Our next stop on our 2 week Greece tour was Zakynthos. We love getting to know the place were visiting more than most other people. We like to rent a car and drive everywhere. You see so much more and you really get to experience life in that country. So after our flight from Rhodes to Athens, (against most peoples advice on Trip Advisor)- we rented a car in Athens and made the 4 hour drive to the Killini Port. From there we drove on(or in) a large ferry and we're well on our way to Zakynthos.
The drive was nice and a learning experience, hehe! First of all, people in the mainland drive CRAZY. Not California or Utah crazy-they're insane. I wish we took video of it. So imagine a 2 lane highway. One lane going one direction, the other lane going the other direction-right? So if you drive in the middle of your lane-like it would seem your supposed to-even the painted lines show it-people start honking. They want you to get over. So we started to notice that most people drove on the SHOULDER of the highway, so that the people driving faster would just pass by in the lane. So they took a 2 lane highway, and had it working as a 4 lane highway. Maybe it doesn't sound too bad, but when a car is passing you and the person in the opposite lane -thus there are 4 people in 2 lanes it can get a little scary. Throw a semi in there and that spells NOT FUN. In addition to the lane fun, they should all get an award for parking. Tyler was even awed by how they would get their tiny cars into non-existent spaces.
Another interesting thing about the drive was the gas station/food stops. Instead of having exits like we do, they have these fast stops. Each side of the freeway has the same gas station and restaurant. It's more like a pull off ramp, you get gas and food real quick, then your back on. There's no other streets to pull off at-it's actually really simple and quick. We of course decided to wait for lunch for a little longer convinced there would be something else. We were wrong. As we drove past little towns, so charming that they made us feel like we were in Italy, we got more hungry each second. Finally an exit for a town came around and we took it. We drove around this small ocean side town for a few miles, finally came to a gas station and bought 2 croissants to hold us over until we could find another fast stop. We learned to buy food when you have the chance.
One of the stops I was really excited to make was Corinth. This is the town that Paul wrote to the book Corinthians (in the Bible). There wasn't a lot to this town that we were able to see-but our main stop was the Corinth Canal. This is a man-made canal through the land. It's just wide enough to fit a ship through. It's so deep. I tried to convince Tyler to go bungee jumping (not seriously though).
Once we were in Killini, we grabbed a cold coffee and waited just a little bit to board the ferry before our 1 hour ride. The ferry was nice, we were really tired and even a little sea sick, so we decided to go to the top deck and watch Zakynthos steadily approach.
Since the Ionian islands are right next to Italy, they have a lot of Italian influence. You could really tell in the homes and buildings.
After getting off the ferry we began the search for our hotel....and we searched....and we searched. Zante doesn't have the best road sign system. Actually let me rephrase that they have ALOT of road signs. Pretty much every fork in the road they tell you what towns it leads to. However it's misleading. Sure you can get to Alykanas by taking a left and a right. The right will lead you straight there. The left, you may have to travel half the island, but you'll get there. After a few hours and not much patience left, we arrived at our hotel. Some great Brits and nice Greeks helped us on the way.
The Alykanas Village Hotel
Our resort was pretty interesting. It was a British resort. Most people, travelers and staff alike were British. It was a little odd. The nice side-everyone spoke English. Downside-there were SOOO many kids everywhere. Just walking in the lobby I got a headache. It was SO loud. Luckily the island was so amazing, so we didn't spend that much time at the resort. Actually, I don't remember stepping foot in the pool, or the ocean outside our hotel for that matter.
