Zakynthos, GR

A tiny, arch-ceilinged taverna in an arcaded side street off Zakynthos Town's harbour — no printed menu, no sign beyond a hand-painted board, and a short list of whatever has been cooked that morning. Regulars queue for tables at lunch. The food is organic, seasonal and classically Zakynthian: revithokeftedes, stewed rabbit, courgette fritters, and whatever fish came in.

Set in the old KTEL bus station building on the edge of Zakynthos Town, this cheerful sidewalk taverna has been feeding locals and budget-aware travellers with generous portions of classic Greek food for years. The menu runs kouneli stifado (rabbit stew), salted cod with skordalia, pork souvlaki and moussaka — nothing invented, everything right.

A harbourfront fish taverna a short walk from Solomos Square, with an outdoor terrace over the water and a tradition of live Zakynthian kantada music most evenings in summer. The menu centres on freshly caught fish and island seafood — grilled octopus, sea bream, fried whitebait — alongside a short list of Zakynthian meat dishes.

The only organic-certified restaurant on the island, perched above the northeast coast near Agios Nikolaos with direct water views toward the Blue Caves access point. Ingredients are sourced from local farmers and the day's catch — the menu shifts accordingly, leaning toward grilled fish, vegetable mezedes and herb-forward salads.

An outdoor garden taverna in the inland village of Lagkadakia, set under old olive, lemon and pomegranate trees on a fixed-price meze menu — a spread of starters followed by a choice of main, with house wine included. Live Greek music most evenings turns dinner into a participatory event by the end of the night.

A family-run stone taverna with a walled garden near Gerakas beach on the Vassilikos peninsula — one of the quieter and more genuinely local restaurants on the south coast. Stuffed vine leaves, grilled swordfish, squid and simple salads prepared from farm produce.

A farm-to-table taverna in the northern village of Korithi, run by the Lithies family who raise animals and grow most of the produce on their own land — the house wine is also estate-produced. Grilled farm chicken, slow-cooked lamb, organic salads and traditional Zakynthian sweets served under a vine-covered pergola.

A family-run estate winery in the inland village of Lagopodo producing wines from indigenous Zakynthian grapes — Avgoustiatis (red), Pavlos and the rare amber Verdea. The attached restaurant and tasting room serves a full sit-down menu of Ionian mezedes and grilled meats, pairing each course with estate wines.

A family-run restaurant in the Bochali hillside neighbourhood above Zakynthos Town, with a terrace looking back over the port and the Ionian Sea toward the mainland. Grilled chicken, seafood and Greek salads in a setting that the town's residents use for Sunday lunch when they want a view without driving across the island.

A courtyard restaurant one street back from Solomos Square serving Greek dishes with a subtle modern approach — not reinvention, but careful sourcing and cleaner presentation than the tourist-facing waterfront places. The shaded courtyard with bougainvillea overhead is one of the better lunch settings in the town centre.

A small islet connected to the Laganas coastline by a wooden footbridge, with a bar, white-pebble beach, and chapel set against the pines. The atmosphere is the draw — cocktails and mezedes on a private island as the sun drops behind Keri — rather than an ambitious kitchen.

The island's most rewarding ascent — a 7.6km route from the end of the Argassi resort road climbing through olive groves and scrub to the 492m summit, where Venetian watchtower ruins, the remains of a church to the Virgin Mary and the possible foundations of an ancient Artemis temple wait alongside a panorama that takes in the entire island, the Peloponnese coast and Kefalonia on a clear day.

A 5km loop from the village of Keri in the southwest, descending through olive groves and farmland to the cliff edge where the twin rock stacks of Myzithres rise from the sea 100m below, then continuing to the Keri Lighthouse with its view back across the bay. Half tarmac, half farm track — not technical, but the payoff is the best southwest coast panorama on foot.

The 4km uphill walk from Solomos Square in Zakynthos Town through the back streets and into the hillside neighbourhood of Bochali, ending at the gatehouse of the Venetian castle at 117m. Five waymarked cultural variations exist; the main route follows the old carriage road up through ochre-walled alleys past small churches.

A short 2.5km loop at the southern tip of the Vassilikos peninsula — the route leaves Gerakas beach, climbs gently inland past eroded sandstone and clay formations sculpted into arches and columns, and arrives at a clifftop lookout over the beach, Laganas Bay and the turtle-nesting islands of Marathonisi and Pelouzo.

