Why Zakynthos is perfect for families
A Greek island holiday will feature on many travellers' wish lists, but families may find themselves bewildered by choice — there are more than 6,000 of them, with 227 being inhabited. Part of the Ionian archipelago and easily reached by a direct flight, mid-size Zakynthos ticks all the boxes — its southern peninsulas of Keri and Vassilikos are particularly well-served by diverse landscapes and stellar beaches, rich (partly Venetian) history and varied activities both on land and at sea.
Best beach for families
In-the-know visitors forgo popular Shipwreck Beach for Dafni, on the Vassilikos Peninsula, protected by the National Marine Park. Its calm waters are ideal for novice swimmers and parents can supervise while lingering at one of the low-key restaurants backing onto the shingly sands. Porto Mela's menu includes seafood crowd-pleasers like calamari, plus freshly baked bread from a traditional wood-fired oven.
Coastal adventures & education
Keri Caves, on the island's southern fringe, are a quieter alternative to the Blue Caves, and kayaks can reach otherwise inaccessible rock fissures and beaches. Adventure Zone offers tours in two-person vessels, with friendly guide Kostas Stoufis handling photography so families can concentrate on synchronising paddles and scanning the super-clear waters for loggerhead turtles. The island is an important habitat for the species and Archelon, the Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece, operates in several coastal areas. At its Kalamaki site in southern Zakynthos near Laganas, it's possible to meet volunteers and, on occasion, join a beach patrol.
Mountain highs
The hike up Mount Skopos winds past an eerie abandoned resort and wandering goats. Best for over-10s, it'll take around an hour and a half to reach the 17th-century church and monastery Panagia Skopiotissa at the top — though the kids are more likely to appreciate the cafe's cold drinks. In the island's north is another intriguing monastery, that of St George — its tower was once used to fend off pirates. Explore Zakynthos offers guided excursions. Nearby Exo Chora is home to a 2,000-year-old olive tree, a gnarled beauty that serves as a giant scratching post for village cats. Next-door shop Olive Yard stocks edible souvenirs including flavoured oils and the traditional Ionian sweets mandolas: sugar-encrusted almonds.
The town of Zakynthos in the island's southeast can be seen from above at the Bochali viewpoint.
Photograph by Chris Mouyiaris, AWL Images
Spend a day
To describe Nobelos simply as a restaurant is to sell it short. Tucked into the picturesque northeastern cove of Agios Nikolaos and named after the family who run it, guests are greeted like old friends before being served exceptional food at terraced tables shaded by mature pines. From zesty salads to grilled vegetables, seafood pasta to filled pastries, dishes are all made using local, organic ingredients. After eating, diners decamp to the loungers on Nobelos' private beach — the rocky shores here are ideal for snorkelling — or shop for handicrafts at on-site Thalassa Boutique.
Where to eat
A mezze meal is an ideal opportunity to get fussy eaters to try something new. Most kids will love souvlaki, small pieces of meat or vegetables grilled on a skewer. When served stuffed in a pitta bread with salad and sauces, it's called gyros, and both can be sampled at the Thraka Grillhouse in Zakynthos Town. Afterwards, experimental diners should try the unique, slightly chewy kaimaki ice cream, made using mastiha tree resin — just one of the bold flavours offered at Miretta Gelateria in Markos Square. This and the strikingly Venetian-looking Solomos Square are both popular local strolling spots.
Hands-on culture
The Greek plate-smashing tradition is believed to ward off bad spirits, but families can make their own luck at a ceramics class with Hanne Mi S Sauge. A two-hour session at her studio in Vassilikos includes instruction on how to use the potter's wheel and make hand-built sculptures.
Where to stay
Sitting on the peaceful fringes of Argassi town, Windmill Bay Hotel has family-friendly rooms — including ground-floor suites with outdoor whirlpool baths and direct access to a kidney-shaped pool. Its seafront restaurant Anadalis is one of the island's best and offers a bargain children's menu (€8/£6.50) alongside Mediterranean-Japanese cuisine. From £156 for a Junior Suite Sea View, B & B.
This story was created with the support of Windmill Bay Hotel, Explore Zakynthos and Visit Greece.
National Geographic Traveller (UK).