Map of Zakynthos
In order to explain these next photos, I have to take you back to about February. When we began talking about going to Greece, Tyler started researching photos, skimboarding, videos, etc. He found this beach that he fell in LOVE with. It was unrealistic to plan this island into our schedule. It was on the OPPOSITE side of Greece and would take one day to get there and one day to get back. All of Trip Advisor thought we were idiots even considering going to the Ionian Islands when the main part of our trip was the Eastern Greek Isles. Even though, this is the ONE place Tyler really really wanted to see. So we did it. We came to Zakynthos. So what beach was it that captured Tyler's heart? No...not the topless beaches, lol. Shipwreck Beach-see for yourself:
Our first evening, priority number 1 was to find the overlook on the west side of the island up in the mountains that looked down on this pristine beach. I can't find an adjective to describe it. We found it, and the time of day was beautiful, right at sunset. We almost missed it due to an annoying old man that lied to us to get us to look at his items for sell.We caught on that the overlook was not where he was at, but another few miles down the road. I think Tyler was extremely happy upon finding it. It was a very surreal moment for him-to see a place that he's dreamed of seeing for a while. (I probably had this moment in Santorini)
The view was amazing from this overlook. We could have taken a thousand (more) photos.
See how happy? This was one photo I didn't have to coax out of him.
That evening we booked a day tour to the Blue Caves and ShipWreck Beach. We had dinner at Pepe's-an amazing local place with the best gyros we had the whole time!
The tour was great. I can't believe how much we bought on the ship. If you know us, we never buy concessions. We never get drinks or popcorn for movies, or treats at fairs, but there was something about the boat, the ice cream, the coffee, the donuts, and grilled cheese sandwiches (which they call cheese toast) that had us coming back for more. We met some Norwegian friends as well. Our first stop was the Blue Caves. These are natural caves that are carved out by the wind. The water is so clear, so blue. We had fun swimming around-too bad we forgot the snorkel!
Next stop: Navagio (ShipWreck Beach). The story goes back in 1980 when a boat was trying to illegally smuggle cigarettes and alcohol in Greece. The Greek navy chased the boat through the Ionian sea and due to the stormy weather it ran aground on the coast to the north of the island where it still rests. I believe Greece has considered moving it, however the cost is really high-and my suspicion is that it brings in so much tourist money-why would they?
Approaching Navagio Beach. It's only accessible by boat.
The ship. This piece of junk has become famous! So funny the way things turn out huh?
Tyler was so excited to skimboard at this beach. From the photos, the white sand looks so inviting. We'll like we were starting to figure out, most of the beaches in Greece were more on the pebbly side, than fine sand. Navagio wasn't too different. Luckily the pebbles were fine enough that Tyler was willing to try. He loves it to much to have something like this stop him.
The 'sand' along with cute sandals I got in Fira, Santorini.
He had a pretty good time. As we were there, the sun disappeared, and it started to get a little breezy. The rest of the trip would have had a few stops by Turtle Arches, however the wind got too strong and we had to turn back. Tyler and I both usually get sea sick, however we were smart and brought along ALOT of Dramamine (We haven't traveled without it since our trip to Costa Rica in 2008). Tyler was doing great, and I was doing okay. I took a nap which helped. It got a little humorous when one of the crew started handing out bags for people to get sick in. I was also very happy to share my Dramamine with the sickest looking people.
After our tour, we explored the south west portion of the island. We ended up getting lost (because of the signs), and again we were hungry and there was no where to eat. I thought we learned our lesson? We were relieved and happy when we found a lady near Keri selling ice cream-so yummy.
We had gyros in Laganas and checked out the neighboring beaches. Jackpot! These beaches were the sandy beaches we were looking for. Tyler spent the last few hours of sunlight at Gerakas beach. The plan for tomorrow-spend the day at in Vassilikos at Gerakas Beach. It was hands down the best skimboarding in Zante (Zakynthos).
Gerakas Beach, Vassilikos
Waking up to rain in the Greek islands on vacation isn't exactly the best situation. Yet, things got worse. Tyler woke up with a sinus infection. I was feeling great and somewhat elated that today would be a lazy day (if only Tyler was feeling better). We tried to cure him with some natural nose spray from the pharmacy but after it didn't help after an hour we visited the Greek Doc.
