anyone been to Zante/Zakynthos?

[SpanishFly]

I've been to many Greek Islands but have never been to Zante, ans wondered if any of you have any advice/recommendations or thoughts? We'd be travelling with a 2yr old and 9yr old x

very touristy
nice coastline
lots of english breakfast places etc

not my cup of tea but I enjoyed the weather

Laganas is the resort with all the 18-30 hotels etc so I wouldn't go there. The resort I stayed at began with a t but I can't remember the name right now was nice though

But is it all very touristy?
I don't mind a resort with lots of restaurants etc but will defo avoid the "young" resorts.
Would it be tsivili you stayed in?

Alikanas is nice. Less touristy than tsivili.

Laganas is awful tbh.

Yes it was tsivili. I liked it, I was 18 and went with my then boyfriend. There were places to eat and drink and a nice beach it wasn't rowdy either

I can recommend a villa if you like , it's very near tsivilli but you need a car

All recommendations greatly welcome - thanks!
It is alykanas I was thinking of - looks quiet-ish but plenty of restaurants etc

Yes loads of restaurants. Nice beach. Lovely on an evening, quiet but not ridiculously quiet. Iyswim.

Our dd was 5 when we went.

We hired a car and used to go into Dante town on an evening before dinner. The harbour is lovely.

nice if you avoid Lagana and the sewage beach at Argassi. stick to places like Alykes or Alykanas. Lovely beaches down the peninsula beyond argassi like porto roma, can't remember any other names.
sad history and very rude locals, and i have been all over greece.

Are the locals rude everywhere on the island?

I hope they've upgraded the airport since last time I went! It was awfully small, had to queue outside for an hour first, and when you got in it was like a cattle market. Put us all off going there again!

Mind I didn't see any rude locals, we ate out 3 times a day for 2 weeks and found them all to be very nice. We went to tsilive

I didn't meet any rude locals either. Agree re the airport one of the only places I would rather wait to get on the plane before going to the loo!

I didn't meet one rude local.

We went to Alykanas in Sept with 20mo dd.

we really enjoyed it.

Very small, plenty of restaurants. Locals were no rude at all.

Beach was quite narrow in places but water was beautiful.

We had thought about going again next year but the older dc voted to go back to cyprus.

OMG the airport! I must have blocked that out. It felt like everyone on the island was crammed in there at once when we flew home. Insane place.

just my opinion, certain people are charming enough if you are there for two weeks and do not speak the language, but I kind of lived there one summer.

I went to Kalamaki years ago when it was tiny. Went to Argassi more recently and didn't like Kalamaki when I revisited it. Argassi was fine for what we wanted - cheap self catering week in the sun with a few decent restaurants (and we did find some very nice restaurants) but if you like a nice beach then go elsewhere. We had no kids then so not much idea of how child friendly it is.

Thanks everyone. Booked for the end of august :)