Zakynthos - where should we stay?

[VacationQueen]

We have 4 days holiday coming up and every man and their dog appears to be in Zakynthos (for good reason - it looks amazing).

I have started looking at hotels and because I don’t know the area at all, I don’t really know where to start. Castelli seems to be a firm favourite based on my research so far but it’s £500 a night so I want some more opinions before we go ahead and book.

We want total relaxation, adult only, all inclusive (or half board if the area has plenty of bars/ restaurants), good view, close to the beach.

Gosh, I don’t think I’d go there in summer. As well as the party Brit influx, it’s the destination of choice for literally every Irish kid who’s just finished Leaving Cert. I think I’d do a lot of research about where these cohorts are likely to be and head as far away as possible from there.

This really surprises me as all the hotels I’m looking at are extortionate adult only types! I’m glad I posted now 😂

The teenagers will be in Laganas.
Everywhere else is perfectly fine for families.
DS2s favourite holiday hotel was the Phoenix Beach in Tsilivi. It's not AI and probably only 3* but is on the beach, huge rooms and surrounded by lovely bars and restaurants. I tried to book for the following year but it seems to get booked up very early.

We went to Tsilivi a number of years ago. Definitely not a teen hotspot at that time! We were probably one of the youngest in our hotel and we were late 20s! The teens all seemed to be in Laganas judging by the buses from airport. It was nice, we did some trips to other places, weather and food was fantastic, sea was amazing. I would go back.

I’ll look at Tsilivi - definitely can’t be dealing with teenagers or children of any age tbh 😂