Zakynthos and Shipwreck Beach
We participate in affiliate marketing programs, including Amazon’s. As a member of these programs, we may earn a small commission at no cost to you. Our full advertising disclosure is available here.
On a whim, a coworker who heard we’d booked a trip to Greece recommended that we look up Shipwreck Beach. We did, and we knew we had to go. We’d already booked round-trip flights to Athens, so we booked a regional roundtrip ticket through Aegean Airlines using Expedia from Athens to Zakynthos (aka Zante).
Zakynthos is an island located on the Italian side of Greece, which creates a wonderful Italian influence. While part of the island lends itself well to night life, the area that we chose to stay in was quieter, and a great location to relax or enjoy with family. This area is called Amoudi.
We stayed at Calypso Villas. It appears to have been updated since we stayed there, but it was a simple and affordable option and located right on the water, next to a great restaurant called the Amoudi Taverna, and steps away from a convenience store. We had a fridge in our room, so you could easily grab some groceries and save the cost of eating out to help your budget. We chose to dine out.
We took a nap when we arrived in Zakynthos, then went to Amoudi Taverna for dinner. It was our first authentic Greek meal, and we loved it! We ordered all the Greek foods we’d been excited to try since we first booked our flights. We had fresh octopus, saganaki (fried yellow cheese), tzatziki, Greek salad, and spanakopita (spinach pie if you’re from the UK). The owner brought us complimentary strawberries and apples for dessert, which is customary, but still such a sweet gesture. We also sampled our first ouzo and mastic, and enjoyed an incredible seaside view. We ordered too much in our effort to sample everything, and brought leftovers back to the fridge in our villa for lunch the next day.
On our second day in Zakynthos, we woke and decided to spend the morning wandering around the streets of Amoudi. After a lovely walk, we stumbled upon Clear Horizon for a late breakfast. We had frappes (iced Greek coffees) and Greek yogurt with honey and walnuts, and highly recommend these options.
Clear Horizon is owned by Martine and Andy, who we loved chatting with. Unlike the other areas we visited in Greece, we found that not many people we encountered in Zakynthos spoke English (which we loved). Martine and Andy have lived in the US, and we chatted with them about the island and their visitors. We learned that not many Americans travel to Zakynthos, which explains why everyone we met thought we were British.
Everyone we met in Zakynthos was welcoming, accommodating, and just plain nice. We adore the hosts at Calypso Villas. They are the sweetest couple, and extremely hospitable to us as guests. They provided a collection of business cards in the room, including one for a taxi that we used (we loved him; more about this later). When we wanted to charter a boat for the day, our hosts also called a friend from whom we rented a boat (we loved him and the boat driver, too).
After our frappes and yogurts, we called Dennis, our taxi driver turned photographer. We wanted to see Navagio (which is actually the name for Shipwreck Beach) from the top of the cliffs, and we were interested in exploring the island a little before sunset. Two important points here: (1) Dennis was absolutely a value for us because he’s also a photographer in his spare time (how lucky are we?!), and we all had the best time doing photo shoots and flying the drone; (2) Zakynthos is a large island, and if you’d like to explore it more thoroughly, getting a rental car when you arrive at the airport would be helpful. So while we called for a taxi driver, Dennis arrived as our tour guide/photographer/chauffeur for the evening. He told us he’d be outside in an hour.
In the meantime, we walked around the grounds at Calypso Villas, enjoyed our leftover picnic lunch, and played with Michael’s latest addition to our camera gear, a DJI Mavic Pro drone. We were there in late May, just before the peak tourist season. This turned out to be an amazing experience because there were so few people around, and it allowed us to get some incredible photographs.
Since we still had a little time before Dennis was schedule to arrive, we decided to ask our hosts whether they had any suggestions for a boat charter for the following day. After several consecutive phone calls, our host, George, found us an option. They quoted us a price of €250 for a private boat ride around the island and to Shipwreck Beach. We agreed, and they told us they’d be by to pick us up early the next morning. Funny story, apparently you can rent a boat and captain it yourself in Zakynthos. When the boat owner spoke with Shannon, he asked her which option she’d prefer. Fortunately, he accepted humor well, and after she responded with “Well, that depends upon whether you’d like to get your boat back,” they both decided that a captain would be the preferred option. Dennis arrived right on time.
