Zakynthos · Towns & villages

Towns & villages of Zakynthos

Harbour towns, mountain hamlets and the places where island life still follows its own rhythm.

Laganas Bay & the south

Laganas

Greece's loudest party strip, on a beach where sea turtles nest

Laganas is the island's party resort: a main road of bars, clubs, fast food and neon that runs down to a long sandy beach on the south coast. From June to August it fills with young, mostly British holidaymakers, and the night does not really start until after midnight, when Rescue, Sizzle and the clubs around them open their doors. The same beach is a nesting site of the National Marine Park of Zakynthos, so the sand belongs to the loggerhead turtles after dark. Few places in Europe put a club strip and a wildlife sanctuary this close together.

A night on the strip, from the bars to Rescue
The walk out to Cameo, the islet on a wooden bridge
Sunrise on the beach after a long night
A boat from the harbour to Marathonisi
Turtles surfacing by the boats at the little port

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Zakynthos Town & the east coast

Zakynthos Town

An arcaded Venetian town, rebuilt after 1953, under the castle hill of Bochali

Zakynthos Town, which the islanders call Chora, is the island's port and capital, strung along a wide bay on the east coast. The 1953 earthquake and the fires that followed destroyed almost all of it, and it was rebuilt in the old style, with arcaded streets, pale plaster and tall bell towers. Here you find the poets' museum, the Byzantine icons, the church of the island's saint and the Venetian castle on the hill of Bochali. It is the other face of Zakynthos, and it is only twenty minutes from Laganas.

Solomos Square and the Byzantine Museum
The church of Saint Dionysios by the harbour
The tombs of Solomos and Kalvos on St Mark's Square
Sunset from the castle of Bochali
An evening walk along the Strada Marina

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Laganas Bay & the south

Kalamaki

The quieter end of Laganas Bay, on a turtle nesting beach under the flight path

Kalamaki sits at the eastern end of the same long beach as Laganas, ten minutes away but much calmer. Its main street has tavernas, bars and small hotels rather than clubs, and families and couples come here to be close to the strip without sleeping on it. The beach is one of the six nesting beaches of the marine park, with cages over the nests and a dark, empty shore at night. Planes landing at the airport pass low over the bay, which some visitors love and others learn to ignore.

A nesting beach of the marine park
Low planes over the bay on summer afternoons
Family tavernas on the main street
Laganas a short taxi ride away

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Laganas Bay & the south

Keri

A hill village, a lighthouse and sea stacks at the south-west tip

Keri is a small stone village on a ridge above the south-west end of the island, with the church of Panagia Keriotissa at its heart and a road that runs on to a lighthouse on the cliffs. Below the lighthouse, the two pale sea stacks of Mizithres rise out of the water, and the sunsets are among the best on Zakynthos. Down by the bay, Limni Keri is a little harbour with boats to Marathonisi and the sea caves. The village probably takes its name from the pitch, like wax (keri), that seeps from the ground by the shore, which Herodotus described in the 5th century BC.

Sunset at the Keri lighthouse
The sea stacks of Mizithres
Boats from Limni Keri to Marathonisi
The pitch springs Herodotus wrote about

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The Vasilikos peninsula

Vasilikos and Gerakas

A green peninsula of olive groves, coves and a protected turtle beach

The Vasilikos peninsula closes Laganas Bay on its eastern side, a long finger of olive groves, pines and scattered houses with beaches on both coasts. On its tip, Gerakas is a curve of fine sand under pale clay cliffs, and one of the marine park's nesting beaches, so it has no bars on the sand and closes at dusk. The east coast has the beach bars of Porto Roma, Banana and Agios Nikolaos, and the whole peninsula feels a world away from the strip on the other side of the bay.

Gerakas, a protected nesting beach
The sandstone cliffs above Gerakas
Beach bars at Porto Roma and Banana
Olive groves and quiet villas

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The north

Volimes and the north

Mountain villages above the Shipwreck and the Blue Caves

Volimes is the largest village of the north, high in the hills, with stalls along the road selling honey, cheese, olive oil and woven cloth. From here roads lead to the island's two famous views. To the west, a viewpoint on the cliffs looks down on Navagio, the cove with the rusting Panagiotis on the sand. To the north-east, the little harbour of Agios Nikolaos and the cape of Skinari have the boats into the Blue Caves. On the way is Anafonitria, the monastery where Saint Dionysios, the island's patron, was abbot, and where he is said to have sheltered the man who had killed his brother.

The clifftop view over Navagio
Boats into the Blue Caves from Agios Nikolaos
The monastery of Anafonitria
Honey, cheese and woven cloth sold along the road

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The west coast

Kampi and the west coast

Cliff-edge tavernas and the island's best sunsets

The west coast of Zakynthos is almost all cliff, with only a few ways down to the sea. Kampi is a small village where the road ends at the edge, with a big white cross on the headland and tavernas on terraces built out over a drop of a couple of hundred metres. People drive across the island to eat here at sunset. Further north, near Agios Leon, Porto Limnionas is a narrow rocky inlet with turquoise water, a taverna and ladders into the sea, and Porto Vromi is the small harbour for boats to Navagio from the west.

Dinner at sunset on the cliffs of Kampi
Swimming off the rocks at Porto Limnionas
Boats from Porto Vromi along the west coast
Quiet hill villages among the olives

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Zakynthos Town & the east coast

Tsilivi

A family beach resort a short drive north of town

Tsilivi, in the village of Planos, is the main resort on the north-east coast, a few kilometres from Zakynthos Town. Its sandy beach shelves gently, the water is usually calm in the morning, and the hotels, pools and tavernas behind it are aimed at families and couples. It has bars, but nothing like Laganas, and it is a good base if you want the town and the north within easy reach.

A shallow sandy beach for children
Close to Zakynthos Town
Boat trips north along the coast
Quiet evenings on the waterfront

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Regions

Where to base yourself in Zakynthos

Laganas Bay & the south

The long sandy bay of the marine park, with the party resort of Laganas, the calmer Kalamaki, Turtle Island, and the cliffs and lighthouse of Keri at the south-west tip.

The Vasilikos peninsula

The green finger that closes the bay to the east, with olive groves, the beach bars of Porto Roma and Banana, and the protected nesting beach of Gerakas.

Zakynthos Town & the east coast

The rebuilt Venetian capital with its squares, museums and castle hill, the resorts of Argassi and Tsilivi, and the sulphur cove of Xigia.

The west coast

A high wall of white cliffs with sunset tavernas at Kampi, the inlet of Porto Limnionas and quiet hill villages among the olives.

The north

The mountain villages of Volimes and Anafonitria, the clifftop view over Navagio and the Blue Caves at Cape Skinari.

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Last updated 8 November 2026