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Published in the December 2024 issue of(UK).To subscribe to(UK) magazine click here . (Available in select countries only).
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Photograph by Victoria Wright 'Over the years, these trails have been used by fur trappers led by Indigenous guides, to scout a route for the Canadian Pacific Railway, and by tourists after the discovery of thermal hot springs here in 1883,' explains Erica Photograph by Victoria Wright The following dawn, after a deep slumber, cocooned in our off-grid outpost, we swing back into the saddle, heading out for a full day of trekking. Our lasso-shaped route snakes along the Brewster Creek Trail, named after the Brewster brothers, a couple of pioneering explorers who helped kick-start tourism in the Canadian Rockies at the end of the 19th century by guiding visitors through the area. Just shy of 14 miles out-and-back, the ride is more marathon than sprint, but rewards with blockbuster views of the jagged Sundance Range of mountains. Although the pace is restrained to a gentle walk, the terrain gets rough-and-tumble at points — we slosh through boulder-strewn streams and oozing mud paths one minute, teeter on the edge of a sheer cliff edge the next. But the horses know their steps better than a troupe of veteran ballroom dancers, I reason, and slacken the reins, trusting Montana to take the lead. Weary-limbed from a day in the saddle, we return to the lodge with the gait of John Wayne staggering through the swinging doors of a saloon, to find a hearty hotpot simmering on the stove. A s'mores dessert, baked to a calorific goo in a heavy cast-iron skillet dangling from the kitchen's hooks, cools on the sideboard. Having turned the horses loose, we take our seats around a long communal table for the well-deserved feast. With our hair still faintly smelling of barn animals, conversation swiftly turns to our horses' idiosyncrasies; we sound like proud parents at a school PTA meeting. After dinner, I join Lola beside the campfire, the fiery light coppering her hair and throwing fleeting shadows across her face. Women explorers have been out here for years, she's quick to highlight, as we cradle mugs of cocoa in our hands. Over a century prior to #womenwhohike trending online, US-Canadian naturalist and photographer Mary Schäffer Warren was exploring this park and turning her camera's lens to its rugged mountains. By 1931, New York mountaineer Georgia Engelhard had conquered Mount Victoria — on the border of Alberta and British Columbia — an impressive nine times; a particularly challenging climb, it can present steep snow and ice conditions. During this period, Lola tells me, an artist and extreme peak-seeker called Catharine Robb Whyte could also be found 'hiking out here while wearing her husband's trousers'. An owl concealed in the inky woodland responds to the revelation with an echoing hoot. Having traded the confines of a skirt for the freedom of a pair of slacks, Catharine ruffled a few feathers. 'It was taboo, as people thought that the dangers of mountain climbing were just for men,' Lola says. 'But she had the last laugh, becoming quite wealthy, and there's now a museum named after Catharine and her husband in Banff.' The horse-donkey hybrids are being loaded up with gear for our expedition into Banff National Park. Fuel, food, grain, linen and the inevitable bottle of whisky: it's a packing list untouched by time. Photograph by Victoria Wright With no connection to the outside world, life at Sundance has found its own deliciously languid rhythm (ride, relax, repeat) but it's soon time to head back. Towards the end of the 10-mile return trek, with the lodge a hazy memory behind us and the town of Banff appearing on the horizon, Lola suddenly breaks into song. 'I don't wanna ride side saddle, I just wanna ride bow-legged, bow-legged like the boys.' We ride back into the stables, a posse of cowgirls awaiting our return. Moving mountains The following morning, back on terra firma, I make the short drive south east from Banff to Canmore. Situated in the Bow Valley, the former coal mining town rose from its sooty ashes when it played host to the Nordic events at the 1988 Winter Olympics. These days, it appeals as a quieter alternative to popular downtown Banff, while still offering easy access to the great outdoors and cafes serving up a half-decent frothy coffee. On the outskirts of town, crunching to a standstill in the parking lot of the Grassi Lakes Trail, I find fiftysomething guide Heather Black. She leans against the boot of her car, buckling on a backpack, with a camera on a selfie stick strapped across her chest. Early settlers poured into the Canadian West in serious numbers from the 1860s onwards, an immigration boom prompted by mining, oil and agriculture, but Alberta was by no means uninhabited territory prior to this. To learn more of its rich Indigenous history, I'm joining Heather, founder of hiking company Buffalo Stone Woman, on a trek. We'll be hiking the popular Grassi Lakes Trail, a 2.5-mile jaunt that's part of a network of 48 trails in the Canmore area. Heather, a former female boxing champ, is part of the Blackfoot Confederacy, a people who ranged across the Great Plains of western North America. Our tour this morning is part of broader reclamation of her culture, Heather tells me, as we stride towards the leafy trailhead. 