Zakynthos... pros/cons?

Woof!

Howdy. im looking to book a holiday within the next few days for me and my girlfriend.... we were looking at zakynthos and were just wondering is it a nice place because neither of us have been there before and we dont know off hand anybody who has been. so any tips/tricks or bad things will be taken on board. thanks

growler

Cons: full of drunken english, beaches are packed line sardines, every restaurant has the same menu and the same prices and the food is pretty poor, airport is a joke (no services), some of the hotels in the 3* range would be rejected by Lebanese refugees etc.


Pros: there are some turtles in the sea which is nice. Weather is good.

Was there about 4 years ago and think it's probably the worst place I ever had the misfortune to visit, on the plus side my girlfriend has never booked a holiday since.

Buttony

We were there a few years ago and we had a brilliant holiday. Stay away from the main town/resort its awful but some of the others were lovely. The nice beaches are off the beaten track so hire a vehicle. There is a day trip to shipwreck cove which is definelty worth the trip. It depends what you like, we are not big into lying on the beach or by the pool for hours so we toured the island and a week was enough for that.

Ham Slicer

Agree with Growler.

Was there a few years ago.

Cons: Nothing to see and full of tacky restaurants and villages. Would never recommend it.

Pros: It's not far from Kefalonia. If your looking for a place to see this is the place to go.

BoozyBabe

I disagree.

Went last year & absolutely loved it, prob my fav hol so far.

Here's a review I did of it when I came back last year.

Caretta Beach - Kalamaki

Operator and Date: (Panorama Discounts) Panorama - 30 Apr -7 May 2005

Opinion submitted in May 2005

Resort Rating: Very Good

Accommodation Rating: Excellent

My/Our Holiday Opinion:

Flights & transfer to Zakynthos were fine. We were the first plane of the summer season into Zakynthos so nothing was opened when we first arrived (practically everything was opened by the Saturday we were flying home)

The tour rep was pathetic. I

1st night we went to the Pandesia restaurant & had a beautiful meal, the food was only luke warm though which apparently is the Greek way.

The next day we went across the road and hired a car with the Merlis company (that we were told not to do) (I had read lots of reviews before we left & there was nothing but good praise for Merlis so I was confident we were doing the right thing)
We hired a new Hyundai Getz with Air/Con for 1 week for e150 all inclusive. They didn't take credit card & we hadn't yet got to a bank machine to get cash so we told him we'd call back later. He wouldn't hear of it & insisted we took the car with us & just call in sometime later with the cash, we didn't have to leave our passport or anything with them. It was a great service. We were told to just leave the car at the hotel when we were finished with it & they'd collect it there.

We went into Zakynthos town to get cash & we stopped to ask locals for directions. It was their Easter Sunday so everyone was out barbecuing & celebrating.
We got directions but they gave us pieces of meat to eat as well, then more & more meat. They wanted us to have some wine / beer / water / mineral, anything with them, but we felt we had already taken too much. Then they came out with a full bag of delicious breads that they'd baked themselves & insisted we took it with us. Then they gave us more meat & we were on our way.
Talk about the Irish supposedly being friendly, we couldn't believe what just happened, it made our day, they were so nice.

We spent a few days driving around the Island as no tours were running yet & the water park wasn't opened. Zakynthos has some wonderful views & scenery, but here's some down sides I found: A lot of the buildings look a bit rough. Due to earthquakes they have to build their houses with iron rods through their brick work. They seem to have a long term plan of perhaps building a two storey house but only build one there & then. The iron rods are left poking out of the top of the house & makes them look grubby.
Rubbish isn't collected nearly often enough. Especially on minor roads, there's overflowing bins & rubbish heaps everywhere.
When they're finished driving a particular car, they just leave it at the side of the road for vandals to smash etc.
The beaches are not V good at all. Those that do have sand are littered with rubbish. Beach combing wouldn't go astray.
We found one lovely beach: Gerakas Beach which was lovely.
At every beach, the water is SO blue, you have to see it to believe it, it's gorgeous.

Again, as tours weren't running, we took ourselves to the ferry one morning & took our car over to the Island of Kefalonia. (Again Merlis proved to be superb, we phoned them to make sure it was ok to take the car off the island & they nearly laughed at us for asking, it was no problem to do so at all)
It cost e20 for the car & e4 each per passenger each way, so e56 in total. (When we got to the ferry, 2 buses pulled in so there actually was a tour, but looking back, it actually cost more than what we paid. On the bus was the wonderful tour rep mentioned above; more later!) Kefalonia was absolutely gorgeous. Same as Zakynthos, but without the bad points. The only thing was the beaches that we saw were pebble beaches, but they were so beautiful, it didn't matter.
Arriving in Kefalonia, we followed the bus as we didn't know where we were going. They brought us to the Dogarati caves. They cost e3.50 each and weren't V impressive. They butchered the stalagtites & stalagmites to fit in with the paths they wanted to lay. If anyone has been to the Marble Arch Caves in Co. Fermanagh (I think) would have been V disappointed with these ones.

