My husband and I are traveling to Greece for 10 days in early June. We will arrive in Athens and plan to spend 1-2 days there. There are so many amazing places to see and it is so difficult to narrow down, but we want to get to Santorini and Zakynthos for shipwreck beach. We are open to flying out of the areas to make travel more accessible, but I'm curious if this is a decent idea? Also, does anyone have suggestions for hotels on the caldera in Santorini? We are so excited to go and open to any and all insight as we are in the beginning stages of planning. Thank you!
Posted by
6426 posts
I understand where you are because I put off a Greece trip for years because I was just so overwhelmed by all of the options. However, you should go ahead and look at the transport realities. Visiting both of those islands will eat up a ton of time in transit—that’s time you could be spending in a village, on a beach, etc. You could choose one or the other and add a second island that makes more sense geographically, but you generally want to stick to islands that are linked by transit already. Good luck!
Posted by
New England
12084 posts
You may want to reconsider visiting Santorini; it is so overcrowded and there are so many other islands to visit.
Posted by
3391 posts
What people are saying is that there is no good way to get between these two islands. You can fly to Santorini but then would have to return to Athens to get to Zakynyhos.
What you have to understand is that it is so much easier if you stay with an island group.
I do sympathize. My first draft of my first trip to Greece involved three islands in three different island groups. Our final itinerary was two islands in the same island group.
Posted by
France Southwest - Occitanie
3397 posts
As mentioned above, there is no direct way to get from Santorini to Zakynthos. You have to take a flight to Athens and then another flight to Zakynthos (the two islands are approximately 500 km apart).
I should warn you that Zakynthos is among the places in Europe most affected by high tourist pressure (150,000 tourists per 1,000 residents), partly because of the shipwreck on Navagio Beach, which is nothing more than an Instagrammer's spot. It has nothing to do with what makes Greece popular.
It has often been mentioned for several years now as a place to absolutely avoid.
It's up to you, going to Santorini might be worth it for the whole island, but I think everyone here will tell you the same thing: There are so many places to see in Greece that it would be a shame to waste all that time and money just to see a shipwreck on a beach.
Posted by
London
1022 posts
We were in Kefalonia this past summer, and looked into visiting shipwreck beach on Zakynthos. Unfortunately it's no longer possible to visit the beach itself, so the closest you can get is a boat trip that takes you near the beach- in case that is a deciding factor in whether to visit. I haven't been to Zante myself but it has a reputation here as more of a party atmosphere, and the old town is modern as it was destroyed by an earthquake in the 1950s. If you are interested in the Ionian islands I might look into Corfu or Kefalonia instead. Corfu has one of the best old towns in all of Greece. However, as others have said, these islands are quite far from the Cyclades where Santorini is, and I think you'd have to fly via Athens to get from one group to the other.
Posted by
Warwickshire, UK
5 posts
Shipwreck beach is strictly off limit these days for safety reasons (serious cliff erosion) and it doesn’t marry up easily with Santorini travel-wise. Best to choose another destination that lies within the same island grouping. Have a look at this guide and see which interests you the most…..