature lovers, with stunning spots like the iconic Shipwreck Beach waiting to be explored.
The island’s famous Shipwreck Beach is one of the most photographed in all Greece – to avoid the crowds, visit in low season, when it’s indeed as gorgeous as the pictures promise.
Full of lively restaurants and cherry-red bougainvillea, Zakynthos Town adds a touch of sparkle to the busier eastern side of the island.
Also in the east, the forested and serene Vasilikos Peninsula is home to the long and sandy Gerakas beach, one of the island’s finest and a nesting site for turtles from May to October.
Scenic roads wind through the island’s beautiful wooded hill country, where locals sell honey and other seasonal produce.
In the north, boats leave from Agios Nikolaus and Cape Skinari for the Blue Caves, sea-level caverns in the coastal cliffs where the water turns a translucent blue when lit by the morning sun.
Zakynthos is one of Greece’s greenest islands. We mean this literally. On the coast, emerald hills slide into the sapphire-blue Ionian, while the mountainous interior – all sleepy stone villages poking out of pine forests – is great for hiking and biking.
But we also mean it figuratively. There are wildlife sanctuaries here home to deer, chinchilla and dozens of other species. And much of the coast is a nature reserve where endangered loggerhead turtles come to lay their eggs. The turtle beaches are off limits during nesting season but there are countless other bays and coves to explore, the most famous being Shipwreck Beach on the north-west coast, where a rusting liner leans into chalky-white cliffs.
This all-suite, adults-only resort in the picturesque village of Tragaki Zakynthos is an award-winning member of The Leading Hotels of the World and an excellent choice for a relaxing, romantic break.
Set on a private sandy beach in a secluded bay on the island of Zakynthos, the family-oriented Porto Zante Villas & Spa offers nine elegant beachfront villas, all with private pools, ranging in size from one to four bedrooms.
With superb sunset views to Kefalonia opposite, this elegant spa resort feels wonderfully remote on the Akrotiri peninsula yet is actually just a few miles away from the lively town of Zante. The main resort is a labyrinth of low buildings, stone archways and paved alleyways clustered around a sun-soaked central courtyard with a traditional kafenion (café).