Day Trips from Zakynthos

Day trips from Zakynthos start in Zakynthos town and cover the shipwreck cove, the Blue Caves at Cape Skinari, Keri, the turtles of Laganas Bay and Marathonisi, with crossings to Kefalonia and ancient Olympia. The page is part of the Greece Tours on Greece Ville.

This page covers what day trips from Zakynthos are, the sea trips round the island, the sunset coast, the currant fields, then Melissani, Myrtos, Assos and Fiskardo on Kefalonia, Olympia and Chlemoutsi. Common questions come last. Each section links to the Greece Ville posts on single tours.

What are day trips from Zakynthos?

Day trips from Zakynthos are journeys that start and end at the island’s capital, using boats along the coast of Zakynthos or the ferry across the Ionian channel to the mainland port of Kyllini and the neighbouring island of Kefalonia.

The capital stands on the eastern part of the northern coast, and its port sends a ferry to Kyllini on the mainland. Day trips from Zakynthos begin at this harbour or at the village of Agios Nikolaos in the north.

Kyllini is a port town in Elis, 28 km northeast of Zakynthos. Ferry connections run from the port to the Ionian islands of Zakynthos and Cephalonia, which makes the town the mainland end of the crossing.

Homer first mentioned Kyllini in the Iliad, and the ruins of the medieval town of Glarentza stand within it. The name comes from Cyllene, a port town of ancient Elis on the same coast.

The island is about 40 km long and 20 km wide. Each coast of that compact island works as a separate outing.

The Ionian Sea around it is an elongated bay of the Mediterranean, bounded by southern Italy in the west. Aeschylus linked its name to the myth of Io.

• Capital: Zakynthos town is also called Chora, the Greek word for the main town of an island.
• Mainland: Kyllini lies on the Ionian coast of Elis and has no railway now.
• Name: The island is also known by the Italian form Zante.
• Sea: The Ionian Sea is famous for the seafaring adventures of Odysseus, the warrior king of Ithaca.

Day trips from Zakynthos therefore divide into sea days around the coast and crossing days to Kefalonia and Elis. Each runs from the capital and returns there the same day.

Where do day trips from Zakynthos begin in Zakynthos town?

Day trips from Zakynthos begin in Zakynthos town, the island’s capital, which has an ancient alliance, a Roman conquest and a Venetian era behind it, and which draws visitors from across the whole island for boat trips, nightlife and food.

In the First Peloponnesian War an Athenian commander, Tolmides, made an alliance with Zakynthos. The island gave Athens a source of tar, which protected the planks of the trireme fleet from rot.

The Roman praetor Marcus Valerius Laevinus took the city in 211 BC, except for the citadel. The general Marcus Fulvius Nobilior finally conquered Zakynthos for Rome in 191 BC.

The Pisans plundered the island in 1099, and Margaritus of Brindisi captured it in 1185. A Latin bishopric then stood beside the Orthodox one, and the Republic of Venice conquered the island in 1482.

The Renaissance anatomist Andreas Vesalius died on Zakynthos after a shipwreck on his way back from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. His body is thought to lie on the island, but the site has been lost.

Resorts are scarce in the town itself, yet visitors arrive from across the island. Europeans form the main groups, particularly Croatian and British visitors who stay in the wider municipality.

• Rome: The Mithridatic War brought an attack by the general Archelaus, who was repulsed.
• Macedon: Philip V seized the island in the early third century BC, when it belonged to the Aetolian League.
• Athens: The alliance dated to a year between 459 and 446 BC.
• Town: The town lies on the eastern part of the northern coast.

The Zakynthos island tour post covers the island by road, including its rocks, writers, painters, music and farms. Day trips from Zakynthos by sea begin where that road ends.

Which cove do day trips from Zakynthos visit for the shipwreck?

Day trips from Zakynthos visit Navagio, also called Shipwreck Beach, an exposed cove on the north-west coast where the coaster MV Panagiotis ran aground in stormy weather and where the abandoned hull still rests in the limestone gravel.

The Panagiotis ran aground in stormy weather and bad visibility. The crew abandoned the ship to evade the pursuing Navy, and the hull has stayed buried in the limestone gravel since then.

Official sources never confirmed the rumours of smuggling. The captain was not convicted of such offences at the time, though court documents released later back up the story that the ship came from Turkey.