We bought a map here & then left the buses behind. Our next stop was the Melissani lake Cave. I think this cost e5 each. It was just beautiful. the roof of the cave fell in 1000s of years ago, so the sun beams down on the water. The water again is so blue & crystal clear & as you walk down the tunnel to the cave all you can see is bright blue. You are taken for a little boat trip in the cave. At one point the water is 70meters deep & you can see all the way to the bottom. It was just beautiful.

Then we drove to Myrtos beach, pebbly but breathtaking. The water looked eerie to me. It was as if it was there, but wasn't there. You could see straight through it as if it wasn't there, only there was this light blue tint of it & it also had this beautiful cave at one side of it that you could walk into.

We did V little drinking in pubs as most weren't opening, or had just opened & there were V little people in them, so we decided to save the money & drink on our balcony instead.

We did a cruise around the island one day & it was V boring & disappointing. The weather was dull that day which didn't help but I don't think it'd have helped either way. We stopped at Shipwreck Beach, it was V pebbly & hard / sore to walk on, was pretty steep at the waters edge & the wreck itself was covered in grafitti. Again, the colour of the water is it's saving grace. (We dove up above the beach the day before & it was a lot prettier from up there). The other 2 stops on the tour were basically jump into the water for a swim while out at sea. I think everyone on the boat wanted it to be over about 3 hours before it was: a waste of a day, & our only tour!

we drove to Keri to see the scenery & found a little Diving Centre run by a German family who took us out about an hour after we asked them for a dive. It was beautiful, again the waters were crystal, excellent visibility, beautiful fish, eels, etc, on our way back we saw a Caretta Turtle. It was so big & so content to swim beside us. Excellent experience & the people were so pleasant & friendly.

Zakynthos town has lots of nice shops, if you're into that, personally I'm not.
For the men: Tsivili beach was the only one we saw with los of topless female sunbathers. Yes ladies, I know it's really sad, but it kept my boyfriend entertained no end!
There are a lot of V good looking Greek fellas, & as the Greeks are V fond of their food, a lot of the women are pleasantly plump, so if you're not a super model, you won't be too intimidated to bare a bit of skin.

As in a lot of European countries, you can't flush the loo roll down the toilet. Fine in the hotel as it gets cleaned everyday except Sundays, but can be an unpleasant experience if you use more public loos.

In summary, what do I think:
Caretta Beach Hotel: Excellent, V clean, V adequate for our needs (never cooked once!), the electric cooker is like a 2 ring camping stove, electrice kettle, toaster, etc is fine & lots of saucepans, crockery & cuttlery. Towels only got changed on the Friday, we were leaving on the Saturday. I think air con was e19 for the week, but we didn't need it as it was quite chilly at night. We asked for more blankets & got them immediately. They have a lovely pool (2 actually) & lots of sunloungers, though we never actually used it. It's not beside the main town of Kalamaki itself, but it is right side another strip of pubs & restaurants which we actually found had more to offer than the town itself, so excellent location.

Kalamaki: V quiet, not much happening beside eating. On the Friday night we went into what was supposed to be the V happening Lagana to find it was just as dead apart from 2 Pub Crawl tours taking place, once they left, the place was dead again. So I'm sure Kalamaki is quite fine, it's just we were there at a quiet time. Restaurants were lovely, it's right beside the airport but there is no problems with planes whatsoever, they don't fly at night, & even when they do fly during the day, they're not too noisey. Lots of tourist shops, on Friday night I went into one to buy some presents & the shop owner gave me a little candle of a caretta turtle on a wave as a souveneir for myself, just another nice little touch.
It's a bit of a walk to the beach, & when we got there we weren't V impressed with it, but it's not a difficult walk so for people who want to sunbathe & build sand castles it's fine & the water if V shallow as are most of the beaches so it's V safe for children.
As good a resort as any on the Island.

Zakynthos: Beautiful Island, locals are lunatic drivers, though, roads through villages are tiny so you need your wits about you. They need to look at their waste disposal & beach cleanliness but apart from that I can't fault it. We had a fantastic holiday. It's a tiny island so everything is easily accessible. I would definitely recommend hiring a car as it gives you so much freedom. The Greeks are wonderful people.
Anyone who has already booked their holiday will not be disappointed, you'll have a wonderful time.
Those who are thinking about booking, you'll also have a wonderful time, but if you just like the sound of a Greek Island, then personally I'd choose Kefalonia over Zakynthos as it was cleaner & the villages were prettier, but you'll have a fab time in either place.