Dr. N. Logaras office
We were a little nervous, you always hear scary things about out of country doctors, but doctor Naktarios Logaras was great! I've never had a doctor that really listened to the patient, admitted when his first guess was wrong, and actually helped Tyler get better in just one visit. He spoke excellent English and actually went to med school in Birmingham. He was a Athens native with a British accent. He gave Tyler some medication and antibiotics and sent us on our way. Within an hour Tyler was feeling great and ready to get back to Vassilikos.
On our drive down the eastern road in Zante there are a lot of nice sandy beaches. We stopped at Banana Beach which is really popular (also labeled the nudist beach-but we didn't get close enough to find out, lol). It was nice, but no waves.
Banana Beach, Vassilikos
Gerakas Beach in Vassilikos is a Caretta Caretta Sea Turtle hatching place. I so badly wanted to see one of these. Sadly, we didn't :(
Isn't he cute!
We enjoyed sunset on this beach and then had dinner in Argassi. We couldn't believe our time on the Greek Islands was over. The next morning we would catch the ferry back to Killini and drive to Athens.
We made it to Zante Town (the port town) early that morning, had a coffee and boarded the ferry. We were sad to leave Zakynthos so early. I think we would definitely go back to the Ionian Islands!
Here's another map, but this one mentions the beaches of Zakynthos. You can see Shipwreck on the northwest side, the Blue Caves is at the northern tip. We were staying in Alykanas which is at the smaller point on the north east side. Gerakas Beach is on the south east tip (The east side of the bay).
The drive was nice and a learning experience, hehe! First of all, people in the mainland drive CRAZY. Not California or Utah crazy-they're insane. I wish we took video of it. So imagine a 2 lane highway. One lane going one direction, the other lane going the other direction-right? So if you drive in the middle of your lane-like it would seem your supposed to-even the painted lines show it-people start honking. They want you to get over. So we started to notice that most people drove on the SHOULDER of the highway, so that the people driving faster would just pass by in the lane. So they took a 2 lane highway, and had it working as a 4 lane highway. Maybe it doesn't sound too bad, but when a car is passing you and the person in the opposite lane -thus there are 4 people in 2 lanes it can get a little scary. Throw a semi in there and that spells NOT FUN. In addition to the lane fun, they should all get an award for parking. Tyler was even awed by how they would get their tiny cars into non-existent spaces.
Another interesting thing about the drive was the gas station/food stops. Instead of having exits like we do, they have these fast stops. Each side of the freeway has the same gas station and restaurant. It's more like a pull off ramp, you get gas and food real quick, then your back on. There's no other streets to pull off at-it's actually really simple and quick. We of course decided to wait for lunch for a little longer convinced there would be something else. We were wrong. As we drove past little towns, so charming that they made us feel like we were in Italy, we got more hungry each second. Finally an exit for a town came around and we took it. We drove around this small ocean side town for a few miles, finally came to a gas station and bought 2 croissants to hold us over until we could find another fast stop. We learned to buy food when you have the chance.
One of the stops I was really excited to make was Corinth. This is the town that Paul wrote to the book Corinthians (in the Bible). There wasn't a lot to this town that we were able to see-but our main stop was the Corinth Canal. This is a man-made canal through the land. It's just wide enough to fit a ship through. It's so deep. I tried to convince Tyler to go bungee jumping (not seriously though).
Once we were in Killini, we grabbed a cold coffee and waited just a little bit to board the ferry before our 1 hour ride. The ferry was nice, we were really tired and even a little sea sick, so we decided to go to the top deck and watch Zakynthos steadily approach.
Since the Ionian islands are right next to Italy, they have a lot of Italian influence. You could really tell in the homes and buildings.