A 6km walk from the inland village of Anafonitria — associated with Saint Dionysios who sheltered there — through maquis scrub and pine to the clifftop above Navagio Beach. The path passes the 15th-century Anafonitria Monastery before reaching the viewpoint above the shipwreck, giving the approach a historic layer missing from the car-park arrival.

The island's longest walking route at roughly 24km, crossing the northern ridge from Askos Stone Park through forested peaks to the clifftop village of Kambi, with its enormous concrete cross memorial overlooking the Ionian. Combines the island's highest ground, least-visited interior villages and the best mainland views outside Skopos.

The half-day or full-day boat circuit departing from Agios Nikolaos port (north coast) that combines both of Zakynthos's signature attractions in a single run — the Blue Caves at Cape Skinari in the morning light, then south along the west coast to pass below the Navagio viewpoint and into the cove. Small-boat caïques give access the big ferries cannot.

ARCHELON — the Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece, founded in 1983 — operates a field station in Laganas during nesting season, running one of the longest continuous sea turtle monitoring programmes in the world. Day visitors and short-term volunteers can join beach patrols, nest monitoring and hatchling-emergence counts.

The island's most structured wine experience — a guided tasting of six estate wines from indigenous Zakynthian varieties including the rare Verdea amber wine, paired with local cheese, cured meats and breadsticks. Held in the estate's shaded courtyard among the vines in Lagopodo village, 20 minutes' drive from Zakynthos Town.

The main neoclassical square at the heart of Zakynthos Town — flanked by the Byzantine Museum, the Solomos and Calvos Museum, the Church of St Nicholas and a ring of outdoor kafeneions — and the centre of the island's Venetian-inherited evening promenade culture. Between 7pm and 10pm it fills with locals of every generation in a ritual that has run uninterrupted through centuries of occupation.

The broad waterfront promenade running from the ferry terminal past the moored fishing boats and caïques to the lighthouse at the southern end of the harbour — the working face of Zakynthos Town, where the morning fish market, evening passeggiata and late-night bar circuit all overlap within 800 metres.

A clifftop platform above the northwest coast looking straight down onto the rusting hull of the MV Panagiotis beached in a white-pebble cove between vertical limestone walls — the single image that defines Zakynthos. The viewpoint is free and driveable; landing on the beach itself requires a boat from Porto Vromi or Agios Nikolaos.

A chain of wave-carved arches and sea caves at Cape Skinari on the island's northern tip where sunlight refracts through the shallow water to produce an electric blue glow inside the chambers. Accessible only by boat — small wooden caïques seat 10–15 and enter the caves themselves at low sea state.

The most significant Caretta caretta (loggerhead sea turtle) nesting ground in the Mediterranean, protected within the National Marine Park of Zakynthos. Roughly 1,200 nests per year are laid across six beaches in the bay — Laganas, Kalamaki, Gerakas, Sekania, Daphni and Marathonisi. Gerakas and Kalamaki are the most accessible for visitors during daylight.

The ruined Venetian fortress on the forested ridge of Bochali, 117m above Zakynthos Town, built in its current form in the late 17th century by the Republic of Venice as the island's seat of government. The walls and towers are largely intact, the interior is open to roam, and the views across town, the port and to the Peloponnese coast make the climb worthwhile regardless of the history.

The island's finest museum, housed in a neoclassical building on Solomos Square, holding several hundred portable icons, ecclesiastical paintings and carved stonework recovered from churches destroyed in the 1953 earthquake. The Ionian School of painting — a distinct post-Byzantine style that blended Orthodox iconography with Venetian Renaissance influence — is represented here better than almost anywhere else in Greece.

The waterfront basilica dedicated to the island's patron saint, rebuilt after the 1953 earthquake and notable for surviving intact — locals consider it a miracle. Inside: an exceptional carved wood iconostasis, ceiling frescoes by painters of the Ionian School, and the silver reliquary housing the mummified remains of Dionysios (1547–1622), brought out in procession each August 24 and December 17.

A small pebble cove on the northeast coast where natural sulphur springs flow from karst caves at the base of the cliff into the sea, turning the water a milky turquoise and giving it a faint mineral smell. Locals call it the island's natural spa and swim here specifically for the springs' therapeutic reputation for skin and joints.

A narrow, almost enclosed U-shaped rocky inlet on the west coast near Agios Leon, where vertical white-limestone cliffs funnel into crystal-clear deep water. No sand — concrete platforms and iron ladders for entry — with freshwater springs mixing into the sea around the cave mouths, making the snorkelling unusually clear.