Lots of reviews of Zakynthos & other resorts can be found at:-
www.holidays-uncovered.co.uk

Fiii

Was there last year and loved it. Was in Tsilivi which is quiter than the main town, nice chill spot...very couply. We went late august, so there werent too many people there, which was nice. Didn't find it tacky at all to be honest!
Our Hotel was very nice and close to everything. Food was good and super cheap! Excursions are good fun (scuba diving, Ship Wreck cruise were particularly good).

I'd def recommend it!

dublingurl***

i went last year... killamacki..5 mins from laganas ( 7 euro taxi) . laganas was the main spot .. big strip full of bars.. start at the top and finish at cherry bar.. best club there.!!killamcki itself is quiet but it's nice.

caretta beach hotel-fantastic.. mixture of family and leaving certs and young people.!! there was even a wedding on wen i went there. lovely hotel. air cond great!!

laganas only starts getten loud about 1.30/ 2 in the morning..

i loved it..

Meeja Ireland

I agree with Growler's summary. A couple of people have said that Zakynthos town is nice, and it is, but that's very unlikely to be where you'll stay. It's worth a visit for a day, just about. It's nearly as nice as, say, Rosslare.

Another problem with Zakynthos is the lack of any historical or cultural resources. A big earthquake flattened everything, so there are no buildings or monuments that date from before 1950.

That, and the bad food, make it very unlike the rest of Greece.

thecons

I've been to Zakynthos 3 times. Alykanas (favourite), Tsilivi and Kalamaki. I suppose a lot depends on your age... It's not really for the young and lively as there's not much in the line of pubs/clubs, unless you go to Laganas. Drove through it once and that was enough for me. If you're into the quiet life, like the beach, good food and nice people you can't go wrong with kalamaki. We stayed in the Marelen Hotel, about 3 mins walk from the beach and about 10 mins from all the restaurants. Loved it and had a great time and would definitely return again.

thecons

Just copped how old this thread was!

Z.O.D!!!

Worked in Zakynthos for the past two years (Laganas) absolutely love the place, The poor food was an issue but Mamis pizza (beside G-Spot Bar) and Bellonapolli and two desent spots.

Best places to go on a night out imo are Mad Murphys, Rescue and Cherry Bay, some great offers on drink wise, if gettin pissed for 1-2 weeks is your thing Laganas is perfect for ya!!!

The Island itself is small enough so rent a car one of the days and go for a drive (shipwreck is a must see) be careful though, the roads are brutal...found out the hard way which resulted in a flipped jeep and a near death experiance! If your staying in Laganas you have to reant out a boat, it fits about six people and costs about 100 euro, bring some snorkling gear and dohnuts (for the fish).

If anyone is going and wants more info, feel free to Pm me, il happily help you out!

Z.O.D!!!

tweety11981

It is meant to be nice as I have heard, but if you want to go island hopping it is located on the west of greece, whereas the main Greek isles are on the East side of Greece, but perhaps you want to stay in one island

dubh101

Stayed in Argassi last year for 2 weeks,loved every minute off it,hired a car for a week,great way too see all the Island(flocas cars recomended) Took a trip too kefalonia which was beautiful,and a 2 day trip too Athens,very tiring but was worth seeing the monuments etc,(dont go on the greek night,supposed too be a rip off,we were pre warned and skiped it).Food in Argassi was exelent" Etnic"restaurant had amazing food,ass did Papion Zeus and Athena.Laganas is pretty crap,Beach in Argassi was crap too,though there are nice ones like s.gorges beach and bananna beach not too far away,with free bus transfers,Zante town is nice enough for a few hours and close by.has some nice restaurants too,over all a great expierence,A car is definatly a must too see all the sights,shipwreck etc.

RubyK

Zakynthos is a lovely island. It shouldn't be solely judged on the resort of Laganas. Sure every island has it's piss-up, party resort. Laganas isn't anyway like a typical Greek resort.

There are some lovely parts to Zakynthos. Alykanas/Alykes, Vassilikos etc. We've been three times, and have had lovely holidays. Some great beaches. We found the locals to be extremely friendly, and the food very good.

rjbeech12

Go to Kefalonia, its not much more expensive and is stunning, if you can find a place with an infinity swiming pool overlooking the sea its even better! We go there every year and love it, this websites quite good -lots of infor on kefalonia and Kefalonia holidays in general.