The
Island of Zakynthos
Zakynthos, also known as Zante or "The flower of East", is one of the seven greek islands in the Ionian Sea rich in history, tradition and culture. As the space and our time is limited we will only included a summary about the island.
Geography
The island is 17 miles from the west coast of Peloponnese and 14 miles south of the island Kefalonia. About 2/3 of the 406 skm of it is covered by mountains, the highest "Vrachionas" is 756 m.
History
The
traces are going far back in time; from Thoukydides to Homer and
Plinius. The first one tells us that the first settlers appear between
1600 to 1500 B.C.. Zakynthos belonged together with Kefalonia, Leukas,
Akarnania and Ithaka to the kingdom of Odysseus and took part to the Trojan
war as Homer tells us. During the Athenian and Spartan wars the islanders
changed often the sides. During the Roman times. After the war 371 B.C.
the island became independed and proclaimed democracy.150B.C. the Romans
occupied the island. The christianity came early to the island despite
the Romans. From this time the island will be occupied by various nations
whose influence you can notice up to now. During
crusades the island annexed by the Franks (1185-1485 A.D.). The Venetians
came to Zakynthos 1485 and remain up to 1797 when they gave it up to the
french democrats. During these times big families established here. During
a sort period 1800 -1809 the Ionian island were independed up to the time
the English occupied them. During the Greek independence war, 1821, the
people of Zakynthos supported the rest of the country to their struggle
against the Turks.Finally 1864 all the Ionian islands came back to the
Greek mother land.Zakynthos is the home of Solomos, the writer of the "Hymn
to Freedom" the Greek national anthem and the poet Kalbos.
Tourism
Except of the historical and cultural seen sights, the island offers you a clear sea with bizarre underwater landscape and lots of caves and caverns.
Depending on the holidays that you want to make, you can choose between the very touristic places like Laganas, Argassi and more quiet areas like Limni Keriu, Agios Nicholaos, places in which you will find also diving bases
Limni
Keriou is a small place in the south of the island with a good view on
the Marathonissi Island, where the sea turtles are sun bathing. It is mainly
a summer village, with a lot of tavernas (greek restaurants), two souvenir
shops, mini markets, even a bakery and a disco. 
A
nice view of the golf and the village offers the Pirates Tower Taverna,
situated on a higher point of the coast. It has a small beach (unfortunately
covered with pebbles) and the harbour offers enough anchor places for the
local fishermen boats and rental boatshe last ones offers you the possibility
to explore the rocky coast of the island or simply to find a small sandy
beach just for yourself. There are not existing big hotels; most of the
rooms to let are in small pensions, surrounded by fig and olive trees.
One of the many natural attractions of the island are the Blue Cave on
the North were the water has an unreal blue colour.