"Zakynthos" a Zante Travel Page by denise16

Will take me a couple of days to load all my stuff (24/09/05)
This picture was taken from the day cruise boat, near one of the sets of blue caves. The sea is unbelievable, it looks like someone has tipped blue & tourquoise paint, yet it is cristal clear, and also very warm. Great to swim off the cruise boats, in the small coves that you can only visit by boat. See tips on tourist traps (when I do them)

This photograph was taken seconds after lots of fish had been swimming around my feet. I wanted to show just how clear the water is. I was dangling my feet in the quay at St. Nicholas Port.

The beaches around the tourist resorts are Ok, but nothing compared with those that can only be reached by boat. Tsilivi beach is a little crowded with sun beds etc. but if you walk right along the beach it gets better. The sea (in Sept) was very warm, it shelves very gently and hardly any tide or currents, so safe for bathing. There are the usual peddlos hire places and a daily visit from a tourist speed boat that annoyingly sounds it's horn all the way across the bay and the passengers wave like idiots, I think the idea was for those on the beach to wave back (sod off more like). There are plenty of beach bars and generally the sand is clean. If you turn left and head towards the small quayside there is another very small beach around the headland, plus many small coves along the eastern side.
Only had a brief visit to the beach at Laganas Bay. Similar to the Tsilivi beach but with added attraction of the turtle nesting site (a protected area) between Laganas & Kalamaki. No parasols, or holes to be dug in certain areas, or visitors after dark, although unfortunately people break the rules. We saw about 12 nest sites marked up, which surprised us, being Septemebr. We saw no turtles on the whole island cruise, althoguh the larger cruise boats are not allowd to enter the main protection area. There are smaller boats that do turtle spotting trips but we thought they defeat the object of protection by disturbing the turtles and decided against going. There was also a strong smell of diesel as we entered the protected marine park.