After getting off the ferry we began the search for our hotel....and we searched....and we searched. Zante doesn't have the best road sign system. Actually let me rephrase that they have ALOT of road signs. Pretty much every fork in the road they tell you what towns it leads to. However it's misleading. Sure you can get to Alykanas by taking a left and a right. The right will lead you straight there. The left, you may have to travel half the island, but you'll get there. After a few hours and not much patience left, we arrived at our hotel. Some great Brits and nice Greeks helped us on the way.
The Alykanas Village Hotel
Our resort was pretty interesting. It was a British resort. Most people, travelers and staff alike were British. It was a little odd. The nice side-everyone spoke English. Downside-there were SOOO many kids everywhere. Just walking in the lobby I got a headache. It was SO loud. Luckily the island was so amazing, so we didn't spend that much time at the resort. Actually, I don't remember stepping foot in the pool, or the ocean outside our hotel for that matter.
Map of Zakynthos
In order to explain these next photos, I have to take you back to about February. When we began talking about going to Greece, Tyler started researching photos, skimboarding, videos, etc. He found this beach that he fell in LOVE with. It was unrealistic to plan this island into our schedule. It was on the OPPOSITE side of Greece and would take one day to get there and one day to get back. All of Trip Advisor thought we were idiots even considering going to the Ionian Islands when the main part of our trip was the Eastern Greek Isles. Even though, this is the ONE place Tyler really really wanted to see. So we did it. We came to Zakynthos. So what beach was it that captured Tyler's heart? No...not the topless beaches, lol. Shipwreck Beach-see for yourself:
Our first evening, priority number 1 was to find the overlook on the west side of the island up in the mountains that looked down on this pristine beach. I can't find an adjective to describe it. We found it, and the time of day was beautiful, right at sunset. We almost missed it due to an annoying old man that lied to us to get us to look at his items for sell.We caught on that the overlook was not where he was at, but another few miles down the road. I think Tyler was extremely happy upon finding it. It was a very surreal moment for him-to see a place that he's dreamed of seeing for a while. (I probably had this moment in Santorini)
The view was amazing from this overlook. We could have taken a thousand (more) photos.
See how happy? This was one photo I didn't have to coax out of him.
That evening we booked a day tour to the Blue Caves and ShipWreck Beach. We had dinner at Pepe's-an amazing local place with the best gyros we had the whole time!
The tour was great. I can't believe how much we bought on the ship. If you know us, we never buy concessions. We never get drinks or popcorn for movies, or treats at fairs, but there was something about the boat, the ice cream, the coffee, the donuts, and grilled cheese sandwiches (which they call cheese toast) that had us coming back for more. We met some Norwegian friends as well. Our first stop was the Blue Caves. These are natural caves that are carved out by the wind. The water is so clear, so blue. We had fun swimming around-too bad we forgot the snorkel!
Next stop: Navagio (ShipWreck Beach). The story goes back in 1980 when a boat was trying to illegally smuggle cigarettes and alcohol in Greece. The Greek navy chased the boat through the Ionian sea and due to the stormy weather it ran aground on the coast to the north of the island where it still rests. I believe Greece has considered moving it, however the cost is really high-and my suspicion is that it brings in so much tourist money-why would they?
Approaching Navagio Beach. It's only accessible by boat.
The ship. This piece of junk has become famous! So funny the way things turn out huh?
Tyler was so excited to skimboard at this beach. From the photos, the white sand looks so inviting. We'll like we were starting to figure out, most of the beaches in Greece were more on the pebbly side, than fine sand. Navagio wasn't too different. Luckily the pebbles were fine enough that Tyler was willing to try. He loves it to much to have something like this stop him.
The 'sand' along with cute sandals I got in Fira, Santorini.
He had a pretty good time. As we were there, the sun disappeared, and it started to get a little breezy. The rest of the trip would have had a few stops by Turtle Arches, however the wind got too strong and we had to turn back. Tyler and I both usually get sea sick, however we were smart and brought along ALOT of Dramamine (We haven't traveled without it since our trip to Costa Rica in 2008). Tyler was doing great, and I was doing okay. I took a nap which helped. It got a little humorous when one of the crew started handing out bags for people to get sick in. I was also very happy to share my Dramamine with the sickest looking people.