The cove ranks among the famous and photographed beaches of the world. High cliffs enclose it, so day trips from Zakynthos reach the sand by boat rather than on foot.

In 2018 a cliff above the beach collapsed, and swimming and boat anchoring were forbidden. The beach reopened afterwards, and anchoring is permitted again with restrictions because of fears of future landslides.

After a later landslide, experts from the Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization visited the site in March 2023. Their advice led to a ban on access, and boats were able to approach while swimming was not allowed near the beach.

• Setting: The cove lies on the coast of Zakynthos in the Ionian Islands of Greece.
• Wreck: The ship is a coaster, a small vessel built for coastal cargo.
• Safety: A team of experts reassesses the cliffs on a regular basis.
• Rules: Closures have banned swimming while still allowing boats to approach.

The Navagio shipwreck tour post covers how the cliffs and cove formed, why the water is clear and which wildlife lives nearby. Day trips from Zakynthos keep to its rules.

How do day trips from Zakynthos reach the Blue Caves at Cape Skinari?

Day trips from Zakynthos reach the Blue Caves at Cape Skinari, the northwest tip of the island, where small boats enter natural caves carved into the cliffs by the sea and pass the rock arches that line the western shore.

Zakynthos has the shape of an arrowhead, and Cape Skinari forms the tip that points northwest. The western half of the island is a mountainous plateau that ends in steep cliffs on the southwest coast.

The caves are accessible only by small boats, which are popular among tourists, so day trips from Zakynthos use small boats here. The sea cut them into the cliffs around the cape.

The whole western shore from Keri to Skinari holds rock formations, including arches. Day trips from Zakynthos to the caves therefore pass the same cliffs that frame the shipwreck cove.

Roads reach the north by Zakynthos Provincial Road 6, which runs from the capital to Volimes. Provincial Road 20 is the main road in the western half, one of 20 provincial roads on the island.

Agios Nikolaos is the second port of the island and lies near the northern tip. A ferry from the village crosses to Argostoli on Kefalonia, and an islet of the same name stands near the harbour.

• Cape: Cape Skinari is the point of the island’s arrowhead shape.
• Boats: Only small boats enter the caves, so the cliffs stay quiet at the waterline.
• Road: Provincial Road 6 serves Volimes in the north.
• Port: Agios Nikolaos handles the crossing to Kefalonia.

The Zakynthos Blue Caves post covers how the sea carved the caves, why the water glows and what lives around them. Day trips from Zakynthos link it with the cape.

What do day trips from Zakynthos see at Keri?

Day trips from Zakynthos see Keri, a mountain village in the south with a lighthouse, where the main road of the island ends and where a lake once supplied, in antiquity, the tar that Athens spread on its warships.

The EO35 is the main road of the island and runs between the capital and Keri in the south. Day trips from Zakynthos by land follow it through the flat eastern plain.

Keri is a mountain village with a lighthouse, and day trips from Zakynthos pass it on the south road. The community of Keri also takes in Apelati, Limni Keriou and Marathias, which together form one of the communities of the municipal unit of Laganas.

The Athenians dredged tar from the bottom of a lake, now called Lake Keri, with leafy myrtle branches tied to the ends of poles. They collected it in pots and carried it to the beach.

Sailors swabbed the tar directly onto ship hulls. The tar also travelled to the Athenian naval yard at Piraeus for storage, because trireme fleets needed protection from rot, decay and the teredo.

The wetland of Keri Lake now lies inside the National Marine Park of Zakynthos. The park also covers the Bay of Laganas, so the lake and the nesting beaches share one protected area.

• Lighthouse: Keri holds a lighthouse above the southern shore.
• Road: The EO35 reaches the village from the capital.
• Tar: Pitch comes from pine trees, while tar protects planking better.
• Park: The lake wetland belongs to the marine park.

The caves below Keri belong to the same stretch of cliffs as the Blue Caves. Day trips from Zakynthos by boat reach them from the south, while the lake stays on land.

Where do day trips from Zakynthos watch the loggerhead turtles of Laganas Bay?

Day trips from Zakynthos watch the loggerhead turtles in Laganas Bay, where the National Marine Park of Zakynthos, founded in December 1999, protects the nesting beaches of the species and is the first national park created for sea turtles in the Mediterranean.

The park, which day trips from Zakynthos pass, covers 135 square kilometres in the bay and belongs to the Natura 2000 network. Fishing is strictly prohibited inside each of its marine zones, which are labelled A, B and C.

