Zakynthos ~ YVETTHEWORLD

Intro

Zakynthos was the trip Jordi organised as a surprise for my 30th birthday. Little did I know that the destination of this trip was not Jordi’s only surprise for me… he also asked me to be his wife in Zakynthos! And of course I said YES 🙂

Zakynthos is insta-famous for its views of the Shipwreck Beach. It is also known for its turtles, but when we visited mid-September we didn’t see any wild turtles. We did really enjoy all the views, accommodations and food Zakynthos has to offer.

Map

Places to see

10 Day itinerary

Day 1 - Armyra Villa and dinner at La Storia

Ok, I wasn’t sure if I could call this day 1 because our airplane landed after 7 pm and by the time we reached our accommodation it was already after 9 pm. But we were received with such a warm welcome at Armyra Villas that I just wanted to write about it.

Our host showed us our villa and then asked us if we already had dinner. We said no, and then she was like “I know a restaurant with sea views, I’m sure I can get you a table there. Just follow me with your car”. And sure enough, before we knew it we had dinner right next to the sea, at a fraction of the price we would have paid in London and without any reservations. The restaurant was called “La Storia” in the port of Agios Nikolaos, and I highly recommend to have dinner there.

Day 2 - Sunrise at Villa Armyra and getting engaged at Shipwreck Beach Viewpoint

Our first morning we were pleasantly surprised with a beautiful sunrise over the sea, from the comfort of our “own” bed at Armyra Villas. The coolest part is that our windows were like doors, so we could just shove the bed outside and enjoy the sunrise.

The rest of the day we just chilled and had fun at the swimming pool of Armyra Villas. It isn’t a private pool, but we had it all to ourselves anyway. The around sunset, we went to the Shipwreck Beach Viewpoint to make some pictures and videos. All of a sudden while we were filming, Jordi went down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I did not see it coming at all, but of course I said yes.

Day 3 - Rainy Day

Originally we had a boat tour to the Shipwreck Beach planned for this day, but it got cancelled because of bad weather conditions. It kept pouring down all day long, so we didn’t do anything else than having lunch at Port Agios Nikolaos and stay in our villa all day. The timing for a rainy day couldn’t have been any better, because we both felt a bit hangover after celebrating our engagement the night before. So the rain was a perfect excuse to have a lazy day.

Day 4 - Shipwreck Beach and Birthday at Lesante Blu

Thankfully the weather had cleared up again, so we could do the boat tour to the Shipwreck Beach. It was so cool to see the place where we got engaged from a different angle. Also, it was my 30th birthday this day, which we celebrated at the Lesante Blu resort.

We had the honeymoon suite, which was so pretty. It had its own jacuzzi in the room and an infinity pool at the private patio with sea views. We also had a sunset dinner at the infinity pool restaurant of Lesante Blu, which was so romantic!

Day 5 - Sunrise at Lesante Blu, Zakynthos Town and Gloria Maris

Even though we had our own private infinity pool, we still went to the communal infinity pool to watch the sunrise at Lesante Blu. And it was so worth it!

Unfortunately we only stayed for one night, so after an amazing breakfast it was already time to check out again. So we spent the rest of the day discovering Zakynthos Town and went to Gloria Maris, our next hotel.

Day 6 - Boat tour to Turtle Island and dinner at Gloria Maris

We rented a private boat to go to Turtle Island and Keri Lighthouse, but unfortunately we didn’t get to go that far because of high waves. We had a lot of “bad luck” on this boat trip, which I wrote a separate post about.

Thankfully we still had a nice dinner with sunset views at Gloria Maris, so the day wasn’t all bad.

Day 7 - Cameo island and Geratas Beach

We watched the sunrise at Cameo Island, which also meant that we were actually too early to visit the island itself. The bridge to Cameo island opens at 9 am. So we drove towards Gerakas Beach. On our way to Gerakas Beach we stopped at the Turtle Rescue Centre, which is the only place in Zakynthos where we saw turtles.

Day 8 - Sunrise at Gloria Maris, Athenea Villas and Agios Nikolaos church

This was supposed to be the last day of our trip, but we enjoyed it so much that we decided not to take our original return flight. Instead, we booked another return flight for 2 days later. So we enjoyed the sunrise at Gloria Maris and its surrounding beach, then we went to Athenea Villas (our next accommodation), swapped our rental car and watched the sunset at the Agios Nikolaos church.

Day 9- Sunrise at Athenea Villas, Porto Limnionas and Porto Roxa Beach

Our host at Athenea Villas was so lovely, and she kept talking about her favourite places on the island. So obviously we just had to check out her favourites!

We started the day by watching the sunrise at Athenea Villas, then went to Porto Limnionas and Porto Roxa beach.

Day 10- Sunrise at Keri Beach, Ionian Sunset Cafe and Keri Lighthouse restaurant

Our last day on the island was all about Keri. We started the day by watching the sunrise at Keri Beach. Then we went for a cocktail at the Ionian Sunset Cafe (too bad we couldn’t visit the place at sunset) and late lunch at the Keri Lighthouse restaurant.