After our tour, we explored the south west portion of the island. We ended up getting lost (because of the signs), and again we were hungry and there was no where to eat. I thought we learned our lesson? We were relieved and happy when we found a lady near Keri selling ice cream-so yummy.
We had gyros in Laganas and checked out the neighboring beaches. Jackpot! These beaches were the sandy beaches we were looking for. Tyler spent the last few hours of sunlight at Gerakas beach. The plan for tomorrow-spend the day at in Vassilikos at Gerakas Beach. It was hands down the best skimboarding in Zante (Zakynthos).
Gerakas Beach, Vassilikos
Waking up to rain in the Greek islands on vacation isn't exactly the best situation. Yet, things got worse. Tyler woke up with a sinus infection. I was feeling great and somewhat elated that today would be a lazy day (if only Tyler was feeling better). We tried to cure him with some natural nose spray from the pharmacy but after it didn't help after an hour we visited the Greek Doc.
Dr. N. Logaras office
We were a little nervous, you always hear scary things about out of country doctors, but doctor Naktarios Logaras was great! I've never had a doctor that really listened to the patient, admitted when his first guess was wrong, and actually helped Tyler get better in just one visit. He spoke excellent English and actually went to med school in Birmingham. He was a Athens native with a British accent. He gave Tyler some medication and antibiotics and sent us on our way. Within an hour Tyler was feeling great and ready to get back to Vassilikos.
On our drive down the eastern road in Zante there are a lot of nice sandy beaches. We stopped at Banana Beach which is really popular (also labeled the nudist beach-but we didn't get close enough to find out, lol). It was nice, but no waves.
Banana Beach, Vassilikos
Gerakas Beach in Vassilikos is a Caretta Caretta Sea Turtle hatching place. I so badly wanted to see one of these. Sadly, we didn't :(
Isn't he cute!
We enjoyed sunset on this beach and then had dinner in Argassi. We couldn't believe our time on the Greek Islands was over. The next morning we would catch the ferry back to Killini and drive to Athens.
We made it to Zante Town (the port town) early that morning, had a coffee and boarded the ferry. We were sad to leave Zakynthos so early. I think we would definitely go back to the Ionian Islands!
Here's another map, but this one mentions the beaches of Zakynthos. You can see Shipwreck on the northwest side, the Blue Caves is at the northern tip. We were staying in Alykanas which is at the smaller point on the north east side. Gerakas Beach is on the south east tip (The east side of the bay).
I think this was my favorite of your Greece posts!! Those pictures are surreal!! Love that you add maps too ;)
ReplyDelete1st I loved the shipwreck islands so much. They would be stupid to move it.
ReplyDelete2nd you make me want to go to Italy
Oh my goodness, I am so behind in reading your blog! Where to even start...
ReplyDelete*The rest of Santorini? Magical.
*Rhodes? Amazing.
*Birthdays? Glad they were happy!
*Blog books? You rock! And what a great find with that coupon code! I need to get my bum in gear and make one in the next ten days.
Okay, and as for this post...
*Driving sounds CRAZY!
*And so do the road signs/directions!
*Trip Advisor people are also crazy, since obviously you made the right choice by going to Z! It looks incredible, to say the least.
*Shipwreck beach--again, incredible. I can't believe that you were really there and took those pictures. It looks like paradise!
*Skimboarding with Tyler looks fun.
*Those sandals are super cute.
*Bummer about getting sick! But what a blessing to have a great doctor in a foreign country. Hope that didn't cost too much!
And at the risk of making this the longest blog comment ever, I'll just sum it up by saying that your Greece vacation looks like an absolute dream. I'm so happy you were able to go and that you had such an amazing time!