The marine park hosts between 900 and 2,000 nests a year. That total represents an average of eighty percent of all nests in the Mediterranean population of loggerheads.

More than 3,000 nests a year make Greece the favoured nesting site in the Mediterranean. Zakynthos hosts the largest Mediterranean nesting, and Kyparissia Bay holds the second.

Females lay their eggs in the bay at night, from the fifth month to August. Greek authorities bar planes from taking off or landing at Zakynthos airport at night because of the nesting turtles.

The park sets codes of conduct for sightseeing, rambling and marine excursions. Speedboats that break the boating ban off the beaches are a threat, so day trips from Zakynthos follow the rules.

• Founded: The park opened in December 1999.
• Zones: Three marine zones lie in the bay, and fishing is prohibited in each.
• Seal: A resident population of the monk seal lives on the west coast.
• Species: The loggerhead is one of the oldest forms of life on the planet.

The Zakynthos turtle boat tour post covers how a loggerhead grows, dives, feeds and is tracked, and what threatens it.

What is Marathonisi on day trips from Zakynthos?

Day trips from Zakynthos call at Marathonisi, known as Turtle Island, a small uninhabited islet in Laganas Bay that was inhabited until the Second World War and is now protected as a reproduction site for the Caretta caretta sea turtle.

The islet lies off the south coast of Zakynthos in western Greece. It is part of the Zakynthos National Marine Park and is protected under the Natura 2000 programme.

Marathonissi, as the name is also spelled, is among the six nesting beaches of the bay. The others are Gerakas, Daphni, Sekania, Kalamaki and East Laganas, and the beaches total about 5 km in length.

The islet lies near Limni Keriou and has tropical vegetation, turquoise waters, beaches and sea caves. Day trips from Zakynthos view it from the water within the rules of the park.

The loggerhead lives at sea for the bulk of its life. Females come ashore only to lay eggs, and the habitats of the bay include sand dunes, submerged reefs and beds of Posidonia oceanica.

Sekania is rated among the highest loggerhead nesting concentrations in the world. A code of conduct for ecotourism aims to match the tourism strategy to the biodiversity of the area.

• Status: The islet has stood empty of residents since the Second World War.
• Network: Natura 2000 is the ecological network that covers it.
• Beaches: Six nesting beaches ring the bay.
• Flora: The critically endangered sea daffodil grows on the dunes of the park.

Marathonisi has no pier or village, so day trips from Zakynthos observe it from boats in the bay. The islet makes a clear destination on a map of the park.

How do day trips from Zakynthos go round the island by boat?

Day trips from Zakynthos go round the island by boat along an arrowhead-shaped coast of the Ionian Sea, where a fertile eastern plain of long sandy beaches gives way to a mountainous western plateau and to steep cliffs on the southwest coast.

The eastern half of the island is a densely populated, fertile plain with long sandy beaches. Isolated hills interrupt it, and Bochali overlooks the city from the north.

The wide, shallow bay of Laganas is enclosed by the Vasilikos peninsula to the north and the Marathia peninsula to the south. Day trips from Zakynthos by boat cross it on the southeast side.

The west turns steep. The southwest coast consists mostly of cliffs, and the western half is a mountainous plateau whose highest point, Vrachionas, rises to 758 metres.

The Ionian Sea is one of the seismically active areas of the world. A 6.4 magnitude earthquake south of the island on 26 October 2018 caused no injuries but damaged the local pier.

The same quake damaged a 13th-century monastery on the island. The climate of Zakynthos is hot-summer Mediterranean, with dry heat in summer and rainy winters that range from mild to cool.

• Length: The coastline runs for 123 km around the island.
• East: Long sandy beaches line the plain.
• West: Cliffs rise from the sea on the southwest coast.
• Climate: Winters bring rain and summers stay dry.

The Zakynthos boat trip post covers the sea floor, currents, corals, seabirds and fish along the route. Day trips from Zakynthos by water follow that coast.

Where do day trips from Zakynthos watch the sunset on the west coast?

Day trips from Zakynthos watch the sunset from the west coast of the island, where the Ionian Sea opens towards Italy, the cliffs and arches of the shore face the open water and the summers are mostly hot and sunny.

The Ionian Sea is bounded on the west by the east coast of Sicily and the southeast coast of Italy. Evening day trips from Zakynthos on the west coast therefore look out over open water towards that horizon.

