I’ve visited the Greek island, Zante, twice with my family – not the typical girls holiday you’d expect. The clubs and nights out are brilliant, but I think it’s time to share the side of Zante that many of my generation overlook, and show the very beautiful side of it.
Kalamaki
Both years we visited, we stayed in Kalamaki, which is a beach resort town in the southern part of the Greek Island, only 3km away from the busy tourist resort Laganas. The walk from our apartments to Kalamaki beach (both years) was only about 15 minutes. Kalamaki is known for its sandy beach with warm, clear waters, part of Kalamaki bay. This beach is also one of the places where the endangered Loggerheard turtle lays its eggs, due to it being a quieter beach than destinations like Laganas, making Kalamaki part of the Greek legislation act and being part of the National Maritime Park of Zakynthos.
If you walk to the far left of the beach there is a cove with cliffs and is often quieter than the main beach. Beware – there is lots of fish around that swim right to the shallow parts of the sea that sometimes nibble at you, but are harmless and fun to snorkle around. However, last year we noticed a man fishing out something from the sea – a giant jellyfish that was around his children, so beware there can be jellyfish. I also swam far out with my Dad and found starfish, various fish and crabs too.
Cave Bar
In Kalamaki you can also find the Cave Bar, in which they provide driver to take you up to the caves. It’s a very unique place to have a drink with lovely views, affordable drinks and a quiet atmosphere.
Laganas & Kerri Caves
We decided to hire a car for a couple of days to explore the rest of the island, rather than just staying around our hotel complex and local beach. Beware – if you do decide to hire a car the driving is pretty challenging, with lots of cliffs, small villages, steep hills and dusty, rocky roads. Make sure to keep a map, phone and plenty of water with you at all times – especially if you’re on your own.
The four of us (my Dad, Mum, brother and I) ventured to various beaches around Zante, including some very tourist-based beaches and some quiet, hidden coves too. I honestly could not direct you to them (I’m terrible with directions – I left this up to my Dad) but Zante is a small island, so with a map and a car it’s fairly easy to find specific spots, although there are bus routes that can take you to these more remote destinations.
These pictures above show the beautiful Kerri Caves, with the magnificent blue shade in the water, which are only accessible via private boat or tourist excursions. While visiting the caves you can stop to swim or sunbathe in some nearby small beaches of Marathia Cape.
Instead, we simply drove to the very top (where Zante lighthouse is) and peered over and the beautiful, scenic view – often found on the postcards in Zante. Beware – if you do venture up here it’s a very long way down. There is a small fence around the edges, but it’s still very easy to fall, so be very cautious when taking photos.]
Along the way there are various shops you can stop at to fetch some food and water, but I would recommend bringing all of this yourself to save time and money.
Boat Trip
Since we had the car, we decided to drive to another beach where a lot of boat companies were situated. The one we chose was at a reasonable price, costing around 15 Euros per person. This boat trip took us around the sides of the island, into caves similar to the Kerri Caves with the bright blue pigment and stopped to give us some time to explore the caves and snorkel to see fish and dive off the boat too.
The water was amazingly blue, looking surreal as you can see from the photo. We also got the chance to stop off at Shipwreck Cove, a popular tourist destination that basically involves a number of boat companies taking tourists into the cove at different times throughout the day. The beach is full of light-colored pebble-like sand, but is still comfortable to lay your towel out and sunbathe. There’s also an actual shipwreck to explore, you can climb up the old, rusty ship which is fun, but beware, there are lots of sharp edges and it can be difficult climbing back down again.
The water was an experience to swim in, due to the saltiness it kept you floating up and once you swam a few feet from the shore it instantly gets deep. The first year we visited I spotted a brown jellyfish bobbing in the water, however due to the sheer clearness of the sea you can easily spot dangers like jellyfish and see plenty of fish too! If I remember correctly we got to spend an hour on the island, giving you plenty of time to sunbathe, explore and swim.
http://www.zakynthostravelguide.com/2012/05/guide-to-shipwreck-cove-zakynthos.html
The boat company also provide you with goggles for swimming and you can take all of your belongings on the boat too. It’s a great, affordable way to explore the island, go for a swim, see the wildlife and sunbathe!
Turtles
Zante is very famous for their turtles – there’s even a turtle island you can visit! Along the majority of the beaches in Zante there are small, wooden fixtures which are protecting the turtle eggs deep beneath the sand. Often, baby turtles don’t survive and get eaten by birds or other sea life and sometimes eat rubbish mistaking it for food, so volunteers often run programmes to try and help the turtles.
One year, we got the chance to see one baby turtle hatch and make its way to sea – although this usually occurs during nightime, it meant there were crowds of tourists watching it happen. Luckily, one man helped the baby turtle swim out by guiding it, although you mustn’t carry the turtles as they have to learn how to swim on their own – touching baby turtles can even land you in legal trouble, as they need to scramble over the sand in their ‘imprinting’ so they know where to lay their eggs. A female turtle often can lay up to 100 eggs with hatchlings emerging only 7-12 weeks after.
Unfortunately, there is a 90% hatching success but only a 1% survival rate, so on average only 1 in 1000 hatchlings survive to adulthood. Ethan (my brother) and I were unfortunate to be swimming around the shallow part of the sea of our local beach and spotted a lot of dead baby turtles washing up onto the shore.
So, although it is sad it’s important that when you visit you do not disturb the turtle sanctuary wooden structures, in order to help give the baby turtles the best chance of survival.
Zakynthos Town
Zakynthos town was only a short drive or bus journey away from Kalamaki. It has endless places to eat and drink, from Chinese to Indian, Greek to Italian. There are also various shops and a famous harbour, filled with luxurious million-pound yachts.
Zante town is also full of beautiful architecture, such as the churches, shops and houses. Everywhere you look you’re surrounded with beautiful buildings.
The second time we visited the town we went on St David’s celebration day – which is a huge event in Zante.
During the day there are markets upon markets, selling pets like Terrapins, fish and rabbits, fruit and vegetables, fake-branded clothes and shoes, candles, lights and so on – selling all kinds of weird and wonderful items. I’d definitely recommend trying the dough-nut like balls with white and milk chocolate toppings!
On the nighttime, we struggled greatly to find somewhere to eat. This was due to the celebration, but all of the restaurants were full but eventually we managed to get a seat at a Chinese restaurant, which had terribly slow service. When we were finishing our meal the parade was coming down the street that backed onto the restaurant, so we could see from where we were sitting.
The parade included soldiers, singers, bands and dancing, ending with the coffin of St David being carried down the streets. There were also fireworks at the end, but beware – getting out of the town was a nightmare. Due to the sheer amount of people at the event it was very difficult to get out of the town, luckily we had pre-arranged a lift to get back to Kalamaki, which was still very delayed due to the traffic.
So, why should you visit Zante?
Visit Zante with your family or partner or friends, and don’t spend the whole time partying and being hungover. Do the boat parties, clubs and bars, but make sure to spend some time exploring the picturesque island. Visit the stunning beaches – even go for a long walk along them. We decided to walk from Laganas all the way to the Zante strip itself, which is a lovely walk along the shore, taking only half an hour.
THE SOLO WANDERER 