Zakynthos snorkeling centres on the National Marine Park in Laganas Bay, where loggerhead turtles feed and nest, with shore spots at Laganas, Kalamaki, Gerakas, Dafni and Cameo Island, boat spots at the Keri Caves and Marathonisi, and cave coves on the west coast, from May to October. Plan the rest of the trip with Greece Tours.
This page covers the snorkeling: the spots, the season, the marine park and turtle rules, the beaches, the caves, the tours, prices and what to bring.
Where is the best Zakynthos snorkeling?
On the south coast inside the National Marine Park, at Laganas, Kalamaki, the Keri Caves, Gerakas, Dafni, Marathonisi and Capo Marathia, plus Cameo Island for turtles, and on the west and north coasts at Porto Limnionas, Korakonissi, Plakaki, Filippoi, Xigia and the Blue Caves.
The south coast is the protected loggerhead turtle zone, so the water is clear and full of fish. The west and north coasts give cliffs, caves and arches with deeper, colder water.
An eighth south-coast beach, Sekania, is closed to everyone except researchers. A car turns the island into a string of small coves where the fish are and the crowds are not.
When is the best time for Zakynthos snorkeling?
From May to October, when the sea reaches about 20 degrees Celsius by late May and stays comfortable into October, with June and September giving more space and turtles in the water than the busy month of August.
Mornings are calmer, with clearer water and fewer boats, and the nesting beaches in the park open at 07:00. Afternoon wind stirs sand through the shallow bays, and boat traffic peaks in the middle of the day.
Nesting runs from mid-May to late August, so August puts the busiest boat traffic on top of the tail of the nesting season.
What is the National Marine Park of Zakynthos?
The protected zone over Laganas Bay and the islets of Marathonisi, Pelouzo and the Strofades, set up by presidential decree on 1 December 1999 as the first management agency of its kind in Greece, holding three Natura 2000 areas.
Trawling, purse-seining and recreational fishing are banned inside the park, which leaves the fish where snorkellers see them. Jet skis, waterskiing and every other motorised water sport are banned year-round, which leaves the water quiet.
The park counts more than 170 marine plant species and more than 300 marine animal species. The Mediterranean monk seal lives here too.
What are the rules around the turtles?
Keep at least 15 metres from a turtle and never approach from the front, watch for no more than 15 minutes when it is below the surface or 10 minutes near the surface, and never feed, touch or shout at it.
Boats inside the park must not exceed 6 nautical miles per hour, and mooring is permitted only in Zone C. Spear fishing, rod fishing, long lines and nets are banned.
If a turtle looks stressed, back off and find another one. Rangers patrol the beaches and the water, and their instructions override any written guidance.
What are the rules on the nesting beaches?
The nesting beaches open from 07:00 until sunset, visitors keep to a strip of about 5 metres from the water, umbrellas are banned on Gerakas, Dafni and Marathonisi except park-approved furniture, and caged nests stay untouched.
Sandcastles go 1 to 2 metres from the water and get flattened before leaving, because a sand wall blocks a hatchling. Cars, motorbikes, bicycles, horses and dogs are not allowed on nesting beaches.
Visitors take no sand, shells or pebbles from the beaches, and no sea urchins or starfish from the water. If hatchlings emerge, visitors leave them alone and tell a ranger.
Where do you see turtles while snorkeling?
At Cameo Island off Agios Sostis, where the rocky and sandy area north of the footbridge gives the best odds at 2 to 4 metres deep, around Marathonisi, and along Laganas and Gerakas, where loggerheads feed and nest.
At Cameo the turtles feed on small algae growing on shallow rocks. Other snorkellers in the water and small tour boats mark where the turtles are.
Sightings are not guaranteed. Small shoals of salema, wrasse, seabass and seabream share the rocky areas.
What is Cameo Island?
The small beach gives a second entry to the southern area.
The spot suits beginners, with a maximum depth of about 4 metres and no lifeguard. A bar on Cameo Beach closes when the island is hired for weddings.
What is Laganas snorkeling like?
The easiest snorkeling entry in the park, on a long, sandy, shallow beach in the middle of Laganas Bay, with good visibility over sand, warm water, and loggerheads swimming in and out of the bay, suited to beginners and children.
Laganas is the busiest resort on Zakynthos and the island’s nightlife strip. The beach thins out walking east.
The stretch between Laganas and Kalamaki keeps the facilities without the crowd.
What is Kalamaki snorkeling like?
The quieter end of Laganas Bay, a 20-minute walk east along the sand from Laganas, with clearer water, rocks at the eastern end to look at underwater, seagrass meadows, and the same 07:00-to-sunset nesting-beach rule.