The sea is deep far from land. The Calypso Deep, the deepest point in the Mediterranean, lies in the Ionian Sea at 5,109 m, though it lies far to the south of the island.

Zakynthos has a hot-summer climate with summers that are mostly hot and sunny. Humidity is fairly high throughout the year, even during the summer months, which suits an evening on deck.

A resident population of the critically endangered Mediterranean monk seal is present on the west coast. Day trips from Zakynthos pass the cliffs where it lives.

Porto Vromi lies on the western coast, and the islet of Agios Ioannis stands near it. The islet is one of the minor uninhabited islands that belong to the municipality.

• Horizon: Italy lies beyond the open water in the west.
• Cliffs: Arches and rock formations run from Keri to Skinari.
• Wildlife: The monk seal lives on the west coast.
• Islet: Agios Ioannis lies near Porto Vromi.

The Zakynthos sunset cruise post covers the dolphins and whales, the glow of the sea and the moon after dusk. Day trips from Zakynthos end there.

What do day trips from Zakynthos see on the Kalamaki coast?

Day trips from Zakynthos see the Kalamaki coast on the south of the island, a beach resort on the Bay of Laganas that keeps a more relaxed atmosphere than its neighbour Laganas and whose beach is a protected nesting place for the loggerhead.

Kalamaki lies about 3 km northeast of Laganas, in the south of the island. Despite the close proximity, it keeps a much more relaxed atmosphere than its busy neighbour.

The number of charter flights to the area increased twentyfold between 1983 and 1993. Growth in tourism was rapid, and the beach became part of the National Marine Park of Zakynthos.

The Greek parliament protected the area in legislation in 1986. Beachgoing was banned at night, and sports such as water skiing were banned too, so day trips from Zakynthos respect the shore.

The name Laganas comes from the Greek word lagini, meaning jug. It refers to the former manufacture of pottery in the area of Lithakia and Kalamaki.

Laganas was once a calm fishing village and now holds over 100 bars and clubs. Since the mid-1980s the island has become a hub for tourists aged between 18 and 30.

• Distance: Kalamaki lies 3 km from Laganas.
• Law: Legislation protected the area in 1986.
• Area: The municipal unit of Laganas covers 74.104 square kilometres.
• Hills: The west of that unit reaches a height of 450 m.

Kalamaki and Laganas close the southern circuit. Day trips from Zakynthos on this coast combine beaches, the airport nearby and the protected bay.

What do the currant fields add to day trips from Zakynthos?

Day trips from Zakynthos pass through farmland where the Zante currant took its name. The island grows olive oil, currants, grapes and citrus fruit as its principal crops, and plentiful winter rainfall endows the whole island with dense vegetation.

The Zante currant is a raisin made from the Black Corinth grape, a small, sweet and seedless cultivar. The English name joins the Ionian island of Zakynthos, once the major producer, to the harbour of Corinth.

Pliny the Elder made the first written record of the grape in 75 AD. A thousand years later the raisins became a subject of trade between Venetian merchants and Greek producers on the Ionian coasts.

In the 14th century the English market sold them under the label Reysyns de Corauntz. The trade shifted towards the Ionian islands, Zakynthos in particular, by the 17th century, and the name Zante currant followed.

Kefalonia shared in that trade, so day trips from Zakynthos cross old rivals. Both islands ranked among the largest currant exporters from the 16th to the 18th centuries, and wine and raisins stayed the oldest exports.

• Grape: Black Corinth bears very small, reddish black berries with a thin skin and soft, juicy flesh.
• Care: The vines need careful management, and the cultivar is reputed to be prone to powdery mildew.
• Name: The word currant is a worn form of the French phrase for grapes of Corinth.
• Climate: The climate on Zakynthos is hot-summer Mediterranean, with rainy winters that stay mild.

Day trips from Zakynthos can therefore start in farmland and end at the sea. The currant fields explain why Venetian and English merchants once knew the island by its fruit.

Which Kefalonia routes belong to day trips from Zakynthos?

Day trips from Zakynthos reach Kefalonia, which lies 15 kilometres to the north. A ferry links the village of Agios Nikolaos on Zakynthos with Argostoli, the main town of Kefalonia, and the larger island has a very different coast and mountain interior.

On day trips from Zakynthos the first town is Argostoli, which holds one-third of the islanders. Lixouri is the second settlement, and the two towns together account for almost two-thirds of the regional unit.

