Zakynthos by car
Good afternoon!
It's already spring, and I just now have time to write about Zakynthos. I hope the information will be useful, since there are few reviews about it, because Zakynthos has not yet been trampled by Russian tourists.
We stayed in the village of Argassi, a cheap but nice hotel Family Inn 2 * based on breakfast. We rented a car and drove around the island for 12 days, went to different beaches and ate in a variety of restaurants. I recommend this type of recreation to active people, since hotels near good beaches are expensive, the beach in Argassi is not very good. It is more profitable to live cheaply, and spend the difference on renting a car.
Gerakas is a very beautiful beach. On the left side it is very well-groomed, clean, there are masonry turtles carriage-carriage, but you can’t put umbrellas, it’s hot. On the right side, everything is possible, but tpm is no longer so clean and there are more stones. The water is very clean and calm, there are no waves.
Porto Zorro is a beautiful beach, there are stone blocks in the water. True, there are a lot of algae near these blocks, and the coast is cleaned only where there are sunbeds. It is interesting to swim with a mask.
Mavratzi Beach - I liked the most from the beaches of Vasilikos. Cozy, clean, but there are sun beds everywhere, there is no place to lay towels. 2 sun loungers + umbrella cost 7 euros.
Banana Beach and St Nikolas beach - party places for young people. Loud music, cocktails, water fun. I liked Banana Beach more - you can have fun and relax there, during the day there are discos in a local bar, awesome lounge music. On this beach, our guys tried to ride on a carpet taking off from the water, they came happy, like children.
Keri beach is very beautiful, picturesque, but instead of sand there are large pebbles. On it, everyone lays out things and spends time in the water. We rented a boat from the local rental company Nikas for 2 hours for 45 euros and went to the island in the form of a turtle. There were grottoes, very beautiful, snow-white sand. Many caves with a through passage. We swam with a mask, saw beautiful fish. Nikas took the boat for 3 hours, but we took it for 2. When we passed half of the Kakabaki cave to the right of the turtle island, we were turned around by the lifeguard, who said that we did not have enough gasoline. We got scared and turned back. When we returned, there was still gasoline left. After the beach, we went to the lighthouse and a restaurant outside the village of Keri, watched the best sunset near the lighthouse. The picture is really amazing.
Porto Vromi is a beautiful beach with a mooring for boats and cool refreshing water. We took a catamaran and went to explore the bay. They went into the caves. We snorkeled in the large cave on the right. The view of the bottom was mesmerizing: when you lie on the water, there is a feeling of soaring, because the water is absolutely transparent under you, and you can see how the rocks go down, moving 30 m deep. We left the bay on a catamaran and saw the island quite close, but we didn’t have enough strength and courage to swim, there was a decent current. There are a lot of sea urchins on the rocks on this beach.
Limnionias is a stunningly beautiful bay. you can lie on the sunbeds in the cafe. There is a rock from which everyone jumps into the azure cool water. There are grottoes too. They have very cold water.
Porto Roxa is a very unusual beach. The coastal strip is formed by hardened lava, covered with a salty coating. The entire coast is loose, in front of the sea, nature has formed artificial pools. To enter the sea it is necessary in rubber slippers. A very interesting bottom, which goes into the depths like labyrinths. Everyone swims with masks. On the shore there are equipped areas with sun loungers and umbrellas. You need to order something at the bar (regular prices), and the sunbed will be free. We were on this beach from 12 to 2 in the afternoon, but a cool breeze was blowing and it was fresh.
Kokinos vrahos Beach is super exotic. The navigator led us along the road, when there were 300 m left, it turned into gravel. We ran into a rock, then descended on foot from the mountain along steps carved into the rock. At this point, Zakynthos encountered a small green island, in the rock of which there was a huge hole. Swimming was scary, a strong wind was blowing on the left side, and a difficult descent on the other. But we got off, swam with a mask. It was beautiful.
Bay of Navajo Xigia.
We drove along the road along the coast towards the port of Agios Nikolas. First comes Xigia beach - there is a sign and a characteristic smell of hydrogen sulfide. stopped there first. Water of average temperature mixes with cool currents, and small white flakes float in it, the water is muddy. We swam across a ledge and swam down to a small beach. We quickly got used to the smell, the skin after water was soft. Then we drove along the road quite a bit to the town of Agios Nicholas, from there we went on a speedboat to the blue caves and the bay of Navajo.
Our recommendations: it is better to board the last boat at 15.00. There will be fewer people in the boat and ships in Navajo.
Excursion to Kefalonia
The excursion was taken to Argassi from the Greeks near the Papillon restaurant. They take you on Sundays with a Russian guide. I liked the guide Anna very much, she told me very sincerely. The first point in Kefalonia was the temple of St. Gerasimos. We venerated the relics, lit candles, the atmosphere was super. Further caves Dragoratti and Melissani. Dragoratti is a dead cave, and Melissani is super. Reminds me of a photo of caves with azure water in Latin America. Then we stopped at the observation platforms, dined in the town of Agia Efimia, and swam there; saw on the opposite bank of Ithaca. Argostoli is the capital of Kefalonia, our last stop. It was hot, we walked along the embankment, saw 4 large turtles close up in different places, even the photos turned out to be successful. It is warm in the bay, turtles come to feed on algae blooming there. By the way, in Zakynthos we were promised everywhere that at 7 pm you can see turtles on the beaches, but they were nowhere to be found.
Restaurants
Every day we ate in different restaurants in different parts of the island, the cuisine is pleasant, but without frills. We noticed that the restaurant near our Family Inn hotel was crowded with a lot of people every evening, we went in, the cuisine was beyond praise, the restaurant is open only in the evening, the prices are the same as everywhere else, the food is super.