The lack of water sports makes Kalamaki safe for swimming.
Sand dunes back the beach, and the shallow sandy water suits families with small children.
What are the Keri Caves?
A run of sea caves cut into white limestone off Keri Cape at the western corner of Laganas Bay, the clearest water on Zakynthos, reachable only by boat from Keri or Limni Keriou.
Boats pass under the Kamares, two natural stone arches with deep water beneath, and the Myzithres, two cone-shaped rocks named after a Greek cheese of the same shape.
The limestone walls drop straight to the seabed. The Keri lighthouse sits on the cliff above.
The caves by boat sit at Keri caves.
What is Gerakas beach like for snorkeling?
The calmest and most protected water on the south coast, at the southern tip of the Vasilikos peninsula, almost undeveloped because building is not permitted, with shallow, sheltered water, no boats and no engines, and one of the main loggerhead nesting sites in the park.
Part of the beach is roped off for nests, and access runs from 07:00 to sunset. The clay pinnacles called the Glines are a protected geological feature and stay untouched.
Earth Sea and Sky runs a free sea turtle information and rescue centre at Gerakas, open daily through the season.
What is Dafni beach like for snorkeling?
A sandy nesting bay on the Vasilikos coast with rockpools at its edges, clear and deeper water, monitored by marine biologists, reached by an unsurfaced, bumpy and steep track from the coast road between Argasi and Vasilikos.
Dafni lies about 30 minutes from Laganas. A car handles the track better than a scooter.
The park runs an exhibition centre at Dafni on the turtle’s life cycle, from mating to hatching.
What is Marathonisi?
The uninhabited islet in the middle of Laganas Bay, called Turtle Island for its outline and its nesting beach, with a pebble beach, a white sand beach, a wooded interior and sea caves, and the likeliest place on Zakynthos to snorkel near a turtle.
Boats run out from Keri, Limni Keriou, Agios Sostis and Laganas. A small boat gets closer to the caves and makes the 15-metre rule easier to keep.
There are no shops on the islet, so bring water and food. The beach closes at sunset.
What is Capo Marathia?
The promontory near Keri with small, quiet beaches, the easiest of the western spots to reach by car or scooter, with loungers and umbrellas for hire and boats departing for Marathonisi.
It works as a morning snorkel and an afternoon boat trip from the same car park.
Keri and Limni Keriou make the base for the caves.
Vasilikos makes the base for Gerakas and Dafni.
Why is Sekania closed?
Sekania holds about half of all the loggerhead nests laid in Laganas Bay on a very short stretch of sand, so it is closed to the public all year, with access only for researchers with permission.
WWF Greece bought the land behind Sekania, and the beach has been monitored ever since.
It is the one nesting beach on Zakynthos that carries none of the visitor pressure the others do.
The rest of the park works because Sekania stays closed.
What is the loggerhead turtle?
Loggerheads reach Zakynthos in early spring to mate in Laganas Bay and nest from mid-May to late August. A female digs a chamber 40 to 50 centimetres deep and lays about 120 eggs, three or four times a summer.
The eggs incubate for 42 to 70 days, and 60 to 70 per cent hatch. Sand above 29 degrees Celsius produces mostly females.
Why do the beaches close at sunset?
Hatchlings come out at about 5 centimetres long, almost always at night, and find the sea by starlight and moonlight on the water, so lights and people on the sand send them the wrong way.
That is why the island builds low and dim along this coast.
Hatchlings appear to record the beach with a magnetic sense and return years later to breed.
The park’s Caretta Odyssey research programme tracked Zakynthos-bred turtles across the whole Mediterranean.
Is Porto Limnionas good for snorkeling?
Yes: a rocky lagoon on the west coast with emerald water, caverns and arches, colder water from an underwater river flowing out of a cave, and fish drawn by the fresh undercurrents, reached by a concrete road from the village of Agios Leon.
It has no sand, only rocks and terraces with loungers.
A taverna sits above the water.
The cave the water flows from is not fully explored, and swimmers do not enter it.
What other west and north coast spots are there?
Korakonissi, a remote cove with underwater caves, Plakaki, reached by a 30-minute hike from near Agalas, Filippoi, a small rocky beach 15 minutes by car from Volimes, and Xigia, a sulphur beach on the east coast where warm and cold streams mix.
At Xigia, flakes of undissolved sulphur drift in the water. The beach sits below the coastal road toward Agios Nikolaos and is hard to see from the road.
Filippoi needs a climb over rocks to enter the water, so it does not suit small children.