The island is rugged and mountainous. Plains cover less than 15% of the land, and vegetable growing takes place there, while less than a quarter of the whole island is arable.

Ottoman rule on Kefalonia began in 1479 and lasted only until 1500. A Spanish-Venetian army then captured the island, and refugees came from the lost Venetian fortresses of Modon and Coron.

Under Venice the governor Marcantonio Giustinian printed Hebrew books on the island and exported them to the whole eastern Mediterranean. The liberal situation of Kefalonia made that trade possible.

The Kefalonia island tour post covers the fir forest, the animals, the saints and feasts, the writers and composers, the wartime events and the British works that stand on the island.

• Ferry: The crossing runs from Agios Nikolaos on Zakynthos to Argostoli on Kefalonia.
• Distance: Kefalonia lies 15 km north of Zakynthos across the Ionian channel.
• Plains: Flat ground covers less than 15% of Kefalonia, mostly where vegetables grow.
• Farmland: Less than a quarter of the island is arable, and goats suit the steep ground.

Day trips from Zakynthos to Kefalonia therefore trade a fertile eastern plain for rock and forest. The crossing shows how two neighbouring Ionian islands differ in shape and use.

Why does the Melissani cave suit day trips from Zakynthos?

Day trips from Zakynthos can include Melissani, a cave and cenote on Kefalonia. The lake lies north-west of Sami, and its brackish water mixes fresh water from inland with sea water that reaches the island’s deep rock channels.

Melissani lies about 5 km south-east of Agia Effimia and north-east of Argostoli. Forests surround the cave, the mountain slope rises to the west, and the strait of Ithaca lies to the east.

Groundwater reaches the surface through a vertical shaft in the rock. A small boat makes a round trip on the lake, and plants grow at the opening, where the stone shows a stucco to honey-like colour.

The cave belongs to a karst landscape in a coastal carbonate aquifer. Speleo-divers have explored huge conduits below it, and the bay of Sami holds other shafts that scientists have recorded in a database.

Day trips from Zakynthos meet a cave rediscovered in 1951. The bottom of the lake is covered with stones, and the water is so clear that the boats seem to float on air.

The Melissani cave tour post covers the rocks, the creatures in the water, the nearby caves, the divers, the neighbouring village, the ancient city close by and the suitable months.

• Setting: The cave lies beside the main road between Sami and Agia Effimia.
• Parking: Car parks stand near the entrance, about halfway along that road.
• Mountains: Evmorfia and Agia Dynati rise to the west of the lake.
• Myth: In Greek myth the cave belonged to the nymphs.

Day trips from Zakynthos reach this lake by a ferry crossing and a road north from Argostoli. The lake shows the link between rock and sea plainly.

What do Myrtos and Assos offer on day trips from Zakynthos?

Day trips from Zakynthos on Kefalonia can reach Myrtos beach and the Venetian castle of Assos. Myrtos lies under Kalon Oros in the north-west, and Assos stands on a peninsula that a wall of 2000 metres once defended.

The rock around Myrtos is marble, a metamorphosed limestone. The beach consists of round white cobblestones that grow finer towards the shoreline, because the slope drops sharply and the waves carry great energy.

Longshore drift shapes the shore. As waves curve along the beach, they lift the finest marble, and the plumes of sediment give the water its turquoise shade across the bay.

For day trips from Zakynthos in the high season, the Municipality of Pylaros runs a public bus from Agia Efimia. It stops on the road above the beach, and a short walk leads down.

The castle of Assos rose in the 1590s after Kefalonian nobles petitioned the Venetian Senate in 1584. The Castle of Saint George alone was unable to defend the entire island against pirates and the Turkish threat.

• Builder: Ambrosius Cornelius supervised the work, and the architect Marino Gentillini designed it.
• Hill: The fortress covers 44,000 square metres of a rocky hill 170 m high.
• Remains: The arched gate with the Lion of Saint Mark and the small church of Saint Mark survive.
• Village: The census of 1961 counted only 6 people in the fortress, and the last left in 1963.

The castle lost its strategic value in 1684, when the Venetians took Lefkas from the Turks. Day trips from Zakynthos to Assos therefore meet a fortress that later served as a quarantine area and a prison.

Why is Fiskardo a stop on day trips from Zakynthos?

Day trips from Zakynthos can end at Fiskardo, the northernmost port of Kefalonia. The village sits on a two kilometre bay, keeps its original architecture since it escaped the earthquake of 1953, and is identified with ancient Panormos.