We headed off to Navagio, and Dennis had warned that it was a bit of a drive. Since sunset happens later in late May, we stopped at the beautiful Saint George Monastery on the way up. The church looked like the doors were closed at least 200 years ago and only re-opened to install electricity; it was such an unexpected and amazing experience. The church was actually not open, but Dennis chatted with a few men who were standing outside, and one retrieved a VERY old key and let us in to look around. The church is treasured by locals, so we were very careful to be respectful. To accomplish this, Shannon quickly covered her shoulders with her scarf, and Michael reserved photography.
Fun fact: Dennis is apparently a very common name on Zakynthos. When we called to Dennis to ask him a question, over half of the men nearby turned to answer us, which we all laughed about. As the sun dipped toward the horizon, we started back up the mountain toward Navagio.
As we arrived at the top of Navagio, we immediately noticed the wild plants. We couldn’t miss them, actually. Brushing against them, we were greeted with a very familiar smell: Rosemary. Everywhere. Growing happily on top of the massive cliff. Dennis took us down a trail where we took the most incredible photos with the striking white cliff, Shipwreck Beach, and the impossibly blue sea beneath us. Dennis, if you read this, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for capturing these incredible memories for us.
Okay, so here’s the part where we get serious for a second: Navagio has become a popular photography spot, as you might imagine. It is absolutely worth the trip around the world to experience, and we would go again in a second (and we would absolutely take our kids). However, because so many of our articles are geared toward family travel, we need to tell you that we DO NOT recommend bringing your kids to the top of Navagio. The cliff has a sharp 65-story drop (about the height of Hearst Tower, for our Charlotte readers), there are no guardrails, and the winds can pick up quickly. Even Dennis refused to show us another path that would have had a slightly better photo opportunity, and rightly so…three days after we left, a tourist stepped off the cliffside while taking a selfie from that very spot. She was the second person to fall from that area in the last two months. A quick google search for “Navagio cliff selfie” will turn up loads of photos of people dangerously close to this cliff edge. Just don’t do it. It’s not worth the photo. We’ll tell you about another way to show your kids Shipwreck Beach in just a minute!
Back to the fun stuff. Many people say that Santorini has the most beautiful sunset in the world, and while it is incredibly beautiful, we’re not sure we’ve ever experienced as unique of a sunset as we did in Zakynthos. There’s a lookout perch where we were able to enjoy the sunset with literally only two other people nearby — Dennis, and a sweet gentleman who sold us strawberry-candied almonds (they were delicious). It felt like a private sunset viewing for our little group, and it was truly worth it.
After the sun dipped below the horizon and gave a final red farewell, we made our way back down the mountain. It was dark by the time we returned to Calypso Villas, so we did something that we almost never do, and we went back to Amoudi Taverna for dinner. Don’t worry — it was just as good. We were already sad that tomorrow would be our last full day in Zakynthos.
Apparently the boat owner liked Shannon’s little joke over the phone, and he decided to pick us up himself. He brought us into town, where we stopped in a convenience store to go to the ATM and pick up chocolate croissants for us and our boat captain for breakfast. We also picked up colorful Zante beach towels because we weren’t sure whether we’d get in the water, but we later realized that the Calypso Villas provides them. After checking out, we walked across the street to the boat office and filled out the quick paperwork to rent the boat for the day.
We love taking in real experiences when we travel, so when the boat owner bantered back and forth with a local fisherman before exchanging cash for a freshly-caught octopus in a grocery bag, we couldn’t help but appreciate the moment. He held it up for us, dripping wet, and said, “I love this one.” How cute is he?! He then showed us down the dock to the boat that we’d be taking, and introduced us to our boat captain. Our captain spoke only a little English, so the owner (who’d lived in the US previously) ensured that we were aligned with our plans for the day, helped us on board, and wished us well on our trip.