Plakaki needs proper shoes, water and shade.
What are the Blue Caves?
Sea caves near Cape Skinari on the north coast of Zakynthos with open, azure water and good swimming, reached by boat from the Agios Nikolaos harbour or by car with hundreds of steps down to the water.
Platforms above the water serve for jumping.
Can you swim at Navagio?
No: a joint ministerial decision closes the zone at Navagio from 1 June to 31 October, bans swimming in the bay, and keeps boats 50 metres from the shore after the cliffs were assessed as geologically unstable.
Tours still show the wreck from offshore.
The Municipality of Zakynthos enforces the ban with fines.
A listing that promises a swim or landing at Navagio is out of date.
What snorkeling tours run on Zakynthos?
The glass-bottom boat tour holds a 4.4 rating from 3,114 reviews. The speedboat tour holds 4.6 from 3,618 reviews.
The turtle boats sit at Zakynthos turtle spotting cruise.
Where do the snorkel boats leave from?
From Keri, Limni Keriou, Agios Sostis and Laganas for the marine park, the Keri Caves and Marathonisi, from Capo Marathia for Marathonisi, and from Agios Nikolaos in the north for the Blue Caves.
Small boats that stop three or four times beat large ones that stop once.
Boats are the only way to reach the Keri Caves and the caves around Marathonisi.
A private boat from Agios Sostis covers the park, the Keri Caves and the Myzithres rocks.
Is Zakynthos snorkeling good for beginners and children?
Filippoi and Plakaki suit confident swimmers, with rock entries and steep paths.
Cameo has no lifeguard.
The kayak route sits at Zakynthos sea kayaking.
What fish do you see snorkeling on Zakynthos?
Fishing bans in the park keep fish numbers up.
Rocky edges hold more life than open sand.
Jellyfish appear in the water on some days.
Where do you stay for Zakynthos snorkeling?
Near Keri or Limni Keriou for the caves, in Vasilikos for Gerakas and Dafni, in Laganas or Kalamaki for the bay and the town, and in Zakynthos town for restaurants and the harbour.
A hire car reaches Dafni and Gerakas.
Laganas, Kalamaki and Vasilikos hold good-value apartments and studios.
What do you bring for Zakynthos snorkeling?
The sea reaches about 20 degrees Celsius only by late May.
The snorkeling adventure from Kalamaki includes equipment.
Leave shells, sand, pebbles, sea urchins and starfish where they are.
Where does Zakynthos snorkeling work best?
At the Blue Caves on the northern tip, in the Keri caves in the south-west, around Marathonisi in the bay of Laganas and along the rocky east coast at Agios Nikolaos.
The caves hold the clearest water on the island.
The southern bay is shallow and protected as a marine park.
The east coast is calmer than the west through the season.
What do you see snorkeling on Zakynthos?
Rock walls dropping into deep blue water, arches lit from below, fish along the reefs and sandy patches where the light turns the water pale.
The blue colour in the caves comes from light reflecting off white rock under the surface.
Loggerhead turtles feed in the bay of Laganas.
Sea urchins line the shallow rocks, so shoes matter.
When is the best time for Zakynthos snorkeling?
From June to early October, with mornings calmest on the west coast and the warmest water at the end of summer.
Wind closes the cave entrances on rough days.
Boats run only when the sea allows.
Spring water is clear but cold without a suit.
What do you need for Zakynthos snorkeling?
A mask, snorkel and fins, water shoes for the rocks, a rash top for the sun and a float for visibility.
Guided trips supply the gear.
A float marks the swimmer to passing boats.
Dry bags keep phones safe on the boat.
Is Zakynthos snorkeling safe for beginners?
Yes, in the sheltered bays with a guide, where the water is shallow and the group stays together.
Guides brief the group before entering.
Buoyancy vests are available for weaker swimmers.
Cave swims are only for confident swimmers in calm water.
What are the turtle rules in the marine park?
Keep a distance, never touch or feed a turtle, and follow the boat crew’s instructions inside the protected bay.
Loggerheads nest on the beaches of Laganas bay.
Boat speed and anchoring are restricted inside the park.
Some beaches are closed at night through the nesting season.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can you snorkel with turtles on Zakynthos?
At Cameo Island off Agios Sostis, around Marathonisi, and along Laganas and Gerakas inside the National Marine Park.
When is the sea warm enough to snorkel?
From late May, when the sea reaches about 20 degrees Celsius, until October.
How close can you get to a turtle?
No closer than 15 metres, never from the front, for no more than 15 minutes below the surface or 10 minutes near it.