Fiskardo lies 32 km north of Argostoli and 24 km north of Sami. The coast around it is rocky, with pebble coves, and the fishing fleet of the port is small and shrinking.

The village and the dense forest around it count as areas of great natural beauty and have protection under Greek law. The community also takes in Evreti, Katsarata, Matsoukata and Tselentata.

The identification with Panormos rests on Herodotus, the historian of the fifth century BC. Workers near the harbour found a plaque of thanks from Athens to the people of Panormos for hunting rights.

Roman remains lie beside the harbour. Excavations have uncovered houses, a bath complex, a cemetery and a theatre with stone seat backs still in place, all dating between 146 BC and 330 AD.

• Name: The Normans renamed the village after Robert Guiscard, who died on the beach of Atheras in 1085.
• Harbour: In the 18th century the port became the commercial harbour of the district of Erisos.
• Poet: Nikos Kavvadias, who lived from 1910 to 1975, made his home in Fiskardo.
• Ferries: The port serves routes to Frikes on Ithaca and to Lefkada.

Day trips from Zakynthos rarely go further north on Kefalonia. Fiskardo marks the end of that line, where old houses survive that the earthquake of 1953 spared elsewhere.

How do day trips from Zakynthos reach ancient Olympia from Kyllini?

Day trips from Zakynthos reach Olympia through the port of Kyllini on the mainland. The port lies 28 km north-east of Zakynthos, and the ferry from the island arrives there before the road leads inland to the Alfeios valley.

Kyllini lies on the Ionian coast, 11 km west of Andravida and 39 km north-west of Pyrgos. Ferries from the port also serve Kefalonia. A railway to Kyllini once ran from Kavasila but is now dismantled.

Homer mentions Kyllini in the Iliad, where Otos from Kyllini dies in the Trojan War. The ruins of the medieval town Glarentza lie within the port area, and the town took its name from ancient Cyllene.

On day trips from Zakynthos, Olympia lies in the valley of the Alfeios, in the west of the Peloponnese. The sanctuary lies nowhere near Mount Olympus, where tradition holds that the twelve Olympian gods lived.

The stadium of Olympia lies east of the sanctuary of Zeus. Its track measures 212.54 m in length and 30 to 34 m in width, and the surface was hard-packed clay.

• Start line: A white block at one end let the runners line up and run the same distance.
• Unit: The length of this field became the standard stadion, an ancient Greek unit of distance.
• Trees: Judas trees, olives, plane trees and Aleppo pines grow across the site.
• Truce: The Olympic truce guaranteed safe passage for visitors but did not stop all wars.

The Ancient Olympia tour post covers the layout of the sanctuary, the Temple of Zeus, the athletes, the rediscovery of the site and the lighting of the flame.

What does Chlemoutsi castle add to day trips from Zakynthos?

Day trips from Zakynthos on the mainland can include Chlemoutsi, a medieval castle in north-west Elis. The Crusader rulers of the Principality of Achaea built it in the early 1220s as their main stronghold, and it survives largely in its original state.

The castle stands on a small plateau 226 metres above sea level. A hexagonal keep wraps around an inner courtyard and holds two-storeyed halls, while an outer wall encloses a western yard.

Building ran from 1220 to 1223 under Geoffrey I of Villehardouin. He asked the clergy, owners of almost a third of the lands, for more donations. When they refused, he seized Church property to fund it.

The French name Clairmont gave rise to the Greek form Chlemoutsi. From the 15th century Italian sources called the castle Castel Tornese, apparently by confusion with the mint of the principality in nearby Glarentza.

On day trips from Zakynthos, the castle appears as it stood: never the object of major military operations. Its main use was a prison for captives, among them the Byzantine general Alexios Philes, who died there.

• Neighbours: The capital Andravida lay about 13 km away, and the port of Glarentza about 5 km.
• Later rule: Byzantine rule began in 1427, and the Ottoman Empire captured the castle in 1460.
• Decline: The castle lost its significance and stood deserted by the late 18th century.
• War: In 1825 part of the outer wall was demolished to stop Greek rebels from using it.

Today the castle is a preserved monument open to the public. Day trips from Zakynthos can pair it with Olympia, since both lie in the region of Elis.

Where are the Strofades islands on day trips from Zakynthos?