'My ancestors were here around 10,000 years ago, using these mountains as medicine,' she explains, as we enter the sun-dappled woodland. 'While the men were hunting, it was groups of women who'd be out here harvesting plants.' Heather points out a cluster of purple juniper berries sprouting nearby, traditionally dried and consumed as a tea to help ease respiratory problems. 'If you were troubled, an elder would advise you to come to the Rockies,' Heather continues, the earthy scent of moss rising up from the spongy forest floor. 'Our people would fast here, sometimes for four days on end, in order to have a vision.' The mountains are still sacred, used by the Blackfoot people for ceremonial purposes to this day. Heather, a former female boxing champ, is part of the Blackfoot Confederacy, a people who ranged across the Great Plains of western North America. Photograph by Victoria Wright 'My ancestors were here around 10,000 years ago, using these mountains as medicine,' Heather explains. Photograph by Victoria Wright Following the signing of Treaty 7 in 1877, which ceded First Nations hunting territory to the Canadian government, the Indigenous people were forced to move onto reserves. 'It was forbidden for my people to come out here, separating us from our land and culture,' Heather says. The 30-year exclusion period ended in the 1920s but it cast a long shadow, and her parents would avoid bringing her to the Rockies as a child. Heather grew up 190 miles south east of where we're standing; her journey back to the range began 10 years ago, following a family loss. 'I came here to call upon the mountain spirits for strength,' the Calgary-based guide recalls. Noticing an absence of Indigenous people on the trails, she was inspired to start her own hiking company. 'Go big or go home': that was her mantra in the early days. 'You see that mountain over there?' she asks. I follow her finger to a peak so mind-bogglingly high that it blocks out the sun. 'That was the first mountain I summited. I was dressed in entirely the wrong kit,' she says, laughing, 'but I still remember sitting up there and looking down with such a sense of achievement.' We climb higher, until the terrain starts to plateau, revealing a mirrored lake the colour of jade. Glacial silt particles reflecting in the sunlight — the scientific explanation for the hue of Alberta's bodies of water — have never looked so beautiful. I take a moment to drink in the scene and reflect on the people who have tended to this land, from matriarchs harvesting medicinal plants to hard-scrabble cowgirls working on the ranches. There's nothing that new about the women of the Rockies taking the reins, I realise. It's just that now, thanks to guides like Lola and Heather, we're also invited along for the ride. Getting there & around: Air Canada and Air Transat offer direct flights to Calgary from London. Air Transat also offers direct flights from Manchester and flight time: 9h. Car rental companies operate out of Calgary Airport. FlixBus, Banff Airporter and Discover Banff Tours run frequent daily shuttles between Calgary International Airport and Banff. When to go: Summer sees long sunny days and average temperatures of 22C. June is the busiest time to visit Alberta's Rockies so book accommodation and activities well in advance. Spring is a good time for wildlife spotting, with bears waking from hibernation. Autumn offers glorious leaf-peeping opportunities but some operators may wind down their activities as the weather turns, with an average temperature of 5C in October. Where to stay: Fairmont Palliser, Calgary. From C$328 (£176). Hotel Canoe & Suites, Banff. From C$249 (£134). The Malcolm Hotel, Canmore. From C$320 (£172). More info: How to do it: Banff Trail Riders runs horse-trekking trips between May and October. It has two nights at Sundance Lodge, including all meals, horse-riding and trail fees from C$1,699 (£945). Canada As You Like It has a seven-night Alberta fly-drive from £1,455 per person, including return flights to Calgary, car hire, one night in Calgary, three nights in Banff and three nights in Jasper. This story was created with the support of Travel Alberta Published in the July/August 2025 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK). To subscribe to National Geographic Traveller (UK) magazine click here. (Available in select countries only).
