Zakynthos: the Ionian island beyond Navagio beach

Sometime in the 1980s, a smuggler’s boat ran aground in a cove on the north coast of Zakynthos. The vertical white limestone walls, the cobalt blue water, and the rusting hull beached on the sand created a composition that turned out to be perfectly suited to photography. The cove was named Navagio — “the shipwreck” — and over time it became the single most reproduced image of Greece: posters, guidebook covers, the desktop background of millions of computers. The photograph is so ubiquitous that many people go to Zakynthos with the sole objective of seeing it in person.

The reality of Navagio deserves to be explained before anyone buys a boat ticket. The cove is only accessible by sea — excursions leave from Porto Vromi harbour or from Agios Nikolaos in the north, running every fifteen minutes in high season. In July and August, the Navagio jetty has the atmosphere of a theme park attraction: groups queuing for the photograph, boats arriving and leaving in rotation, water and souvenir sellers. The beach itself — the white pebbles, the extraordinary water — is beautiful. But the experience is so industrialised that it is difficult to connect with what made it special.

The alternative is entirely valid and requires zero effort: the Navagio viewpoint at the top of the cliff offers an equally spectacular view, is accessible by road, has a small car park (full by ten in the morning in August, empty at eight), and involves no boat whatsoever. The photograph from above is different from the one below — more composition, less immersion — but honestly more arresting in terms of scale.

The turtles and the national park

The fact that defines Zakynthos more deeply than any image of Navagio is this: the island has the highest concentration of loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) nesting sites in the Mediterranean. The Bay of Laganas, in the south of the island, is the most important nesting area this species has anywhere in the Mediterranean Sea.

Caretta caretta sea turtles are marine reptiles that can live up to eighty years and return to the beach where they were born to nest. Adult females come ashore between May and August, generally at night, and deposit between eighty and 120 eggs in nests excavated in the sand. After around sixty days, the eggs hatch and the hatchlings — roughly four centimetres long — make the journey to the sea. Mortality is extremely high: only an estimated one in a thousand eggs reaches adulthood. This is why protection of nesting beaches is critical for the species’ survival.

The Zakynthos National Marine Park, established in 1999, strictly regulates the use of the bay beaches during nesting season. In designated nesting areas, sunloungers and umbrellas are prohibited, and the beaches are closed to foot traffic from dusk. Artificial lights near nesting beaches are prohibited because hatchlings orient toward the sea using the luminosity of the marine horizon, and artificial lights disorient them. Hotels and restaurants in the bay area have specific lighting restrictions.

Seeing the turtles at Laganas is possible, but there is a protocol. Nocturnal observation excursions by boat — operated by conservation organisations working with the national park — are the correct way. They approach the beach without lights and in silence. Sightings are not guaranteed, but the probability in August is high. Revenue from these excursions goes directly to nest monitoring and recovery programmes.

The Blue Caves and the north

Cape Skinari, at the island’s northern tip, has a series of sea caves excavated into the white limestone cliffs. The Blue Caves — Galazies Spilies — take their name from the effect of sunlight refracting off the sea floor, which tints the cave interiors a deep blue. Small boat excursions leave from Skinari early in the morning, when the sun enters at the correct angle and the sea is calm. The effect of blue light on the white limestone walls is genuinely impressive and has no equivalent elsewhere in the Ionian Islands.

The interior and the rebuilt city

Zakynthos is not only coast. The island’s interior has a different character: olive groves, vineyards, green hills, small villages with Venetian bell-tower churches. Verdea — a local white wine made from a blend of indigenous varieties — is produced on the hillsides and is the natural accompaniment to the island’s cuisine.

The city of Zakynthos, the island’s capital, was 80% destroyed by the earthquake of 1953 — the same quake that devastated Cephalonia and Ithaca. What exists today is an almost complete reconstruction in Venetian neoclassical style, with an urban plan replicating that of the eighteenth century. The result is a city of Italian ambition — the central Solomos Square, the municipal theatre — barely seventy years old but functioning as the capital of an island with its own distinct character and history.

The complete Far Guides Greece guide includes detailed routes across the mainland and islands, interactive maps and all the practical information you need to plan your independent trip.