Zakynthos or Kusadasi for start of August??

Personally I'd go for Zakinthos over kusadasi any day. Tsilivi or alykanas resorts. It's a lovely island, good food and friendly locals. Corfu is also a lovely island.

+1 for Zakynthos. I stayed in Laganas....in a hotel just on the beach. Away from the madness of the strip but close enough to walk to, on the nights we felt like getting involved
Lots to do too. Water park, quad biking up the mountains, private boat rental was cheap, boat trip to Smugglers Cover, swimming with turtles (rent a kayak for €5 and bring a snorkel and you can see them most days).

I have never been to Kusadasi but I have been to Zakynthos 4 times and I would go back tomorrow if I could, it's a lovely island, I stayed in tsilivi, it has loads of restaurants and bars, but not too mad at night!,
yeah August would be over 30 I would think, I have heard 34-35 degrees mentioned when I was there but it's great by the pool!, the weather was always consistent when I was there, i don't think I even saw a cloud in the sky!,
You can do a day trip to Olympia aswell which I enjoyed even though it's a bit of a journey!

Going back to Zante in June for the 4th time, we got married there in 2009, great great island.

Stay in Kalamaki, nice enough resort, great beach, far enough from Laganas (3miles) for it not to bother you but close enough to pop in.

The Olympia trip is cool, buy it from one of the agents in resort, not the rep (maybe EuroSky), we paid 40Euro i think, great day.

Check post 6 out here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055921692 , quite a few pics

There is usually a sea-breeze especially in the afternoons on the Greek Islands in July/Aug (meltemi wind) that keeps temps from feeling tooo hot. I would stay in a hotel/apt that has air-con though.

Strawberry Milkshake wrote: »

I'm off to Zakynthos in May. First time there and cannot wait!

Is the trip to Olympia expensive?

I think Olympia was €45 but they waited until we got on the ferry then asked us to pay an extra €9 for a ticket into The museum itself, that pissed me off a bit but it was well worth it to be honest! That is pretty much the only thing that is expensive on the island!

Went to Zakynthos a couple of years ago for a chilled out holiday, stayed in Kalamaki in apartments recommended by another boardsie. Dias apartments I think they were called. €200 for 2 sharing for 6 nights (including transfers), albeit towards end of September.

Loads of stuff to do during the day, shipwreck tour, blue caves etc. Drop me a PM if you need any details. I think i've a few PMs from the guy who recommended the place to me so i'll send on anything I can.

^^^^ Scudzilla was the one who gave me all the info when I went actually!

The Davestator wrote: »

Been to both. Zante is nicer but Kusadasi has more interesting things to do during the day. Not much of interest to see on Zante other than a shipwreck!
If it's sun and eating only, go to Zante but if you like to experience different culture and day trips etc, go to Kusadasi

Guess you didn't check the island and trips out

Shipwreck tour (from the sea)
The Blue caves boat trip
Island tour including shipwreck from above
Olympia day trip
Kefalonia day trip
Athens overnight trip
Turtle spotting on a submarine (only 15E and a must)
The regular trips to the water park and greek nights

And that's just off the top of my head

erioalhbiu wrote: »

Thanks guys,

We've decided to go with Zakinthos in the end and are staying in Katerina Palace in Argassi ... anyone been or know anything about the accomadation ..

I know that its basic but I guess as long as its comfortable it will be fine

Argassi is great, not heard much of Katerina Palace but should be grand, Trip Advisor reviews are pretty good, not amazing but good.

Have you booked a package or just flights?

erioalhbiu wrote: »

Yeah looking forward to it now ... some of the reviews are poor alright but majority seem fairly positive so hopefully it will be ok

Booked a package .. we booked with a local travel agent so get it at discounted price which wasn't too bad - 5th to 12th August ..

Just having a search around now for trips, outings etc that we can do ..

As you're only there for a week i'd forget the overnight to Athens, and the day trip to Kefalonia, very tiring.

If you drive then hire a car, 30euro a day, ya can see the whole island in a day, keep the car for 2 days and just potter about finding places.

As for shipwreck beach, it's great and all BUT i wouldn't bother with the boat trip, the beach itself is very small and when 10+ boats descend on it it gets way too packed, view it from above on the island tour, or if you have the car do it yourself, leave early in mornign, there will be nobody about.

Try and get the Olympia trip in, that's around 35euro (an extra 9 for museum ebtrance) but that was one of the highlights of our holiday, seeing the statue of Zeus.

Also the turtle spotting submarine is cool, only half day, 15euro and ya get to see them.

erioalhbiu wrote: »

Fantastic - thank you so much for that advice Scudzilla.

Ya I drive so we'll def hire out a car for at least a day or 2 and check out these places ourselves. Will make sure to do the Olympia trip as well as I have heard lots about that and as you say was one of your highlights!

We were thinking of Kefalonia/Athens only towards the end of the week if we have seen and done everything by then - it might be a nice change to spend a night somewhere different but we will see how things go I guess ..

I've been looking at other stuff and there seems to be loads to do anyway: Shipwreck, smugglers cove, water park, Olympia, submarine, go-karting, horse riding, water sports, scuba diving .....

Really cant wait ... as long as I can stick the heat that is !!!!!!

As you're driving if you go to St Nicholas port, on the far side of the island and get a boat trip around the blue caves (take swimming gear as ya get to go in), the water is crystal blue, about 50ft deep but so clear ya can see right to the bottom. The boat trip will be about 7/8euro, whereas the reps will charge ya 35 for the blue caves trip

erioalhbiu wrote: »

Great - will make sure to take that advice - sounds brilliant, really cheap aswel !!

Is there anything else you would recommend us to do other than what we said above ... i guess we have covered most things there anyway..:)

Most things are covered, a lot of places will do a traditional Greek Night once a week for no extra cost, but you have to book.

We're heading over for 2 weeks in June, will update ya when we get back about anything thats changed much.

Two other places I'd recommend are Porto Limnionas Beach and Xygia Sulphur Beach. Both would require a car.

Oh and for a nice lunch with a spectacular view, take a spin to Mizithres Rocks, Keri. <-- That is the actual view as you sit in the outdoor restaurant. It's located here

Limnionas is great and all but getting in and out of the water is a complete pain in the hole, rocks all the way.

Porto Vromi is MUCH better IMO

snowbabe wrote: »

Ahh lads Ive been here all morn7ng trying to book a holiday to zante for 2 adults and 2 children in june and cant find a thing!!!!

Problem you have is since Thomas Cook went tits up the only company doing Zante is Falcon, and for flights alone you're looking at 450+ pp!!

A far cheaper way is flying from the UK, a bit more hassle in that though.

2 ways to do it, Ryanair to Gatwick then Easyjet, or Ryanair to Brussels then onto Zante, again with Ryanair.

Ya could also book a package from Manchester with Thomas Cook but i think ya need a UK card to do that

We're going in June so may see ya

€241 flying on 4th Jun returning 11th Jun (Ryanair + Jet2). Not sure it's worth a 12hr journey time for such a short distance. I'd definitely pay the extra for the falcon flight

Edit - €248 with ~8hr flight on the Monday

is there any direct flights from Dublin to Zakynthos?

Mr Jinx wrote: »

is there any direct flights from Dublin to Zakynthos?

Only direct flights now are with Falcon, once a week, departing DUB on a Tuesday at 14:10.

You can book Flight only with them too, like we did, price is around 450rtn, expensive if you were looking at going via UK then not that much dearer, for a lot less hassle