PARTY PARADISE
Cheap, messy and still one of the easiest places to get the group chat moving.
Laganas is the strip, the strip is Laganas, and everything else is a bonus. Zante is the classic first lads holiday for a reason: flights are cheap, drinks are cheaper and nobody is pretending it's a cultural experience.
AKA Zakynthos · Greece · Ionian Islands · Best months: June to early September. July is carnage.
THE NUMBERS
PARTY HOLIDAYS RATINGS
OUR VERDICT
Great for first lads holidays, cheap chaos and groups who don't need much sleep. Less ideal if you want culture, peace or to come back with dignity intact.
THE FACTS
BEST FOR
AVOID IF
TYPICAL DAMAGE
£450–£700 for a week, if you behave. You won't.
BEST MONTHS
June to early September. July is carnage.
DIRTY DEALS
Tell us what trip you want and we'll send the best options every Friday.
Direct flights from most UK airports to Zakynthos (ZTH) take about 3.5 hours and go from stupidly cheap outside July. The airport is 20 minutes from Laganas — agree the taxi price before you get in or use the hotel transfer.
Book flights before the group chat starts debating dates. It always adds £80 to everyone's ticket.
Laganas if you're there for the strip. You'll pay a bit more to be within stumbling distance, and it's worth every penny at 4am.
Kalamaki is 10 minutes away — quieter, cheaper, better beach, and close enough that you're not paying strip prices to sleep through a PA system.
One street, dozens of bars and clubs, zero decisions to make. Bar crawls run most nights and are decent value for the first night while you get your bearings.
Drinks deals are everywhere. The maths is in your favour until roughly midnight, at which point the maths stops mattering.
Pints around €4–5 on the strip, cocktails less than you'd pay in a Wetherspoons garden. Food is cheap if you eat where the Greeks eat and forgettable if you don't.
Watch for inflated quad bike damage charges — video the bike before you ride it. And read the drinks menu prices before ordering rounds of cocktails, not after.
Shipwreck Beach and the boat trips are genuinely worth a hungover morning. Turtle spotting in Laganas Bay is real too, which surprises everyone.
Rent quads for a day and see the island. Wear the helmet. The travel insurance excuses have all been heard before.
July and August are peak chaos and peak prices. June and September get you the same strip with cheaper beds and shorter bar queues.
May is too quiet unless the group's idea of a big night is two pints and a card game.
Very social, very young crowd, mostly Brits and Irish on the same mission. Mixed groups everywhere and the bar crawls make meeting people easy. Be sound, take no for an answer, and don't be the guy the reps warn people about.
Honestly? Probably not. Unless you're going in September, staying in Kalamaki and treating the strip like a museum visit. There are better islands for you now — and that's fine.
NEXT STOP
The best nightlife on the planet, priced like it knows it.
All-inclusive chaos with a beach that does the heavy lifting.