Day trips from Zakynthos look south to the Strofades, a group of two small Greek islands in the Ionian Islands. Both are rocky and sparsely vegetated, and hunting is prohibited on them because of the strong bird life.

The larger island is Stamfani and the smaller is Arpia. Cory’s shearwater lives among the seabirds, a large spring migration of turtle doves crosses the group, and Arpia holds lizards of the species Podarcis ionicus.

The Roman poet Virgil states in the Aeneid that a Harpy drove the Trojans from the Strophades. The islands also appear in the Divine Comedy, so day trips from Zakynthos meet a literary landmark.

The monastery on Stamfani, a landmark for day trips from Zakynthos, resembles a fortress and survived pirate raids. Dionysios of Zakynthos, the patron saint of the island, lived there as a monk and died in 1622.

In 1717 the Ottomans attacked the fortress, and a deacon supposedly killed 18 Turks. Two cannons from the parapets still stand at the gate, and a modern sculpture commemorates the monks killed in raids.

• Last monk: Father Grigorios settled on Stamfani in 1976 and shared it with a lighthouse keeper.
• Lighthouse: The light became automated in 1985, which left the monk alone on the island.
• Departure: Ill health forced Grigorios to leave in 2014, and he died in 2017 at Agalas.
• Condition: Earthquake damage has left the main tower in a precarious state.

Day trips from Zakynthos rarely come closer than the horizon to these islands. The Strofades remain a place of birds, ruins and legend south of the main island.

Which museums and poets shape day trips from Zakynthos?

Day trips from Zakynthos inside the island lead to the Museum of Solomos and Eminent Zakynthians on Saint Mark’s plaza. The museum shows local art, sculptures, musical instruments and ceramics, and it features the poets Dionysios Solomos and Andreas Kalvos.

Dionysios Solomos was born in Zakynthos on 8 April 1798, the illegitimate child of the wealthy count Nikolaos Solomos and his housekeeper Angeliki Nikli. His father’s family were Cretan refugees who settled there in 1670.

The count married the mother a day before he died on 27 February 1807, which made the boy legitimate. An Italian tutor, the abbot Santo Rossi, took the child to Italy in 1808 to study.

His first poems were in Italian, and a volume of improvised verse appeared in 1822. He then taught himself to write in the language of the common people of his native island.

The Hymn to Liberty, completed in the fifth month of 1823, was printed in 1824 at Mesolongi and in Paris a year later in French translation. Its first two stanzas became the Greek national anthem.

• Move: Solomos left for Corfu after disputes with his brother Dimitrios over their inheritance.
• Brother: Dimitrios became president of the United States of the Ionian Islands in 1852.
• Death: The poet died in February 1857, and his remains returned to Zakynthos in 1865.
• Unfinished: No poem except the Hymn to Liberty was completed, and almost nothing was published in his lifetime.

The Heptanese School of poetry gave the island a literary name. Day trips from Zakynthos to the museum show why the capital counts as a home of Greek letters.

What do travellers ask about day trips from Zakynthos?

Day trips from Zakynthos cover the neighbouring island of Kefalonia, the mainland across the water and the far islands to the south. Travellers ask about distances, ferry ports, castles and writers, and the answers below rest on published geography and history.

Which islands lie near day trips from Zakynthos?

Kefalonia lies 15 km north of Zakynthos and is the closest large island. The Strofades lie south in the Ionian Sea. Marathonisi, also called Turtle Island, stands near Limni Keriou in the bay of Laganas, close to the southern coast, with tropical vegetation and sea caves.

How do day trips from Zakynthos reach the mainland?

The port of Zakynthos has a ferry to Kyllini on the mainland, which is the usual place of arrival by sea from the Peloponnese. Kyllini lies 28 km north-east of the island and 39 km from Pyrgos, on the way to Olympia.

Which castles feature on day trips from Zakynthos?

Bochali hill above Zakynthos town carries a small Venetian castle that overlooks the city and the peninsula of Vasilikos. On the mainland, Chlemoutsi in Elis dates from the 1220s. On Kefalonia, the Venetians raised the castle of Assos between 1593 and 1596 on a hill 170 m high.

Which writers connect to day trips from Zakynthos?

Dionysios Solomos, the national poet of Greece, was born on Zakynthos in 1798. The Italian poet Ugo Foscolo was born there too and wrote the sonnet A Zacinto for the island. A statue of Solomos adorns the main town square.