Our captain drove us through the incredible blue waters of the Ionian Sea. We cruised past, and carefully under, natural rock sea arches, into glowing blue sea caves. The captain pointed out birds and pretty sights as we made our way around the island to Shipwreck Beach. As parents of young children, it was nice to have the air in our hair and forget our responsibilities for a bit. However, this would also be a great option for young children to see Shipwreck Beach, rather than going to the top of Navagio.
Shipwreck Beach is actually an exposed cove that is also called “Smugglers Cove” by the locals. The freight liner on the beach ran ashore in 1980 during a storm, but the locals have many stories that it was smuggling contraband at the time and ran aground trying to evade arrest. The people in Zakynthos are excellent story tellers, and we kind of liked this version of the story. The captain was never arrested, and the locals have stories for that, too, of course…
We never shy away from speaking with people in other countries, regardless of whether we can all speak the same language. We chatted with our captain using the Zakynthos beach towels, which depicted the island and a few top attractions, including sea turtles. He explained that we probably wouldn’t see any, as they were usually on a different side of the island from Shipwreck Beach. Shannon was determined to find a sea turtle, and spent a large part of the boat ride scanning beneath the water for a turtle-shaped shadow.
We enjoyed teaching each other a few words in our native languages, including “Caretta caretta,” which is how our guide referred to the loggerhead sea turtles in the area. Zakynthos has been called the most important nesting area for loggerheads in the Mediterranean, and the prevalence of loggerhead sea turtles is a favorite for tourists and locals alike.
After dipping our fingers into the clear waters, we noted that it was a bit chilly, and decided not to get in. The captain stopped the boat in the cove of Shipwreck Beach so that we could enjoy it, and we all ate our breakfast together. It was really fun to see this incredible sight from 65 stories above on the cliff, as well as from the water itself. These are the only two options to view Shipwreck Beach, other than perhaps a helicopter ride (which Calypso Villas can help arrange). The beach itself is inaccessible by land.
We researched ahead of our travels and heard that the best time to see Shipwreck Beach from the water is in the morning due to larger crowds on larger tour boats in the middle of the day. This approach proved to be effective, and the cove began to teem with more and more boats, though it did provide us with a fun people watching experience as a large boat had a line of passengers walk down a walkway, through the water, and onto Shipwreck Beach. If you decide to do a larger boat tour (which is probably less expensive), expect to get wet from the waist down! We decided to head back out and enjoy the rest of our time on the boat.
The boat owner suggested that we go to a local restaurant for lunch. We were presented with a VERY freshly caught red snapper from a local fish market. We decided to try it, but kept lunch light with fish, watermelon, and taziki. As you might expect from a freshly-caught red snapper on a Greek island, it was delicious.
As we neared the harbor on our return trip, Shannon screamed so loudly that anyone remotely nearby knew what she’d seen. “CARETTA CARETTA!!!!!!” The excitement that Shannon displayed was unmistakable, and the captain was determined to make her dreams come true. As he quickly turned the boat around, Shannon grabbed the GoPro. Michael grabbed Shannon, who was now half hanging from the side of the boat, holding the GoPro underwater. It happened. The boat stopped and the sea turtle even seemed to pause to give her a chance to see him. Shannon was on cloud nine. Seeing a sea turtle was her primary goal in Zakynthos, because she’d never before seen one in the wild. Anyone who spent time with Shannon know that once she’s set a goal, she’s going to achieve it. Our captain made it happen.
After the captain docked the boat, we tipped him and made our way back to the rental office. The owner drove us back to Calypso Villas, and we enjoyed another conversation with him on the way home. He offered to take us to the airport in the morning, and we agreed.
Arriving back at our apartment, we packed for our flights the next morning, and decided to head back to Clear Horizon for dinner. We shared stuffed grape leaves, spanikopita, baklava, and yogurt with honey and nuts before strolling back to our villa for our last night in Zakynthos.
Our boat owner-turned-chauffeur arrived exactly on time to shuttle us to the airport for our flight back to Athens. We were sad to leave, but excited to see the ancient Greek structures that have graced the covers and pages of so many books.
View our other adventures in Greece:
Part 1: Zakynthos and Shipwreck Beach